04-20-2024  7:28 am   •   PDX and SEA Weather
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NORTHWEST NEWS

Don’t Shoot Portland, University of Oregon Team Up for Black Narratives, Memory

The yearly Memory Work for Black Lives Plenary shows the power of preservation.

Grants Pass Anti-Camping Laws Head to Supreme Court

Grants Pass in southern Oregon has become the unlikely face of the nation’s homelessness crisis as its case over anti-camping laws goes to the U.S. Supreme Court scheduled for April 22. The case has broad implications for cities, including whether they can fine or jail people for camping in public. Since 2020, court orders have barred Grants Pass from enforcing its anti-camping laws. Now, the city is asking the justices to review lower court rulings it says has prevented it from addressing the city's homelessness crisis. Rights groups say people shouldn’t be punished for lacking housing.

Four Ballot Measures for Portland Voters to Consider

Proposals from the city, PPS, Metro and Urban Flood Safety & Water Quality District.

Washington Gun Store Sold Hundreds of High-Capacity Ammunition Magazines in 90 Minutes Without Ban

KGW-TV reports Wally Wentz, owner of Gator’s Custom Guns in Kelso, described Monday as “magazine day” at his store. Wentz is behind the court challenge to Washington’s high-capacity magazine ban, with the help of the Silent Majority Foundation in eastern Washington.

NEWS BRIEFS

Governor Kotek Announces Chief of Staff, New Office Leadership

Governor expands executive team and names new Housing and Homelessness Initiative Director ...

Governor Kotek Announces Investment in New CHIPS Child Care Fund

5 Million dollars from Oregon CHIPS Act to be allocated to new Child Care Fund ...

Bank Announces 14th Annual “I Got Bank” Contest for Youth in Celebration of National Financial Literacy Month

The nation’s largest Black-owned bank will choose ten winners and award each a $1,000 savings account ...

Literary Arts Transforms Historic Central Eastside Building Into New Headquarters

The new 14,000-square-foot literary center will serve as a community and cultural hub with a bookstore, café, classroom, and event...

Congressional Black Caucus Foundation Announces New Partnership with the University of Oxford

Tony Bishop initiated the CBCF Alumni Scholarship to empower young Black scholars and dismantle financial barriers ...

Record numbers in the US are homeless. Can cities fine them for sleeping in parks and on sidewalks?

WASHINGTON (AP) — The most significant case in decades on homelessness has reached the Supreme Court as record numbers of people in America are without a permanent place to live. The justices on Monday will consider a challenge to rulings from a California-based appeals court that...

The drug war devastated Black and other minority communities. Is marijuana legalization helping?

ARLINGTON, Wash. (AP) — When Washington state opened some of the nation's first legal marijuana stores in 2014, Sam Ward Jr. was on electronic home detention in Spokane, where he had been indicted on federal drug charges. He would soon be off to prison to serve the lion's share of a four-year...

Two-time world champ J’den Cox retires at US Olympic wrestling trials; 44-year-old reaches finals

STATE COLLEGE, Pa. (AP) — J’den Cox walked off the mat after dropping a 2-2 decision to Kollin Moore at the U.S. Olympic wrestling trials on Friday night, leaving his shoes behind to a standing ovation. The bronze medal winner at the Rio de Janeiro Olympics in 2016 was beaten by...

University of Missouri plans 0 million renovation of Memorial Stadium

COLUMBIA, Mo. (AP) — The University of Missouri is planning a 0 million renovation of Memorial Stadium. The Memorial Stadium Improvements Project, expected to be completed by the 2026 season, will further enclose the north end of the stadium and add a variety of new premium...

OPINION

Op-Ed: Why MAGA Policies Are Detrimental to Black Communities

NNPA NEWSWIRE – MAGA proponents peddle baseless claims of widespread voter fraud to justify voter suppression tactics that disproportionately target Black voters. From restrictive voter ID laws to purging voter rolls to limiting early voting hours, these...

