04-24-2024  9:53 pm   •   PDX and SEA Weather
  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4

NORTHWEST NEWS

A Conservative Quest to Limit Diversity Programs Gains Momentum in States

In support of DEI, Oregon and Washington have forged ahead with legislation to expand their emphasis on diversity, equity and inclusion in government and education.

Epiphanny Prince Hired by Liberty in Front Office Job Day After Retiring

A day after announcing her retirement, Epiphanny Prince has a new job working with the New York Liberty as director of player and community engagement. Prince will serve on the basketball operations and business staffs, bringing her 14 years of WNBA experience to the franchise. 

The Drug War Devastated Black and Other Minority Communities. Is Marijuana Legalization Helping?

A major argument for legalizing the adult use of cannabis after 75 years of prohibition was to stop the harm caused by disproportionate enforcement of drug laws in Black, Latino and other minority communities. But efforts to help those most affected participate in the newly legal sector have been halting. 

Lessons for Cities from Seattle’s Racial and Social Justice Law 

 Seattle is marking the first anniversary of its landmark Race and Social Justice Initiative ordinance. Signed into law in April 2023, the ordinance highlights race and racism because of the pervasive inequities experienced by people of color

NEWS BRIEFS

Mt. Tabor Park Selected for National Initiative

Mt. Tabor Park is the only Oregon park and one of just 24 nationally to receive honor. ...

OHCS, BuildUp Oregon Launch Program to Expand Early Childhood Education Access Statewide

Funds include million for developing early care and education facilities co-located with affordable housing. ...

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 ...

Boeing's financial woes continue, while families of crash victims urge US to prosecute the company

Boeing said Wednesday that it lost 5 million on falling revenue in the first quarter, another sign of the crisis gripping the aircraft manufacturer as it faces increasing scrutiny over the safety of its planes and accusations of shoddy work from a growing number of whistleblowers. ...

Authorities confirm 2nd victim of ex-Washington officer was 17-year-old with whom he had a baby

WEST RICHLAND, Wash. (AP) — Authorities on Wednesday confirmed that a body found at the home of a former Washington state police officer who killed his ex-wife before fleeing to Oregon, where he died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound, was that of a 17-year-old girl with whom he had a baby. ...

Missouri hires Memphis athletic director Laird Veatch for the same role with the Tigers

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — Missouri hired longtime college administrator Laird Veatch to be its athletic director on Tuesday, bringing him back to campus 14 years after he departed for a series of other positions that culminated with five years spent as the AD at Memphis. Veatch...

KC Current owners announce plans for stadium district along the Kansas City riverfront

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — The ownership group of the Kansas City Current announced plans Monday for the development of the Missouri River waterfront, where the club recently opened a purpose-built stadium for the National Women's Soccer League team. CPKC Stadium will serve as the hub...

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

Biden just signed a bill that could ban TikTok. His campaign plans to stay on the app anyway

WASHINGTON (AP) — When President Joe Biden showed off his putting during a campaign stop at a public golf course in Michigan last month, the moment was captured on TikTok. Forced inside by a rainstorm, he competed with 13-year-old Hurley “HJ” Coleman IV to make putts on a...

2021 death of young Black man at rural Missouri home was self-inflicted, FBI tells AP

ST. LOUIS (AP) — A federal investigation has concluded that a young Black man died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound inside a rural Missouri home, not at the hands of the white homeowner who had a history of racist social media postings, an FBI official told The Associated Press Wednesday. ...

Sister of Mississippi man who died after police pulled him from car rejects lawsuit settlement

JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — A woman who sued Mississippi's capital city over the death of her brother has decided to reject a settlement after officials publicly disclosed how much the city would pay his survivors, her attorney said Wednesday. George Robinson, 62, died in January 2019,...

ENTERTAINMENT

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...

Book Review: 'Nothing But the Bones' is a compelling noir novel at a breakneck pace

Nelson “Nails” McKenna isn’t very bright, stumbles over his words and often says what he’s thinking without realizing it. We first meet him as a boy reading a superhero comic on the banks of a river in his backcountry hometown in the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Georgia....

Cardi B, Queen Latifah and The Roots to headline the BET Experience concerts in Los Angeles

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Cardi B, Queen Latifah and The Roots will headline concerts to celebrate the return of the BET Experience in Los Angeles just days before the 2024 BET Awards. BET announced Monday the star-studded lineup of the concert series, which makes a return after a...

U.S. & WORLD NEWS

Ukraine uses long-range missiles secretly provided by US to hit Russian-held areas, officials say

WASHINGTON (AP) — Ukraine for the first time has begun using long-range ballistic missiles provided secretly by...

TikTok has promised to sue over the potential US ban. What's the legal outlook?

NEW YORK (AP) — Legislation forcing TikTok's parent company to sell the video-sharing platform or face a ban in...

Australia and New Zealand honor their war dead with dawn services on Anzac Day

MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) — Hundreds of thousands of people gathered across Australia and New Zealand for dawn...

Ethnic Karen guerrillas in Myanmar leave a town that army lost 2 weeks ago as rival group holds sway

BANGKOK (AP) — Guerrilla fighters from the main ethnic Karen fighting force battling Myanmar’s military...

Rwanda's Hope Hostel once housed young genocide survivors. Now it's ready for migrants from Britain

KIGALI, Rwanda (AP) — Rwanda says it's ready to receive migrants from the United Kingdom after British...

