05-04-2024  1:55 am   •   PDX and SEA Weather
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NORTHWEST NEWS

Police Detain Driver Who Accelerated Toward Protesters at Portland State University in Oregon

The Portland Police Bureau said in a written statement late Thursday afternoon that the man was taken to a hospital on a police mental health hold. They did not release his name. The vehicle appeared to accelerate from a stop toward the crowd but braked before it reached anyone. 

Portland Government Will Change On Jan. 1. The City’s Transition Team Explains What We Can Expect.

‘It’s a learning curve that everyone has to be intentional about‘

What Marijuana Reclassification Means for the United States

The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration is moving toward reclassifying marijuana as a less dangerous drug. The Justice Department proposal would recognize the medical uses of cannabis but wouldn’t legalize it for recreational use. Some advocates for legalized weed say the move doesn't go far enough, while opponents say it goes too far.

US Long-Term Care Costs Are Sky-High, but Washington State’s New Way to Help Pay for Them Could Be Nixed

A group funded by hedge fund executive Brian Heywood is attempting to undermine the financial stability of Washington state's new long-term care social insurance program.

NEWS BRIEFS

April 30 is the Registration Deadline for the May Primary Election

Voters can register or update their registration online at OregonVotes.gov until 11:59 p.m. on April 30. ...

Chair Jessica Vega Pederson Releases $3.96 Billion Executive Budget for Fiscal Year 2024-2025

Investments will boost shelter and homeless services, tackle the fentanyl crisis, strengthen the safety net and support a...

New Funding Will Invest in Promising Oregon Technology and Science Startups

Today Business Oregon and its Oregon Innovation Council announced a million award to the Portland Seed Fund that will...

Unity in Prayer: Interfaith Vigil and Memorial Service Honoring Youth Affected by Violence

As part of the 2024 National Youth Violence Prevention Week, the Multnomah County Prevention and Health Promotion Community Adolescent...

Safety lapses contributed to patient assaults at Oregon State Hospital, federal report says

Safety lapses at the Oregon State Hospital contributed to recent patient-on-patient assaults, a federal report on the state's most secure inpatient psychiatric facility has found. The investigation by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services found that staff didn't always...

Democratic officials criticize Meta ad policy, saying it amplifies lies about 2020 election

ATLANTA (AP) — Several Democrats serving as their state's top election officials have sent a letter to the parent company of Facebook, asking it to stop allowing ads that claim the 2020 presidential election was stolen. In the letter addressed to Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, the...

The Bo Nix era begins in Denver, and the Broncos also drafted his top target at Oregon

ENGLEWOOD, Colo. (AP) — For the first time in his 17 seasons as a coach, Sean Payton has a rookie quarterback to nurture. Payton's Denver Broncos took Bo Nix in the first round of the NFL draft. The coach then helped out both himself and Nix by moving up to draft his new QB's top...

Elliss, Jenkins, McCaffrey join Harrison and Alt in following their fathers into the NFL

ENGLEWOOD, Colo. (AP) — Marvin Harrison Jr., Joe Alt, Kris Jenkins, Jonah Ellis and Luke McCaffrey have turned the NFL draft into a family affair. The sons of former pro football stars, they've followed their fathers' formidable footsteps into the league. Elliss was...

OPINION

New White House Plan Could Reduce or Eliminate Accumulated Interest for 30 Million Student Loan Borrowers

Multiple recent announcements from the Biden administration offer new hope for the 43.2 million borrowers hoping to get relief from the onerous burden of a collective

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...

AFRICAN AMERICANS IN THE NEWS

The Kentucky Derby is turning 150 years old. It's survived world wars and controversies of all kinds

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) — As a record crowd cheered, American Pharoah rallied from behind and took aim at his remaining two rivals in the stretch. The bay colt and jockey Victor Espinoza surged to the lead with a furlong to go and thundered across the finish line a length ahead in the 2015 Kentucky...

Congressman praises heckling of war protesters, including 1 who made monkey gestures at Black woman

JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — Israel-Hamas war demonstrations at the University of Mississippi turned ugly this week when one counter-protester appeared to make monkey noises and gestures at a Black student in a raucous gathering that was endorsed by a far-right congressman from Georgia. ...

Biden awards the Medal of Freedom to Nancy Pelosi, Medgar Evers, Michelle Yeoh and 15 others

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden on Friday bestowed the Presidential Medal of Freedom on 19 people, including civil rights icons such as the late Medgar Evers, prominent political leaders such as former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Rep. James Clyburn, and actor Michelle Yeoh. ...

ENTERTAINMENT

Celebrity birthdays for the week of May 5-11

Celebrity birthdays for the week of May 5-11: May 5: Actor Michael Murphy is 86. Actor Lance Henriksen (“Millennium,” ″Aliens”) is 84. Comedian-actor Michael Palin (Monty Python) is 81. Actor John Rhys-Davies (“Lord of the Rings,” ″Raiders of the Lost Ark”) is 80....

