On Steps of US Supreme Court, AG Rosenblum Rallies Abortion Rights Supporters
Speaking at an ACLU-organized rally on the steps of the United States Supreme Court this morning, Attorney General Ellen Rosenblum made an impassioned defense of abortion as essential healthcare, and of medication abortion as a key part of those healthcare rights. The rally coincided with arguments being presented inside the Supreme Court in the AHM (Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine) v. FDA (Food & Drug Administration) case.
Should College Essays Touch on Race? Some Feel the Affirmative Action Ruling Leaves Them No Choice
When the Supreme Court ended affirmative action, it left the college essay as one of few places where race can play a role in admissions decisions. Yet the added weight of the college essay has fallen unevenly on students of color, who often feel pressure to exploit their hardships as they compete for a spot on campus.
Bird Flu, Weather and Inflation Conspire to Keep Egg Prices Near Historic Highs for Easter
The cost of filling a basket or completing a Seder plate reflect a market scrambled by disease, high demand and growing costs for farmers. While global prices are lower than they were at this time last year, they remain elevated.
Strippers' Bill of Rights Bill Signed Into Law in Washington State
Gov. Jay Inslee signed the measure on Monday which creates safer working conditions for people in the adult entertainment industry. The law requires employee training in establishments to prevent sexual harassment, identify and report human trafficking, deescalate conflict and provide first aid.
The Portland Art Museum presents Future Now: Virtual Sneakers to Cutting-Edge Kicks
Exhibition on view March 30 - August 11, 2024. Programs to include sneaker-focused Summer Camps and in-gallery activities ...
Portland Street Response Hosts Town Hall
PCCEP is seeking community input to help shape their recommendation in support of Portland Street Response. ...
Joint Center Responds to the U.S. House Office of Diversity and Inclusion Disbandment
This decision jeopardizes the establishment of policies to support diverse communities and threatens the pursuit of inclusivity for...
Bonamici, Kaine Praise Billion Dollar Increase for Child Care, Early Childhood Learning
Congresswoman Suzanne Bonamici (D-OR) and Sen. Tim Kaine (D-VA) —members of the House Committee on Education and Workforce and the...
Portland Rose Festival 2024 Court Member from Benson Polytechnic High School Announced
The Rose Festival Princess from Benson Polytechnic High School, Laedyn Romero, was selected March 22. ...
Lou Whittaker, among the most famous American mountaineers, has died at age 95
SEATTLE (AP) — Lou Whittaker, a legendary American mountaineer who helped lead ascents of Mount Everest, K2 and Denali, and who taught generations of climbers during his more than 250 trips up Mount Rainier, the tallest peak in Washington state, has died at age 95. RMI Expeditions,...
Should college essays touch on race? Some feel the affirmative action ruling leaves them no choice
CHICAGO (AP) — When she started writing her college essay, Hillary Amofa told the story she thought admissions offices wanted to hear. About being the daughter of immigrants from Ghana and growing up in a small apartment in Chicago. About hardship and struggle. Then she deleted it...
Georgia ends game on 12-0 run to beat Missouri 64-59 in first round of SEC tourney
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Blue Cain had 19 points, Justin Hill scored 17 off the bench and 11th-seeded Georgia finished the game on a 12-0 run to beat No. 14 seed Missouri 64-59 on Wednesday night in the first round of the Southeastern Conference Tournament. Cain hit 6 of 12 shots,...
Georgia faces Missouri in SEC Tournament
Missouri Tigers (8-23, 0-18 SEC) vs. Georgia Bulldogs (16-15, 6-12 SEC) Nashville, Tennessee; Wednesday, 9:30 p.m. EDT FANDUEL SPORTSBOOK LINE: Bulldogs -3; over/under is 147 BOTTOM LINE: Georgia plays in the SEC Tournament against Missouri. ...
COMMENTARY: Is a Cultural Shift on the Horizon?
