The Drug War Devastated Black and Other Minority Communities. Is Marijuana Legalization Helping?
A major argument for legalizing the adult use of cannabis after 75 years of prohibition was to stop the harm caused by disproportionate enforcement of drug laws in Black, Latino and other minority communities. But efforts to help those most affected participate in the newly legal sector have been halting.
Lessons for Cities from Seattle’s Racial and Social Justice Law
Seattle is marking the first anniversary of its landmark Race and Social Justice Initiative ordinance. Signed into law in April 2023, the ordinance highlights race and racism because of the pervasive inequities experienced by people of color
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.
Hundreds Gather at White House to Demand President Biden Let Youth Climate Case be Heard
‘We will not be silenced’ by the DOJ,' youth say ...
Mt. Tabor Park Selected for National Initiative
Mt. Tabor Park is the only Oregon park and one of just 24 nationally to receive honor. ...
OHCS, BuildUp Oregon Launch Program to Expand Early Childhood Education Access Statewide
Funds include million for developing early care and education facilities co-located with affordable housing. ...
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 ...
Ex-Washington police officer is on the run after killing ex-wife and girlfriend, officials say
SEATTLE (AP) — A former Washington state police officer who court documents say had a child with a teenage girl he met through a school resource program was on the run Tuesday after killing two people, including his ex-wife, who had recently obtained a protection order against him, authorities...
Officials identify Idaho man who was killed by police after fatal shooting of deputy
BOISE, Idaho (AP) — Officials have released the name of the Idaho man who was killed last weekend after being identified as the suspect in the fatal shooting of a sheriff's deputy, and Boise police officers are asking the public for more information about him. Dennis Mulqueen, 65,...
Missouri hires Memphis athletic director Laird Veatch for the same role with the Tigers
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — Missouri hired longtime college administrator Laird Veatch to be its athletic director on Tuesday, bringing him back to campus 14 years after he departed for a series of other positions that culminated with five years spent as the AD at Memphis. Veatch...
KC Current owners announce plans for stadium district along the Kansas City riverfront
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — The ownership group of the Kansas City Current announced plans Monday for the development of the Missouri River waterfront, where the club recently opened a purpose-built stadium for the National Women's Soccer League team. CPKC Stadium will serve as the hub...
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. ...
Biden's Morehouse graduation invitation is sparking backlash, complicating election-year appearance
ATLANTA (AP) — President Joe Biden will be the commencement speaker at Morehouse College in Georgia, giving the Democrat a key spotlight on one of the nation’s preeminent historically Black campuses but potentially exposing him to uncomfortable protests as he seeks reelection against former...
New Fort Wayne, Indiana, mayor is sworn in a month after her predecessor's death
FORT WAYNE, Ind. (AP) — Democrat Sharon Tucker was sworn in Tuesday as the new mayor of Indiana’s second-most populous city, nearly a month after her predecessor's death. Tucker, who had been a Fort Wayne City Council member, took the oath of office Tuesday morning at the Clyde...
Minnesota and other Democratic-led states lead pushback on censorship. They're banning the book ban
ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) — A movement to ban book bans is gaining steam in Minnesota and several other states, in contrast to the trend playing out in more conservative states where book challenges have soared to their highest levels in decades. The move to quash book bans is welcome to...
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...
Book Review: 'Nothing But the Bones' is a compelling noir novel at a breakneck pace
Nelson “Nails” McKenna isn’t very bright, stumbles over his words and often says what he’s thinking without realizing it. We first meet him as a boy reading a superhero comic on the banks of a river in his backcountry hometown in the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Georgia....
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...
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,...
Book Review: 'Nothing But the Bones' is a compelling noir novel at a breakneck pace
Nelson “Nails” McKenna isn’t very bright, stumbles over his words and often says what he’s thinking...
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...
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,...
Book Review: 'Nothing But the Bones' is a compelling noir novel at a breakneck pace
Nelson “Nails” McKenna isn’t very bright, stumbles over his words and often says what he’s thinking...
WASHINGTON (AP) — Black voters reacted skeptically Friday to Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump's admission that he now believes the nation's first black president was indeed born in the United States. Many said the fact that Trump spent years questioning President Barack Obama's national origin was disrespectful, and an insult to all black Americans.