Loving and Embracing the Differences in Our Youngest Learners

Yet our responsibility to all parents and society at large means we must do more to share insights, especially with underserved and under-resourced communities. ...

Gallup Finds Black Generational Divide on Affirmative Action

Each spring, many aspiring students and their families begin receiving college acceptance letters and offers of financial aid packages. This year’s college decisions will add yet another consideration: the effects of a 2023 Supreme Court, 6-3 ruling that...

OP-ED: Embracing Black Men’s Voices: Rebuilding Trust and Unity in the Democratic Party

The decision of many Black men to disengage from the Democratic Party is rooted in a complex interplay of historical disenchantment, unmet promises, and a sense of disillusionment with the political establishment. ...

AFRICAN AMERICANS IN THE NEWS

The drug war devastated Black and other minority communities. Is marijuana legalization helping?

ARLINGTON, Wash. (AP) — When Washington state opened some of the nation's first legal marijuana stores in 2014, Sam Ward Jr. was on electronic home detention in Spokane, where he had been indicted on federal drug charges. He would soon be off to prison to serve the lion's share of a four-year...

Lawsuits under New York's new voting rights law reveal racial disenfranchisement even in blue states

FREEPORT, N.Y. (AP) — Weihua Yan had seen dramatic demographic changes since moving to Long Island's Nassau County. Its Asian American population alone had grown by 60% since the 2010 census. Why then, he wondered, did he not see anyone who looked like him on the county's local...

USC cancels graduation keynote by filmmaker amid controversy over decision to drop student's speech

LOS ANGELES (AP) — The University of Southern California further shook up its commencement plans Friday, announcing the cancelation of a keynote speech by filmmaker Jon M. Chu just days after making the controversial choice to disallow the student valedictorian from speaking. The...

ENTERTAINMENT

Celebrity birthdays for the week of April 21-27

Celebrity birthdays for the week of April 21-27: April 21: Actor Elaine May is 92. Singer Iggy Pop is 77. Actor Patti LuPone is 75. Actor Tony Danza is 73. Actor James Morrison (“24”) is 70. Actor Andie MacDowell is 66. Singer Robert Smith of The Cure is 65. Guitarist Michael...

What to stream this weekend: Conan O’Brien travels, 'Migration' soars and Taylor Swift reigns

Zack Snyder’s “Rebel Moon – Part Two: The Scargiver” landing on Netflix and Taylor Swift’s “The Tortured Poets Department” album are some of the new television, movies, music and games headed to a device near you. Also among the streaming offerings worth your time as...

Music Review: Jazz pianist Fred Hersch creates subdued, lovely colors on 'Silent, Listening'

Jazz pianist Fred Hersch fully embraces the freedom that comes with improvisation on his solo album “Silent, Listening,” spontaneously composing and performing tunes that are often without melody, meter or form. Listening to them can be challenging and rewarding. The many-time...

U.S. & WORLD NEWS

The drug war devastated Black and other minority communities. Is marijuana legalization helping?

ARLINGTON, Wash. (AP) — When Washington state opened some of the nation's first legal marijuana stores in 2014,...

Tennessee Volkswagen employees overwhelmingly vote to join United Auto Workers union

CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. (AP) — Employees at a Volkswagen factory in Chattanooga, Tennessee, overwhelmingly voted to...

Man who set himself on fire outside Trump trial dies of injuries, police say

NEW YORK (AP) — A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where...

Panama Papers trial's public portion comes to an unexpectedly speedy end

PANAMA CITY (AP) — The public portion of a trial of more than two-dozen associates accused of helping some of...

Has Salman Rushdie changed after his stabbing? Well, he feels about 25, the author tells AP

NEW YORK (AP) — Nearly two years after the knife attack that nearly killed him, Salman Rushdie appears both...

Venice Biennale titled 'Foreigners Everywhere' platforms LGBTQ+, outsider and Indigenous artists

VENICE, Italy (AP) — Outsider, queer and Indigenous artists are getting an overdue platform at the 60th Venice...

