05-12-2024  8:11 am   •   PDX and SEA Weather
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NORTHWEST NEWS

Portland OKs New Homeless Camping Rules That Threaten Fines or Jail in Some Cases

The mayor's office says it seeks to comply with a state law requiring cities to have “objectively reasonable” restrictions on camping.

Safety Lapses Contributed to Patient Assaults at Oregon State Hospital

A federal report says safety lapses at the Oregon State Hospital contributed to recent patient-on-patient assaults. The report by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services investigated a recent choking attack and sexual assault, among other incidents. It found that staff didn't always adequately supervise their patients, and that the hospital didn't fully investigate the incidents. In a statement, the hospital said it was dedicated to its patients and working to improve conditions. It has 10 days from receiving the report to submit a plan of correction. The hospital is Oregon's most secure inpatient psychiatric facility

Police Detain Driver Who Accelerated Toward Protesters at Portland State University in Oregon

The Portland Police Bureau said in a written statement late Thursday afternoon that the man was taken to a hospital on a police mental health hold. They did not release his name. The vehicle appeared to accelerate from a stop toward the crowd but braked before it reached anyone. 

Portland Government Will Change On Jan. 1. The City’s Transition Team Explains What We Can Expect.

‘It’s a learning curve that everyone has to be intentional about‘

NEWS BRIEFS

Governor Kotek Issues Statement on Role of First Spouse

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Legislature Makes Major Investments to Increase Housing Affordability and Expand Treatment in Multnomah County

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Poor People’s Campaign and National Partners Announce, “Mass Poor People’s and Low-Wage Workers’ Assembly and Moral March on Washington, D.C. and to the Polls” Ahead of 2024 Elections

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Legendary Civil Rights Leader Medgar Wiley Evers Receives Presidential Medal of Freedom

Evers family overwhelmed with gratitude after Biden announces highest civilian honor. ...

April 30 is the Registration Deadline for the May Primary Election

Voters can register or update their registration online at OregonVotes.gov until 11:59 p.m. on April 30. ...

Backcountry skier dies after being buried in Idaho avalanche

BOISE, Idaho (AP) — A backcountry skier has died after being buried by an avalanche in Idaho, officials said. The avalanche occurred Friday when two experienced backcountry skiers were traveling on Donaldson Peak in Idaho's Lost River Range, the Sawtooth Avalanche Center said. ...

Seattle man is suspected of fatally shooting 9-month-old son and is held on million bail

SEATTLE (AP) — A Seattle man has been arrested in connection with the fatal shooting of his 9-month-old son. Officers responded to reports of a shooting in the Magnolia neighborhood Wednesday evening, the Seattle Police Department said in a post on its website. A woman told officers...

Defending national champion LSU boosts its postseason hopes with series win against Texas A&M

With two weeks left in the regular season, LSU is scrambling to avoid becoming the third straight defending national champion to miss the NCAA Tournament. The Tigers (31-18, 9-15) won two of three against then-No. 1 Texas A&M to take a giant step over the weekend, but they...

The Bo Nix era begins in Denver, and the Broncos also drafted his top target at Oregon

ENGLEWOOD, Colo. (AP) — For the first time in his 17 seasons as a coach, Sean Payton has a rookie quarterback to nurture. Payton's Denver Broncos took Bo Nix in the first round of the NFL draft. The coach then helped out both himself and Nix by moving up to draft his new QB's top...

OPINION

The Skanner News May 2024 Primary Endorsements

Read The Skanner News endorsements and vote today. Candidates for mayor and city council will appear on the November general election ballot. ...

Nation’s Growing Racial and Gender Wealth Gaps Need Policy Reform

Never-married Black women have 8 cents in wealth for every dollar held by while males. ...

New White House Plan Could Reduce or Eliminate Accumulated Interest for 30 Million Student Loan Borrowers

Multiple recent announcements from the Biden administration offer new hope for the 43.2 million borrowers hoping to get relief from the onerous burden of a collective

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...