Despite the fact that Obama himself said he viewed this renewed burst of commentary about his birth as "fairly typical" and not surprising, members of the Congressional Black Caucus were clearly angry. During a heated news conference Friday during the CBC's annual legislative conference in Washington, several lawmakers denigrated Trump for perpetrating birther falsehoods for so long.
"He owes an apology to President Barack Obama, he owes an apology to African-American community and he owes an apology to the United States of America," said Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., adding that he considers Trump to be "nothing but a two-bit racial arsonist."
Reps. Sheila Jackson Lee, D-Texas, and G.K. Butterfield, D-N.C., called Trump a "cheap racist" and a "disgusting fraud," respectively.
Many blacks gave Trump no credit for finally letting go of the long dispelled notion that Obama, born in Hawaii in 1961, actually hailed from outside the country he now leads. They said they believed it was some sort of political calculation by Trump in hopes of getting votes from blacks or moderate whites.
"In the black community, it's always been viewed as kind of offhanded racism," said Preston Thymes, a Scottsdale, Arizona, marketing manager.
Roosevelt Brown, 56, said he felt black voters, at least, weren't buying Trump's about-face. "I don't believe in his heart he's saying what he really believes," said Brown, a special investigator in California.
"He's a backtracker," said Bailey Billings, 25, of Madison, Wisconsin. "He says whatever he thinks he should say, what he's directed by his team to say, to make him seem like a better human that we should all vote for. ... I just don't care for anything that he says."
And Trump's attempt to pull Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton into the fray by claiming she endorsed birther tactics against Obama during their 2008 race didn't seem to sit well with some black voters either.
"He's a big liar and he's just trying to put people against Hillary," said Wilma Brown, a 66-year-old Detroit housewife.
Trump's political rise was fueled in part by his presence among birthers, and as recently as this week, he declined to say where he believed Obama was born. In reversing his stance Friday, Trump did not say why, or when, he changed his mind.
Questions about Obama's legitimacy strike a nerve with many black voters, said Corey Fields, a Stanford University sociology professor and author of "Black Elephants In The Room," a book about black Republicans.
"It's an effort to delegitimize a very powerful and compelling achievement by an African-American political leader," Fields said. "Often black voters can translate this to their own lived experience moving through the white professional (world) where the legitimacy of your achievements are often called into question. This is a very similar process on a large scale. This is something that can resonate at an individual level."
Several black Republicans have also expressed disgust at Trump's connections with the birther movement.
Former Secretary of State Colin Powell criticized Trump in leaked emails released earlier this week. "All his lies and nonsense just pile up," Powell wrote. "I just go back to the unforgivable one. Trying to destroy the President elected by the American people with his fictitious investigation into this source of birth. Absolutely disgraceful." Powell has not denied the leaked emails' authenticity.
Others questioned why Trump and his campaign would not squash the issue immediately, with the November election so close. Renee Amoore, who is leading black voter outreach efforts for Trump in Pennsylvania, said Trump has "gotten better" and "been on message" in recent weeks, and is not sure why Trump chose to respond to his role in the birther movement now.
"For whatever reason, somebody thought this was part of the message," said Amoore, referring to Trump's campaign, which released a statement late Thursday on the issue.
Daphne Goggins, 53, a longtime registered Republican who serves as a ward leader in Philadelphia, still blames Clinton's surrogates for propagating the issue, and is angry that Trump is being held responsible for the false claims that Obama was not an American.
"I'm not understanding how she can dump this on Trump now," Goggins said. "Who knows? They may have even been doing it together. But who cares? It shouldn't be an issue."
Rufus Bartell, a Detroit businessman and founder of a retail and consulting group, said there's been too much damage for Trump to make up with many black voters, who have been a powerful voting bloc during Obama's time in Washington.
In presidential election years, the percentage of black voters eclipsed the percentage of whites for the first time in 2012, when 66.2 percent of blacks voted, compared with 64.1 percent of non-Hispanic whites and about 48 percent of Hispanics and Asians.
"I think it's too late, regardless of what he does. But if he really wants a relationship with the African-American community, then it's certainly not too late to start a relationship. It just won't impact this election," Bartell said.
___
Associated Press journalists Errin Haines Whack in Philadelphia, Corey Williams in Detroit, Paul J. Weber in Austin, Texas, Dylan T. Lovan in Louisville, and Alina Hartounian in Phoenix contributed to this story.