02-14-2025  6:52 am   •   PDX and SEA Weather

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NORTHWEST NEWS

Californians Brace for Mudslides in Areas Torched by Fires as Freezing Rain, Snow Aim for Oregon

Officials in Oregon’s Multnomah County, which includes Portland, extended a state of emergency through at least Thursday and said six emergency shelters would be open.

Labor Leaders Push for Strike Support in the Capital

Lawmakers, picket line veterans argue in favor of SB 916, which would allow individuals involved in qualifying labor disputes to collect unemployment while waiting for a contract.

Pastor Mark Knutson on Strengthening Sanctuary and Responding to Trump’s Threats

Augustana Lutheran Church is part of an interfaith network in Portland organizing to protect immigrants.

“Young Black Men Are ___”, A Multimedia Interactive Storytelling Project, Opens February 1

Word Is Bond partners with the 1803 Fund to explore Black identity.

NEWS BRIEFS

Swift Victory in Lawsuit Stopping DOGE’s Attacks on Americans

Attorney General Dan Rayfield has released a statement after an early morning victory in court last week. ...

AG Rayfield Reacts to Latest Victory in Trump’s Attempt to Block Birthright Citizenship Order

“This just proves what we’ve been saying all along. No president can rewrite the Constitution with the stroke of a pen,” said...

Budget Committee Ranking Member Merkley: Vought Dangerously Unfit to Lead OMB

Merkley spoke on the Senate floor to kick off Democratic opposition to Trump’s Office of Management and Budget (OMB) nominee and...

Portland Trail Blazers Host First-ever Albina Rose Alliance Game

Game to highlight the Albina Rose Alliance – a partnership between Albina Vision Trust and the Portland Trail Blazers ...

Big Brothers Big Sisters of America Launches Research on the Long-Term Impacts of Mentorship

“This new research proves what we’ve known for years— mentorship has an incredibly positive impact, not just to our Littles, but...

Fresh lawsuit hits Oregon city at the heart of Supreme Court ruling on homeless encampments

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — The small Oregon city at the heart of a major U.S. Supreme Court ruling last year that allowed cities across the country to enforce homeless camping bans is facing a fresh lawsuit over its camping rules, as advocates find new ways to challenge them in a legal landscape...

Western Oregon women's basketball players allege physical and emotional abuse

MONMOUTH, Ore. (AP) — Former players for the Western Oregon women's basketball team have filed a lawsuit in federal court alleging emotional and physical abuse. The lawsuit, filed on Wednesday in Marion County, seeks million damages. It names the university, its athletic...

Slaughter leads Missouri against No. 5 Texas

Missouri Tigers (12-10, 1-6 SEC) at Texas Longhorns (20-2, 6-1 SEC) Austin, Texas; Thursday, 9 p.m. EST BOTTOM LINE: Missouri visits No. 5 Texas after Grace Slaughter scored 31 points in Missouri's 78-77 victory against the Mississippi State Bulldogs. The...

Slaughter leads Missouri against No. 5 Texas after 31-point game

Missouri Tigers (12-10, 1-6 SEC) at Texas Longhorns (20-2, 6-1 SEC) Austin, Texas; Thursday, 9 p.m. EST BOTTOM LINE: Missouri visits No. 5 Texas after Grace Slaughter scored 31 points in Missouri's 78-77 win over the Mississippi State Bulldogs. The...

OPINION

Bending the Arc: Advancing Equity in a New Federal Landscape

January 20th, 2025 represented the clearest distillation of the crossroads our country faces. ...

Trump’s America Last Agenda is a Knife in the Back of Working People

Donald Trump’s playbook has always been to campaign like a populist and govern like an oligarch. But it is still shocking just how brutally he went after our country’s working people in the first few days – even the first few hours – after he was...

As Dr. King Once Asked, Where Do We Go From Here?

“Let us be dissatisfied until America will no longer have high blood pressure of creeds and an anemia of deeds. Let us be dissatisfied until the tragic walls that separate the outer city of wealth and comfort from the inner city of poverty and despair shall...

A Day Without Child Care

On May 16, we will be closing our childcare centers for a day — signaling a crisis that could soon sweep across North Carolina, dismantling the very backbone of our economy ...

AFRICAN AMERICANS IN THE NEWS

Trump consoles crash victims then dives into politics with attack on diversity initiatives

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump on Thursday responded to the deadliest American aviation disaster in more than two decades by blaming diversity initiatives for undermining safety and questioning the actions of a U.S. Army helicopter pilot involved in the midair collision with a...

