04-01-2023  1:49 pm   •   PDX and SEA Weather
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NORTHWEST NEWS

Most Gig Workers Paid Sick Leave Under New Seattle Law

The measure expands pandemic-era protections and strengthens labor rights for app-based workers.

Seattle Audubon Changes Name, Severing Tie to Slave Owner

James Audubon, a naturalist known for his watercolor paintings of birds, also owned, sold and bought enslaved African Americans through his general store in Kentucky and was a staunch opponent of abolition.

Idaho Law Could Criminalize Helping Minors Get Abortions

The measure would create a new crime of “abortion trafficking,” punishable by up to five years in prison, barring adults from obtaining abortion pills and “recruiting, harboring, or transporting" a pregnant minor.

Legislative BIPOC Caucus Announces 2023 Priorities

In a historic milestone for the state, this is the most diverse Legislature in Oregon history, with 20 BIPOC legislators serving this session.

NEWS BRIEFS

Mask Requirements in Healthcare Settings Lifting April 3

Some health care settings may decide to continue requiring masks even after the statewide requirement is lifted. ...

OHCS Applauds Gov. Kotek’s Signing of HBs 2001 and 5019 to Address Housing Needs

Oregon Housing and Community Services (OHCS) applauds Gov.Tina Kotek who today signed bipartisan legislation addressing the state’s...

County Distributes $5 Million in Grants to Community-Based Organizations

Awards will help 13 community-based organizations fund capital improvements to better serve historically marginalized...

Call for Submissions: Play Scripts, Web Series, Film Shorts, Features & Documentaries

Deadline for submissions to the 2023 Pacific Northwest Multi-Cultural Readers Series & Film Festival extended to April 8 ...

Motorcycle Lane Filtering Law Passes Oregon Senate

SB 422 will allow motorcyclists to avoid dangers of stop-and-go traffic under certain conditions ...

Man charged with murder in deaths of missing mom, girl

VANCOUVER, Wash. (AP) — The man named as a person of interest in the disappearance of his ex-girlfriend and her 7-year-old daughter was charged with two counts of murder in their deaths, police in Washington state said Friday. Detectives from the Vancouver Police Department booked...

52 years after capture, orca Lolita may return to Pacific

MIAMI (AP) — More than 50 years after the orca known as Lolita was captured for public display, plans are in place to return her from the Miami Seaquarium to her home waters in the Pacific Northwest, where a nearly century-old, endangered killer whale believed to be her mother still swims. ...

Pop, Gasol, Hammon, Parker, Nowitzki, Wade heading to Hall

Tony Parker and Pau Gasol played for him. Becky Hammon coached alongside him. Dirk Nowitzki and Dwyane Wade waged battles against him. He is Gregg Popovich. And he, finally, is a Hall of Famer. The Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame made it official...

MLB The Show breaks barrier with Negro League players

LOS ANGELES (AP) — MLB The Show has broken a video game barrier: For the first time, the franchise will insert some of the greatest Negro League players — from Satchel Paige to Jackie Robinson — into the 2023 edition of the game as playable characters. Video gamers are now able...

OPINION

Oregon Should Reject Racist Roots, Restore Voting Rights For People in Prisons

Blocking people with felony convictions from voting started in the Jim Crow era as an intentional strategy to keep Black people from voting ...

Celebrating 196 Years of The Black Press

It was on March 17, 1827, at a meeting of “Freed Negroes” in New York City, that Samuel Cornish, a Presbyterian minister, and John Russwurn, the first Negro college graduate in the United States, established the negro newspaper. ...

DEQ Announces Suspension of Oregon’s Clean Vehicle Rebate Program

The state’s popular incentive for drivers to switch to electric vehicles is scheduled to pause in May ...

FHA Makes Housing More Affordable for 850,000 Borrowers

Savings tied to median market home prices ...

AFRICAN AMERICANS IN THE NEWS

Minneapolis and state agree to revamp policing post-Floyd

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — The city of Minneapolis and the Minnesota Department of Human Rights signed a “court-enforceable settlement agreement” Friday to revamp policing in the city where George Floyd was murdered by an officer nearly three years ago. The agency issued a blistering...

Developer drops land purchase in historically Black town

EATONVILLE, Fla. (AP) — A developer on Friday ended plans to purchase a 100-acre (39-hectare) property from the local school system in a historically Black town in Florida following a public outcry that the deal threatened the cultural heritage of the community made famous by Harlem Renaissance...

North Dakota governor vetoes transgender pronouns bill

North Dakota's Republican governor vetoed a bill that would generally prohibit public schools teachers and staff from referring to transgender students by pronouns other than those reflecting the sex assigned to them at birth. The state Senate voted 37-9 to override the veto Thursday...

ENTERTAINMENT

Baldwin codefendant gets 6 months probation on gun charge

SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) — A codefendant in the case against actor Alec Baldwin in the fatal 2021 shooting of a cinematographer on a movie set in New Mexico was convicted Friday of unsafe handling of a firearm and sentenced to six months of probation. Safety coordinator and assistant...

