03-20-2023  8:51 pm   •   PDX and SEA Weather
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NORTHWEST NEWS

The Big Problem for Endangered Orcas? Inbreeding

People have taken many steps in recent decades to help the Pacific Northwest's endangered killer whales, which have long suffered from starvation, pollution and the legacy of having many of their number captured for display in marine parks.

Amazon Cuts 9,000 More Jobs, Bringing 2023 Total to 27,000

The job cuts would mark the second largest round of layoffs in the company's history

Starbucks New CEO Laxman Narasimhan Takes His Seat

Narasimhan succeeds longtime Starbucks leader Howard Schultz, who came out of retirement last spring to serve as interim CEO while the company searched for a new chief executive.

With Overdoses up, States Look at Harsher Fentanyl Penalties

State lawmakers nationwide are responding to the deadliest overdose crisis in U.S. history by pushing harsher penalties for possessing fentanyl and other powerful lab-made opioids that are connected to about 70,000 deaths a year

NEWS BRIEFS

Tiffani Penson Announces Campaign for PCC Board, Zone 2

Penson is proud of the accomplishments of PCC ...

Black Bag Speaker Series: Oregon Black Pioneers Historic Photograph Collection

OBP will present the history and context of a photo album, found in a house located in historically Black North Portland, that was...

The Making of American Whiteness Book Presentation and Signing to be Held at OHS

The Making of American Whiteness book will be presented by Dr. Carmen P. Thompson, in conversation with Dr. Darrell Millner on...

Support for Survivors of Child Sex Trafficking Unanimously Passes Oregon Senate

SB 745 will require juvenile departments to screen for survivors of sex trafficking, connect identified survivors with critical...

Reusable Food Container Bill Passes Oregon Senate

SB 545 will allow restaurants to fill consumer-owned containers with food ...

Oregon bill on abortion, gender-affirming care sparks debate

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — An Oregon bill that would greatly expand access to reproductive health and gender-affirming care drew emotional testimony on Monday, mirroring the culture war debates over abortion, gender identity and parents' rights that are playing out in state legislatures across the...

Deputy shot, wounded in Seattle during eviction, 1 dead

SEATTLE (AP) — A King County Sheriff’s deputy was shot in Seattle Monday while trying to serve an eviction notice, and a person inside the residence was later found dead, police said. The Seattle Police Department said on Twitter around 10:30 a.m. that a person was barricaded in...

The maddest March ever? Underdogs head to the Sweet 16

We know you're upset. Underdogs have blown up every bracket in the country. An upside of the upsets: perhaps the maddest March ever. Defending national champion Kansas and fellow No. 1 seed Purdue are gone — the Boilermakers with a slice of unwanted history. The Sweet...

March Madness betting guide: Upsets shuffle favorites' odds

LAS VEGAS (AP) — March Madness isn't just about filling out — and later trashing — brackets. There are more ways to bet the field in the NCAA Tournament, an event that will consume basketball fans over the next three weeks. Here's a look at the favorites, underdogs and long shots. ...

OPINION

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 ...

State Takeover Schemes Threaten Public Safety

Blue cities in red states, beware: conservatives in state government may be coming for your police department. ...

AFRICAN AMERICANS IN THE NEWS

2nd officer in inmate's fatal beating gets same 20-year term

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (AP) — The second of three former correctional officers sentenced in the fatal beating of a state inmate received a 20-year prison term Monday, the same as a co-conspirator despite a judge's declaration he could have stopped the attack as the senior officer. U.S....

Montana senator wants to block mandatory diversity training

HELENA, Mont. (AP) — A Republican lawmaker in Montana wants to prohibit mandatory diversity training for state employees with a bill whose language matches a Florida law that is temporarily blocked by the courts. The proposed “Montana Individual Freedom Act,” would prohibit...

Silicon Valley Bank collapse concerns founders of color

In the hours after some of Silicon Valley Bank’s biggest customers started pulling out their money, a WhatsApp group of startup founders who are immigrants of color ballooned to more than 1,000 members. Questions flowed as the bank’s financial status worsened. Some desperately...

