04-16-2024  6:21 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

President Joseph R. Biden, Jr. Approves Major Disaster Declaration for Oregon

Yolanda J. Jackson has been named Federal Coordinating Officer for federal recovery operations in the affected areas. ...

Americans Willing to Pay More to Eliminate the Racial Wealth Gap, Creating a New Opportunity for Black Business Owners

National research released today provides encouraging news that most Americans are willing to pay a premium price for products and...

Vibrant Communities Commissioner Dan Ryan Directs Development Funding to Complete Next Phase of Gateway Green Project

Portland Parks & Recreation (PP&R) is beginning a new phase of accessibility and park improvements to Gateway Green, the...

Application Opens for Preschool for All 2024-25 School Year

Multnomah County children who will be 3 or 4 years old on or before September 1, 2024 are eligible to apply now for free preschool...

PCC and LAIKA Partner to Foster Diversity in Animation

LAIKA is contributing ,000 to support student scholarships and a new animation and graphics degree. ...

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. ...

Asbestos victim's dying words aired in wrongful death case against Buffet's railroad

HELENA, Mont. (AP) — Thomas Wells ran a half-marathon at age 60 and played recreational volleyball until he was 63. At 65 years old, doctors diagnosed him with mesothelioma, a rare and aggressive lung cancer linked to asbestos exposure. “I’m in great pain and alls I see is this...

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...

Georgia ends game on 12-0 run to beat Missouri 64-59 in first round of SEC tourney

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Blue Cain had 19 points, Justin Hill scored 17 off the bench and 11th-seeded Georgia finished the game on a 12-0 run to beat No. 14 seed Missouri 64-59 on Wednesday night in the first round of the Southeastern Conference Tournament. Cain hit 6 of 12 shots,...

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

Voters to decide primary runoffs in Alabama's new 2nd Congressional District

MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) — Alabama voters are set to cast their ballots Tuesday to decide party nominees for the state's 2nd Congressional District, which was redrawn by a federal court to boost the voting power of Black residents. The outcome of the hotly contested runoffs will set...

Prominent New York church, sued for gender bias, moves forward with male pastor candidate

A search committee previously sued for gender discrimination over its hiring process has announced its pick for the next senior pastor of a prominent New York City congregation considered by some to be the flagship of the Black church in America. Candidate Kevin R. Johnson, founding...

Beyoncé is bringing her fans of color to country music. Will they be welcomed in?

NEW YORK (AP) — Dusty, worn boots. Horses lapping up water. Sweat dripping from the foreheads of every shade of Black skin as country classics blare through giant speakers. These moments are frequently recreated during Tayhlor Coleman’s family gatherings at their central Texas ranch. For her,...

ENTERTAINMENT

Golf has a ratings problem, and the Masters could shine a light on why viewers are tuning out

AUGUSTA, Ga. (AP) — Golf has a ratings problem. The week-to-week grind of the PGA Tour has essentially become No Need To See TV, raising serious concerns about what it means for the future of the game. Now comes the Masters, the first major championship of the year and...

George Lucas to receive honorary Palme d'Or at Cannes Film Festival

George Lucas will receive an honorary Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival next month, festival organizers announced Tuesday. Lucas will be honored at the closing ceremony to the 77th French film festival on May 25. He joins a short list of those to receive honorary Palmes. Last...

Luke Combs leads the 2024 ACM Awards nominations, followed by Morgan Wallen and Megan Moroney

Luke Combs leads the nominees for the 2024 Academy of Country Music Awards with eight nods to his name, it was announced Tuesday. For a fifth year in a row, he's up for both male artist of the year and the top prize, entertainer of the year. The 59th annual ACM Awards...

U.S. & WORLD NEWS

Torch and sandals: What to know about the flame-lighting ceremony in Greece for the Paris Olympics

ANCIENT OLYMPIA, Greece (AP) — A priestess prays to a dead sun god in front of a fallen Greek temple. If the sky...

Charges against Trump and Jan. 6 rioters at stake as Supreme Court hears debate over obstruction law

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court on Tuesday is taking up the first of two cases that could affect the...

Donald Trump brings his campaign to the courthouse as his criminal hush money trial begins

NEW YORK (AP) — Former President Donald Trump began his day as a criminal defendant lashing out at the judge and...