Select list of nominees for 2024 Tony Awards

NEW YORK (AP) — Select nominations for the 2024 Tony Awards, announced Tuesday. Best Musical: “Hell's Kitchen'': ”Illinoise"; “The Outsiders”; “Suffs”; “Water for Elephants” Best Play: “Jaja’s African Hair Braiding”; “Mary Jane”; “Mother...

Book Review: 'Crow Talk' provides a path for healing in a meditative and hopeful novel on grief

Crows have long been associated with death, but Eileen Garvin’s novel “Crow Talk” offers a fresh perspective; creepy, dark and morbid becomes beautiful, wondrous and transformative. “Crow Talk” provides a path for healing in a meditative and hopeful novel on grief, largely...

U.S. & WORLD NEWS

New Hampshire jury finds state liable for abuse at youth detention center and awards victim M

BRENTWOOD, N.H. (AP) — A New Hampshire jury awarded million to the man who blew the lid off abuse...

United Methodist delegates repeal their church’s ban on its clergy celebrating same-sex marriages

CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) — `United Methodist delegates on Friday repealed their church’s longstanding ban on the...

An AI-controlled fighter jet took the Air Force leader for a historic ride. What that means for war

EDWARDS AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. (AP) — With the midday sun blazing, an experimental orange and white F-16 fighter...

Gangs in Haiti launch fresh attacks, days after a new prime minister is announced

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) — Gangs in Haiti laid siege to several neighborhoods in Port-au-Prince, burning homes...

Self-exiled Chinese businessman's chief of staff pleads guilty weeks before trial

NEW YORK (AP) — The chief of staff of a Chinese businessman sought by the government of China pleaded guilty to...

Southern Brazil has been hit by the worst floods in more than 80 years. At least 39 people have died

SAO PAULO (AP) — Heavy rains in the southern Brazilian state of Rio Grande do Sul killed 39 people, with another...

CNN Wire Staff

(CNN) -- The day he returned to school from a three-day suspension, a Colorado first-grader and his family on Monday were still fighting his being disciplined for what the school labeled "sexual harassment" for quoting the song "Sexy and I Know It."

D'Avonte Meadows, who is African American, was suspended last week from Sable Elementary School in Aurora, just east of Denver. His suspension notice from the school claimed that the boy sang the LMFAO hit "I'm Sexy and I Know It" to a female classmate -- the second time he had done so.

His mother, Stephanie, told HLN's Vinnie Politan on Monday night that the first incident took place in art class and the second in a lunch line, describing both as her 6-year-old son's awkward attempts to impress a girl.

"It's an adolescent boy that possibly likes a girl and doesn't understand, 'Hey, I like you and I put it in those terms,' " Stephanie Meadows said. "That's the adolescent mind."

She added that while D'Avonte is now allowed back in school, his family is still trying to get the suspension for "sexual harassment" overturned.

"I don't want him to have this on his record like that," Meadows said.

The incident comes as school suspensions have become a national issue, particularly within the Black community: Several reports have indicated African American children are suspended and expelled at disproportional rates when compared with Whites.

Aurora school district officials did not comment directly on the boy's case on Monday. But the school district did release a statement explaining its policy on "offensive behavior," including its definition of "sexual harassment."

"'Sexual harassment' refers to behavior which is not welcome, is personally offensive and, therefore, interferes with the learning of the victim(s) and sometimes their peers," the district said. "This is not a criminal definition of sexual harassment; it is one that is focused on providing a safe learning environment for all Aurora Public School students."

The school district pointed to its anti-bullying program, saying that examples of sexual harassment include "sexually oriented 'kidding' or inappropriate references to sexual matters, continued or repeated verbal remarks about a person's body (and) making sexual or lewd gestures."

Meadows took issue with any assertion that her son's remarks, in an arts classroom and the school cafeteria, hurt anyone's education.

"I'm still kind of baffled how it was interrupting the learning, especially with this last incident, when all he was (doing) was singing this song," she said.

Belting out the tune Justin Bieber's smash "Baby," D'Avonte pointed out that he loves to sing.

"Karaoke is fun," he said.

And why did he sing part of "Sexy and I Know It," of all songs, in school?

"Because it's on every commercial, Elmo, and the M&Ms and 'on demand,' " he explained. The first reference is to a Sesame Street parody "I'm Elmo and I Know It," the second to the M&M spoof commercial that debuted in between the action at Super Bowl XLVI and the third to snippets of LMFAO's video that appear while surfing for music and programs on cable TV "on demand" services.

Meadows said that she has already impressed upon young D'Avonte that he should not sing that specific LMFAO song in school any more.

That said, she added she feels it's hard to shelter him from everything in the outside world -- noting, for instance, that she did not play "Sexy and I Know It" on the radio, though he likely heard it on TV in commercials and more.

"As much as you monitor, as much as you try to be careful, as much as you watch everything your child does ... they are going to be exposed to something," the mother said.

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The Skanner Foundation's 38th Annual MLK Breakfast