ENTERTAINMENT

Celebrity birthdays for the week of March 26-April 1

Celebrity birthdays for the week of March 26-April 1: March 26: Actor Alan Arkin is 89. Singer Diana Ross is 79. Singer Steven Tyler of Aerosmith is 75. Singer-actor Vicki Lawrence is 74. Actor Ernest Thomas (“Everybody Hates Chris,” ″What’s Happening”) is 74. Actor Martin...

Review: A writer investigates a UFO cult in East Texas

“The Donut Legion,” by Joe R. Lansdale (Mulholland) Charlie Garner, a former private detective turned novelist, was staring through his telescope at the rural East Texas sky late one night when he received an unexpected visit from his ex-wife, Meg. Or did he? ...

Anthony Fauci documentary on PBS covers a career of crises

NEW YORK (AP) — There's a moment in the new PBS documentary about Dr. Anthony Fauci when a protester holds up a handmade sign reading, “Dr. Fauci, You Are Killing Us." It says something about Fauci that it's not initially clear when that sign was waved in anger — in the 1980s as...

U.S. & WORLD NEWS

'Ted Lasso' visits White House, promotes mental health care

WASHINGTON (AP) — Fictional soccer coach Ted Lasso used a White House visit Monday to encourage people, even in...

March Madness arrives in Vegas after years of avoiding it

LAS VEGAS (AP) — March Madness has long been a huge draw for gamblers who came to Las Vegas to place their bets...

Miami Beach struggles with spring break violence, big crowds

MIAMI BEACH, Fla. (AP) — For the third year in a row, Miami Beach finds itself struggling with spring break...

Ukraine: Volunteer specialist doctors run clinics near front

KHRESTYSHCHE, Ukraine (AP) — In a cramped municipal building in this former front-line village, its front window...

France ordered to curb mass dolphin deaths in fishing nets

PARIS (AP) — France’s highest administrative body on Monday ordered the government to better protect...

Former Taiwan leader Ma Ying-jeou will visit China

TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) — Former Taiwan President Ma Ying-jeou will visit China next week in what a spokesman called...

Lisa Loving of The Skanner

As Portland boils with righteous anger over the police killing of a suicidally-despondent man – some in support of the shooting, many outraged by it -- the 631-page police report released this week only adds to the tragic story.

UPDATE: Mayor Sam Adams and Police Commissioner Dan Saltzman Thursday afternoon announced they'll be joining with Black leaders to call for a U.S. Department of Justice Civil Rights investigation into the fatal police shooting of Aaron Campbell.
Adams and Saltzman attended the African American Alliance breakfast event held this morning at the American Red Cross office to discuss "next steps" for community organizing around the tragedy.
Saltzman staffer Shannon Callahan confirmed the coalition of elected and community leaders will request a federal investigation into the shooting "and the larger issue of the Portland Police Bureau."
"It's a highly fluid situation," Callahan told The Skanner News.
The official announcement is set for Friday, Feb. 19 at 9:30 at the Northeast Precinct, while at noon another protest march is set for 3 p.m. at Pioneer Courthouse Square to urge Oregon Attorney General John Kroger to launch an investigation into the police shooting of Aaron Campbell.
Kroger had already scheduled a special event Friday Feb. 19 at Portland state University to flesh out his priorities for the state's new Civil Rights Unit, and introduce its new chief, Assistant Attorney General Diane Schwartz.
That event starts at 3:30 p.m., at the Urban Center, Room 250, at Southwest Fifth and Mill Streets.
Rev. Jesse Jackson – who spoke to Portlanders Wednesday night at Marantha Church – inspired a hundreds-strong rally Thursday at noon, protesting Frashour's return to duty. The group stormed City Hall, demanding to speak with Mayor Sam Adams, who met with Campbell family members after a tense confrontation.
Also today the Multnomah County District Attorney released a 454-page transcript of the Grand Jury proceedings into the Campbell shooting, plus a transcript of the 9-1-1 call that triggered the police response and the Medical Examiner's report. Read it here http://www.mcda.us/index.php 
The medical document failed to specify a time of death for Campbell, 25, who did not receive medical attention after being beanbag-gunned, attacked by a German shepherd and shot in the back with an AR-15 rifle.

