04-20-2024  2:40 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

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Governor Kotek Announces Investment in New CHIPS Child Care Fund

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

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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 ...

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...

Firefighters douse a blaze at a historic Oregon hotel famously featured in 'The Shining'

GOVERNMENT CAMP, Ore. (AP) — Firefighters doused a late-night fire at Oregon's historic Timberline Lodge — featured in Stanley Kubrick’s 1980 film “The Shining” — before it caused significant damage. The fire Thursday night was confined to the roof and attic of the lodge,...

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

Not a toddler, not a parent, but still love 'Bluey'? You're not alone

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Emergency rooms refused to treat pregnant women, leaving one to miscarry in a lobby restroom

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Biden administration restricts oil and gas leasing in 13 million acres of Alaska's petroleum reserve

JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) — The Biden administration said Friday it will restrict new oil and gas leasing on 13...

Indians vote in the first phase of the world's largest election as Modi seeks a third term

NEW DELHI (AP) — Millions of Indians began voting on Friday in a six-week election that's a referendum on...

US sanctions fundraisers for extremist West Bank settlers who commit violence against Palestinians

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Biden administration on Friday imposed sanctions on two entities accused of fundraising...

Ukraine, Israel aid advances in rare House vote as Democrats help Republicans push it forward

WASHINGTON (AP) — With rare bipartisan momentum, the House pushed ahead Friday on a foreign aid package of ...

Ben Brumfield and Laura Smith-Spark CNN

(CNN) -- The past week has been a devastating one for many families. Zubeidat Tsarnaev's is one of them.

But the mother of the two suspects in the Boston Marathon bombing remains resolute in her belief that her sons were not involved in the attack.

She told CNN's Nick Paton Walsh in Makhachkala, Dagestan, that she believes the tragedy that killed three people and injured dozens more was staged and that the bombing was fake.

Zubeidat Tsarnaev has seen a video supporting the idea that it was "something like a really big play," she said, with "paint instead of blood like it is made-up."

Does she really believe that?

"That's what I want to know, because everybody's talking about it: that this is a show, that's what I want to know. That's what I want to understand," replied Tsarnaev.

Paton Walsh asked whether she had seen the news images of the actual bombings and the suffering they caused.

"I haven't," she answered.

But her disbelief wavered when she spoke of the victims.

"I really feel sorry for all of them. Really feel sorry for all of them," she said, her voice cracking. But she is convinced that her sons, Dzhokhar, 19, and Tamerlan, 26, were not involved.

"There is something wrong," she said as she sought to articulate her confusion.

The elder son was killed after the two allegedly violently resisted and fled police.

Tamerlan's body remains unclaimed. Dzhokhar is hospitalized with severe injuries and faces terrorism and murder charges.

His mother said at a news conference Thursday that authorities "already told us they will not let us see Dzhokhar."

'I have nothing'

She broke down in sobs as she tried to describe her torment as a "loving mother of two kids" faced with the events of the past week.

"This is really crazy. I can't even, I can't even describe it," she told Paton Walsh, looking drained. "I have no strength. I have nothing. I have no sleep. I am just like dead. Like a dead person."

Her husband, Anzor Tsarnaev, is expected to step off a flight in the United States in the coming days after a long journey from Dagestan.

She is not expected to fly with him. Zubeidat Tsarnaev is wanted on 2012 felony charges of shoplifting and property damage in Massachusetts, according to court officials.

The family lived there before she jumped bail, and they moved the same year to Dagestan, a semi-autonomous region of Russia, officials said.

She told Paton Walsh that she would like to travel to the United States. "I really want to see how it is going to end," she said. "I want to see my Tamerlan, if it's possible."

The felony charges weren't "a big deal" and are unimportant to her, she said.

"What I care about is only the death of my oldest son, who I think was killed, and my youngest one, who is really ... needs the support."

U.S. officials had shown her and her husband "pictures of dead body of Tamerlan," she said at the news conference. "I did not look. I could not believe it is my son."

Anzor Tsarnaev may be bringing along important information for the investigation into the April 15 marathon bombings.

He is to depart for the United States as soon as Friday, said human rights activist Kheda Saratova, who is serving as the parents' representative.

The father has said he will cooperate in the investigations into the alleged crimes of his sons.

'Because they were Muslim'

On Wednesday, FBI agents were in Makhachkala -- a city that Tamerlan Tsarnaev called home for several months in 2012 -- to talk with the suspects' parents.

The conversation, which included members of Russia's federal security service, ended Wednesday evening, the suspects' mother told Saratova.

Both parents have publicly said they believe their children are innocent and were framed: "just because they were Muslim," as Zubeidat Tsarnaev put it.

When asked whether she thinks her younger son will get a fair trial, she replied, "Only Allah will know."

The Tsarnaevs are originally from the troubled Russian republic of Chechnya but fled from the brutal wars there in the 1990s. The two brothers were born in Kyrgyzstan and then lived in Dagestan and moved at different times to the United States.

The family's adopted republic has become a focus for investigators, especially given that Tamerlan Tsarnaev went there during a six-month trip to Russia last year.

On two occasions before that -- in March and late September 2011 -- Russian authorities asked U.S authorities to investigate Tamerlan Tsarnaev.

Zubeidat Tsarnaev said the FBI had visited her family "several times" in 2011 with questions about Tamerlan's "Islamic interests."

"They said that they ... just think that Tamerlan is a kind of ... little on radical side of Islam and they just don't want ... they are keeping their eye on, you know, the boys, like young boys like Tamerlan so any bombing any like explosion won't happen in America. On the streets, like on the streets."

The FBI investigators told her there was nothing wrong with that, they just wanted everyone to be safe, she said.

The Tsarnaevs and Misha

A friend named Misha, whom Tamerlan met in the United States, steered the older suspect toward a more devout practice of Islam, Tamerlan's relatives have said.

"Tamerlan was close friends with him, so they think that Misha made him ... become more deeply religious," Zubeidat said.

She was impressed with the Armenian convert to Islam, who seemed "very intelligent, nothing wrong." He suggested that she cover her hair with a scarf, which she did.

"When Misha visited us ... he just opened our eyes, you know ... really wide about Islam. He was really, he's devoted, and he's very good, very nice man," Zubeidat Tsarnaev said.

Tamerlan's uncle Ruslan Tsarni had a less favorable opinion.

"This person just took his brain," he said. "He just brainwashed him completely."

Tamerlan, a former Golden Gloves boxer, left the ring and stopped listening to music under Misha's influence.

Elmirza Khozhgov, a former brother-in-law of the brothers, said the elder Tsarnaev brother introduced him to a man named Misha, but "I didn't witness him making him radical."

Zubeidat declined to be drawn on which mosques her son frequented, saying he went to any mosque he could go to. Media reports have focused on the Kotrova mosque in Makhachkala.

And she vehemently denied reports that Tamerlan had sent her text messages talking about the radical nature of his faith and that he was ready to die for Islam.

But, she said, he was always in her thoughts.

"I remember him always, always from the first day that he was born, there was no day that I don't remember him. ... He was the most caring son," she said.

CNN's Greg Botelho contributed to this report.

 

The Skanner Foundation's 38th Annual MLK Breakfast