05-04-2024  3:57 pm   •   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

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New Funding Will Invest in Promising Oregon Technology and Science Startups

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

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Escaped zebra captured near Seattle after gallivanting around Cascade mountain foothills for days

SEATTLE (AP) — A zebra that has been hoofing through the foothills of western Washington for days was recaptured Friday evening, nearly a week after she escaped with three other zebras from a trailer near Seattle. Local residents and animal control officers corralled the zebra...

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...

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

Drone footage shows Ukrainian village battered to ruins as residents flee Russian advance

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — The Ukrainian village of Ocheretyne has been battered by fighting, drone footage obtained...

Rep. Henry Cuellar of Texas vows to continue his bid for an 11th term despite bribery indictment

WASHINGTON (AP) — For two decades, U.S. Rep. Henry Cuellar has stood out as a moderate Democrat along the...

Fans pack the track for the 150th Run for the Roses

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As China's Xi Jinping visits Europe, Ukraine, trade and investment are likely to top the agenda

TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) — Ukraine, trade and investment are expected to dominate Chinese leader Xi Jinping’s first...

AP PHOTOS: South and Southeast Asian countries cope with a weekslong heat wave

South and Southeast Asian countries have been coping with a weekslong heat wave rendering record high temperatures...

Israel has briefed US on plan to evacuate Palestinian civilians ahead of potential Rafah operation

WASHINGTON (AP) — Israel this week briefed Biden administration officials on a plan to evacuate Palestinian...

CNN Wire Staff

OAK CREEK, Wisconsin (CNN) -- Community members are coming together to seek emotional healing in the wake of Sunday's shooting spree that killed six people and wounded four at a religious service in a Milwaukee suburb.

For a third consecutive night, mourners and supporters will hold a vigil Tuesday, CNN affiliate WTMJ-TV reported, to remember the dead, pray for the wounded and grapple with grief and shock.

An Army veteran who neighbors say played in a far-right punk band was the lone gunman in the rampage at a Sikh temple in Oak Creek, Wisconsin, according to information Monday from law enforcement authorities.

Wade Michael Page, 40, was shot to death by police responding to the attack, the community's chief of police told reporters.

Hundreds attended a memorial for the victims at a Sikh center in the town of Brookfield Monday, with the line of supporters overflowing outside the temple, WTMJ reported.

"This is one very large community," said Deanna Singh, who attended the service. "We're all one huge family."

"I think it's a sad day for all of us. It's horrific what happened," said Harbander Sithi.

A Methodist church in Oak Creek also held a candlelight vigil Monday night to comfort victims' families and friends.

More than 200 attended, including members of Oak Creek's Sikh temple, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported.

Sunday's attack in Oak Creek occurred 16 days after a gunman killed 12 people and wounded scores at a movie theater in Aurora, Colorado.

Oak Creek Mayor Stephen Scaffidi said Monday that he spoke with Aurora's mayor to get some advice on how to cope with the tragedy.

"He gave me some pointers and some suggestions on how to not only deal with the immediate but how we deal with the next few weeks," Scaffidi said, pointing out that the Colorado town was in its third week of coping.

"We're not going to let this define us; we'll never let it define us," Scaffidi said. "There are a lot of great people here, and we're not going to let this get in the way."

Worshipers at the temple in Brookfield, which is also a Milwaukee suburb, began fearing for their own safety on the morning of the shooting spree in Oak Creek, when they received calls from friends informing them of the tragedy, said one Sikh devotee.

"We really appreciate Brookfield police officers -- that they did send squads, blocked the driveways, just in case," said Parvinder Singh Sangha, before entering Brookfield's gurdwara -- Sikh temple -- to participate in Monday's remembrance.

"If there is a shooter over there, is somebody else heading over here?" he asked, describing the fears of the congregation.

Although the Sikh religion is not affiliated with Islam, Sikh men, who wear head coverings and let their beards grow, have been subject to Islamophobic hate crimes by perpetrators mistaking them for Muslims.

"We always feared this since 9/11, that someday this thing might happen. It did happen on a smaller level, but not on this level," Gurcharan Singh Grewal, president of Sikh Temple in Brookfield, told CNN affiliate WITI.

Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker visited the Brookfield Sikh temple Monday to show support.

President Barack Obama ordered U.S. flags flown at half-staff through Friday "as a mark of respect for the victims of the senseless acts of violence."

The shootings in Oak Creek and in Aurora have heated up the debate on gun control as election campaigns are in full swing in the United States, and although both Obama and Republican challenger Mitt Romney have condemned the violence and expressed condolences to victims' families, tightening access to guns has remained a political hot potato.

New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, an independent and an outspoken proponent of gun control, has criticized Obama and Romney for not advocating tougher laws to prevent dangerous people from obtaining guns.