As with all traditions in all cultures, it is up to the elders to pass down the rituals, food, language, and customs that identify a group. So, if your auntie, uncle, mom, and so on didn’t teach you how to play Spades, well, that’s a recipe lost. But...
A Full Court Press to Get the Lead Out
With a “goal of identifying and remediating lead hazards in at least 2,800 Lancaster County homes,” LG Health is setting an example for the private sector. And the Biden-Harris administration’s focus on environmental justice and access to clean and safe...
OP-ED: Congress Is Right: Federal Reserve’s Reg II Will Hurt Minority Communities in America
The Fed is taking every effort to promote income equality and workplace diversity and inclusion, but Regulation II would undercut its great work in this respect and cause potential harm to millions of minority families. Now that a congressional coalition has...
OP-ED: A Silent Killer No More
Data from Mount Sinai Medical Center in New York City shows that more than 13 percent of African American men between the ages 45 and 79 will develop prostate cancer in their lifetimes. And Black men have a 70 percent higher rate of developing...
Why did more than 1,000 people die after police subdued them with force that isn't meant to kill?
Carl Grant, a Vietnam veteran with dementia, wandered out of a hospital room to charge a cellphone he imagined he had. When he wouldn’t sit still, the police officer escorting Grant body-slammed him, ricocheting the patient’s head off the floor. Taylor Ware, a former Marine and...
French lawmakers are weighing a bill banning all types of hair discrimination
PARIS (AP) — French lawmakers are debating a bill Thursday that would ban discrimination over the texture, length, color or style of someone's hair. Its authors hope the groundbreaking measure sends a message of support to Black people and others who have faced hostility in the workplace and...
Beyoncé shares 'Cowboy Carter' track list ahead of album, mentions Dolly Parton and Willie Nelson
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Celebrity birthdays for the week of March 31-April 6
Celebrity birthdays for the week of March 31-April 6: March 31: Actor William Daniels (“St. Elsewhere,” ″Boy Meets World”) is 97. Actor Richard Chamberlain is 90. Actor Shirley Jones is 90. Musician Herb Alpert is 89. Actor Christopher Walken is 81. Comedian Gabe Kaplan...
How to make an Easter ham last all week
The beauty of making a baked ham for Easter (or any holiday or large gathering) is that there's bound to be leftovers. Leftover ham, which will last for up to five days in the fridge, can be a springboard for other meals during the week. Of course you’ll want a sandwich or two, but...
Book Review: 'Glorious Exploits' turns classical history into an endearing comedy about tragedy
Best friends Lampo and Gelon are potters by trade, but their souls are filled with poetry. It’s 412 B.C. and the city of Syracuse doesn’t know what hit it when these two hatch up the best worst idea: They’ll put on a play using the Athenian prisoners of war who are starving to death down in...
Top-seeded North Carolina and Clemson looking to move ACC beyond Sweet 16 vs Alabama and Arizona
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UConn, San Diego State set for title game rematch in Sweet 16; Iowa State, Illinois target Elite 8
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Schools in the path of April's total solar eclipse prepare for a natural teaching moment
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Russia strikes Ukraine's Kharkiv with aerial bombs for the first time since 2022
KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russia struck the northeastern city of Kharkiv with aerial bombs Wednesday for the first...
Nigerian parents finally get a chance to see their children who spent more than 2 weeks in captivity
KADUNA, Nigeria (AP) — Parents of more than 130 Nigerian schoolchildren who were rescued after more than two...
Lawmakers in Thailand overwhelmingly approve a bill to legalize same-sex marriage
BANGKOK (AP) — Lawmakers in Thailand's lower house of Parliament overwhelmingly approved a marriage equality...
DUBLIN (AP) — Gay couples of Ireland woke up Sunday in what felt like a nation reborn, with dreams of wedding plans dancing in their heads.