Colombia's capital announces new measures to cut water consumption as dry weather persists

BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) — The mayor of Colombia's capital on Monday announced new measures to reduce water...

IAEA warns that attacks on a nuclear plant in Russian-controlled Ukraine put the world at risk

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — Russia and Ukraine on Monday traded blame before the United Nations Security Council for...

World donors pledge [scripts/homepage/home.php].1 billion in aid for war-stricken Sudan to ward off famine

World donors pledged more than [scripts/homepage/home.php].1 billion in humanitarian aid for Sudan after a yearlong war that has pushed its...

Vice President-elect Mike Pence. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)
Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Latest on President-elect Donald Trump (all times EST):

5:45 p.m.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer says Republicans should be just as alarmed as Democrats that Russia could interfere in the U.S. political process.

The New York Democrat says the new declassified report on Russian hacking of the 2016 presidential election "should send shivers down the spines of both political parties, regardless of which party benefited this time around."

He is also repeating his call for the formation of a special panel to investigate Russia's interference if Republican plans for examining Moscow's meddling come up short.

He says if the Senate Armed Services and Intelligence committees don't operate "in a truly bipartisan way" and make most of their findings public, "we will need to establish a select committee to get to the bottom of this."

Senior Republicans have rejected that idea.

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5:40 p.m.

Top House Democrat Nancy Pelosi says a new report by the intelligence community proves that Russia's hacking of the election was "political thuggery in support of Donald Trump."

The California congresswoman says Russia's President Vladimir Putin ordered an "assault on American democracy" with the computer hacks, which resulted in steady, negative leaks about Hillary Clinton's campaign and actions by the Democratic National Committee.

Pelosi formerly served on the House Intelligence panel. She says the new report shows that an independent, bipartisan panel should conduct an investigation.

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5:10 p.m.

U.S. intelligence officials are predicting that Russia will continue to develop capabilities to help President Vladimir Putin target the United States.

A new declassified report says that immediately after Election Day, Russian intelligence began a spear-phishing campaign against U.S. government employees and individuals associated with U.S. think tanks or nonprofit organizations working in the fields of national security, defense and foreign policy.

U.S. intelligence officials say this could supply Russia with new material for future influence operations or provide intelligence on the incoming Trump administration's goals and plans.

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4:50 p.m.

Intelligence officials say in their new public report on Russian hacking that they believe with high confidence that Moscow's intelligence services relayed to WikiLeaks material it hacked from the Democratic National Committee and senior Democratic officials.

The report says the emails disclosed by WikiLeaks did not appear to contain any forged material.

Intelligence officials say the Russians had access to the DNC from July 2015 to at least June 2016.

They say the Russian intelligence agencies probably began cyber operations targeting the U.S. election by March 2016 and had stolen large volumes of data from the DNC by May 2016.

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4:40 p.m.

House Speaker Paul Ryan says he strongly condemns Russian "interference" in last year's election.

Ryan is also echoing Donald Trump's take on the intelligence report released Friday: that the hacking by the Russians didn't affect the outcome and that Trump "won this election fair and square."

Ryan says Russia "clearly tried to meddle in our political system."

Rep. Adam Schiff of California, the ranking Democrat on the House intelligence committee, says the report makes clear that the Russian intervention was directed by President Vladimir Putin himself and not only was aimed at sowing discord in the United States, but also was motivated by a desire to help Trump's election chances.

He says Trump's statement that Russian hacking had no effect on the outcome of the election is not supported by the report or common sense.

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4:35 p.m.

The Senate Intelligence Committee's top Democrat says the new declassified report about Russian meddling in the U.S. election shows Moscow interfered with "the goal of harming the candidacy of Hillary Clinton and boosting the candidacy of President-elect Donald Trump."

Sen. Mark Warner of Virginia says the report is "well in line with previous assessments from the intelligence community" that senior Russian officials carried out an unprecedented level of interference in the 2016 election.

Warner says the findings demonstrate "the important role of our nation's intelligence community and the men and women who work quietly every day to keep our country safe."

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4:30 p.m.

The intelligence community's new declassified report on Russian hacking says that before the election, Russian diplomats publicly denounced the U.S. electoral process and were prepared to publicly call into question the validity of the results.