The Police report was released Tuesday, hours before the Rev. Jesse Jackson met with city officials and addressed a standing-room-only crowd at the Maranatha Church in Northeast Portland, calling Aaron Campbell's death an "execution."
Jackson, criticizing the Police Bureau for allowing Officer Ronald Frashour off desk duty and back to work as a community policing liaison in the East Precinct, called for people to march on City Hall as The Skanner News went to press Wednesday.
A hundreds-strong crowd confronted Mayor Sam Adams, who spoke to the group, then invited the Campbell family into his office for a private meeting before the demonstration broke up.
Also this week, Multnomah County Circuit Court Judge Jean Kerr Maurer ruled to release the transcripts of the Grand Jury investigation on Campbell's death, which county officials said may be available Thursday, Feb. 18 on the Multnomah County District Attorney's website.
According to the police report, Campbell, shot in the back Jan. 29 after a 90-minute standoff in the parking lot of his girlfriend's apartment complex, had just concluded a successful negotiation with police crisis counselors and agreed via text messages not to hurt himself or anyone else.
However as he exited the apartment, a "containment and custody team" assembled in the dark, rainy parking lot – one officer armed with a "less lethal" bean-bag shotgun, one providing "lethal cover" with an AR-15 rifle, and a "take down" K9 officer/dog team – had not been kept in the loop of negotiation developments, and effectively took matters into their own hands.
While the negotiator, Officer James Quackenbush, established effective – even jocular – rapport with Campbell, eventually persuading him to put away his gun and give himself up, the officers outside say they were "surprised" by Campbell's "sudden" appearance, threatened by his quick movements and "very determined manner."
As word came to the crisis negotiators that Campbell was preparing to exit the apartment, and managing Sgt. Liani Reyna was called away from the scene to report to her two commanding officers, the three officers in the parking lot all three discharged their weapons, leaving Campbell bleeding on the pavement within one minute of closing off negotiations and stepping outside.
The "involved" officers, Ryan Lewton, Ronald Frashour, and Jeff Elias, refused to be interviewed by investigators on the night of the incident, and only gave their testimony with their lawyers present on Feb. 1.
Frashour, who fired the fatal shot, told investigators he was focused on his tactical role as "lethal cover," and didn't hear all the commands given to Campbell by Lewton, who appears to have set the final situation in motion by issuing commands that Campbell followed at first.
When, as Lewton testified, Campbell didn't put his hands up over his head as he was commanded to do, Lewton fired a bean bag "into his rear end" to "gain compliance." Lewton said he kept issuing commands and shooting the bean bags, hitting Campbell with every shot.
Within seconds – as Elias' dog Bono barked loudly – Campbell started running back toward the apartment.
While police witnesses differ on the final seconds, at about the time the bean bags were being shot in rapid succession, Elias loosed his dog on Campbell, and a few seconds later Frashour fired one shot, taking Campbell down just before the dog attacked.
Elias testified that he could hear the dog biting Campbell, but he couldn't hear Campbell making any sound. Elias said he had to remind the other officers that his dog was still "on" Campbell, and since the other officers couldn't decide what to do, he called the dog back.
Nevertheless, after he was shot, officers believed Campbell was potentially armed and dangerous and under cover of a vehicle, they said, and so for more than 20 minutes, no one approached Campbell to find out whether he was alive.
The police report confirms that Special Emergency Reaction Team (SERT) officers approached Campbell after he was shot, using a shield, and handcuffed his hands behind his back but never provided any medical assistance.
Multiple witnesses say officers called out to Campbell where he lay, commanding him to move his feet, but that it appeared he did not move at all.
A medical examiner's report the next day determined Campbell died from the single gunshot wound to the back.
He had multiple wounds from the bean bags and dog bites on this lower right leg.
The police file does not include the autopsy report and, while large sections of the Medical Examiner's report are blacked out, does not offer a time of death.
"Officer Frashour knew suicidal persons can be irrational, unpredictable, hostile and homicidal," the police report said. "Officer Frashour said his first thought was what needed to be done to protect the children."

 

MLK Breakfast 2023

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