This new reality was sinking in after the Irish people voted with a surprisingly strong 62 percent "yes" to enshrine the right to gay marriage in the country's conservative 1937 constitution. Thousands of revelers of all sexual identities celebrated until dawn after the result was announced Saturday night.
The Justice Department confirmed Sunday it plans to draft a marriage bill this week that will permit those taking vows in civil ceremonies to choose either to be "husband and wife" or "spouses of each other." It will ensure that no church is required to perform a gay marriage, a key demand of the dominant Catholic Church and also the main Protestant and Muslim communities in Ireland.
Deputy Prime Minister Joan Burton said she expects the bill to become law by early July. Because existing law requires a minimum three-month notice for any civil marriages, the first gay weddings cannot happen until the fall.
For Sen. Katherine Zappone and Ann Louise Gilligan, their day has nearly come. Since 2003 they have fought for legal recognition of their Canadian marriage, suffering setbacks and delays as they sued the state all the way to the Supreme Court.
"For so long, I've been having to dig in my heels and say ... Well, we ARE married. I'm a married woman!" said Zappone, a Seattle native who settled with her Irish spouse in Dublin three decades ago.
"We are now entering a new Ireland," said Gilligan, a former nun.
Zappone and Gilligan thrilled a crowd of thousands of rainbow flag-waving revelers Saturday at the results center at Dublin Castle with a playful promise to renew their vows. Zappone dramatically broke off from a live TV interview, stared directly into the camera, and asked Gilligan to marry her all over again.
"I said yes to Katherine 12 years ago at our marriage in Canada," Gilligan, nearby, shouted to the crowd. "And now we are bringing the 'yes' back home to Ireland, our country of Ireland! Yes, yes, yes!"
In a more sober mood Sunday, the couple reflected on their long road to social acceptance and the remaining wait to get officially hitched in Ireland, before Christmas they hope.
"It took us hours to get a taxi (Saturday night) because so many people came up to us in tears, wanting to talk to us. They now felt so much freer, and proud," said Zappone, who became Ireland's first openly lesbian lawmaker when Prime Minister Enda Kenny appointed her to the Senate in 2011.
"There aren't that many moments in life where you are surrounded with an exuberance of joy. These are rare moments," said Gilligan, a former Loreto nun who left the order in her mid-20s to pursue social justice as a lay Catholic. She wasn't sure about her sexuality until Zappone entered their first theology class together at Boston College in 1981.
"The door opened, and this gorgeous woman came in. I didn't know I was lesbian. I'm a late learner," Gilligan recalled with a laugh. "I fell in love with Katherine, and I went for it. I simply adored her, and I wanted to be with her forever and ever, and here we are!"
They married in Vancouver and sued Ireland for legal recognition, but in 2006 the High Court ruled that Irish law — while never explicit in defining marriage as solely between a man and woman — universally understood this to be the case. The Supreme Court kicked their appeal back to the High Court in 2012.
Months later Gilligan, who is in her late 60s, was hospitalized with a brain hemorrhage. Zappone, yet again, faced bureaucratic presumptions when trying to see her wife, since hospital admissions didn't recognize her as a spouse or other family member. She could have lied and said they had an Irish-recognized civil partnership, a weaker form of marriage-style contract enacted into Irish law in 2010, but Zappone insisted on stating uncomfortable reality: "I am married to her, and you have to recognize that," she recalled.
The medical staff understood and, after Zappone had spent five weeks at Gilligan's bedside, a doctor wrote them a long note of appreciation, wishing he had what they had.
What they still won't have, for many months to come, is an Irish-recognized marriage.
The family section of Ireland's constitution eventually will read, "Marriage may be contracted in accordance with law by two persons without distinction as to their sex." First, parliament must pass the same-sex marriage bill. Analysts expect easy passage, since all parties support the measure. Then Ireland's ceremonial head of state, President Michael D. Higgins, will sign the bill into law and amend the constitution.
"Technically and legally we'll probably have to wait until towards the end of the year," Zappone said. "Then we'll head towards the big day."
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