04-18-2024  9:48 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 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 jumi,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 ...

Mt. Hood Jazz Festival Returns to Mt. Hood Community College with Acclaimed Artists

Performing at the festival are acclaimed artists Joshua Redman, Hailey Niswanger, Etienne Charles and Creole Soul, Camille Thurman,...

Idaho's ban on youth gender-affirming care has families desperately scrambling for solutions

Forced to hide her true self, Joe Horras’ transgender daughter struggled with depression and anxiety until three years ago, when she began to take medication to block the onset of puberty. The gender-affirming treatment helped the now-16-year-old find happiness again, her father said. ...

Pro-Palestinian demonstrators shut down airport highways and key bridges in major US cities

CHICAGO (AP) — Pro-Palestinian demonstrators blocked roadways in Illinois, California, New York and the Pacific Northwest on Monday, temporarily shutting down travel into some of the nation's most heavily used airports, onto the Golden Gate and Brooklyn bridges and on a busy West Coast highway. ...

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...

The sons of several former NFL stars are ready to carve their path into the league through the draft

Jeremiah Trotter Jr. wears his dad’s No. 54, plays the same position and celebrates sacks and big tackles with the same signature axe swing. Now, he’s ready to make a name for himself in the NFL. So are several top prospects who play the same positions their fathers played in the...

OPINION

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. ...

COMMENTARY: Is a Cultural Shift on the Horizon?

As with all traditions in all cultures, it is up to the elders to pass down the rituals, food, language, and customs that identify a group. So, if your auntie, uncle, mom, and so on didn’t teach you how to play Spades, well, that’s a recipe lost. But...

AFRICAN AMERICANS IN THE NEWS

Chicago's response to migrant influx stirs longstanding frustrations among Black residents

CHICAGO (AP) — The closure of Wadsworth Elementary School in 2013 was a blow to residents of the majority-Black neighborhood it served, symbolizing a city indifferent to their interests. So when the city reopened Wadsworth last year to shelter hundreds of migrants, without seeking...

US deports about 50 Haitians to nation hit with gang violence, ending monthslong pause in flights

MIAMI (AP) — The Biden administration sent about 50 Haitians back to their country on Thursday, authorities said, marking the first deportation flight in several months to the Caribbean nation struggling with surging gang violence. The Homeland Security Department said in a...

Hillary Clinton and Malala Yousafzai producing. An election coming. ‘Suffs’ has timing on its side

NEW YORK (AP) — Shaina Taub was in the audience at “Suffs,” her buzzy and timely new musical about women’s suffrage, when she spied something that delighted her. It was intermission, and Taub, both creator and star, had been watching her understudy perform at a matinee preview...

ENTERTAINMENT

Robert MacNeil, creator and first anchor of PBS 'NewsHour' nightly newscast, dies at 93

NEW YORK (AP) — Robert MacNeil, who created the even-handed, no-frills PBS newscast “The MacNeil-Lehrer NewsHour” in the 1970s and co-anchored the show with his late partner, Jim Lehrer, for two decades, died on Friday. He was 93. MacNeil died of natural causes at New...

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...

U.S. & WORLD NEWS

First major attempts to regulate AI face headwinds from all sides

DENVER (AP) — Artificial intelligence is helping decide which Americans get the job interview, the apartment,...

Legislation that could force a TikTok ban revived as part of House foreign aid package

WASHINGTON (AP) — Legislation that could ban TikTok in the U.S. if its China-based owner doesn’t sell its...

Judge in Trump case orders media not to report where potential jurors work

NEW YORK (AP) — The judge in Donald Trump's hush money trial ordered the media on Thursday not to report on...

Netanyahu brushes off calls for restraint, saying Israel will decide how to respond to Iran's attack

JERUSALEM (AP) — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Wednesday his country would be the one to decide...

Israelis grapple with how to celebrate Passover, a holiday about freedom, while many remain captive

JERUSALEM (AP) — Every year, Alon Gat’s mother led the family's Passover celebration of the liberation of the...

Kenya’s military chief dies in a helicopter crash

NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — Kenya’s military chief Gen. Francis Ogolla died in a helicopter crash west of the...

Christopher Laible and Randi Kaye CNN

(CNN) -- The high-profile case of a girl adopted by a South Carolina couple is moving toward another legal showdown after Oklahoma's governor ordered the extradition of the girl's biological Native American father, who is accused of custodial interference.

Gov. Mary Fallin on Wednesday ordered that Dusten Brown be extradited to South Carolina after she became convinced that the father disobeyed an Oklahoma court order to allow the adoptive couple, Matt and Melanie Capobianco, to visit Veronica, 4.