Blinken begins key China visit as tensions rise over new US foreign aid bill

SHANGHAI (AP) — U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken has begun a critical trip to China armed with a...

By Susan Candiotti CNN






Craig WrightCraig Wright was arraigned earlier this week. He is charged with stomping on SUV driver Alexian Lien

New York police have arrested one of their own on riot and criminal mischief charges in connection with the September 29 attack on an SUV driver in New York City, a law enforcement official said Tuesday.

Wojciech Braszczok, a 32-year-old detective in the New York Police Department who was off duty at the time, is allegedly shown on a video smashing the rear window the Range Rover as it drove amid a sea of motorcyclists on the city's West Side Highway, according to the official. That video is now in investigators' hands.

It is not clear if the detective participated in the subsequent beating of the vehicle's driver, Alexian Lien.

Both charges Braszczok faces are felonies, according to the law enforcement official.

Braszczok was one of at least two off-duty undercover officers who were riding with fellow bikers that day, a law enforcement official told CNN.

He was riding with his motorcycle club when the incident occurred and saw much of the confrontation, a law enforcement source told CNN last week. The undercover officer allegedly didn't inform supervisors about the incident until three days later, telling internal affairs investigators that he waited because he reportedly was afraid his cover would be blown.

Braszczok is expected to be arraigned Wednesday.

Once the prosecutor formally brings charges against him, six people in total -- all of them motorcyclists -- will have been charged in the case.

"In the last few days, serious charges have been brought against several defendants in last Sunday's attack," Erin Duggan, a spokeswoman for the Manhattan district attorney's office, said Wednesday. "As we said from the beginning of the investigation, the NYPD and the District Attorney's Office are methodically scrutinizing the evidence to build the strongest possible cases in our continuing effort to hold accountable those responsible."

The five other motorcyclists are:

• Clint Caldwell, a 32-year-old biker from Brooklyn, faces charges of gang assault, assault and criminal mischief. Police have video allegedly showing him at the scene of the attack, according to New York police Lt. John Grimpel. He too will be arraigned Wednesday.

• Craig Wright, 29, was arraigned Tuesday on gang assault and other charges and then ordered held on $150,000 bond. Wright is accused of stomping Lien at least twice after police say he and other motorcyclists forced the man's Range Rover to a stop, used their helmets to break out the window and dragged him out of the car, in which his wife and 2-year-old daughter were passengers.

A witness who tried to help the driver told CNN on Tuesday that bikers also tried to drag Lien's wife from the vehicle.

According to court documents, police say Wright, 29, identified himself in a picture showing him standing near the stopped SUV. Another photograph shows him stomping Lien as the man lies on the ground, according to the documents.

Wright is charged with first-degree gang assault, first-degree assault and first-degree unlawful imprisonment. He was arrested at his home in Brooklyn.

In addition to the bond, New York Trial Court Judge Tamiko Amaker set Wright's next court date for Friday.

In March, Wright pleaded guilty to driving with a suspended license, a spokesman for the Brooklyn district attorney's office said. It is unclear whether he was driving with a suspended license at the time of the SUV incident.

He was also convicted in Virginia in 2005 for reckless driving.

• Reginald Chance, 37, who was captured on video smashing his helmet into the SUV's window, has been charged with first-degree assault and gang assault. He was ordered held on $75,000 bond Sunday.

Assistant District Attorney Samantha Turino said Chance's license had been suspended and he should not have been driving. She said his arrest record includes a marijuana charge in 2013 and attempted criminal possession of a weapon in 2006.

"The law does permit someone who is a victim of an accident to at least attempt to get the identification of the motorist," said Chance's attorney, Gregory Watts. "My client obviously overreacted in that manner, but he is not this thug assaulting someone who's harmless, contrary to the public opinion that's being put out there."

He said Chance was knocked off his motorcycle by Lien's SUV after bikers had surrounded the vehicle earlier.

• Christopher Cruz, 28, who police say is the biker who slowed in front of Lien, was charged with reckless driving and other misdemeanors. He was released on bond.

His lawyer, H. Benjamin Perez, said, "He never tried to assault him in any way. And he does not know any of the other motorcyclists who were involved in this beating."

• Robert Sims, 35, is accused of stomping on Lien. He surrendered Friday on charges of attempted assault and gang assault.

The case became national news after video of the incident surfaced.

The video, captured by a motorcyclist's helmet camera, shows dozens of bikers swarming past him on Manhattan's West Side Highway. One motorcycle quickly slowed down in front of Lien, who bumped its rear tire, slightly injuring Cruz.

Lien pulled to a stop, and angry bikers surrounded his vehicle, hitting it and spiking its tires, police said.

Lien's vehicle plowed into three more bikers, including Edwin Mieses, whose wife says he is paralyzed.

The video shows the Range Rover stopping again -- long enough for a biker to open the door -- and Lien then driving away until traffic forced him to the final stop.

Police say the subsequent beating included kicks to Lien's head and body as he lay on the highway. Lien suffered two black eyes and cuts on his face and side, requiring stitches, a police detective's criminal complaint said.

His wife and daughter were unharmed.

Defenders of the bikers, including relatives of Mieses, the critically injured biker, have criticized Lien for driving through the crowd of motorcycles.

CNN's Laura Dolan, Rob Frehse, Yon Pomrenze, Eden Pontz and Greg Botelho contributed to this report.

 

The Skanner Foundation's 38th Annual MLK Breakfast