04-19-2024  10:16 pm   •   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

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Governor Kotek Announces Investment in New CHIPS Child Care Fund

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Bank Announces 14th Annual “I Got Bank” Contest for Youth in Celebration of National Financial Literacy Month

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Literary Arts Transforms Historic Central Eastside Building Into New Headquarters

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Congressional Black Caucus Foundation Announces New Partnership with the University of Oxford

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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

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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

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Gallup Finds Black Generational Divide on Affirmative Action

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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

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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

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Music Review: Jazz pianist Fred Hersch creates subdued, lovely colors on 'Silent, Listening'

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U.S. & WORLD NEWS

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Indians vote in the first phase of the world's largest election as Modi seeks a third term

NEW DELHI (AP) — Millions of Indians began voting on Friday in a six-week election that's a referendum on...

Reza Sayah, Michael Pearson and Holly Yan CNN

CAIRO (CNN) -- A day after ferocious clashes left more than 500 people dead in Egypt, four more people were killed in clashes in Alexandria, state media reported. Elsewhere, protesters stormed a government building in Giza and blocked a road near the nation's iconic pyramids.

State-run Nile TV reported the Alexandria deaths occurred in fighting between Muslim Brotherhood members and residents of the city.

Earlier Thursday, the Giza Governate building was evacuated after supporters of ousted President Mohamed Morsy stormed the building, Nile TV reported. Televised images later showed the building on fire. Nile TV also said protesters had blocked a road near the pyramids while others staged a sit-in at a mosque in Nasr City. It was unclear if anyone had been injured.

State-run TV also said Morsy supporters were attacking police stations, hospitals and government buildings in areas outside Cairo, despite a state of emergency declared Wednesday by the military-backed interim government which limits public gatherings and gives more power to security forces to make arrests.

In Cairo, meanwhile, an eerie and tense calm prevailed Thursday, one day after hundreds died in violence sparked when security forces moved in to clear two camps of Morsy supporters. Traffic on the city's normally teeming streets was light amid fears of further fighting.

The Muslim Brotherhood vowed Thursday that protests would go on, despite violence Wednesday that brought international criticism of Egypt's interim government.

"We will continue our sit-ins and demonstrations all over the country until democracy and the legitimate rule are restored in Egypt," said Essam Elerian, a senior member of the Islamist movement.

Egypt's short-lived experiment with democracy took a gruesome turn Wednesday, culminating in mass carnage and a return to the repressive state of emergency that had gripped the country for 30 years.

The Egyptian Health Ministry said at least 525 people died and more than 3,700 were injured Wednesday in clashes that began when security forces moved in to break up protesters demonstrating in support of Morsy. Among the dead were 43 police officers, the interior ministry said.

The death toll could rise. On Thursday, Muslim Brotherhood officials displayed at least 100 bodies, wrapped in white, blood-stained sheets, at the Emam Mosque in Cairo, some of the 500 people the group said were brought to the mosque after the violence.

The Muslim Brotherhood and other activists on the ground told CNN those bodies had not yet been registered with authorities.

While Egypt's interim government said the violence began after protesters violently resisted their peaceful efforts to disperse pro-Morsy sit-ins, demonstrators said security forces had staged a "full-on assault."

CNN journalists on the ground said many of those injured or killed were unarmed. It was Egypt's bloodiest day since the 2011 revolution to oust Morsy's predecessor, Hosni Mubarak.

The shocking violence brought criticism from countries around the world and threatened to further destabilize Egypt's already precarious economy and political situation.

On Thursday, U.S. President Barack Obama strongly condemned the bloodshed, saying the government chose violence and arbitrary arrests over an opportunity to resolve its crisis through peaceful dialogue.

"The United States strongly condemns the steps that have been taken by Egypt's interim government and security forces," Obama said in a statement from his summer vacation home. "We deplore violence against civilians."

He urged the government to lift the state of emergency imposed Wednesday and to launch a reconciliation process immediately.

He also canceled joint U.S.-Egyptian military training exercises scheduled next month, and warned that the traditional cooperation between the two nations "cannot continue as usual when civilians are being killed in the streets."

His comments came a day after Secretary of State John Kerry said the crackdown was "a serious blow to reconciliation and the Egyptian people's hopes for a transition towards democracy and inclusion."

Denmark suspended economic aid to the country. China urged restraint. Germany, Italy, France and other nations summoned Egypt's ambassadors to their nations to express dismay over the violence.

The raid

Security forces raided the pro-Morsy camps Wednesday after weeks of simmering tension. Clashes and gunfire broke out, leaving pools of blood and bodies strewn all over the streets.

Authorities bulldozed tents and escorted hundreds of people away. Some mothers and fathers managed to whisk away their children, gas masks on their faces.

The dead included cameraman Mick Deane, who'd worked for UK-based news channel Sky News for 15 years and for CNN before that.

Morsy supporters also reportedly attacked a number of Christian churches. It's not clear how many were targeted, but Dalia Ziada, of the Ibn Khadun Center for Development Studies, said Thursday that the center had documented the burning of 29 churches and Coptic facilities across the country.

"This is horrible to happen in only one day," she said.

The Bible Society of Egypt said 15 churches and three Christian schools had been attacked, some set on fire.

At least 84 people, including Muslim Brotherhood members, have been referred to military prosecutors for charges including murder and the burning of churches, the state-run EGYNews site reported.

But protesters vowed to remain defiant until Morsy is reinstated.

Elerian, the senior Muslim Brotherhood member, said he's not deterred by calls for his arrest.

"They can arrest me and 100 of us, but they can't arrest every honorable citizen in Egypt," Elerian told CNN Thursday. "They can't stop this glorious revolution."

The government's state of emergency declaration mirrors the kind of stifling police state that the nation lived through under Mubarak, before the Egyptian people rose up in protests that resulted in Mubarak's overthrow in 2011 and eventually Morsy's rise to power as the country's first democratically elected president.

Morsy's rise, fall

But rather than uniting Egypt after Mubarak's fall, divisions intensified during Morsy's time as president.

Critics accused him of being authoritarian, trying to force the Muslim Brotherhood's Islamic agenda on the country and failing to deliver freedom and justice.

Morsy's supporters say the deposed president wasn't given a fair chance, and say his backers have been unfairly targeted for expressing their opinion.

Though Morsy has not appeared in public since he was taken into custody, his supporters have amassed on the streets nationwide to slam military leaders and demand his reinstatement.

More setback

Even Egypt's interim government suffered a major setback after the raid.

Mohammed ElBaradei -- a secular leader who was one of Morsy's biggest critics -- submitted his resignation Wednesday as vice president.

ElBaradei said he didn't agree with the decisions carried out by the ruling government and "cannot be responsible for a single (drop of) blood."

CNN's Reza Sayah reported from Cairo; Michael Pearson wrote from Atlanta. CNN's Ian Lee, Frederik Pleitgen, Laura Smith-Spark and Holly Yan also contributed to this report.

 

The Skanner Foundation's 38th Annual MLK Breakfast