Portland Juneteenth 2023 Events
Three years into celebrating Juneteenth as a state and federal holiday, local communities are forging and maintaining new traditions.
Permit-to-Purchase: Oregon's Tough New Gun Law Faces Federal Court Test
The trial, which will be held before a judge and not a jury, will determine whether the law violates the U.S. Constitution.
Local Hire: National Park Board Appoints First Native American Member
Columbia River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission executive director and Yakama Nation member Aja DeCoteau joins team of 15 new appointees during revival of defunct group
Portland Mulls Ban on Daytime Camping Amid Sharp Rise in Homelessness
The measure before the Portland City Council on Wednesday would prohibit camping between 8 a.m. and 8 p.m. in city parks and near schools and day cares.
Racist Message, Dead Raccoon Left for Oregon Mayor, Black City Council Member
The Redmond Police Department says the raccoon and the sign were found Monday and named both Redmond Mayor Ed Fitch and Redmond City...
Letter to Mayor: Northeast 87th Avenue Maintenance Problems
For over 15 years, I have traversed Portland's bureaucratic quagmire attempting to determine which bureau is responsible for...
Rosie Reunion: WWII Rosies to Headline Grand Floral Parade
These iconic women will not only grace the parade but also hold the esteemed position of Grand Marshals. ...
Milwaukie Native Serves at U.S. Navy Helicopter Squadron in Japan
Spencer Mathias attended Milwaukie High School and graduated in 2005, and today serves as a naval aircrewman with Helicopter Maritime...
Jazz Singers Shirley Nanette, Nancy King, Rebecca Kilgore Perform June 10
The show benefits the Cathedral Park Jazz Festival 2023 ...
Missing Mount Rainier climber's body found in crevasse; he was celebrating 80th birthday
MOUNT RAINIER NATIONAL PARK, Wash. (AP) — Search crews on Mount Rainier have found and recovered the body of a man matching the description of an 80-year-old solo climber reported missing last week, Mount Rainier National Park officials said. Dawes Eddy of Spokane, Washington,...
Racist message, dead raccoon left for Oregon mayor, Black city council member
REDMOND, Ore. (AP) — Someone left a dead raccoon and a sign with “intimidating language” that mentioned a Black city councilor outside the law office of an Oregon mayor, police said. Redmond Mayor Ed Fitch found the raccoon and the sign on Monday, the Redmond Police Department...
Foster, Ware homer, Auburn eliminates Mizzou 10-4 in SEC
HOOVER, Ala. (AP) — Cole Foster hit a three-run homer, Bryson Ware added a two-run shot and fifth-seeded Auburn wrapped up the first day of the SEC Tournament with a 10-4 win over ninth-seeded Missouri on Tuesday night. Auburn (34-9), which has won nine-straight, moved into the...
Small Missouri college adds football programs to boost enrollment
FULTON, Mo. (AP) — A small college in central Missouri has announced it will add football and women's flag football programs as part of its plan to grow enrollment. William Woods University will add about 140 students between the two new sports, athletic director Steve Wilson said...
Significant Workforce Investments Needed to Stem Public Defense Crisis
We have a responsibility to ensure our state government is protecting the constitutional rights of all Oregonians, including people accused of a crime ...
Over 80 Groups Tell Federal Regulators Key Bank Broke $16.5 Billion Promise
Cross-country redlining aided wealthy white communities while excluding Black areas ...
America: where all attempts to curb access to guns are shot down. Should we raise a glass to that? ...
Op-Ed: Ballot Measure Creates New Barriers to Success for Black-owned Businesses
Measure 26-238, a proposed local capital gains tax, is unfair and a burden on Black business owners in an already-challenging economic environment. ...
Black workers at California Tesla factory allege rampant racism, seek class-action status
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Tesla may face a class-action lawsuit after 240 Black factory workers in California described rampant racism and discrimination at the electric automaker’s San Francisco Bay Area plant, including frequent use of racial slurs and references to the manufacturing site as a...
Justice Jackson reports flowers from Oprah, designer clothing as Thomas delays filing disclosure
WASHINGTON (AP) — Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson disclosed Wednesday that she received a jumi,200 congratulatory floral display from Oprah Winfrey and ,580 in designer clothing for a magazine photo shoot in her first months as the first Black woman on the Supreme Court. The details...
Voices from the violent civil rights era see attacks on voting rights as part of ongoing struggle
They are part of a small, vanishing group who lived at the epicenter of the struggle for voting rights six decades ago, an era driven by segregation, violence and the yearning for equality that eventually led to laws bringing the U.S. closer to its promise of democracy for all its citizens. ...
Music Review: Janelle Monáe embraces sexy fun on album 'The Age of Pleasure'
“The Age of Pleasure” by Janelle Monáe (Atlantic Records) A girl’s gotta relax. A girl’s gotta go with the funk. A girl’s gotta have her fun. Janelle Monáe’s fourth studio album “The Age of Pleasure” is a study in sexy chill by the pool in the sun. The...
Kaley Cuoco, Chris Messina star in 'Based on a True Story,' a tale of a killer idea that goes awry
In the new Peacock series “ Based on a True Story,” debuting Thursday, Kaley Cuoco plays Ava, a woman obsessed with true crime. She consumes these dark stories all day, analyzes the cases with her friends and murder-centric podcasts help lull her to sleep at night. “Do we have...
