04-20-2024  3:11 am   •   PDX and SEA Weather
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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

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...

Biden administration restricts oil and gas leasing in 13 million acres of Alaska's petroleum reserve

JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) — The Biden administration said Friday it will restrict new oil and gas leasing on 13...

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...

Seeking 'the right side of history,' Speaker Mike Johnson risks his job to deliver aid to Ukraine

WASHINGTON (AP) — Staring down a decision so consequential it could alter the course of history -- but also end...

As Russia edges toward a possible offensive on Kharkiv, some residents flee. Others refuse to leave

KHARKIV, Ukraine (AP) — A 79-year-old woman makes the sign of the cross and, gripping her cane, leaves her home...

Panama Papers trial's public portion comes to an unexpectedly speedy end

PANAMA CITY (AP) — The public portion of a trial of more than two-dozen associates accused of helping some of...

Eric Ture Muhamad the Final Call

Black FarmersATLANTA (FinalCall.com) - George B. Hildebrandt is 72-years-old and comes from several generations of farmers.

He has diabetes. He has problems looking into direct sunlight. He struggles to maintain glucose levels to keep his "sugar up."

His sons were raised on his 242-acre soybean farm. They have moved on, carving out other professions and ending a family tradition of tilling the land.

Despite his ailments, Mr. Hildebrandt left his wife Patricia in Leavenworth County, Kansas and traveled nearly 900 miles to join a small group of Black farmers and agri-businessmen on the doorsteps of cable news giant CNN.

They are desperate.

They are hoping to draw attention to what they call a crisis in Black farming.

Blacks have lost millions of acres of land over the years; have been unfairly denied loans and assistance, and the group of largely aging farmers complain of more stalling on promises made by the United States Department of Agriculture.

They feel cheated. They fear the demise of a lifestyle they have loved and they want justice—whether they will get the justice they seek or not remains a question.

The farmers have engaged in daily protests in downtown Atlanta since Sept. 5 and call themselves "Filibuster," a movement organized by the USDA Coalition of Black Employees and Minority Farmers.

They call the Agriculture Department "the last plantation" and have vowed to protest until their demands are met. They want promised easy access to low cost loans that should have come alongside debt relief to keep their land. The promises were made by USDA as atonement for decades of denial of loans and support that the farmers qualified for.

The federal government promised to forgive debt incurred as farmers tried to survive the negative and costly impact of racial discrimination. Those promises were made in what is commonly called the Pigford II settlement, which was the result of a lawsuit alleging racially motivated wrongdoing by USDA employees and decision-makers, said protest organizers.

A long history of discrimination, and lawsuits beginning in 1999 led to promises to reverse and end denial of assistance Black farmers qualified for. The wrongs of the past have never been righted, the farmers charge. A highly touted USDA settlement with Black farmers announced by President Obama in February 2010 has been a failure, said the farmers.

Armed with dozens of individual filings against USDA and its farm loan programs—the small group of farmers from Georgia, Alabama, and Kansas say they are still denied loans, subjected to broken agreements and mistreatment.

They tried to post up on the steps of CNN to get mainstream media attention. CNN security told the mostly elderly group of Black men, they had to move and no protests are allowed on network property.

They were advised to protest in a front of a state park across the street. They moved. Georgia State Police forced the group to move again. Eventually they settled on a corner across from CNN and launched their campaign. Handing out fliers, they talked to whoever would listen, recounting their woes and the alleged abuses. People listened but the press didn't, said protest organizers.

Not one media outlet covered the demonstrations beyond The Final Call, said the farmers.

Several media outlets verified getting press releases from the group, but they didn't send reporters to hear the group's concerns.

In his 36th installment of the weekly lecture series, "The Time and What Must Be Done," the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan Sept. 14 talked about the value God places on land, farming and animal husbandry.

"Farming and agriculture is the first profession that Allah (God) introduced to man," said Minister Farrakhan.

"And (Allah) God took the man and put him into the Garden of Eden to dress it and keep it," the Minister said. But, he added, today farmers are aging, disrespected and Black land is dwindling, he said. Blacks must get back to farming and purchase land to ensure their survival, he warned.

The Skanner Foundation's 38th Annual MLK Breakfast