04-18-2024  5:29 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,...

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. ...

Pro-Palestinian demonstrators shut down airport highways and key bridges in major US cities

CHICAGO (AP) — Pro-Palestinian demonstrators blocked roadways in Illinois, California, New York and the Pacific Northwest on Monday, temporarily shutting down travel into some of the nation's most heavily used airports, onto the Golden Gate and Brooklyn bridges and on a busy West Coast highway. ...

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...

Caleb Williams among 13 confirmed prospects for opening night of the NFL draft

NEW YORK (AP) — Southern California quarterback Caleb Williams, the popular pick to be the No. 1 selection overall, will be among 13 prospects attending the first round of the NFL draft in Detroit on April 25. The NFL announced the 13 prospects confirmed as of Thursday night, and...

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

Choctaw artist Jeffrey Gibson is first Native American to represent the US solo at Venice Biennale

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...

How South Africa's former leader Zuma turned on his allies and became a surprise election foe

JOHANNESBURG (AP) — South Africa faces an unusual national election this year, its seventh vote since transitioning from white minority rule to a democracy 30 years ago. Polls and analysts warn that for the first time, the ruling African National Congress party that has comfortably held power...

A Georgia beach aims to disrupt Black students' spring bash after big crowds brought chaos in 2023

TYBEE ISLAND, Ga. (AP) — Thousands of Black college students expected this weekend for an annual spring bash at Georgia's largest public beach will be greeted by dozens of extra police officers and barricades closing off neighborhood streets. While the beach will remain open, officials are...

ENTERTAINMENT

Robert MacNeil, creator and first anchor of PBS 'NewsHour' nightly newscast, dies at 93

NEW YORK (AP) — Robert MacNeil, who created the even-handed, no-frills PBS newscast “The MacNeil-Lehrer NewsHour” in the 1970s and co-anchored the show with his late partner, Jim Lehrer, for two decades, died on Friday. He was 93. MacNeil died of natural causes at New...

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 week: Conan O’Brien travels, 'Migration' soars and Taylor Swift will reign

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...

U.S. & WORLD NEWS

Biden is off on details of his uncle's WWII death as he calls Trump unfit to lead the military

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden on Wednesday misstated key details about his uncle’s death in World War...

Takeaways from this week's reports on the deadly 2023 Maui fire that destroyed Lahaina

HONOLULU (AP) — More than half a year after the deadliest U.S. wildfire in more than a century burned through a...

Democrats clear path to bring proposed repeal of Arizona’s near-total abortion ban to a vote

PHOENIX (AP) — Democrats in the Arizona Senate cleared a path to bring a proposed repeal of the state’s...

Lebanon says Israeli agents likely killed Hezbollah-linked currency exchanger near Beirut

BEIT MERI, Lebanon (AP) — Lebanon’s interior minister alleged Wednesday that the mysterious abduction and...

Frustrated farmers are rebelling against EU rules. The far right is stoking the flames

ANDEREN, Netherlands (AP) — Inside the barn on the flat fields of the northern Netherlands, Jos Ubels cradles a...

How South Africa's former leader Zuma turned on his allies and became a surprise election foe

JOHANNESBURG (AP) — South Africa faces an unusual national election this year, its seventh vote since...

A protesters yells at a Chicago Police officer at a bicycle barricade on Chicago's Magnificent Mile Thursday, Dec. 24, 2015, in Chicago. The Christmas Eve Day protest calling for the resignation of Mayor Rahm Emanuel is the latest in a series of demonstrations in the city since the release last month of police video showing a white officer shoot a black teenager 16 times. (AP Photo/Charles Rex Arbogast)
MICHAEL TARM, Associated Press

CHICAGO (AP) — Recordings of Chicago police radio traffic surrounding the fatal shooting of a black teenager by a white officer show at least one responding officer asked for a Taser and — given that squad-car video lacks audio — offer a partial glimpse of officers' discussions as events unfolded.

The recordings obtained Wednesday by WMAQ-TV through a Freedom of Information Act Request show that one officer pursuing 17-year-old Laquan McDonald on Oct. 20, 2014, asked if others in the area had stun guns, which are used to subdue suspects with non-lethal force.

The year it took to charge Officer Jason Van Dyke for fatally shooting McDonald led to allegations of an attempted cover-up, a federal civil rights investigation of Chicago police and a series of protests, including Thursday along the city's Michigan Avenue shopping district.

"Someone have a Taser?" one officer is heard asking on the radio, then describing McDonald. "This guy is walking away but he's got a knife in hand."

A dispatcher responded that one was on its way, then immediately asked if any units closer to the scene could help.

"All right, anybody have a Taser — help out. ... Looking for a Taser, armed offender," she said.

None of the officers who spoke appeared to be anxious until one radioed, "Shots fired by police, get an ambulance over here."

"You guys OK?" a dispatcher asked.
"10-4, everything is fine — roll an ambulance over here," one officer answered.

Van Dyke shot McDonald 16 times, even as the teen crumpled to the ground. Police released dashcam video of the killing last month after a judge ordered them to do so and prosecutors charged Van Dyke hours earlier.

More than 50 people took part in the Christmas Eve protest along Chicago's Magnificent Mile, marching for several hours past last-minute holiday shoppers. On Black Friday last month, a few hundred marchers disrupted shopping in the high-end commercial district.

Many of the placards and chants targeted Mayor Rahm Emanuel, calling on the Chicago Democrat and onetime White House chief of staff to President Barack Obama to step down. One demonstrator held up a sign that read, "Shopping for a New Mayor."

The demonstrators included a Catholic priest from a heavily Latino part of Chicago. Father Jose Landaverde sat down in the middle Michigan Avenue with other demonstrators at one point, clutching a placard that read, "Rahm Resign."
"We cannot keep a mayor who covers things up," he said.

Emanuel apologized for the handling of the McDonald case during a city council speech earlier this month, though he has denied participating in any cover-up.

As many officers as protesters, many on police bikes, shadowed the demonstrators. At one point, several protesters briefly blocked the entrance to an Apple Store, chanting, "No justice, no profits."

Van Dyke is set to be arraigned Tuesday on a first-degree murder charge.

 

 

The Skanner Foundation's 38th Annual MLK Breakfast