07-27-2024  3:06 am   •   PDX and SEA Weather

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NORTHWEST NEWS

People Flee Idaho Town Through a Tunnel of Fire and Smoke as Western Wildfires Spread

Multiple communities in Idaho have been evacuated after lightning strikes sparked fast-moving wildfires.  As that and other blazes scorch the Pacific Northwest, authorities say California's largest wildfire is zero-percent contained after destroying 134 structures and threatening 4,200 more. A sheriff says it was started by a man who pushed a burning car into a gully. Officials say they have arrested a 42-year-old man who will be arraigned Monday.

Word is Bond Takes Young Black Leaders to Ghana

“Transformative” trip lets young travelers visit painful slave history, celebrate heritage.

Wildfires Threaten Communities in the West as Oregon Fire Closes Interstate, Creates Its Own Weather

Firefighters in the West are scrambling as wildfires threaten communities in Oregon, California and Washington. A stretch of Interstate 84 connecting Oregon and Idaho in the area of one of the fires was closed indefinitely Tuesday. New lightning-sparked wildfires in the Sierra near the California-Nevada border forced the evacuation of a recreation area, closed a state highway and were threatening structures Tuesday.

In Washington State, Inslee's Final Months Aimed at Staving off Repeal of Landmark Climate Law

Voters in Washington state will decide this fall whether to keep one of the country's more aggressive laws aimed at stemming carbon pollution. The repeal vote imperils the most significant climate policy passed during outgoing Gov. Jay Inslee's three terms, and Inslee — who made climate action a centerpiece of his short-lived presidential campaign in the 2020 cycle — is fighting hard against it. 

NEWS BRIEFS

Iconic Elm Tree in Downtown Celebrated Before Emergency Removal

The approximately 154-year-old tree has significant damage and declining health following recent storms ...

Hawthorne Bridge Westbound Closes Thursday for Repairs

Westbound traffic lanes will close 2 p.m. Thursday, July 25, through 5 a.m. Friday, July 26 ...

Oregon Senate Democrats Unanimously Endorse Kamala Harris for President

Today, in unified support for Kamala Harris as president of the United States, all 17 Oregon Senate Democrats officially...

Dr. Vinson Eugene Allen and Dusk to Dawn Urgent Care Make a Historical Mark as the First African American Owned Chain of Urgent Care Facilities in the United States

Dusk to Dawn Urgent Care validated as the First African American Owned Urgent Care in the nation with chain locations ...

Washington State Black Legislators Endorse Kamala Harris for President

Members of the Washington State Legislative Black Caucus (LBC) are proud to announce their enthusiastic endorsement of Vice President...

California's largest wildfire explodes in size as fires rage across US West

California's largest active fire exploded in size on Friday evening, growing rapidly amid bone-dry fuel and threatening thousands of homes as firefighters scrambled to meet the danger. The Park Fire's intensity and dramatic spread led fire officials to make unwelcome comparisons to...

California's largest wildfire explodes in size as fires rage across US West

California's largest active fire exploded in size on Friday evening, growing rapidly amid bone-dry fuel and threatening thousands of homes as firefighters scrambled to meet the danger. The Park Fire's intensity and rapid spread led fire officials to make unwelcome comparisons to the...

Chiefs set deadline of 6 months to decide whether to renovate Arrowhead or build new — and where

ST. JOSEPH, Mo. (AP) — The Chiefs have set a deadline of six months from now to decide on a plan for the future of Arrowhead Stadium, whether that means renovating their iconic home or building an entirely new stadium in Kansas or Missouri. After a joint ballot initiative with the...

Missouri governor says new public aid plan in the works for Chiefs, Royals stadiums

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) — Missouri Gov. Mike Parson said Thursday that he expects the state to put together an aid plan by the end of the year to try to keep the Kansas City Chiefs and Royals from being lured across state lines to new stadiums in Kansas. Missouri's renewed efforts...

OPINION

The 900-Page Guide to Snuffing Out American Democracy

What if there was a blueprint for a future presidential administration to unilaterally lay waste to our constitutional order and turn America from a democracy into an autocracy in one fell swoop? That is what one far-right think tank and its contributors...

