04-20-2024  1:16 am   •   PDX and SEA Weather
  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4

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 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 ...

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 $1,000 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 ...

The drug war devastated Black and other minority communities. Is marijuana legalization helping?

ARLINGTON, Wash. (AP) — When Washington state opened some of the nation's first legal marijuana stores in 2014, Sam Ward Jr. was on electronic home detention in Spokane, where he had been indicted on federal drug charges. He would soon be off to prison to serve the lion's share of a four-year...

Firefighters douse a blaze at a historic Oregon hotel famously featured in 'The Shining'

GOVERNMENT CAMP, Ore. (AP) — Firefighters doused a late-night fire at Oregon's historic Timberline Lodge — featured in Stanley Kubrick’s 1980 film “The Shining” — before it caused significant damage. The fire Thursday night was confined to the roof and attic of the lodge,...

Two-time world champ J’den Cox retires at US Olympic wrestling trials; 44-year-old reaches finals

STATE COLLEGE, Pa. (AP) — J’den Cox walked off the mat after dropping a 2-2 decision to Kollin Moore at the U.S. Olympic wrestling trials on Friday night, leaving his shoes behind to a standing ovation. The bronze medal winner at the Rio de Janeiro Olympics in 2016 was beaten by...

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...

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

The drug war devastated Black and other minority communities. Is marijuana legalization helping?

ARLINGTON, Wash. (AP) — When Washington state opened some of the nation's first legal marijuana stores in 2014, Sam Ward Jr. was on electronic home detention in Spokane, where he had been indicted on federal drug charges. He would soon be off to prison to serve the lion's share of a four-year...

Lawsuits under New York's new voting rights law reveal racial disenfranchisement even in blue states

FREEPORT, N.Y. (AP) — Weihua Yan had seen dramatic demographic changes since moving to Long Island's Nassau County. Its Asian American population alone had grown by 60% since the 2010 census. Why then, he wondered, did he not see anyone who looked like him on the county's local...

USC cancels graduation keynote by filmmaker amid controversy over decision to drop student's speech

LOS ANGELES (AP) — The University of Southern California further shook up its commencement plans Friday, announcing the cancelation of a keynote speech by filmmaker Jon M. Chu just days after making the controversial choice to disallow the student valedictorian from speaking. The...

ENTERTAINMENT

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...

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...

U.S. & WORLD NEWS

Final jurors seated for Trump's hush money case, with opening statements set for Monday

NEW YORK (AP) — The final jurors were seated Friday in Donald Trump’s hush money trial, and an appellate judge...

Not a toddler, not a parent, but still love 'Bluey'? You're not alone

PHOENIX (AP) — A small blue dog with an Australian accent has captured the hearts of people across the world. ...

Emergency rooms refused to treat pregnant women, leaving one to miscarry in a lobby restroom

WASHINGTON (AP) — One woman miscarried in the lobby restroom of a Texas emergency room as front desk staff...

Indians vote in the first phase of the world's largest election as Modi seeks a third term

NEW DELHI (AP) — Millions of Indians began voting on Friday in a six-week election that's a referendum on...

US sanctions fundraisers for extremist West Bank settlers who commit violence against Palestinians

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Biden administration on Friday imposed sanctions on two entities accused of fundraising...

Ukraine, Israel aid advances in rare House vote as Democrats help Republicans push it forward

WASHINGTON (AP) — With rare bipartisan momentum, the House pushed ahead Friday on a foreign aid package of ...

Nick Valencia, Catherine E. Shoichet and Holly Yan CNN

SHAWNEE, Oklahoma (CNN) -- A rash of tornadoes destroyed homes and tossed trees around like toothpicks as it ripped through Oklahoma and the Midwest on Sunday and Monday.

And the destructive weather isn't over. Baseball-sized hail, wind gusts and tornadoes could pummel parts of the central Plains and Midwest through Monday.

"Today could be potentially as dangerous as yesterday," CNN meteorologist Indra Petersons said Monday morning, pointing to a wide swath of the country spanning from Texas to Michigan. "We're talking about 500,000 square miles under the gun for severe weather."

Early Monday morning, a tornado touched down in Golden City, Missouri, and tore through two counties, Barton County Emergency Management Director Tom Ryan said. The number of injuries and extent of damage were not immediately clear.