Anthony Mccartney and Thomas Watkins Associated Press Writers

LOS ANGELES (AP) -- The doctor charged in Michael Jackson's death had requested lifesaving gear and a nurse from the concert promoter organizing the singer's London shows, documents obtained by The Associated Press show.
But neither request was apparently in place when Jackson died last June 25 after Dr. Conrad Murray administered a mixture of sedatives, including the anesthetic propofol, in an attempt to get the chronic insomniac to sleep.
Propofol is extremely powerful and is usually administered only in medical settings with emergency equipment on hand. Patients are normally constantly monitored.
Murray was alone when he gave the drugs to Jackson. After he realized the sedated star was not breathing, he performed cardiopulmonary resuscitation but was unable to revive him. He performed CPR on the singer while he was in bed instead of moving him to the floor, an action that was criticized after Jackson's death.
The doctor has pleaded not guilty to an involuntary manslaughter charge in Jackson's death. His proposed contract with promoter AEG Live, which included a monthly fee of $150,000 (euro122,000), was not finalized before the singer's death. Murray never received payment for his services.
The request for a heart resuscitation machine and another person with medical training are revealed in e-mails and a contract drafted by AEG Live and sent to Murray.
The documents are included in a complaint filed by Jackson's father, Joe, to the California Medical Board against AEG Live, accusing the promoter of Jackson's comeback ``This Is It'' tour of engaging in the ``unlawful practice of corporate medicine.'' It also accuses the company of forcing Murray to provide Jackson with dangerous medical services.
Michael Roth, an AEG spokesman, said the company had not seen the complaint and could not comment on it or the contract.
Murray's lawyer Ed Chernoff declined to comment.
``AEG hired, directed, controlled and demanded Dr. Conrad Murray, a medical doctor, to medicate Michael Jackson, provide Jackson with dangerous medical services, and to give Michael Jackson controlled substances and other drugs without providing cardiopulmonary resuscitation equipment or nursing assistance as it had promised in writing it would provide,'' the complaint states.
Murray's request for the CPR equipment was first made to a concert tour business manager, an e-mail message shows. The complaint states Murray also requested a nurse, and the doctor's proposed contract called for AEG to hire a ``qualified assistant medical person.''
The request was later mentioned in Murray's proposed contract. The language stated AEG ``shall provide Dr. Murray for his use during the term with medical equipment requested by Dr. Murray to assist him in performing the services as approved by (AEG).''
The equipment is described as a ``portable cardio pulmonary resuscitation unit ('CPR Machine'), saline, catheters, needles, a gurney and other mutually approved medical equipment necessary for the Services.''
The complaint states Murray signed the document a day before Michael Jackson's death.
Murray had known Jackson and treated him and his children occasionally in recent years, the doctor's attorney has said and the complaint states.
The AEG agreement would have covered Murray's work while Jackson was preparing for the London shows and throughout the concerts last summer.
An e-mail sent to Murray during the negotiations explained a delay in the contract's drafting because it was a ``rare event'' for a physician to be hired to care for a singer on tour.
E-mails also show the contract was still being reworked two days before Jackson's death, which happened a week before he was to travel to London for the ``This Is It'' shows.
A spokeswoman for the California Medical Board said complaints filed to the agency are confidential unless it takes any action. The board receives 8,000 complaints a year, according to its website.
Joe Jackson's attorney, Brian Oxman, confirmed he filed a complaint with the California Medical Board but declined to discuss it.
In his complaint, Joe Jackson -- who has repeatedly criticized AEG Live since shortly after his son's death -- accuses the promoter of agreeing to pay Murray vastly more than he was making so that it could exert control over his medical decisions.
Joe Jackson's filing cites a 2008 income declaration by Murray in a child support proceeding in which the cardiologist stated he earned only $3,300 per month. The Jackson family patriarch is also contemplating a wrongful death lawsuit against Murray.

The Skanner Foundation's 38th Annual MLK Breakfast