10-03-2024  4:26 pm   •   PDX and SEA Weather

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NORTHWEST NEWS

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.

Governor Kotek Uses New Land Use Law to Propose Rural Land for Semiconductor Facility

Oregon is competing against other states to host multibillion-dollar microchip factories. A 2023 state law created an exemption to the state's hallmark land use policy aimed at preventing urban sprawl and protecting nature and agriculture.

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...

Taxpayers in 24 states will be able to file their returns directly with the IRS in 2025

WASHINGTON (AP) — The IRS is expanding its program that allows people to file their taxes directly with the agency for free. The federal tax collector’s Direct File program, which allows taxpayers to calculate and submit their returns to the government directly without using...

Takeaways from AP's report on declining condom use among younger generations

Condom usage is down for everyone in the U.S., but researchers say the trend is especially stark among teens and young adults. A few factors are at play: Medical advancements like long-term birth control options and drugs that prevent sexually transmitted infections; a fading fear of...

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...

No. 9 Missouri looks to improve to 5-0 in visit to No. 25 Texas A&M

No. 9 Missouri (4-0, 1-0 Southeastern Conference) at No. 25 Texas A&M (4-1, 2-0), Saturday, 12 p.m. ET (ABC). BetMGM College Football Odds: Texas A&M by 2 1/2. Series record: Texas A&M leads 9-7. WHAT’S AT STAKE? The winner will...

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

Mixed verdict for 3 Memphis officers convicted in Tyre Nichols' fatal beating

MEMPHIS, Tenn. (AP) — Three former Memphis police officers were convicted Thursday in the 2023 fatal beating of Tyre Nichols, but were acquitted of the harshest charges they faced for a death that sparked national protests and calls for broad changes in policing. Jurors deliberated...

3 ex-Memphis officers convicted of witness tampering in Tyre Nichols' beating, 1 guilty of civil rights violations

MEMPHIS, Tenn. (AP) — 3 ex-Memphis officers convicted of witness tampering in Tyre Nichols' beating, 1 guilty of civil rights violations....

Photo shows U.S. Rep. Mike Lawler wearing blackface at college Halloween party in 2006

ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) — U.S. Rep. Mike Lawler said he was sorry Thursday after the New York Times obtained photos of him wearing blackface about two decades ago at a college Halloween costume party where he dressed as Michael Jackson. The images emerged as Lawler, a first-term...

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

Trump and the federal election case against him: Key passages from prosecutors' latest court filing

WASHINGTON (AP) — Donald Trump “laid the groundwork for his crimes” well before Election Day in 2020. He...

What's next after prosecutors reveal new evidence in Trump's 2020 election interference case

WASHINGTON (AP) — Special counsel Jack Smith has provided a road map for how prosecutors hope to prove their...

Hurricane Helene brings climate change to forefront of the presidential campaign

WASHINGTON (AP) — The devastation wrought by Hurricane Helene has brought climate change to the forefront of the...

Victor Perahia, Holocaust survivor and president of French Union of Auschwitz Deportees, dies at 91

PARIS (AP) — Victor Perahia, the president of the French Union of Auschwitz Deportees and a Holocaust survivor,...

Belarus opposition urges immediate release of over 200 political prisoners in dire state

TALLINN, Estonia (AP) — Belarusian opposition leader in exile Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya on Thursday said 224...

Italian family believes painting found in a dump in 1960s is a Picasso and seeks authentication

MILAN (AP) — An Italian family hopes to prove definitively that a painting discarded from a villa on the island...

Ali Akbar Dareini the Associated Press

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) -- Iran claimed Wednesday that it has achieved two major advances in its program to master production of nuclear fuel, a defiant move in response to increasingly tough Western sanctions over its controversial nuclear program.

In a further show of resistance to international pressure, state media reported Iran was taking steps to cut oil exports to six European countries in retaliation for new European Union sanctions, including a ban on Iranian oil.

The semiofficial Mehr agency said that Iran has halted exports to France and the Netherlands, and has given an ultimatum to Italy, Spain, Portugal and Greece to either sign long-term contracts with Iran or be cut off. State-run Press TV had earlier reported that exports were being cut off outright for all six. The contradiction in the reports could not immediately been resolved.

The EU ban on oil imports is to go into effect in July. Iranian officials say their country's earlier cutoff will hit European nations before they can line up new suppliers, and that Tehran has already lined up buyers for the 18 percent share of its oil that goes to Europe.