Oklahoma Gov. Mary Fallin declared a state of emergency after tornadoes tore through 16 counties in her state Sunday. Twenty-three people were injured, she told CNN.

One man was killed in Pottawatomie County, Oklahoma, where a twister reduced trailer park homes to piles of debris.

In the hardest-hit areas, the damage was devastating, said John Welsh, a helicopter pilot for CNN affiliate KFOR.

"Everything was just gone," he said. "Like you took the house, you put it in a gigantic blender, you turned it on pulse for a couple minutes and then you just dumped it out."

The storm left highways littered with debris, smashed cars and flipped over semi trucks. An 18-wheeler blew off an overpass on Interstate 40 and was practically flattened.

An estimated 300 homes were damaged or destroyed across the state, Red Cross spokesman Ken Garcia said.

Dozens of deputies sifted through the rubble at Steelman Estates trailer park overnight, Pottawatomie County Sheriff Mike Booth said. Two people reported missing there were found late Sunday night.

As many as 28 tornadoes were reported in Oklahoma, Kansas, Illinois and Iowa, according to the National Weather Service, with Oklahoma and Kansas the hardest hit. Some of those reports might have been of the same tornado.

A tornado that touched down near Wellston, Oklahoma, appeared to be a half-mile wide, according to KFOR.

"It's tearing up everything," the affiliate's helicopter pilot said. "Just ripping everything up in its sight."

Fallin said she planned to survey damage throughout the state Monday.

"We're still in the rescue and recovery stage, trying to get through the various communities," she said. "We had so many different tornadoes throughout the state, it was difficult to keep up with all that was going on because it was all happening within an hour to three-hour time span."

Eleven patients were being treated at St. Anthony Shawnee Hospital in Shawnee, Oklahoma, including one in critical condition, spokeswoman Carla Tollett said.

Ethan Mignard told CNN's iReport he caught a terrifying glimpse of a tornado as he rushed to take shelter at a school near the apartment where he lives.

"It was six miles away but it looked like it was right on top of you," Mignard said. "It was huge. It looked like it wasn't going to be good for somebody. When we saw it we stepped on the gas of the car and got to the basement of the school as fast as we could."

After the storm passed, he went to nearby Dale, Oklahoma, to survey damage there. The stark landscape looked like something he'd seen before only on TV, said Mignard, who works for a local newspaper.

Large, rectangular patches of dirt were all that remained where mobile homes once stood. Cinderblocks were scattered across the ground like children's toys. Twisted metal and pieces of insulation filled the trees. At the site of one home, all that remained were the front steps.

"It looks so out of place. ... To think that you would have taken these stairs to enter a home," he said, "but instead, you look around from up there and you see total destruction everywhere."

More tornadoes were spotted in Iowa, near Earlham, Huxley and east of Dallas Center, according to the National Weather Service.

The agency also confirmed a twister in the northwestern Illinois county of Carroll.

A combination of factors -- including strong winds and warm, moist air banging against dry air -- means severe weather could continue sweeping across a wide swath of the country for days, Petersons said.

"Keep in mind we have all the ingredients out there that we need," she said.

Several of the states pummeled by weekend tornadoes could see more trouble Monday. Here's a quick look at CNN meteorologist Melissa Le Fevre's forecast:

Oklahoma

The Sooner State could see more strong storms late Monday afternoon, and flooding could become a problem Monday night.

Kansas

Showers and thunderstorms threaten the state through Monday. Heavy rainfall in some parts may lead to flood watches and warnings.

Iowa

Showers and storms are expected to develop Monday afternoon, with large hail possible. Though the threat of tornadoes looks low, they can't be ruled out.

Missouri

Heavy rainfall could flood parts of Missouri. Afternoon storms could produce large hail, damaging wind gusts and possible tornadoes in areas such as St. Louis.

CNN's Nick Valencia reported from Shawnee, Oklahoma. CNN's Catherine E. Shoichet and Holly Yan reported from Atlanta. CNN's Jareen Imam, Dana Ford, AnneClaire Stapleton, Sean Morris, Jackie Castillo, Alexandra Steele and Chris Friedman contributed to this report.

™ & © 2013 Cable News Network, Inc., a Time Warner Company. All rights reserved.

 

The Skanner Foundation's 38th Annual MLK Breakfast