AFRICAN AMERICANS IN THE NEWS

Caitlin Clark, much like Larry Bird, the focus of talks about race and double standards in sports

For much of the past two years, Caitlin Clark has been the centerpiece of the college basketball world. Now Clark, like NBA Hall of Famer Larry Bird was 45 years ago, is involuntarily the focus of discussions about race and her transition to professional basketball. Though Clark...

Flooding forecast to worsen in Brazil's south, where many who remain are poor

ELDORADO DO SUL, Brazil (AP) — More rain started coming down on Saturday in Brazil’s already flooded Rio Grande do Sul state, where many of those remaining are poor people with limited ability to move to less dangerous areas. More than 15 centimeters (nearly six inches) of rain...

Controversy follows Gov. Kristi Noem as she is banned by two more South Dakota tribes

South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem is now banned from entering nearly 20% of her state after two more tribes banished her this week over comments she made earlier this year about tribal leaders benefitting from drug cartels. The latest developments in the ongoing tribal dispute come on...

ENTERTAINMENT

Paul Auster, prolific and experimental man of letters and filmmaker, dies at 77

NEW YORK (AP) — Paul Auster, a prolific, prize-winning man of letters and filmmaker known for such inventive narratives and meta-narratives as “The New York Trilogy” and “4 3 2 1,” has died at age 77. Auster's death was confirmed by his wife and fellow author, Siri Hustvedt,...

Celebrity birthdays for the week of May 12-18

Celebrity birthdays for the week of May 12-18: May 12: Actor Millie Perkins (“Knots Landing”) is 88. Singer Jayotis Washington of The Persuasions is 83. Country singer Billy Swan is 82. Actor Linda Dano (“Another World”) is 81. Singer Steve Winwood is 76. Actor Lindsay Crouse...

Britney Spears and Sam Asghari are officially divorced and single

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Britney Spears and Sam Asghari are officially divorced and single. The dissolution of the couple’s marriage was finalized Friday by a Los Angeles County judge, nearly two years after the two were married. The judgment comes hours after the...

U.S. & WORLD NEWS

Switzerland’s Nemo wins 68th Eurovision Song Contest after event roiled by protests over war in Gaza

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VOVCHANSK, Ukraine (AP) — Moscow's forces captured five villages in a renewed ground assault in northeastern...

Small pro-Palestinian protests held Saturday as college commencements are held

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Haitians demand the resignation and arrest of the country's police chief after a new gang attack

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) — A growing number of civilians and police officers are demanding the dismissal and...

Dutch broadcaster furious, fans bemused after Netherlands' Joost Klein is booted from Eurovision

MALMO, Sweden (AP) — A Dutch public broadcaster reacted angrily after the Netherlands’ contestant in the...

Eurovision explained, from ABBA to Zorra, as the Israel-Hamas war overshadows the song contest

MALMO, Sweden (AP) — Scores of musicians, hundreds of journalists and thousands of music fans have gathered in...

By The Skanner News | The Skanner News


More prosecution witnesses in the court-martial of admitted Fort Hood gunman Maj. Nidal Hasan are expected to testify Friday, adding to the roughly 30 others who quickly gave their accounts over two days, in part because Hasan declined to cross-examine them.

This is the third day of testimony in Hasan's trial on charges that he shot and killed 13 people and wounded 32 in the November 2009 rampage at the Army installation near Killeen, Texas.

The prosecution has raced through nearly half of their scheduled 80 witnesses, many of them survivors of the attack at the Fort Hood medical building where soldiers were being prepared for deployment to Afghanistan and Iraq.

Hasan, an Army psychiatrist who was paralyzed by a police bullet during the rampage, is representing himself in the trial. So far, he has not asked questions of the witnesses.

If convicted, he could face the death penalty. In a military capital trial, a guilty plea is not an option, so Hasan's official plea is that he is not guilty of the charges. But on Tuesday he used his opening statement to declare, "I am the shooter."

The prosecution called victims to the stand on Thursday. One after another, the survivors told similar stories of horror and heroism from personal vantage points.

Sgt. Alan Carroll testified that he was sitting and talking with a friend, awaiting his turn with the doctors at the medical building, when the shooting began.