"My goal in the Baby Veronica case has been to encourage both Mr. Brown and the Capobianco family to reach a quick settlement and come to an agreement that protects Veronica's best interests," the governor said in a statement.

"I said previously that I was willing to delay Mr. Brown's extradition to South Carolina as long as all parties were working together in good faith to pursue such a settlement," Fallin said. "Unfortunately, it has become clear that Dusten Brown is not acting in good faith."

Brown turned himself in to authorities Thursday morning in Sequoyah County, Oklahoma, court bailiff Leslie Stump said. But Brown's attorneys told CNN that they will challenge the extradition order at a hearing scheduled for Sept. 12. They claim their client did not break a law in the ongoing custody dispute.

In June, a divided U.S. Supreme Court sided with the Capobiancos, who are white, when Brown sought to assert his parental rights. They had legally adopted her when Veronica was a baby.

The justices said the adoption was proper and did not intrude on the federal rights of the father, a registered member of the Cherokee tribe, over where his daughter would live.

The court said Brown could not rely on the Indian Child Welfare Act for relief because he never had legal or physical custody at the time of adoption proceedings, which were initiated by the non-Native American birth mother without his knowledge.

The father then took his case to Oklahoma courts.

Father's attorneys will contest extradition

Following the Supreme Court order, a family court in South Carolina developed a "transition plan" to ease any transfer, taking into account the girl's age, sensitivities of the parties involved and the Native American heritage dynamic underlying the larger legal dispute.

Brown did not attend a transition meeting, saying he had National Guard training out of state and was unable to get out of that duty.

The South Carolina family court then ordered that Veronica be turned over immediately. Brown refused to turn the child over and was cited for contempt. A warrant was issued on August 10 for "custodial interference."

Brown turned himself in to authorities in Oklahoma, his home state. He posted a $10,000 bond.

Fallin acted after South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley filed a request with the Oklahoma Supreme Court seeking "the prompt return of a South Carolina child to her adoptive parents and ensuring that Mr. Brown is held accountable for criminally withholding Veronica Rose Capobianco from her parents for nearly one month," according to a court document.

"Our hope and expectation is Mr. Brown turns himself into the Sequoyah County (Oklahoma) sheriff tomorrow," Alex Weintz, communications director for Fallin, told CNN on Wednesday evening. "If he does not, the sheriff will arrest him and can do so on or off tribal land."

Robert Nigh, Brown's attorney in South Carolina, said his client has the right to post bond if he is arrested in Oklahoma.

Fallin's "unfortunate" order does not mean Brown will be extradited, according to another attorney, Clark Brewster.

An Oklahoma judge will determine whether the father broke any laws, he said, adding his client did not do so.

Brown and his attorneys "will appear before a judicial officer, point out the defects in the order and defend themselves," Brewster told CNN.

Brewster also claimed his client has tried to accommodate the Capobiancos during the appeal process.

But Haley, in her court filing in Oklahoma, said Brown has been in "willful defiance" of South Carolina courts that ordered him to return Veronica to the Capobiancos. South Carolina wants to prosecute Brown for custodial interference.

The Oklahoma Supreme Court issued an emergency stay on Friday to temporarily delay the transfer of Veronica to the Capobiancos. The order was made public on Tuesday.

Case has tested federal law

Brown's extradition does not affect the current placement of Veronica, according to Fallin. She would be able to stay with Brown's relatives.

The four-year case has spanned state lines and tested an unusual federal law.

The Capobianco's legally adopted Veronica at birth in September 2009. When Brown, a Cherokee Nation member, learned of her adoption a few months later, he asserted his custody rights under the Indian Child Welfare Act, setting off a lengthy legal fight.

A family court judge ruled in Brown's favor in late 2011, and he took his daughter back. The Capobiancos have fought ever since to have Veronica returned, arguing federal law does not define an unwed biological father as a "parent."

Fallin claimed that Brown denies visitation between the adoptive couple and the girl. "He is acting in open violation of both Oklahoma and South Carolina courts, which have granted custody of Veronica to the Capobiancos. Finally, he has cut off negotiations with the Capobiancos and shown no interest in pursuing any other course than yet another lengthy legal battle," the governor said.

"As governor, I am committed to upholding the rule of law. As a mother, I believe it is in the best interests of Veronica to help end this controversy and find her a permanent home," Fallin said.

Melanie Capobianco has told reporters that Veronica is being "illegally held against the wishes of her parents and the courts," and she pleaded for her daughter's return.

CNN's Joe Sutton, Michael Martinez, Bill Mears and Phil Gast contributed to this report.

 

The Skanner Foundation's 38th Annual MLK Breakfast