10-05-2024  3:44 pm   •   PDX and SEA Weather

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NORTHWEST NEWS

Taxpayers in 24 States Will Be Able to File Their Returns Directly With the IRS in 2025

The pilot program in 2024 allowed people in certain states with very simple W-2s to calculate and submit their returns directly to the IRS. Those using the program claimed more than million in refunds, the IRS said.

Companies Back Away From Oregon Floating Offshore Wind Project as Opposition Grows

The federal government finalized two areas for floating offshore wind farms along the Oregon coast in February. But opposition from tribes, fishermen and coastal residents highlights some of the challenges the plan faces.

Preschool for All Growth Outpaces Enrollment Projections

Mid-year enrollment to allow greater flexibility for providers, families.

Senate Finance Committee Chairman Ron Wyden Demands Answers From Emergency Rooms That Denied Care to Pregnant Patients

Wyden is part of a Democratic effort to focus the nation’s attention on the stories of women who have faced horrible realities since some states tightened a patchwork of abortion laws.

NEWS BRIEFS

Oregon’s 2024-25 Teacher of the Year is Bryan Butcher Jr. of Beaumont Middle School

“From helping each of his students learn math in the way that works for them, to creating the Black Student Union at his school,...

Burn Ban Lifted in the City of Portland

Although the burn ban is being lifted, Portland Fire & Rescue would like to remind folks to only burn dried cordwood in a...

Midland Library to Reopen in October

To celebrate the opening of the updated, expanded Midland, the library is hosting two days of activities for the community...

U.S. Congressman Al Green Commends Biden Administration on Launching Investigation into 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre; Mulls Congressional Action

The thriving African American community of Greenwood, popularly known as Black Wall Street, was criminally leveled by a white mob...

Governor Kotek, Oregon Housing and Community Services Announce Current and Projected Homelessness Initiative Outcomes

The announcement is accompanied by a data dashboard that shows the progress for the goals set within the...

Idaho state senator tells Native American candidate 'go back where you came from' in forum

KENDRICK, Idaho (AP) — Tensions rose during a bipartisan forum this week after an audience question about discrimination reportedly led an Idaho state senator to angrily tell a Native American candidate to “go back where you came from.” Republican Sen. Dan Foreman left the...

Washington state fines paper mill 0,000 after an employee is killed

CAMAS, Wash. (AP) — Washington state authorities have fined one of the world's leading paper and pulp companies nearly 0,000 after one of its employees was crushed by a packing machine earlier this year. The penalty comes after Dakota Cline, 32, was killed on March 8 while...

Moss scores 3 TDs as No. 25 Texas A&M gives No. 9 Missouri its first loss in 41-10 rout

COLLEGE STATION, Texas (AP) — Le'Veon Moss was asked if he thought No. 25 Texas A&M shocked ninth-ranked Missouri after his big game propelled the Aggies to a rout Saturday. The running back laughed before answering. “Most definitely,” he said before chuckling...

No 9 Missouri faces stiff road test in visit to No. 25 Texas A&M

No. 9 Missouri hits the road for the first time this season, facing arguably its toughest challenge so far. The Tigers (4-0, 1-0 Southeastern Conference) know the trip to No. 25 Texas A&M (4-1, 2-0) on Saturday will be tough for several reasons if they want to extend their...

OPINION

The Skanner News: 2024 City Government Endorsements

In the lead-up to a massive transformation of city government, the mayor’s office and 12 city council seats are open. These are our endorsements for candidates we find to be most aligned with the values of equity and progress in Portland, and who we feel...

No Cheek Left to Turn: Standing Up for Albina Head Start and the Low-Income Families it Serves is the Only Option

This month, Albina Head Start filed a federal lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to defend itself against a misapplied rule that could force the program – and all the children it serves – to lose federal funding. ...

DOJ and State Attorneys General File Joint Consumer Lawsuit

In August, the Department of Justice and eight state Attorneys Generals filed a lawsuit charging RealPage Inc., a commercial revenue management software firm with providing apartment managers with illegal price fixing software data that violates...

America Needs Kamala Harris to Win

Because a 'House Divided Against Itself Cannot Stand' ...

