06-16-2025  3:16 am   •   PDX and SEA Weather

  • U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents detain a man outside the U.S. Immigration and Customs building during a protest Saturday, June 14, 2025, in Portland, Ore. (AP Photo/Jenny Kane)

    Anti-Trump demonstrators crowd streets, parks and plazas across the US

    PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Demonstrators came out in cities across the U.S. to protest President Donald Trump. Organizers of Saturday's “No Kings” demonstrations said millions marched in hundreds of events. Huge, boisterous crowds marched in Philadelphia, New York, Denver, Chicago, Houston and Los Angeles. Atlanta’s 5,000-capacity rally quickly reached its limit in front of the state Capitol. In Minnesota, organizers canceled demonstrations as police tracked a suspect in the shootings of two Read More
  • Pictured, clockwise from top left: Michael Alexander, Donovan Scribes, Intisar Abioto, Devin Boss will appear onstage during the Power of Place Roadshow for Juneteenth. (Image courtesy PAM)

    Juneteenth 2025 Celebrations in Portland and Seattle

    Juneteenth is a young federal holiday, but the Black day of independence has been observed since June 19, 1865. Read More
  • Trump Administration’s DEI Rollback Leaves Black Women in Federal Jobs Vulnerable

    Trump Administration’s DEI Rollback Leaves Black Women in Federal Jobs Vulnerable

    The Education Department previously had a staff that was majority nonwhite, with Black women making up about 28% of the workforce. Since the Trump administration’s return, the department’s staff has reportedly been reduced by 46%. Read More
  • U.S. National Guard are deployed outside the federal prison in downtown Los Angeles, Sunday, June 8, 2025, following a immigration raid protest the night before. (AP Photo/Jae Hong)

    Trump Sends National Guard Troops to Los Angeles - Why?

    Around 300 National Guard troops arrived in Los Angeles early Sunday on orders from President Donald Trump. They were stationed outside a federal complex that remained largely quiet and without major protests following two days of clashes with immigration authorities. The deployment marked the first time in six decades that a state’s national guard was activated without a request from its governor, according to the Brennan Center for Justice. On Read More
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NORTHWEST NEWS

Juneteenth 2025 Celebrations in Portland and Seattle

Juneteenth is a young federal holiday, but the Black day of independence has been observed since June 19, 1865.

City Council Approves and Increases Central Albina Settlement

Black residents who were forcibly relocated for Emanuel Hospital expansion that never happened, and their descendants, sued over loss of property, wealth and community.

VanPort Mosaic Festival Fights Cultural Amnesia

Two-week event honors survivors of VanPort flood, their descendants and survivors of Japanese Internment in annual festival.

Prosper Portland Fights For Continued City Funding

Two city councilors suggest ending city’s funding to wide-reaching economic development agency. 

NEWS BRIEFS

Oregon in Multi-State Legal Fight to Protect Genetic Information in 23andMe Bankruptcy Case

AG Rayfield: People did not submit their personal data to 23andMe thinking their genetic blueprint would be sold off to the highest...

Volunteers Needed: “Beautifying MLK” Black-Led Community Clean-Up Day of Service Set for This Saturday

Led by: The Coalition of Black Men in partnership with Soul District Business Association and fueled by Reimagine Oregon grant funds...

Parklane Park Grand Reopening Event On June 12 - Free for Everyone

Food, face painting, basketball, arts activities, music, and more ...

Class of 2025: Panthers Star Headed to University After Back-to-Back Titles

Hillsboro’s Edy Essien was on PCC’s men’s basketball team that repeated as NWAC regional basketball titles and excelled in...

WA Launches Police Use-of-Force Database

The exchange is a publicly available, cloud-based platform to help the public see and analyze police use-of-force data. ...

OPINION

Policymakers Should Support Patients With Chronic Conditions

As it exists today, 340B too often serves institutional financial gain rather than directly benefiting patients, leaving patients to ask “What about me?” ...

The Skanner News: Half a Century of Reporting on How Black Lives Matter

Publishing in one of the whitest cities in America – long before George Floyd ...

Cuts to Minority Business Development Agency Leaves 3 Staff

6B CDFI affordable capital for local investment also at risk ...

The Courage of Rep. Al Green: A Mandate for the People, Not the Powerful

If his colleagues truly believed in the cause, they would have risen in protest beside him, marched out of that chamber arm in arm with him, and defended him from censure rather than allowing Republicans to frame the narrative. ...