'The Righteous,' an opera set among American Southwest church communities, to premiere in 2024
SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) — The Santa Fe Opera will present the world premiere of “The Righteous” by composer Gregory Spears with a libretto by Pulitzer Prize-winner Tracy K. Smith on July 13 next year. The opera, set among church communities in the American Southwest, stars baritone...
'Vanderpump' star Lala Kent on Scandoval, ex Randall Emmett and building 'a freaking empire'
Lala Kent would like to thank her “Vanderpump Rules” co-stars Tom Sandoval and Raquel Leviss. Since their...
Voices from the violent civil rights era see attacks on voting rights as part of ongoing struggle
They are part of a small, vanishing group who lived at the epicenter of the struggle for voting rights six decades...
Canada wildfires are leading to air-quality alerts in US. Here's why there is so much smoke
Intense Canadian wildfires are blanketing the northeastern U.S. in a smoky haze, turning the air a yellowish gray...
What happens to papal power when a pope is unconscious? Nothing
ROME (AP) — Pope Francis' three-hour surgery Wednesday raised a question about what happens to papal power when...
'I can taste the air': Hazardous smoke from wildfires hangs over millions in Canada, US
NEW YORK (AP) — Smoke from Canadian wildfires poured into the U.S. East Coast and Midwest on Wednesday, covering...
Poland, Germany discuss avoiding repeat of deadly river pollution but ready for all scenarios
WARSAW, Poland (AP) — The environment ministers of Poland and Germany met on the border of the two countries on...
In this Sunday, April 13, 2014 image from video provided by KCTV-5, Frazier Glenn Cross, also known as Frazier Glenn Miller, is escorted by police in an elementary school parking lot in Overland Park, Kan. Cross, 73, accused of killing three people in attacks at a Jewish community center and Jewish retirement complex near Kansas City, is a known white supremacist and former Ku Klux Klan leader who was once the subject of a nationwide manhunt. (AP Photo/KCTV-5)OVERLAND PARK, Kan.
(AP) — Kansas prosecutors filed state-level murder charges Tuesday against the white supremacist accused in shootings that left three people dead at two Jewish community sites in suburban Kansas City.
Frazier Glenn Cross has been charged with one count of capital murder for the deaths of 14-year-old boy and his grandfather outside the Jewish Community Center of Greater Kansas City, Johnson County District Attorney Steve Howe said at a news conference. Cross also faces one count of first-degree, premeditated murder for the death of a woman who was gunned down while visiting her mother at a nearby retirement complex.
The capital murder charge carries the death penalty as possible punishment, Howe said, while the first-degree murder charge carries a life sentence with no chance for parole for at least 25 years. Cross is being held on $10 million bond, and is scheduled to appear in court at 1:30 p.m. Tuesday in Johnson County District Court.
Cross, a 73-year-old Vietnam War veteran from southwest Missouri, founded the Carolina Knights of the Ku Klux Klan in his native North Carolina and later the White Patriot Party. He is suspected of killing 69-year-old physician William Lewis Corporon and his 14-year-old grandson, Reat Griffin Underwood, outside the community center; both were Methodist. Moments later, Terri LaManno, a 53-year-old Catholic occupational therapist and mother of two, was gunned down outside a Jewish retirement complex where she was visiting her mother.
Federal prosecutors say there's enough evidence to warrant putting the case before a grand jury as a hate crime. Moving the case from state to federal prosecutors would likely mean tougher punishments if Cross is convicted, but U.S. Attorney Barry Grissom said Tuesday that federal charges in the case were likely a week or more away, and Cross' state case would have to be resolved before he could be moved to a federal trial.
"Our system is more nimble, we can move a little bit quicker than the federal system. We've alleged he came into the community I've been elected to protect. ... This isn't about retribution, this is about seeking justice," Howe said.
Cross shouted "Heil Hitler" at television cameras as he was arrested after Sunday's killings, which shocked the city on the eve of Passover and refocused attention on the nation's problem with race-related violence.
The Southern Poverty Law Center, a nonprofit that monitors the activities of known white supremacists, says Cross, who also went by the name Frazier Glenn Miller, has been immersed in white supremacy most of his life. During the early 1980s, Cross was "one of the more notorious white supremacists in the U.S.," according to the Anti-Defamation League, and served as the Carolina Knights' "grand dragon" before launching the supremacist White Patriot Party, the law center said.
By 1987, Cross was the target of a nationwide manhunt for violating terms of his bond while appealing a North Carolina conviction for operating a paramilitary camp. Federal agents tracked him along with three other men to a rural Missouri mobile home stocked with hand grenades, automatic weapons and thousands of bullets.
A federal grand jury indicted Cross on weapons charges and accused him of plotting robberies and the assassination of the law center's founder, Morris Dees. He served three years in federal prison, and, as part of a plea bargain, testified against other Klan leaders in a 1988 sedition trial.
Cross ran for the U.S. House in 2006 and the U.S. Senate in 2010 in Missouri, each time espousing a white-power platform. During his Senate run as a registered write-in candidate, Cross' effort to air anti-Semitic ads was scuttled by the Federal Communications Commission, which concluded Cross was not a "bona fide" candidate entitled to mandatory access to airwaves.