AFRICAN AMERICANS IN THE NEWS

San Francisco's first Black female mayor is in a pricey battle for a second term

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — When London Breed was elected as San Francisco's first Black woman mayor, it was a pinch-me moment for a poor girl from public housing whose ascension showed that no dream was impossible in the progressive, compassionate and equitable city. But the honeymoon was...

Idaho state senator tells Native American candidate 'go back where you came from' in forum

KENDRICK, Idaho (AP) — Tensions rose during a bipartisan forum this week after an audience question about discrimination reportedly led an Idaho state senator to angrily tell a Native American candidate to “go back where you came from.” Republican Sen. Dan Foreman left the...

Judge denies an order sought by a Black student who was punished over his hair

HOUSTON (AP) — A federal judge on Friday denied a request by a Black high school student in Texas for a court order that the student’s lawyers say would have allowed him to return to his high school without fear of having his previous punishment over his hairstyle resume. Darryl...

ENTERTAINMENT

Book Review: 'The Last Dream,' short stories scattered with the seeds of Pedro Almodovar films

The seeds of Spanish filmmaker Pedro Almodóvar's later cinematic work are scattered throughout the pages of “The Last Dream,” his newly published collection of short writings. The stories and essays were gathered together by Almodóvar's longtime assistant, including many pieces...

Book Review: Louise Erdrich writes about love and loss in North Dakota in ’The Mighty Red’

Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist Louise Erdrich (“The Night Watchman,” 2021) returns with a story close to her heart, “The Mighty Red.” Set in the author’s native North Dakota, the title refers to the river that serves as a metaphor for life in the Red River Valley. It also carries a...

Book Review: 'Revenge of the Tipping Point' is fan service for readers of Gladwell's 2000 book

It's been nearly 25 years since Malcolm Gladwell published “The Tipping Point," and it's still easy to catch it being read on airplanes, displayed prominently on executives' bookshelves or hear its jargon slipped into conversations. It's no surprise that a sequel was the next logical step. ...

U.S. & WORLD NEWS

A Texas execution is renewing calls for clemency. It's rarely granted

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — A Texas man set to die this month is at the center of another push for clemency in the...

After the deluge, the lies: Misinformation and hoaxes about Helene cloud the recovery

WASHINGTON (AP) — The facts emerging from Hurricane Helene's destruction are heartrending: Businesses and homes...

Floods inundate Thailand's northern tourist city of Chiang Mai

BANGKOK (AP) — Chiang Mai, Thailand's northern city popular with tourists, was inundated by widespread flooding...

Israeli airstrikes rock southern suburbs of Beirut and cut off a key crossing into Syria

BEIRUT (AP) — Israel carried out another series of punishing airstrikes Friday, hitting suburban Beirut and...

Mexico’s new president promises to resume fight against climate change

MEXICO CITY (AP) — In her first days as Mexico’s new president, Claudia Sheinbaum made a point of distancing...

AP PHOTOS: In their 80s, these South Korean women learned reading and rap

CHILGOK, South Korea (AP) — Wearing an oversized bucket hat, silver chains and a black Miu Miu...

Kasie Hunt and Shannon Mccaffrey the Associated Press

YPSILANTI, Mich. (AP) -- Republican Herman Cain met voters for the first time since sex harassment claims engulfed his upstart presidential bid as an aggressively supportive grass-roots crowd came out Thursday to cheer him and jockey with a horde of media.

Cain was touring Michigan tea party groups all day, his first campaign swing since the story broke late last month. He's aiming to hold on to the grassroots spark that catapulted him to the top of the GOP field before the allegations of sexual harassment became public.

"How you beat Obama? Beat him with a Cain!" the Georgia businessman told one supporter as he pushed through the crowd at the Blue Sky Diner toward a back exit. The crowd cheered Cain's comments.

When a reporter asked him to clarify what he meant, Cain said: "Cain. Herman Cain, C-A-I-N. Do I have to connect all the dots for you?"

"First real black man!" one supporter shouted several times as Cain took the microphone in the cramped and crowded restaurant. Organizers had to turn away some supporters.

"I don't believe any of the bull. I think it's just a slam," Kathy McConnell, a retired truck driver from Sumter, said of the allegations that have rocked Cain's campaign the past two weeks.