The report says that based on Moscow's social media activity, pro-Kremlin bloggers had prepared a Twitter campaign — called (hashtag) DemocracyRIP, or Rest in Peace — on election night because they anticipated that Hillary Clinton would beat Donald Trump.

4 p.m.

A newly declassified report on Russian hacking during the U.S. election says the Russian government developed a "clear preference for President-elect Donald Trump."

The report says the goal of Moscow's meddling was to undermine public faith in the U.S. democratic process, denigrate Democratic Party nominee Hillary Clinton and harm her electability and potential presidency.

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3:50 p.m.

A new declassified report says Russian President Vladimir Putin "ordered" an influence campaign in 2016 aimed at the U.S. presidential election.

U.S. intelligence officials released the 25-page public version of the report Friday, after they briefed President-elect Donald Trump and top lawmakers on Capitol Hill from a longer, classified version.

The report says Russian efforts to influence the 2016 presidential election represent the most recent expression of Moscow's long-standing desire to undermine the U.S.-led liberal democratic order. It says the scope of Russia's activities was significantly larger compared with previous operations.

After his briefing, Trump stopped short of embracing the intelligence community's assessment that Russia interfered in the presidential campaign, saying only that any hacking attempts had "absolutely no effect" on the outcome of the election.

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3:15 p.m.

President-elect Donald Trump says he wants his administration to develop a plan in its first 90 days to "aggressively combat and stop cyberattacks."

Trump, in a statement released shortly after the conclusion of his Friday meeting with intelligence officials, said the nation's "government, organizations, associations or businesses" all need to strengthen their cybersecurity efforts.

He adds that security "methods, tools and tactics" should "not be a public discussion that will benefit those who seek us do harm."

Trump has been deeply skeptical of the intelligence findings that claim that Russia was behined attempts to meddle with last year's elections.

Spokesman Sean Spicer tweeted that Trump is turning attention to monitoring the shooting in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida.

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2:45 p.m.

President-elect Donald Trump is saying he had a "constructive meeting and conversation" with intelligence leaders on Friday but insists that any hacking attempts had "absolutely no effect" on the election outcome.

Trump released a statement soon after the intelligence leaders' report on Russian's alleged hacking attempts to influence last year's election.

Trump did not say whether he agreed with the conclusions. He has previously been sharply critical of allegations that Russia tried to interfere with the election.

The president-elect says his own evidence that that the outcome was unaffected was because "there was no tampering whatsoever with voting machines."

Intelligence officials believe Russia was involved with the hacking of the Democratic National Committee.

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2:35 p.m.

President-elect Donald Trump says he is monitoring the situation in Florida in which a gunman opened fire in an airport, and that he has spoken with Florida Gov. Rick Scott.

Authorities say five people were killed and eight were wounded after a lone suspect began shooting at the Fort Lauderdale international Airport.

Trump tweeted, "Monitoring the terrible situation in Florida. Just spoke to Governor Scott. Thoughts and prayers for all. Stay safe!"

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1:35 p.m.

The White House says it was not the source of a report leaked to NBC on U.S. intelligence alleging Russia interfered in the presidential election.

White House spokesman Josh Earnest is pushing back against President-elect Donald Trump's request for Congress to investigate "top secret intelligence" shared with NBC.

He notes that two days ago, Trump tweeted a "steadfast defense of the integrity" of Wikileaks founder Julian Assange. Earnest called Assange "the leading purveyor" of the improper release of classified material.

Earnest says Trump's tweet "leads me to conclude that his concerns are about something other than protecting classified information."

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12:59 p.m.

U.S. Intelligence officials are arriving at Trump Tower in New York to brief President-elect Donald Trump on election hacking.

The officials are Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, CIA Director John Brennan and FBI Director James Comey. They're preparing to point to multiple motives for Moscow's alleged meddling as they brief Trump on their classified report.

They briefed senior lawmakers Friday morning. They briefed President Barack Obama on Thursday.

Trump has been deeply skeptical of allegations that Russia was involved.

Several advisers were to join Trump and Vice President-elect Mike Pence for the briefing. That includes his incoming chief of staff and national security adviser and the chiefs of the CIA and Homeland Security department.

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12:15 p.m.