Iran's tough tone comes as tensions have mounted dramatically with Israel and the United States over its nuclear program, which Washington and its allies say is aimed at producing a nuclear weapon. Iran denies the charge, saying its program is intended solely for research and generating electricity. Israel has increasingly warned of the possibility of a military strike on Iran's nuclear facilities, and it has accused Iran of being behind attempted attacks on Israeli diplomats in India, Georgia and elsewhere. Iran denies any role in the attacks, which have resembled recent bombing-assassinations of Iranian nuclear scientists that Tehran has blamed on Israel.

Iran's top nuclear negotiator on Wednesday formally notified the European Union's foreign policy chief that Tehran is willing to return to talks with the world powers on its nuclear program. Many in the West however feel that negotiations are a ploy to buy time.

Iran is meanwhile pushing ahead on what it says is a drive toward nuclear-self-sufficiency.

On Wednesday, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad oversaw the insertion of the first Iranian domestically made fuel rod into a research reactor in northern Tehran, the country's official IRNA news agency reported.

Separately, the semiofficial Fars agency reported that a "new generation of Iranian centrifuges" had been installed and had gone into operation at the country's main uranium enrichment facility at Natanz in central Iran.

The moves were aimed at showing that Iran is mastering the entire cycle of producing nuclear fuel on its own despite the restrictions of sanctions that have hampered its ability to procure materials from abroad. In the fuel cycle, mined uranium is processed into gas, then that gas is spun in centrifuges to purify it. Low-enriched uranium - at around 3.5 percent - is used to produce fuel rods that power a reactor; however, the same process can be used to produce highly enriched uranium - at around 90 percent purity - that can be used to build a warhead.

The Tehran facility where IRNA said the new fuel rods were installed is a research reactor intended to produce medical isotopes used in the treatment of cancer patients. It requires fuel enriched to around 20 percent, considered a threshold between low and high enriched uranium.

Iran has been producing uranium enriched up to 5 percent for years, and began enriching up to near 20 percent in February 2010 after attempts at a deal with the West to import the fuel rods broke down. In January, Iran said it had produced its first such fuel rod. IRNA said the nuclear fuel rods were produced at a plant in Isfahan, central Iran.

Iranian officials have long spoken of introducing faster, more efficient centrifuges at the Natanz facility. The Fars news agency report did not give details on the advanced models that were installed.

A diplomat accredited to the International Atomic Energy Agency, which monitors Iran's known nuclear programs said the "new generation" of centrifuges appeared to be referring to about 65 IR-4 machines that were recently set up at an experimental site at Natanz. The new model can churn out enriched material at a faster rate than the more rudimentary IR-1 centrifuges, thousands of which are at work in Natanz producing low-enriched uranium, said the diplomat.

The newer machines were set up at a separate operation at Natanz used to test its more advanced centrifuges, said the diplomat, who spoke on condition of anonymity because his information is privileged.

Iran has been slow to expand its more advanced models, apparently because strict international embargoes make procurement of parts and materials difficult, and 65 of the newer generation machines are not nearly enough to set up an effective enrichment operation.

Still, the fact that Iran continues to build the newer machines, even at a slow pace, shows that it is able to circumvent sanctions - or produce materials it needs domestically.

Tehran's announcement that it had started loading domestically produced fuel roads into its research reactor had less potential proliferation implications than its expanding enrichment program. The diplomat said IAEA inspectors had seen the rods recently and - while they showed some flaws - they were crafted well enough to work inside the reactor.

Apart from the EU's recent measures on Iran, which include an oil embargo and a freeze of the country's central bank assets, Washington also recently levied new penalties aimed at limiting Iran's ability to sell oil - which accounts for 80 percent of its foreign revenue. Iran's Oil Minister Rostam Qassemi said several days earlier that Tehran could cut off oil exports to "hostile" European nations.

Members of Iran's parliament have been discussing a draft bill, although not finalized, which would cut off the flow to the European Union before the latest EU sanctions on Iran go into effect this summer.

Iran's unchecked pursuit of the nuclear program scuttled negotiations a year ago, but Iranian officials last month proposed a return to the talks with the five permanent U.N. Security Council members plus Germany.

IRNA news agency on Wednesday reported that Iran's top nuclear negotiator Saeed Jalili had written to the European Union's foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton, to formally announce its readiness to start those negotiations.

In the past, Iran has angered Western officials by appearing to buy time through opening talks and weighing proposals even while pressing ahead with the nuclear program.

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AP correspondent George Jahn in Vienna contributed to this report.

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