The crowd - and Cain's security detail - jockeyed with photographers and reporters pressed into the small diner. Cain's security guard reached out and pushed a reporter who was trying to listen to the candidate.

"Don't touch me, lady," the guard said as he asked for the reporter's removal.

"You're a little liar!" the tea party's photographer shouted at the reporter as the jostling continued.

Cain has denied the allegations and made an oblique reference to them at the diner. "Since they can't kill my ideas, they are trying to attack my integrity," he told the crowd. His supporters were rejecting the claims, he said, because "they are sick of gutter politics."

He also apologized anew for calling House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi "Princess Nancy" during a debate Wednesday night.

Far from backing down in the face of his challenges, Cain has hired a fierce new lawyer to help him fight the four women's claims "in the court of public opinion." And he's pushing forward with a more aggressive campaign strategy to get his message out, airing his first television ad in Iowa and preparing to sign a lease on a cavernous new campaign office in Atlanta that will serve as a hub for volunteers.

Even so, there are signs that the accusations that he sexually harassed women when he led a Washington trade group more than a decade ago could be causing Cain's luster to dim. Uneasiness is growing among Republicans less than two months before voting begins in Iowa.

Private polling shared with The Associated Press shows Cain's support in Iowa has declined since last month. Internal polls of likely Republican caucus-goers showed Cain's support consistent with The Des Moines Register's poll in late October, which showed him narrowly leading in the state with 23 percent. The private polls showed Cain still in double digits in Iowa, but markedly lower.

The scandal also was filtering down to the grass roots in Iowa, where volunteers were proceeding with nightly calls to potential supporters armed with a response to questions about the allegations. Volunteers were told to echo Cain's denial of wrongdoing.

"When we are trying to convince someone to be a team leader, we answer their questions," said Steve Grubbs, Cain's Iowa campaign chairman. "The answer to that is: Tell them what Herman Cain is saying."

The Cain camp seemed to be making efforts to shore up support among women, including by rolling out the endorsement of a prominent Republican female state lawmaker in his home state of Georgia, Renee Unterman.

The campaign also released his first TV ad of the season in Iowa, and another web ad focused on his signature 9-9-9 tax overhaul plan.

And Georgia state director David McCleary said the campaign would sign a lease Friday for a new 4,200-square-foot office space that would coordinate Cain's volunteer efforts, with phone banks to call voters in early states like Iowa.

McCleary said that since the allegations broke "I've had more people call and volunteer, saying `How can I help?'"

Cain's new lawyer, Lin Wood, could provide polish and focus to a candidate who struggled to stick to a consistent version of events as the story broke.

In an interview with The Associated Press, the Atlanta-based lawyer whose high-profile roster of clients has included the family of Jon Benet Ramsey and wrongly accused Olympic park bomber Richard Jewell, said he would help the campaign "evaluate and respond to" the women's claims.

"Mr. Cain is being tried in the court of public opinion based on accusations that are improbable and vague," Wood told The AP. "The media - bless your heart - you turn our system of justice into one of guilt by accusation."

But Republicans worry privately about Cain's impact on a nominating contest that's about to start in earnest. While no one is rushing to push him out of the race and he has vowed to remain a candidate, the chorus is growing for the former pizza company executive to explain the allegations of unwanted sexual advances that have come to light more than a decade after they are said to have happened.

"It's one of the he-said-she-said stories," said GOP strategist Greg Mueller. "But you want to put the story to rest as quickly as you can and let the voters decide. It seems like every day it's a new elevation of the story. Either that's going to peter out or it's going to solidify."

Cain's day with tea party groups was also taking him to Grand Rapids and Traverse City, according to organizers. Tea party backers form the core of his support and many have said recently that they give no credence to the allegations against him.

Four women have said Cain sexually harassed them in the 1990s when he headed the National Restaurant Association. Two have come forward publicly, including one who had filed a sex harassment claim.

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Associated Press writers Philip Elliott in Washington and Thomas Beaumont in Des Moines, Iowa, contributed to this report. McCaffrey reported from Atlanta.

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Follow Kasie Hunt at http://www.twitter.com/kasie and Shannon McCaffrey at http://www.twitter.com/smccaffrey13

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