04-18-2024  2:17 am   •   PDX and SEA Weather
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NORTHWEST NEWS

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.

Five Running to Represent Northeast Portland at County Level Include Former Mayor, Social Worker, Hotelier (Part 2)

Five candidates are vying for the spot previously held by Susheela Jayapal, who resigned from office in November to focus on running for Oregon's 3rd Congressional District. Jesse Beason is currently serving as interim commissioner in Jayapal’s place. (Part 2)

NEWS BRIEFS

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 ...

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

The nation’s largest Black-owned bank will choose ten winners and award each a jumi,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 ...

Mt. Hood Jazz Festival Returns to Mt. Hood Community College with Acclaimed Artists

Performing at the festival are acclaimed artists Joshua Redman, Hailey Niswanger, Etienne Charles and Creole Soul, Camille Thurman,...

OPINION

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. ...

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...

AFRICAN AMERICANS IN THE NEWS

ENTERTAINMENT

U.S. & WORLD NEWS

A church lies in ruins, Thursday, Dec. 24, 2015, after severe weather caused damage to several buildings in Mississippi's Benton County on Wednesday. Mississippi Emergency Management Agency said a 35-person team was out looking for two people unaccounted for in Benton County. At least six people have been killed across the country as fierce spring-like storms hit Wednesday. (AP Photo/Phillip Lucas)
The Associated Press

Pastor Melvin Howard of the Mount Olive Full Gospel Church said he came rushing to the area of Jefferson Avenue and 50th Street in Birmingham, Alabama, when he heard the storm hit. Several houses on the block had been destroyed and partially blown into the street. Police and fire crews canvassed the area Friday night as lightning illuminated the scope of the damage.

Howard said his church's building had collapsed but no one was inside at the time.
"We're just there to salvage what we can salvage," Howard said. "Mikes and p.a. systems of that magnitude that we know someone would go in and take," he said.
Lt. Sean Edwards, a Birmingham police spokesman, said several people were taken to hospitals for treatment of minor injuries, but further details were not immediately available.

The National Weather Service confirmed a tornado touched down in southwest Jefferson County at about 5 p.m. Friday.