SCOTUS Decision Seizes Power to Decide Federal Regulations: Hard-Fought Consumer Victories Now at Risk

For Black and Latino Americans, this power-grab by the court throws into doubt and potentially weakens current agency rules that sought to bring us closer to the nation’s promises of freedom and justice for all. In two particular areas – fair housing and...

Minding the Debate: What’s Happening to Our Brains During Election Season

The June 27 presidential debate is the real start of the election season, when more Americans start to pay attention. It’s when partisan rhetoric runs hot and emotions run high. It’s also a chance for us, as members of a democratic republic. How? By...

State of the Nation’s Housing 2024: The Cost of the American Dream Jumped 47 Percent Since 2020

Only 1 in 7 renters can afford homeownership, homelessness at an all-time high ...

AFRICAN AMERICANS IN THE NEWS

Japan's Sado gold mine gains UNESCO status after Tokyo pledges to exhibit dark WWII history

TOKYO (AP) — The UNESCO World Heritage committee on Saturday decided to register Japan’s controversial Sado gold mine as a cultural heritage site after the country agreed to include it in an exhibit of its dark history of abusing Korean laborers during World War II. The decision...

California date palm ranches reap not only fruit, but a permit to host weddings and quinceañeras

COACHELLA, Calif. (AP) — Claudia Lua Alvarado has staked her future on the rows of towering date palms behind the home where she lives with her husband and two children in a desert community east of Los Angeles. It’s not solely due to the fleshy, sweet fruit they give each year....

A federal court approves new Michigan state Senate seats for Detroit-area districts

Lansing (AP) — Federal judges gave final approval to a new map of Michigan state Legislature boundaries, concluding a case in which the court previously found that several Detroit-area districts' maps were illegally influenced by race. In December, the court ordered a redistricting...

ENTERTAINMENT

Educators wonder how to teach the writings of Alice Munro in wake of daughter's revelations

NEW YORK (AP) — For decades, Robert Lecker has read, taught and written about Alice Munro, the Nobel laureate from Canada renowned for her short stories. A professor of English at McGill University in Montreal, and author of numerous critical studies of Canadian fiction, he has thought of Munro...

Adaptation of Colson Whitehead’s ‘Nickel Boys’ to open New York Film Festival this fall

“Nickel Boys,” an adaptation of Colson Whitehead’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, will open the 62nd New York Film Festival in September, organizers said Monday. Filmmaker RaMell Ross directed the drama based on the 2019 novel about two Black teenagers in an abusive reform school...

Hikers and cyclists can now cross Vermont on New England's longest rail trail, a year after floods

HARDWICK, Vt. (AP) — A year after epic summer flooding delayed the official opening of New England’s longest rail trail, the 93-mile route across northern Vermont is finally delivering on the promise made years ago of a cross-state recreation trail. The Lamoille Valley Rail Trail...

U.S. & WORLD NEWS

Homeless people say they will likely return to sites if California clears them under Newsom's order

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Three years ago, Joel Hernandez built a small wooden shack under the 405 freeway cutting...

A look at 'El Mayo' Zambada, the kingpin of Mexico's Sinaloa drug cartel who is now in US custody

PHOENIX (AP) — Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada, the top leader and co-founder of Mexico's Sinaloa cartel, eluded...

Philippine forces sail to hotly disputed shoal without incident for first time since deal with China

MANILA, Philippines (AP) — Philippine government personnel transported food and other supplies Saturday to a...

Museum pulls wax figure of Sinead O'Connor after complaints it does not compare to the real thing

LONDON (AP) — A wax figure of Sinéad O’Connor that did not compare to how the late singer looked caused a...

Typhoon Gaemi weakens to a tropical storm as it moves inland carrying rain toward central China

BEIJING (AP) — Tropical storm Gaemi brought rain to central China on Saturday as it moved inland after making...

With Palestinian deal and Ukrainian foreign minister's visit, China shows its rising influence

In consecutive days this week, China brokered a deal between rival Palestinian factions and hosted Ukraine's...

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."