11-05-2024  11:32 am   •   PDX and SEA Weather

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NORTHWEST NEWS

African American Alliance On Homeownership Turns 25, Honors The Skanner Cofounder Bernie Foster

AAAH's executive director Cheryl Roberts recalls how the efforts of Bernie Foster led to an organization that now offers one-on-one counseling for prospective home buyers, homebuyer education, foreclosure prevention services, estate planning, assistance with down payments and more.

Police Say Fires Set at Ballot Boxes in Oregon and Washington Are Connected; ‘Suspect Vehicle’ ID'd

Surveillance images captured a Volvo stopping at a drop box in Portland, just before security personnel nearby discovered a fire inside the box. That fire damaged three ballots inside, while officials say a fire at a drop box in nearby Vancouver, Washington, early Monday destroyed hundreds of ballots.

Two Major Affordable Housing Developments Reach Milestones in Portland

Both will provide culturally specific supportive services to residents. 

Washington State AG and Ex-Sheriff Face off in Governor's Race

Former U.S. Rep. Dave Reichert is trying to become Washington’s first GOP governor in 40 years. But he faces a difficult hurdle in the Democratic stronghold against longtime Washington Attorney General Bob Ferguson, a darling of liberals for his many lawsuits against the Trump administration. 

NEWS BRIEFS

Merkley Statement on the Passing of Bob Sallinger

“Bob was a trusted voice, advising me on ways to safeguard the state’s natural wonders and wildlife and fighting against climate...

Troutdale Library Now Renovation Complete

Library provides refreshed experience for patrons with new, comfortable seating and carpeting ...

AG Rosenblum Releases Election Guidance to Law Enforcement and Message to Registered Oregon Voters

Attorney General Ellen Rosenblum: Haven’t received your ballot? Contact your county elections office! ...

Oregon Begins Rollout of New Housing Benefits for Eligible OHP Members With Health Conditions

The housing benefits include rent assistance for up to six months, utility set-up and payments for up to six months, home...

Oregon Department of Education Releases Cell Phone Policy Guidance

ODE recommends creating policies to limit or reduce cell phone use during the school day. ...

First-term Democrat tries to hold on in Washington state district won by Trump in 2020

SEATTLE (AP) — Among the nation’s most closely watched races is a rematch in southwestern Washington’s 3rd Congressional District, where first-term Democratic Rep. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez is defending her seat against Republican Joe Kent, a former Green Beret who has called for the...

The top US House races in Oregon garnering national attention

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — One of the most competitive U.S. House races in the country is playing out in Oregon, where the state’s GOP-held 5th Congressional District is among just over two dozen seats nationwide that are considered toss ups. Two other House races in the state’s 4th...

Haggerty scores 22 of 25 after break to rally Memphis past Missouri 83-75 in opener

MEMPHIS, Tenn. (AP) — PJ Haggerty scored 22 of his 25 points in the second half when Memphis took over en route to an 83-75 win over Missouri in the season opener for both teams on Monday night. The Tigers trailed by 10 at halftime but shot 58% in the second half, while going 17-20...

Memphis hosts Missouri to start season

Missouri Tigers at Memphis Tigers Memphis, Tennessee; Monday, 8 p.m. EST BETMGM SPORTSBOOK LINE: Tigers -4.5; over/under is 154.5 BOTTOM LINE: Memphis opens the season at home against Missouri. Memphis went 22-10 overall with a 13-2 record at...

OPINION

Why Not Voting Could Deprioritize Black Communities

President Biden’s Justice40 initiative ensures that 40% of federal investment benefits flow to disadvantaged communities, addressing deep-seated inequities. ...

The Skanner News 2024 Presidential Endorsement

It will come as no surprise that we strongly endorse Vice President Kamala Harris for president. ...

Black Retirees Growing Older and Poorer: 2025 Social Security COLA lowest in 10 years

As Americans live longer, the ability to remain financially independent is an ongoing struggle. Especially for Black and other people of color whose lifetime incomes are often lower than that of other contemporaries, finding money to save for ‘old age’ is...

The Skanner Endorsements: Oregon State and Local Ballot Measures

Ballots are now being mailed out for this very important election. Election Day is November 5. Ballots must be received or mailed with a valid postmark by 8 p.m. Election Day. View The Skanner's ballot measure endorsements. ...

AFRICAN AMERICANS IN THE NEWS

Democratic-backed justices look to defend control of Michigan's Supreme Court

DETROIT (AP) — Michigan Democrats and their allies were defending their majority on the state's Supreme Court on Tuesday after a campaign marked by exorbitant spending. Court races are nonpartisan but candidates are nominated at party conventions. Democratic-backed justices...

Figures and Dobson are in a heated battle for a redrawn Alabama House district

MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) — Alabama voters will decide who will represent a congressional district that was redrawn after a lengthy legal battle that drew national attention and could provide a rare opportunity for Democrats to flip a seat in the Deep South. Democrat Shomari Figures, a...

Here's what to watch on Election Day in the US

WASHINGTON (AP) — It's Election Day. Polls opened Tuesday across the nation and Americans cast ballots in the 2024 presidential election. In a deeply divided nation, the election is a true toss-up between Democrat Kamala Harris and Republican Donald Trump. We know there are seven...

ENTERTAINMENT

Celebrity birthdays for the week of Nov. 3-9

Celebrity birthdays for the week of Nov. 3-9 Nov. 3: Actor Lois Smith is 94. Actor-radio personality Shadoe Stevens (“Dave’s World”) is 78. Singer Lulu is 76. Actor-comedian Roseanne Barr is 72. Actor Kate Capshaw (“Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom”) is 71. Actor Kathy...

