04-25-2024  2:00 am   •   PDX and SEA Weather
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NORTHWEST NEWS

A Conservative Quest to Limit Diversity Programs Gains Momentum in States

In support of DEI, Oregon and Washington have forged ahead with legislation to expand their emphasis on diversity, equity and inclusion in government and education.

Epiphanny Prince Hired by Liberty in Front Office Job Day After Retiring

A day after announcing her retirement, Epiphanny Prince has a new job working with the New York Liberty as director of player and community engagement. Prince will serve on the basketball operations and business staffs, bringing her 14 years of WNBA experience to the franchise. 

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

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 ...

Boeing's financial woes continue, while families of crash victims urge US to prosecute the company

Boeing said Wednesday that it lost 5 million on falling revenue in the first quarter, another sign of the crisis gripping the aircraft manufacturer as it faces increasing scrutiny over the safety of its planes and accusations of shoddy work from a growing number of whistleblowers. ...

Authorities confirm 2nd victim of ex-Washington officer was 17-year-old with whom he had a baby

WEST RICHLAND, Wash. (AP) — Authorities on Wednesday confirmed that a body found at the home of a former Washington state police officer who killed his ex-wife before fleeing to Oregon, where he died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound, was that of a 17-year-old girl with whom he had a baby. ...

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

Biden just signed a bill that could ban TikTok. His campaign plans to stay on the app anyway

WASHINGTON (AP) — When President Joe Biden showed off his putting during a campaign stop at a public golf course in Michigan last month, the moment was captured on TikTok. Forced inside by a rainstorm, he competed with 13-year-old Hurley “HJ” Coleman IV to make putts on a...

2021 death of young Black man at rural Missouri home was self-inflicted, FBI tells AP

ST. LOUIS (AP) — A federal investigation has concluded that a young Black man died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound inside a rural Missouri home, not at the hands of the white homeowner who had a history of racist social media postings, an FBI official told The Associated Press Wednesday. ...

Sister of Mississippi man who died after police pulled him from car rejects lawsuit settlement

JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — A woman who sued Mississippi's capital city over the death of her brother has decided to reject a settlement after officials publicly disclosed how much the city would pay his survivors, her attorney said Wednesday. George Robinson, 62, died in January 2019,...

ENTERTAINMENT

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....

Cardi B, Queen Latifah and The Roots to headline the BET Experience concerts in Los Angeles

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Cardi B, Queen Latifah and The Roots will headline concerts to celebrate the return of the BET Experience in Los Angeles just days before the 2024 BET Awards. BET announced Monday the star-studded lineup of the concert series, which makes a return after a...

U.S. & WORLD NEWS

Climate change is bringing malaria to new areas. In Africa, it never left

LAGOS, Nigeria (AP) — When a small number of cases of locally transmitted malaria were found in the United...

US growth likely slowed last quarter but still pointed to a solid economy

WASHINGTON (AP) — Coming off a robust end to 2023, the U.S. economy is thought to have extended its surprisingly...

The Latest | Israeli strikes in Rafah kill at least 5

Palestinian hospital officials say Israeli airstrikes on the southern city of Rafah in the Gaza Strip have killed...

The Latest | Germany will resume working with UN relief agency for Palestinians after a review

Germany said Wednesday that it plans to follow several other countries in resuming cooperation with the U.N....

UN report says 282 million people faced acute hunger in 2023, with the worst famine in Gaza

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — Nearly 282 million people in 59 countries suffered from acute hunger in 2023, with...

The Latest | Israeli strikes in Rafah kill at least 5

Palestinian hospital officials say Israeli airstrikes on the southern city of Rafah in the Gaza Strip have killed...

Anthony Mccartney and Thomas Watkins Associated Press Writers

LOS ANGELES (AP) -- The doctor charged in Michael Jackson's death had requested lifesaving gear and a nurse from the concert promoter organizing the singer's London shows, documents obtained by The Associated Press show.
But neither request was apparently in place when Jackson died last June 25 after Dr. Conrad Murray administered a mixture of sedatives, including the anesthetic propofol, in an attempt to get the chronic insomniac to sleep.
Propofol is extremely powerful and is usually administered only in medical settings with emergency equipment on hand. Patients are normally constantly monitored.
Murray was alone when he gave the drugs to Jackson. After he realized the sedated star was not breathing, he performed cardiopulmonary resuscitation but was unable to revive him. He performed CPR on the singer while he was in bed instead of moving him to the floor, an action that was criticized after Jackson's death.
The doctor has pleaded not guilty to an involuntary manslaughter charge in Jackson's death. His proposed contract with promoter AEG Live, which included a monthly fee of $150,000 (euro122,000), was not finalized before the singer's death. Murray never received payment for his services.
The request for a heart resuscitation machine and another person with medical training are revealed in e-mails and a contract drafted by AEG Live and sent to Murray.
The documents are included in a complaint filed by Jackson's father, Joe, to the California Medical Board against AEG Live, accusing the promoter of Jackson's comeback ``This Is It'' tour of engaging in the ``unlawful practice of corporate medicine.'' It also accuses the company of forcing Murray to provide Jackson with dangerous medical services.
Michael Roth, an AEG spokesman, said the company had not seen the complaint and could not comment on it or the contract.
Murray's lawyer Ed Chernoff declined to comment.
``AEG hired, directed, controlled and demanded Dr. Conrad Murray, a medical doctor, to medicate Michael Jackson, provide Jackson with dangerous medical services, and to give Michael Jackson controlled substances and other drugs without providing cardiopulmonary resuscitation equipment or nursing assistance as it had promised in writing it would provide,'' the complaint states.
Murray's request for the CPR equipment was first made to a concert tour business manager, an e-mail message shows. The complaint states Murray also requested a nurse, and the doctor's proposed contract called for AEG to hire a ``qualified assistant medical person.''
The request was later mentioned in Murray's proposed contract. The language stated AEG ``shall provide Dr. Murray for his use during the term with medical equipment requested by Dr. Murray to assist him in performing the services as approved by (AEG).''
The equipment is described as a ``portable cardio pulmonary resuscitation unit ('CPR Machine'), saline, catheters, needles, a gurney and other mutually approved medical equipment necessary for the Services.''
The complaint states Murray signed the document a day before Michael Jackson's death.
Murray had known Jackson and treated him and his children occasionally in recent years, the doctor's attorney has said and the complaint states.
The AEG agreement would have covered Murray's work while Jackson was preparing for the London shows and throughout the concerts last summer.
An e-mail sent to Murray during the negotiations explained a delay in the contract's drafting because it was a ``rare event'' for a physician to be hired to care for a singer on tour.
E-mails also show the contract was still being reworked two days before Jackson's death, which happened a week before he was to travel to London for the ``This Is It'' shows.
A spokeswoman for the California Medical Board said complaints filed to the agency are confidential unless it takes any action. The board receives 8,000 complaints a year, according to its website.
Joe Jackson's attorney, Brian Oxman, confirmed he filed a complaint with the California Medical Board but declined to discuss it.
In his complaint, Joe Jackson -- who has repeatedly criticized AEG Live since shortly after his son's death -- accuses the promoter of agreeing to pay Murray vastly more than he was making so that it could exert control over his medical decisions.
Joe Jackson's filing cites a 2008 income declaration by Murray in a child support proceeding in which the cardiologist stated he earned only $3,300 per month. The Jackson family patriarch is also contemplating a wrongful death lawsuit against Murray.

The Skanner Foundation's 38th Annual MLK Breakfast