US Supreme Court rejects likely final appeal of South Carolina inmate a day before his execution

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — The U.S. Supreme Court rejected Thursday what is likely the final appeal of a South Carolina inmate the day before his scheduled execution for a 2001 killing of a friend found dead in her burning car. Marion Bowman Jr.'s request to stop his execution until a...

Trump's orders take aim at critical race theory and antisemitism on college campuses

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump is ordering U.S. schools to stop teaching what he views as “critical race theory” and other material dealing with race and sexuality or risk losing their federal money. A separate plan announced Wednesday calls for aggressive action to...

ENTERTAINMENT

Book Review: Hunted by the FBI and Russian Oligarch, a hedge fund manager flees into the wilderness

Paul Brightman, a former hedge fund manager, has been keeping a low profile, changing his name to Grant Anderson and making a modest living as a boat builder in a small New Hampshire town. But Paul fears it’s only a matter of time before he’s found. The FBI is hunting him. The CIA...

Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni get March 2026 trial date for her 'It Ends With Us' lawsuit

NEW YORK (AP) — A New York judge set a March 2026 trial date on Monday and moved an initial conference from mid-February to next week as the public feud between Blake Lively and her “It Ends With Us” costar and director Justin Baldoni continued to grow and accelerate. And in a...

Movie Review: Will Ferrell and Reese Witherspoon collide in comedy 'You're Cordially Invited'

Are you with the bride or the groom? Hold on, scratch that. Are you with Reese Witherspoon or Will Ferrell? “You're Cordially Invited,” a new comedy directed by Nicholas Stoller, brings together two stars whose movie worlds are nearly as divided as wedding guests on separate sides...

U.S. & WORLD NEWS

Clarke Canfield the Associated Press

FREEPORT, Maine (AP) -- Three days after 9/11, Elaine Greene held an American flag above her on a busy street corner in this small Maine town. Since then, she and two other women have waved the flag on the same corner for an hour every Tuesday in honor of America's service personnel and to show that the American spirit is alive and kicking.

Changed forever by the 2001 terror attacks, Greene, JoAnn Miller and Carmen Footer have devoted their lives to inspiring others through the flag. Dressed in stars-and-stripes shirts, they are a familiar sight, proudly holding their 3-foot-by-5-foot flags on poles as motorists honk their horns and shout words of encouragement.

To mark the 10th anniversary of the attacks, the Freeport Flag Ladies, as they are known, have organized three days of vigils, concerts, a laser light show, a parade and other events. For two hours Sunday morning, they will be in their usual place, holding flags while flanked by Maine's two U.S. senators, a U.S. representative, the governor and the head of the Maine National Guard.

Before 9/11, the three weren't particularly patriotic. But they've come to see the good that can come from even a seemingly small gesture like proudly holding the U.S. flag.

Greene wasn't even sure if picking up a flag was the right thing to do on Sept. 14, 2001, when President George W. Bush asked Americans to hold candlelight vigils. But when she did, she saw the strain on people's faces melt away as they drove by, beeped their horns and yelled out "God Bless America."

"You knew then that you could do something," Greene said this week in the house she shares with Miller and Footer. "You knew then that the American people realized within their own spirit that we're going to be OK, we're going to get through this and that the American spirit wasn't dead. It just got injured a little bit."

Since then, the women have showed up every Tuesday - the attacks took place on a Tuesday - at the corner of Main and School streets with flags in hand. They haven't missed a day, braving hot summer sun, blizzards, nor'easters and thunderstorms with lightning.

Greene once checked herself out of a hospital following surgery against a doctor's orders so she'd be there, even if it was in a wheelchair. The doctor wanted her stay at the hospital for six days, but she left after three.

"I didn't have six days. Tuesday was coming up," she said.

Over the years, they've also shown up at Bangor International Airport and New Hampshire's Pease International in support of troops going to and from Afghanistan and Iraq.

For their efforts, service personnel have sent them flags flown on missions in Afghanistan and Iraq. One flag that flew on the bottom side of helicopter in Iraq has a bullet hole from enemy combatants who fired at it.

Sen. Susan Collins sent them flags flown in their honor over ground zero, over the Pentagon and over the field in Pennsylvania where one of the four planes crashed on 9/11. Sen. Olympia Snowe sent them flags flown over the Capitol in their honor.

Greene is 65, Miller is 74 and Footer is 69. Each is retired, but being part of the Freeport Flag Ladies keeps them busy.

Their website gets 250,000 to 1 million hits a month. They send out an email message with inspirational words every Tuesday that goes to 3,600 people.

In the corner of one room in their home stands an artificial Christmas tree, holding scores of patriotic ornaments sent to them from people around the country.

They have vowed to not take down the tree until the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq are over.

When that happens, they all agree it will be a good day.

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Online: http://www.freeportflagladies.com/

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