04-19-2024  4:20 am   •   PDX and SEA Weather
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NORTHWEST NEWS

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.

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. ...

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...

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

Chicago's response to migrant influx stirs longstanding frustrations among Black residents

CHICAGO (AP) — The closure of Wadsworth Elementary School in 2013 was a blow to residents of the majority-Black neighborhood it served, symbolizing a city indifferent to their interests. So when the city reopened Wadsworth last year to shelter hundreds of migrants, without seeking...

US deports about 50 Haitians to nation hit with gang violence, ending monthslong pause in flights

MIAMI (AP) — The Biden administration sent about 50 Haitians back to their country on Thursday, authorities said, marking the first deportation flight in several months to the Caribbean nation struggling with surging gang violence. The Homeland Security Department said in a...

Hillary Clinton and Malala Yousafzai producing. An election coming. ‘Suffs’ has timing on its side

NEW YORK (AP) — Shaina Taub was in the audience at “Suffs,” her buzzy and timely new musical about women’s suffrage, when she spied something that delighted her. It was intermission, and Taub, both creator and star, had been watching her understudy perform at a matinee preview...

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 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...

U.S. & WORLD NEWS

Music Review: Taylor Swift's 'The Tortured Poets Department' is great sad pop, meditative theater

Who knew what Taylor Swift's latest era would bring? Or even what it would sound like? Would it build off the...

House leaders toil to advance Ukraine and Israel aid. But threats to oust speaker grow

WASHINGTON (AP) — House congressional leaders were toiling Thursday on a delicate, bipartisan push toward...

12 students and teacher killed at Columbine to be remembered at 25th anniversary vigil

DENVER (AP) — The 12 students and one teacher killed in the Columbine High School shooting will be remembered...

More people are evacuated after the dramatic eruption of an Indonesian volcano

MANADO, Indonesia (AP) — More people living near an erupting volcano on Indonesia's Sulawesi Island were...

Attack blamed on IS militants kills 22 pro-government fighters in central Syria

BEIRUT (AP) — An attack on pro-government fighters by suspected members of the Islamic State group in central...

2 suspects detained in Poland after last month's attack on a Navalny ally in Lithuania

VILNIUS, Lithuania (AP) — Two Polish citizens have been detained in Poland on suspicion of attacking Russian...

Breaion King, who was violently thrown to the ground by a white Austin, Texas, police officer during a traffic stop in 2015, speaks at a news conference Friday, July 22, 2016, in Austin, Texas. King said Friday she feels the U.S. must come together after newly released patrol car video of her 2015 arrest again raised nationwide tension over police treatment of black people. (Rodolfo Gonzalez/Austin American-Statesman via AP)
PAUL J. WEBER, Associated Press

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — A black Texas teacher thrown to the ground by a white officer during a traffic stop, and then told by another white officer on the way to jail that blacks have "violent tendencies," said Friday she is grateful the police chief has publicly apologized.

But Breaion King said Austin police still have culture changes to make and called on the U.S. to come together after patrol car video of her arrest again heightened national attention and tension over police treatment of black people.

Newly released footage of her June 15, 2015, arrest is the latest in a string of videos showing tense encounters between police and blacks across the country. The most charged run-ins in recent weeks have been fatal, setting off protests, police officers being fatally shot and President Barack Obama holding a televised town hall on race.

Officer Bryan Richter nearly threw King into an adjacent truck in the parking lot of a Wendy's after pulling her over for going 15 mph over the speed limit around lunchtime. Following a struggle, King was handcuffed and driven to jail by Officer Patrick Spradlin, who told her that "I don't blame" whites for being afraid because of violence in the black community.

Both officers have been placed on desk duty and prosecutors have opened a criminal investigation into Richter's actions during the stop.

"If something is wrong, everyone needs to be held accountable," King said. "So for me, I feel we're starting to take the necessary steps for us to be able to come together as a community and the nation."

King, an elementary school teacher, did not file a complaint after her arrest and said Friday she didn't know she had that option at the time.

"I was embarrassed and I was ashamed and I did not know what I needed to do," King said. "So through everything, honestly, what I did was I waited. I prayed. ... And everything comes together when it's time."

Austin Police Chief Art Acevedo condemned both officers' actions and has called comments on the video "disturbing." He said he had been unaware of the stop or the video until the Austin American-Statesman obtained a copy and began asking about it, and was critical of his chain of command for not alerting him at the time of the arrest.

Acevedo said the investigation of the officers will include their conduct in the year since the incident. He said the traffic stop had been originally classified as a level three use of force, which Acevedo said means there was no serious injury or complaint.

In one of two videos, Spradlin is heard asking King, "Why are so many people afraid of black people?"
King replies that she is also trying to figure that out.

"I can give you a really good idea why it might be that way," he said. "Violent tendencies."

Spradlin goes on to say, "Some of them, because of their appearance and whatnot, some of them are very intimidating."

It is only a few moments into the traffic stop when Richter is heard in the video ordering King to "stop resisting" as he orders her out of the car. The angle of the video doesn't fully show King while she is inside the car.

Richter orders King to put her hands behind her back while the two struggle on the ground.

Richter has been a police officer since 2010 and Spradlin since 2001, according to Austin police. Listed phone numbers for the officers could not be found.

Acevedo said he reviewed the video Wednesday with black community leaders for nearly 3 ½ hours. He said they included Fatima Mann, an activist with the Austin Justice Coalition, who said she didn't understand how no one in the department had previously raised concerns about the video.

"If that was a white woman, would he have yanked her out ... and slammed her on the ground? Most of us could say absolutely not," Mann said. "But for some reason, for some strange reason, when people look like me, we're more of a threat, and that means we get treated and thrown around as if we don't matter."

The Austin police union said in a statement that it understands the public's reaction to Richter's response and that Spradlin's comments were "wrong and not reflective of the values and beliefs of the men and women who serve this community."
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Associated Press writer Will Weissert contributed to this report.

The Skanner Foundation's 38th Annual MLK Breakfast