"We heard the shouts of 'Allahu Akbar,' and I looked over," Carroll said. "I didn't exactly know what was going on, and then I realized it was a lot louder than a pop gun should be. I then felt a sharp pain in my shoulder."

He had been shot, but didn't realize it.

"I had my hand over my left shoulder and I was sitting there trying to figure out what was going on," Carroll testified. "I turned around and there was a man behind me and he was laughing ... and I figured it was a training exercise ... but it got harder and harder to move my shoulder."

Carroll said he was shot four more times before he managed to escape.

Sgt. Michael Davis testified that he was waiting to receive an injection for his readiness exam when the shooting began.

"I still thought it was a drill, but ... I heard young lady screaming, 'My baby! My baby! My baby!"

Davis said he took cover under a desk and awaited an opportunity to escape. A few moments later, he took a chance.

"Someone said, 'Go! Go! Go! He's reloading,'" Davis testified. "We started to move. As soon as I stood up, I got hit in the back and hit the ground pretty hard -- face first."

Wounded, Davis played dead until he heard the sound of gunfire transition to the outside. He said he stood up and made his escape through what had become a killing field.

He described the scene for the court: "There was a lot of bodies on the ground. The chairs were overturned. Lot of blood on the floor -- smelled like gunpowder, feces, blood. ... It was pretty bad."

He said he later learned that the woman screaming "My baby!" was Pvt. Francheska Velez. She had become pregnant while serving in Afghanistan and had recently returned to the United States.

She and her unborn child were shot and killed that day.

Sgt. Monique Archuletta testified that when the shooting began, she took cover in the office of her boss. Wiping a tear from her eye, Archuletta painted a brutal picture for the jury.

"You could hear people screaming, the chairs going everywhere," she said. "The metal chairs sounded like they were being scraped across the floor. It sounded like absolute chaos down there."

Lance Avilez, a private at the time of the shooting, testified that he'd been talking with a friend, Pfc. Kham Xiong, who was looking at pictures of his children when the shooting began.

Avilez said he dove to the ground. Xiong never made it, he said.

"I heard a sound," Avilez said. "If you hear it, you'll never forget it, but it's hard to describe. It's like dead weight, a slump. As I get down, I see my battle buddy on the floor. He had an exit wound through the back of his skull."

A U.S.-born citizen of Palestinian descent, Hasan had been scheduled to deploy to Afghanistan before the killings. Prosecutors hope to show that the devout Muslim had undergone a "progressive radicalization," giving presentations in defense of suicide bombings and about soldiers conflicted between military service and their religion when such conflicts result in crime.

Hasan did not want to deploy to fight against other Muslims and believed "that he had a jihad duty to kill as many soldiers as possible," Col. Michael Mulligan, the lead prosecutor in the case, said earlier in the trial.

Hasan told the panel in his opening statement Tuesday, "We mujahedeen are trying to establish the perfect religion." But, he added, "I apologize for the mistakes I made in this endeavor."

The mujahedeen consider themselves warriors who defend the Islamic faith.

Hasan told his family he had been taunted after the al Qaeda attacks of September 11, 2001. Investigations that followed the Fort Hood killings found he had been communicating via e-mail with Anwar al-Awlaki, the Yemeni-American radical cleric killed by a U.S. drone attack in 2011.

The case was first set to begin in March 2012, but was delayed repeatedly, notably over a previous judge's unsuccessful demand that the beard Hasan has grown while in custody be forcibly shaved.

Although Hasan was granted his request to represent himself, the judge, Col. Tara Osborn, ruled before the court-martial began that defense lawyers would act as standby counsel during the proceedings.

The defense attorneys brought the trial to a halt Wednesday when they tried to drop out of the case, telling the judge they believed Hasan was trying to help the prosecution achieve a death sentence. But Osborn ruled Thursday that they must continue.

CNN's Josh Rubin reported from Fort Hood. CNN's Ed Lavandera contributed to this report.

The Skanner Foundation's 38th Annual MLK Breakfast