7:30 p.m.
The Mississippi Emergency Management Agency says it has received reports of another death and another missing person attributed to the severe weather system that is still impacting the state.
In a statement Friday evening, the agency said Coahoma County has now reported one death, and Benton County has reported another missing person.
The agency says this increases the number of deaths to eight, and the number of missing persons to two. There have been more than 60 injuries attributed to the storms.
So far, the storms have caused widespread damage to more than 100 homes and businesses in Mississippi.
Gov. Phil Bryant declared a State of Emergency on Thursday for affected areas of the state.
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7 p.m.
Police in Birmingham, Alabama, say people are trapped in houses along Jefferson Avenue Southwest, where a tornado touch down earlier Friday evening.
According to Lt. Sean Edwards, a Birmingham police spokesman, there are no known injuries at this point.
Weather radar Friday evening showed an intense system along the Interstate 20/59 corridor west of Birmingham, with the storm moving eastward. Flooding was reported in counties throughout the region, as heavy rain continued to fall.
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6 p.m.
The National Weather Service says search and rescue efforts are ongoing in Birmingham, Alabama, where a tornado moved through in the past hour. The service confirms a tornado touched down in southwest Jefferson County about 5 p.m. Friday, moving northeast toward the city of Birmingham.
Meteorologist Jason Holmes said eyewitnesses spotted the funnel and the agency has confirmed its presence. It's part of the same cell that warranted an earlier tornado warning in Tuscaloosa County, southwest of the Jefferson.
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5 p.m.
The National Weather Service confirms a tornado touched down in southwest Jefferson County in Alabama at about 5 p.m. Friday, moving northeast toward the city of Birmingham.
Meteorologist Jason Holmes said eyewitnesses spotted the funnel and the agency has confirmed its presence. It's part of the same cell that warranted an earlier tornado warning in Tuscaloosa County, southwest of the Jefferson.
Details are still sketchy, Holmes said, and nightfall is making it hard for storm spotters to identify tornado activity.
But he said any reports of tornado-like damage in the region will be treated as if it is a tornado.
Holmes said reports of tornado activity in Bibb County, also southwest of Birmingham, have not been confirmed. But the agency is warning resident there and in neighboring Chilton County to take cover.
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3:20 p.m.
Some Mississippi residents spent their Christmas giving rather than receiving this year.
The American Red Cross of North Mississippi's disaster program manager, Nicholas Garbacz (GAR-bach), says members of the Marine Corps helped turn the Eddie Smith Multi-Purpose Center in Holly Springs into a substitute Santa's Workshop.
The marines donated bundles of toys for those who lost everything — including presents under their Christmas trees — during this week's killer storms
Garbacz says dozens of children and their families showed up Friday morning to pick up a toy or two and other items they might need to help on their path to recovery. He says it was a wonderful experience for those giving and for those getting.
Steve Swann, the agency's logistic head, told WMC-TV (http://bit.ly/1kjOSMr) that he and his wife, Audrey, helped with the giveaway.
Van Rayford, who's now in a hotel with his kids and six of his grandchildren, says he's thankful the Swanns and others sacrificed their Christmas so that his family could have one.
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2:10 p.m.
A flash flood watch has been issued for parts of Tennessee following storms that have pounded the Southeast this week.
Meteorologist Krissy Hurley with the National Weather Service in Nashville says a flash flood watch is in effect for parts of southeastern, central and eastern Tennessee until Saturday morning.
In neighboring Kentucky, the National Weather Service in Louisville says a flash flood watch has been issued for central and eastern parts of the state through midafternoon.
The unseasonably warm weather that spawned deadly tornadoes on Wednesday killed six people in Tennessee. Seven people died in Mississippi and one person was killed in Arkansas.
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1:20 p.m.
Parts of central and north Alabama and northwest Georgia are spending Christmas on the lookout for more heavy rain and flooding.
Heavy rain already is falling in areas stretching across Alabama, from the Mississippi state line west of Tuscaloosa to the Georgia state line east of Anniston.
The National Weather Service has issued a flash flood warning for three counties.
Tornadoes are possible in parts of Alabama north of the I-20 corridor, with other damaging winds of up to 60 mph possible.
Northwest Georgia also continues to receive heavy rain, with flash flood warnings issued.
Residents are advised to stay off the roads. Drivers who do encounter flooded roads are warned to turn around, as authorities say most flood deaths occur in vehicles.
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12:25 p.m.
Authorities say three of the six people killed in storms that rolled across Tennessee were found in a submerged car.
The Columbia Police Department said in a news release that the bodies of three people were found in a car submerged in a Maury County creek Thursday afternoon.
The names of the victims have not been released, but the Tennessee Emergency Management Agency said the deceased are a 19-year-old female and two 22-year-old males. The agency says the deaths were weather-related.
The unseasonably warm, severe weather also was responsible for seven deaths in Mississippi and one in Arkansas.
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4:20 a.m.
Some survivors of deadly storms across the Southeast lost their homes and belongings, but say they're thankful to see another Christmas.
Residents of the hardest-hit communities were forced to take stock of their losses Thursday after unseasonably severe weather spawned tornadoes and killed at least 14 people in Mississippi, Tennessee and Arkansas.
Barbara Perkins and her husband hunkered in a closet of their home in Falkner, Mississippi, when powerful winds peeled the roof off and sucked up a heavy air conditioning unit. An insurance agent told the couple Thursday their home was a total loss.
Perkins' neighbors weren't as fortunate. Two died in a home nearby.
Despite being newly homeless, Perkins said the tragedy helped her "stop and realize what Christmas is all about."

The Skanner Foundation's 38th Annual MLK Breakfast