Gwyneth Paltrow won her ski trial. Here's how it played out

PARK CITY, Utah (AP) — When two skiers collided on a beginner run at an upscale Utah ski resort in 2016, no one could foresee that seven years later, the crash would become the subject of a closely watched celebrity trial. But Gwyneth Paltrow’s live-streamed trial over her...

Review: Boygenius is cohesive and powerful in 'The Record'

“The Record” by Boygenius (Interscope) The internet's favorite indie girls welcome you into the brilliant, colorful world of Boygenius, again. The supergroup, consisting of best friends Phoebe Bridgers, Lucy Dacus and Julien Baker, formed and released their...

U.S. & WORLD NEWS

Wisconsin Supreme Court control, abortion access at stake

MADISON, Wis. (AP) — Control of the Wisconsin Supreme Court, and likely the future of abortion access,...

Biden and his 2024 campaign: Waiting for some big decisions

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden has all but announced he's running for reelection, but key questions about...

Fatal fire complicates border city's tensions with migrants

CIUDAD JUAREZ, Mexico (AP) — When Irwing López made it to Ciudad Juarez on the U.S.-Mexico border in January,...

Kenyan opposition leader to sue over alleged attempt on life

NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — Kenyan opposition leader Raila Odinga has denounced the point-blank firing of a tear gas...

Russia might put strategic nukes in Belarus, leader says

TALLINN, Estonia (AP) — Russian strategic nuclear weapons might be deployed to Belarus along with part of...

UN food chief: Billions needed to avert unrest, starvation

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — Without billions of dollars more to feed millions of hungry people, the world will see...

Freddie Allen NNPA Washington Correspondent

President Obama signs Obamacare lawWASHINGNTON (NNPA) – Even if healthcare.gov, the web portal for federal health insurance exchange, worked perfectly, more than 5 million poor, uninsured adults, many of them Black, will continue to go without coverage, because they live in states that didn't expand Medicaid, according to a recent brief by the the Kaiser Family Foundation.

Through the Affordable Care Act, the federal government agreed to pay 100 percent of the cost of the Medicaid expansion through 2016 and at least 90 percent through 2020.

The Obama administration planned for nationwide expansion of Medicaid, the health insurance program that covers the poor and disabled, setting the Medicaid income eligibility at 138 percent of the federal poverty level, or roughly $27,000 for a family of three. In June 2012, the Supreme Court ruled that states could decide whether they want to expand Medicaid. According to the Kaiser Commission, more than half of states, a majority in the southeast, decided not to expand Medicaid. That decision created a coverage gap affecting 27 percent of uninsured adults.

"A fifth of people in the coverage gap reside in Texas, which has both a large uninsured population and very limited Medicaid eligibility. Fifteen percent live in Florida, eight percent in Georgia, six percent live in North Carolina, and another six percent live in Ohio," the Kaiser Commission brief said.

More than half of all Blacks live in eight states: Texas, Florida, Georgia, New York, California, North Carolina, Illinois, and Maryland.

According to the Kaiser Commission on Medicaid and the Uninsured, "The largest uninsured nonelderly Black populations reside in Florida (718,800), Texas (613,100), and Georgia (594,600). In addition, Blacks comprise a large share of the uninsured population in the District of Columbia (52%), Mississippi (48%), and Louisiana (42%)."

Florida, Texas, Georgia, Mississippi and Louisiana chose not to expand Medicaid leaving billions of dollars unspent, forcing many of their citizens to either go without health insurance or to sign up for health insurance on the federal-facilitated marketplace.

Because 40 percent of all Blacks are under the age 26, compared to 30 percent of Whites, the very people needed to make the health care formula work may be less inclined to participate.

According to the Kaiser Commission brief, "…With many states opting not to implement the Medicaid expansion, millions of adults will remain outside the reach of the ACA and continue to have limited, if any, option for health coverage: most do not have access to employer-based coverage through a job, few can afford coverage on their own, and most are currently ineligible for public coverage in their state."

The brief continued: "While a small share may be eligible to purchase subsidized coverage through the new Health Insurance Marketplaces, most have incomes below the poverty level and thus will be ineligible for these premium tax credits."

During a Webinar for journalists, Rachel Garfield, senior researcher Kaiser Commission on Medicaid and the Uninsured, said that in all states there are people who will continue to be uninsured, because of their immigration status, people who opt to pay the penalty, or people who are exempt from the penalty.

"One of the things that's very important to keep in mind, as the law is unfolding is how is outreach working are people aware of their coverage options do they understand their coverage options," said  Garfield. "We are going to continue to shine a light on who is being left out and who is falling between the gaps for various reasons."

MLK Breakfast 2023

Photos from The Skanner Foundation's 37th Annual Martin Luther King, Jr. Breakfast.