04-24-2024  10:16 am   •   PDX and SEA Weather
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NORTHWEST NEWS

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.

NEWS BRIEFS

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 ...

Biden administration announces plans for up to 12 lease sales for offshore wind energy

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — A new five-year schedule to lease federal offshore tracts for wind energy production was announced Wednesday by Interior Secretary Deb Haaland, with up to a dozen lease sales anticipated beginning this year and continuing through 2028. Haaland...

A conservative quest to limit diversity programs gains momentum in states

A conservative quest to limit diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives is gaining momentum in state capitals and college governing boards, with officials in about one-third of the states now taking some sort of action against it. Tennessee became the latest when the Republican...

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...

OPINION

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. ...

AFRICAN AMERICANS IN THE NEWS

Ethnic Karen guerrillas in Myanmar leave a town that army lost 2 weeks ago as rival group holds sway

BANGKOK (AP) — Guerrilla fighters from the main ethnic Karen fighting force battling Myanmar’s military government have withdrawn from the eastern border town of Myawaddy two weeks after forcing the army to give up its defense, residents and members of the group said Wednesday. ...

Pro-Palestinian student protests target colleges' financial ties with Israel

Students at a growing number of U.S. colleges are gathering in protest encampments with a unified demand of their schools: Stop doing business with Israel — or any companies that support its ongoing war in Gaza. The demand has its roots in the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions...

Ancestry website to catalogue names of Japanese Americans incarcerated during World War II

LOS ANGELES (AP) — The names of thousands of people held in Japanese American incarceration camps during World War II will be digitized and made available for free, genealogy company Ancestry announced Wednesday. The website, known as one of the largest global online resources of...

ENTERTAINMENT

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....

U.S. & WORLD NEWS

Pro-Palestinian student protests target colleges' financial ties with Israel

Students at a growing number of U.S. colleges are gathering in protest encampments with a unified demand of their...

Rush hour chaos in London as 5 military horses run amok after getting spooked during exercise

LONDON (AP) — Five military horses spooked by noise from a building site bolted during routine exercises on...

Get better sleep with these 5 tips from experts

Spending too many nights trying to fall asleep — or worrying there aren’t enough ZZZs in your day? You’re...

A Russian Orthodox priest who took part in services for Navalny is suspended by the patriarch

The patriarch of the Russian Orthodox Chuch has suspended a priest who participated in services for the late...

A Russian deputy defense minister is ordered jailed pending trial on bribery charges

A Russian deputy defense minister in charge of military construction projects and accused of living a lavish...

Ethnic Karen guerrillas in Myanmar leave a town that army lost 2 weeks ago as rival group holds sway

BANGKOK (AP) — Guerrilla fighters from the main ethnic Karen fighting force battling Myanmar’s military...

Clemens P. Work

Two weeks after the 1917 U.S. declaration of war on Germany, Lewiston, a small town in Montana, had a parade.  Less than a year later, 500 Lewiston residents burned a stack of German textbooks in the middle of Main Street and sang "America" and the "Star-Spangled Banner."
In 1918, Montana passed a harsh sedition bill that punished anyone who criticized the government during wartime or incited resistance with a fine of up to $20,000 or up to 20 years in prison. 
This act pushed propaganda and patriotism to the forefront of the state media and local gossip circles.  The climate of fear and hysteria brought on by war and emergency mandated Americans to be divided into two distinct groups: patriots and traitors.
In "Darkest Before Dawn," (University of New Mexico Press), journalism scholar Clemens P. Work explains how happenings in Montana led to the first national recognition of the importance of free speech — a timely topic given war-time concerns and the square-off between individual freedoms and government intrusion.
"Darkest Before Dawn" chronicles Montana's persecution of German "sympathizers" as U.S. patriotism was perverted amid wartime fervor. Work employs the microcosm of Montana to speculate on how freedom of speech can become endangered during war.  By providing background on labor party organization in the U.S., illustrating the ever-growing gaps in the division of wealth and scouring historical archives for case studies, Work provides readers with compelling stories of the victims of citizen hysteria and government repression.
Specifically, "Darkest Before Dawn" looks at the development of the Industrial Workers of the World and the group's relationship with corporate powers like the Anaconda Copper Mining Company, Montana's largest — and most political — company. Work also explores the media's approval of persecution of the dissenters, the plight of both citizens and news editors found guilty of sedition and the ramifications of U.S. Supreme Court decisions like Whitney v. California.
Work hopes to shed light on a turbulent period that can teach us lessons about free speech today.
"By focusing on this darkest period in America's history, it is my hope that certain truths may become self-evident:  That freedom of expression is indeed the bulwark of our liberty, that its exercise is crucial to democratic self-governance and ultimately to the pursuit of happiness and that we alone can preserve it," Works writes.
"By looking in this dark mirror, when our freedoms were under siege, we can see ourselves as we once were and as we might become."
Clemens P. Work is director of graduate studies and a professor of media law at the University of Montana School of Journalism in Missoula.  He received a B.A. from Stanford University in political science and international relations in 1966 and J.D. from Golden State University in San Francisco in 1975. 
His journalism career includes 10 years of reporting for the daily newspapers in California and Colorado, as well as nine years at U.S. News & World Report, where he was senior editor writing on issues of deregulation, business and global competition.  Before going to U.S. News & World Report, he was assistant director of the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press in Washington.  

The Skanner Foundation's 38th Annual MLK Breakfast