President-elect Donald Trump says he'll ask Congress to investigate leaks to the media on U.S. intelligence alleging Russia meddled in last year's election by hacking Democratic emails.

Less than an hour before he was to be briefed Friday by the directors of the FBI and CIA and the Director of National Intelligence on their findings, Trump tweeted that he was "asking the chairs of the House and Senate committees to investigate top secret intelligence shared with NBC prior to me seeing it."

NBC aired a report Thursday that said the briefing would identify Russian actors involved in the hacking of the Democratic National Committee.

Trump has been deeply skeptical of the intelligence community's findings on Russia, suggesting that it was being used to de-legitimize his election.

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12:05 p.m.

The chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee says he called Donald Trump on his cellphone a few days ago and the president-elect answered even though he didn't know who was on the line.

Sen. Bob Corker, a Tennessee Republican, recounted the episode Friday to reporters as an example of how accessible Trump and the rest of his transition team have been for him. Trump's nominee for secretary of state, former Exxon Mobil CEO Rex Tillerson, is scheduled to appear before Corker's committee next week for his confirmation hearing.

"On Sunday, I needed to talk to the president-elect about something," Corker says, "and I called him on his cellphone and he answered it and we talked."

Corker says his phone is programmed to read "no caller ID," but Trump took the call anyway.

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11:45 a.m.

The U.S. intelligence community will release the declassified version of the intelligence report about Russian hacking of the U.S. presidential campaign on Friday afternoon.

That's according to a U.S. official who wasn't authorized to comment publicly and requested anonymity.

House Minority leader Nancy Pelosi appeared to reference the planned release during a morning news conference. Pelosi says the intelligence report was "quite a stunning disclosure" and added that parts will be released Friday.

The declassified version contains fewer details than classified versions being made available to Congress, President Barack Obama and President-elect Donald Trump. But it's expected to shed more light on what evidence the U.S. government says it has that Russia was behind cyber interference in the campaign.

Obama had promised the report would be finished before he leaves office on Jan. 20.

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10:35 a.m.

Arnold Schwarzenegger is responding to Donald Trump's taunting on Twitter. The former California governor says the president-elect should work as hard to represent all Americans as he did for TV ratings.

Schwarzenegger also quotes President Abraham Lincoln's first inaugural address: "We are not enemies, but friends. We must not be enemies."

Early Friday, Trump mocked Schwarzenegger for low ratings in the spinoff of Trump's old reality television show, "Celebrity Apprentice." Trump said: "Wo much for being a movie star." Trump also referred to himself as a "ratings machine."

Schwarzenegger tweeted: "I wish you the best of luck and I hope you'll work for ALL of the American people as aggressively as you worked for your ratings."

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10:05 a.m.

The Republican chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee is suggesting that portions of a secret intelligence report about Russian interference in the 2016 election are being leaked to media organizations for political reasons.

Speaking to reporters Friday, Sen. Bob Corker of Tennessee says he couldn't get any senior U.S. intelligence officials to attend a classified briefing his committee received Thursday on the administration's response to the alleged Russian hacking. He says he'll read a copy of the report next week along with other lawmakers.

"I can't get an intelligence person but I can read one of your publications this morning who's leaking out this information," Corker says. "It does make it feel political."

Corker says he believes the hacking report "is going to be very incriminating."

He says, "I believe the Russians have done very nefarious things."

Corker spoke at a breakfast sponsored by the Christian Science Monitor.

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7:55 a.m.

President-elect Donald Trump is taunting Arnold Schwarzenegger for bringing in low ratings in a spinoff of Trump's old reality television show, "Celebrity Apprentice."

In an early Friday tweet, Trump refers to himself as a "ratings machine" and says Schwarzenegger "got 'swamped'" by comparison.

He tweets "so much for being a movie star," and "now compare him to my season 1."

Trump added: "But who cares, he supported Kasich & Hillary," referring to Ohio Republican Gov. John Kasich and Democrat Hillary Clinton, who both ran against him.

Schwarzenegger is a moderate Republican who said in October that he wouldn't vote for Trump, calling it a choice of "your country over your party." He's hosting "The New Celebrity Apprentice," in which Trump retains a producing stake.

The Skanner Foundation's 38th Annual MLK Breakfast