Fourth Spider-Man movie starring Tom Holland is set for release July 2026

Tom Holland is getting ready to don his Spidey suit again. The fourth installment of the blockbuster series has been set for a July 2026 release, Sony Pictures said Friday. Daniel Destin Cretton, best known for helming Marvel's “Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings," has also...

Teri Garr, the offbeat comic actor of 'Young Frankenstein' and 'Tootsie,' has died

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Teri Garr, the quirky comedy actor who rose from background dancer in Elvis Presley movies to co-star of such favorites as "Young Frankenstein" and "Tootsie," has died. She was 79. Garr died Tuesday of multiple sclerosis “surrounded by family and friends,”...

U.S. & WORLD NEWS

Abortion is on the ballot in nine states and motivating voters across the US

WASHINGTON (AP) — Voters in nine states are deciding whether their state constitutions should guarantee a right...

Ukrainian troops have engaged with North Korean units for the 1st time in Russia, an official says

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Ukrainian troops have for the first time engaged with North Korean units that were recently...

A week after Spain's floods, families hold out hope that missing loved ones are alive

SEDAVI, Spain (AP) — Francisco Murgui went out to try to salvage his motorbike when the water started to rise. ...

Brazilian police official chosen as the next head of Interpol

LONDON (AP) — Brazilian police official Valdecy Urquiza will be the next chief of Interpol, the global police...

Middle East latest: Dozens killed in Gaza as Israel says it targeted a weapons facility

Israeli strikes killed at least 30 people in Gaza, including on a home where displaced families were sheltering,...

Ukrainian troops have engaged with North Korean units for the 1st time in Russia, an official says

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Ukrainian troops have for the first time engaged with North Korean units that were recently...

Michael Graczyk the Associated Press

HOUSTON (AP) -- It's a tradition with roots that can be traced far back in history: Before being put to death, a condemned prisoner can choose his last meal.

Not so anymore in Texas.

Officials who oversee the country's busiest death chamber stopped the practice on Thursday after a prominent state senator complained about a hefty request from a man executed for his role in a notorious dragging death. Now, inmates get to eat only what the kitchen serves.

The controversy began after Lawrence Russell Brewer, pictured at left, who was executed on Wednesday for the hate crime slaying of James Byrd Jr. more than a decade ago, asked for two chicken fried steaks, a triple-meat bacon cheeseburger, fried okra, a pound of barbecue, three fajitas, a meat lover's pizza, a pint of ice cream and a slab of peanut butter fudge with crushed peanuts. Prison officials said Brewer didn't eat any of it.

"It is extremely inappropriate to give a person sentenced to death such a privilege," Sen. John Whitmire, chairman of the Senate Criminal Justice Committee, wrote in a letter Thursday to Brad Livingston, the executive director of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice.

Within hours, Livingston said the senator's concerns were valid and the practice of allowing death row offenders to choose their final meal was history.

"Effective immediately, no such accommodations will be made," Livingston said. "They will receive the same meal served to other offenders on the unit."

That had been the suggestion from Whitmire, who called the traditional request "ridiculous."

"It's long overdue," the Houston Democrat told The Associated Press. "This old boy last night, enough is enough. We're fixing to execute the guy and maybe it makes the system feel good about what they're fixing to do. Kind of hypocritical, you reckon?

"Mr. Byrd didn't get to choose his last meal. The whole deal is so illogical."

Brewer, a white supremacist gang member, was convicted of chaining Byrd, 49, to the back of a pickup truck and dragging him to his death along a bumpy road in a case shocked the nation for its brutality.

It was not immediately clear whether other states have made similar moves. Some limit the final meal cost - Florida's ceiling is $40, according to the Department of Corrections website, with food to be purchased locally. Others, like Texas, which never had a designated dollar limit, mandate meals be prison-made. Some states don't acknowledge final meals, and others will disclose the information only if the inmate agrees, said K. William Hayes, a Florida-based death penalty historian.

Some states require the meal within a specific time period, allow multiple "final" meals, restrict it to one or impose "a vast number of conditions," he said.

Historical references to a condemned person's last meal go as far back as ancient Greece, China and Rome, Hayes said. Some of it is apparently rooted in superstition about meals warding off possible haunting by condemned people once they are put to death.

The Death Penalty Information Center, a Washington-based anti-capital punishment organization that collects execution statistics, said it had no data on final meals.

Since Texas resumed carrying out executions in 1982, the state correction agency's practice has been to fill a condemned inmate's request as long as the items, or food similar to what was requested, were readily available from the prison kitchen supplies.

While extensive, Brewer's request was far from the largest or most bizarre among the 475 Texas inmates put to death.

On Tuesday, prisoner Cleve Foster's request included two fried chickens, French fries and a five-gallon bucket of peaches. He received a reprieve from the U.S. Supreme Court but none of his requested meal. He was on his way back to death row, at a prison about 45 miles east of Huntsville, at the time when his feast would have been served.

Last week, inmate Steven Woods' request included two pounds of bacon, a large four-meat pizza, four fried chicken breasts, two drinks each of Mountain Dew, Pepsi, root beer and sweet tea, two pints of ice cream, five chicken fried steaks, two hamburgers with bacon, fries and a dozen garlic bread sticks with marinara on the side. Two hours later, he was executed.

Years ago, a Texas inmate even requested dirt for his final meal.

Until 2003, the Texas prison system listed final meals of each prisoner as part of its death row website. That stopped at 313 final meals after officials said they received complaints from people who found it offensive.

A former inmate cook who made the last meals for prisoners at the Huntsville Unit, where Texas executions are carried out, wrote a cookbook several years ago after he was released. Among his recipes were Gallows Gravy, Rice Rigor Mortis and Old Sparky's Genuine Convict Chili, a nod to the electric chair that once served as the execution method. The book was called "Meals to Die For."

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