Bernard Zapor -- the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives special agent in the investigation -- said Monday that the 9mm semiautomatic handgun with multiple ammunition magazines used by the attacker had been legally purchased.

Page bought the gun on July 28 at the Shooters Shop in West Allis, Wisconsin, and picked it up two days later, according to a law enforcement official. The suspect bought ammunition there and used the shop's range at some point, said the official.

Sunday's attack occurred about 10:30 a.m., when temple members were reading scriptures and cooking food in preparation for the main Sunday service and community lunch. The temple has more than 350 members.

According to witnesses, the gunman started shooting in the parking lot, killing at least one person. He then entered the temple and continued firing, they said.

According to Oak Creek Police Chief John Edwards and the FBI, authorities have received tips that Page might have links to the white supremacist movement, but nothing had been confirmed. "I don't want to use that term (white supremacist) until we want to put it out there for sure," Edwards said Monday night. "That's not something I can take back."

Two neighbors of Page identified him in photos that showed him playing in the far-right punk band "End Apathy" with Nazi flags hanging nearby him. The nephew of the slain president of the Sikh temple said the attacker had a 9/11 tattoo on his arm.

According to a man who described himself as Page's old Army buddy, the attacker talked about "racial holy war" when they served together in the 1990s. Christopher Robillard of Oregon, who said he lost contact with Page more than a decade ago, added that when Page would rant, "it would be about mostly any non-white person."

Page, born on Veterans Day in 1971, joined the Army in 1992 and left the service in 1998, according to Army spokesman George Wright. His service was marked by "patterns of misconduct," though he received an honorable discharge, according to a Pentagon official.

The suspect did have a criminal record, Edwards said. A background check showed Page had separate convictions for DUI in Colorado in 1999 and for criminal mischief in Texas in 1994.

Page's family said it was "devastated by the horrific events," according to the Journal Sentinel.

"While there can be no words of comfort that will make sense of what happened that day, please be aware that our thoughts and prayers go out to all the victims and their families," the family said in a text message, according to the newspaper.

"We share in their grief for all who lost their lives that day and for those survivors, we hope for a speedy recovery. We have been cooperating and will continue to cooperate with the investigation in any way we can. Please respect our privacy as we try to deal with the tragic loss of life and family."

The gunman's former stepmother spoke of a very different Wade Page she once knew before losing touch with him over a decade ago, when she and Page's father divorced.

"I would not have known this was Wade," Laurie Page told CNN affiliate KUSA in Denver, Colorado. "He had Hispanic friends, and he had black friends."

"What has changed him I have no idea, and obviously we're never going to know," she said, moved to tears.

The six victims of Sunday's attack were identified by police as five men -- Sita Singh, 41; Ranjit Singh, 49; Satwant Singh Kaleka, 65; Prakash Singh, 39, and Suveg Singh, 84 -- and one woman, 41-year-old Paramjit Kaur.

Two other Sikh victims remained hospitalized in critical condition, while a third was treated and released, Edwards said.

The wounded police officer, identified as 51-year-old Lt. Brian Murphy, also was in critical condition after suffering nine gunshot wounds, the police chief said, and had a "promising," but long, recovery ahead.

A Sikh human rights group said it would give Murphy a $10,000 reward.

One of the dead, Prakash Singh, was a priest who recently immigrated to the United States with his wife and two young children, said Justice Singh Khalsa, a temple member since the 1990s.

Relatives of Kaleka, the president of the temple in Oak Creek, Wisconsin, said that he was killed fighting the attacker.

"From what we understand, he basically fought to the very end and suffered gunshot wounds while trying to take down the gunman," said Kanwardeep Singh Kaleka, his nephew.

Meanwhile in India, the birthplace of Sikhism, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said he was "shocked and saddened" by the shooting.

"That this senseless act of violence should be targeted at a place of religious worship is particularly painful," Singh, himself a Sikh, said.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton spoke by phone with India's foreign minister, and U.S. Ambassador Nancy Powell met with Sikh community leaders in New Delhi and visited the largest Sikh temple in the city, said State Department spokesman Patrick Ventrell.

The United States is home to about 700,000 Sikhs, nearly all of Indian origin, according to the Sikh American Legal Defense and Education Fund. The men are often easily identifiable by their beards and turbans, a tradition that's lasted for 500 years.

CNN's Tom Cohen, Brian Todd, Harmeet Shah Singh, Poppy Harlow, Ed Payne, Ted Rowlands, Marlena Baldacci, Matt Smith, Steve Almasy, Greg Botelho, Phil Gast, Shawn Nottingham, Carol Cratty, Susan Candiotti, Deborah Feyerick and Ben Brumfield contributed to this report.

The Skanner Foundation's 38th Annual MLK Breakfast