AFRICAN AMERICANS IN THE NEWS

ENTERTAINMENT

U.S. & WORLD NEWS

Hope Yen Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) -- As the U.S. census nears its final stages, the government is preparing for possible debacles that could derail its $15 billion head count, from mass identity theft and lawsuits to homeowners who refuse to answer their doors.
Census Bureau documents, obtained by The Associated Press, underscore the highly fragile nature of the high-stakes population count before the government dispatches some 700,000 temporary workers to visit homes, beginning in May.
The preparedness efforts are not entirely new. Previous censuses had contingency plans in place, at least conceptually, and the Census Bureau has never failed to meet its constitutional mandate of delivering population counts by Dec. 31 each decennial year.
But this is the first time the Census has detailed -- in 300 pages of internal documents released under the Freedom of Information Act -- specific risks to the once-a-decade government count. It's part of the bureau's approach to handling threats that could undermine accuracy, omit large segments of the public or add to already ballooning costs.
Many of the documents proved telling, even with portions redacted or withheld for security reasons.
``Considering the volume of data that the Bureau of Census gathers during the census, some loss of confidential data is bound to occur,'' one document bluntly states. Citing past missteps, such as the loss of work laptops by census employees in 2006, it details a rapid-response effort that includes notification of authorities, if appropriate, as well as free credit monitoring for potential identity theft victims.
One document says the ``No. 1 concern'' could be a refusal by immigrants to participate.
Placing a cap on costs if immigrants try to evade the count, the response plan notes that a census worker will attempt to visit a home six times at most -- or fewer, if a resident makes clear he won't cooperate -- before the worker questions neighbors to get the information. If that fails, the Census Bureau will statistically impute data based on characteristics of neighboring households.
In 2000, imputation, a statistical method that was not part of previous court battles over statistical sampling, increased the U.S. population by 1.1 million, particularly among urban racial minorities who would have been missed by a head count. Census Bureau director Robert Groves has ruled out sampling but not other statistical methods.
Another risk being monitored by the Census Bureau is the possibility of a conservative boycott following recent rhetoric, including one blogger's threat to pull out a shotgun to scare away census workers. The White House condemned the remarks Tuesday, and the bureau said it remains on the lookout for signs of a boycott or other trouble. Conservatives who refuse to participate may also be counted by way of neighbor questioning or statistical imputation.
``With these things, anything can turn on a dime, implode and impact our ability to recruit staff and gain cooperation,'' Arnold Jackson, the bureau's associate director for the decennial census, said in an interview. ``We also remain terribly concerned about safety.''
He said the bureau has tightened security procedures and boosted targeted advertising to specific groups, including a public service announcement released this week featuring President George W. Bush's former political adviser, Karl Rove. Still, while there have been anecdotal reports that conservatives may fill out only the number of people in their households, Jackson says there has been little sign of incomplete census forms received so far.
Jackson said the Census Bureau will tap into its reserve fund of roughly $7 million for ad buys in low-response regions, which he identified as having predominantly ``non-English speaking households, areas of heavy concentration of minority groups, such as African-American and Latino, and urbanized areas.''
Currently, the mail participation rate for the 2010 census is 63 percent, and officials remain cautiously optimistic they will be able to match, if not top, the 2000 mail-back rate of 72 percent by the time the Census Bureau winds down its mail-in operation in late April. From May to July, census takers are sent to homes that do not mail back forms.
Other potential risks include:
--Information technology breakdowns. A key software system used to schedule, deploy and pay census takers is full of defects, and its ability to handle a massive payroll of more than 600,000 temporary employees who begin work in May remains in doubt. Robert Goldenkoff, a director at the Government Accountability Office, believes the census could face serious delays if IT problems aren't fixed soon; the Census Bureau says it's dealing with the problem.
-- Lawsuits. Census officials are calling it ``relatively certain'' that they will be sued by at least one state that just misses gaining an additional U.S. House seat. The state will probably move quickly ``in order to potentially reverse the December 2010 announcement'' of the official head count figures, according to documents. Officials said litigation could involve outreach to non-English speaking communities or census methodology, such as the count of prisoners, non-citizens or religious missionaries overseas.
-- Mass retirements. A significant number of Census Bureau employees are now eligible to retire, and the 2010 count could be in peril if there is a mass exodus during peak census periods. So far, however, there has been no sign of that, according to documents. In the meantime, the bureau is developing detailed plans to make the learning curve shorter for newly hired employees.

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