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.
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 ...
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 ...
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,...
Idaho's ban on youth gender-affirming care has families desperately scrambling for solutions
Forced to hide her true self, Joe Horras’ transgender daughter struggled with depression and anxiety until three years ago, when she began to take medication to block the onset of puberty. The gender-affirming treatment helped the now-16-year-old find happiness again, her father said. ...
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...
The sons of several former NFL stars are ready to carve their path into the league through the draft
Jeremiah Trotter Jr. wears his dad’s No. 54, plays the same position and celebrates sacks and big tackles with the same signature axe swing. Now, he’s ready to make a name for himself in the NFL. So are several top prospects who play the same positions their fathers played in the...
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. ...
Kansas has a new anti-DEI law, but the governor has vetoed bills on abortion and even police dogs
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Kansas' Democratic governor on Friday vetoed proposed tax breaks for anti-abortion counseling centers while allowing restrictions on college diversity initiatives approved by the Republican-controlled Legislature to become law without her signature. Gov. Laura...
Attorneys argue that Florida law discriminates against Chinese nationals trying to buy homes
An attorney asked a federal appeals court on Friday to block a controversial Florida law signed last year that restricts Chinese citizens from buying real estate in much of the state, calling it discriminatory and a violation of the federal government's supremacy in deciding foreign affairs. ...
Choctaw artist Jeffrey Gibson confronts history at US pavilion as its first solo Indigenous artist
VENICE, Italy (AP) — Jeffrey Gibson’s takeover of the U.S. pavilion for this year’s Venice Biennale contemporary art show is a celebration of color, pattern and craft, which is immediately evident on approaching the bright red facade decorated by a colorful clash of geometry and a foreground...
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...
Soldiers who lost limbs in Gaza fighting are finding healing on Israel's amputee soccer team
RAMAT GAN, Israel (AP) — When Ben Binyamin was left for dead, his right leg blown off during the Hamas attack on...
The Latest | Iran says air defense batteries fire after explosions reported near major air base
Iran fired air defense batteries Friday reports of explosions near a major air base at the city of Isfahan, the...
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...
The West African Sahel is becoming a drug smuggling corridor, UN warns, as seizures skyrocket
NIAMEY, Niger (AP) — Drug seizures soared in the West African Sahel region according to figures released Friday...
5 Japanese workers in Pakistan escape suicide blast targeting their van. A Pakistani bystander dies
KARACHI, Pakistan (AP) — A suicide bomber targeted a van carrying Japanese nationals in Pakistan's port city of...
A trial is underway for the Panama Papers, a case that changed the country's financial rules
PANAMA CITY (AP) — Eight years after 11 million leaked secret financial documents revealed how some of the...
CHICAGO (AP) — Chicago police officers who watched one of their own shoot a black teenager 16 times filed reports depicting a version of events that contrasted sharply with what was captured on the dashcam footage that has sparked protests and cost the police commissioner his job.
The city released hundreds of pages of documents late Friday pertaining to the October 2014 killing of 17-year-old Laquan McDonald by a white police officer, Jason Van Dyke. He was charged with first-degree murder late last month, only hours before the department released the video under a court order and after keeping it from the public for more than a year.
The video shows McDonald veering away from officers on a four-lane street when Van Dyke opened fire from close range and continued shooting after the teen had crumpled to the ground and was barely moving.
In newly-released police reports, however, several officers, including Van Dyke, described McDonald as aggressively approaching officers while armed with a knife.
Van Dyke told an investigator that McDonald was "swinging the knife in an aggressive, exaggerated manner" and that McDonald "raised the knife across chest" and pointed it at Van Dyke, according to one police report. Multiple officers reported that even after McDonald was down, he kept trying to get up with the knife in his hand.
"In defense of his life, Van Dyke backpedaled and fired his handgun at McDonald, to stop the attack," one report reads. "McDonald fell to the ground but continued to move and continued to grasp the knife, refusing to let go of it."
Van Dyke told an investigator that he feared that McDonald would rush him with the knife or throw it at him. He also noted a 2012 Chicago Police Department warning about a weapon that was a knife but was capable of firing a bullet, hence making it firearm, according to the reports.
The officers' portrayal of the incident, recorded in hundreds of pages of handwritten and typed reports, prompted police supervisors to rule at the time that McDonald's death was a justifiable homicide and within the bounds of the department's use of force guidelines. It's not clear who wrote some of the police reports.
The release of the reports comes amid mounting questions about the Chicago Police Department's handling of the incident, while activists allege that police and city officials tried to cover it up. The U.S. attorney's office is investigating the issue, and a number of officials have called for a broader intervention by the U.S. Justice Department.
Chicago police spokesman Anthony Guglielmi said in a statement late Friday that the city's Independent Police Review Authority, not the Police Department, conducts all investigations of officer-involved shootings and that the agency was given the case report and videos. The authority, which did not return a message left Friday, has not released its report on the McDonald shooting.
"If the criminal investigation concludes that any officer participated in any wrongdoing, we will take swift action," Guglielmi said in an emailed statement.
City officials fought in court for months to keep the video from being released publicly, before deciding in November not to fight a judge's order.
Messages left for Mayor Rahm Emanuel's spokeswoman, Cook County State's Attorney Anita Alvarez' spokeswoman and a police union weren't immediately returned.
Another contradiction that emerged with the release of the reports is whether McDonald's knife was folded when officers recovered it at the scene.
When announcing charges against Van Dyke, Alvarez said McDonald's knife was folded. But one of the police reports said the knife's "blade was in the open position."
One of the reports noted what it called McDonald's "irrational behavior," such as ignoring verbal directions and "growling" and making noises. PCP, a hallucinogenic drug, was found in McDonald's system, according to Alvarez and the medical examiner's report that was among the documents.
The release of the footage, which doesn't have sound, triggered protests and calls for public officials to resign, including Emanuel. Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan has called for an overall federal investigation of police department practices, which Democratic presidential candidates and local Illinois politicians have echoed. Emanuel has also since announced the expansion a body camera program and formed a task force.
Chicago authorities have not been able to explain why the footage released to the public, including from other squad cars on scene, doesn't have audio when department technologies allow for it. Acting Superintendent John Escalante said Friday that he issued a reminder to all officers to check that equipment works each time they get into police cars.
___
Sophia Tareen at https://twitter.com/sophiatareen .