11-04-2024  9:35 pm   •   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. ...

Nevada lithium mine will crush rare plant habitat US said is critical to its survival, lawsuit says

RENO, Nev. (AP) — Conservationists and an advocacy group for Native Americans are suing the U.S. to try to block a Nevada lithium mine they say will drive an endangered desert wildflower to extinction, disrupt groundwater flows and threaten cultural resources. The Center for...

AP Top 25: Oregon a unanimous No. 1 ahead of 1st CFP rankings, followed by Georgia, Ohio State

Oregon was the unanimous choice for No. 1 in The Associated Press college football poll on Sunday, strengthening its bid for the top spot in the College Football Playoff selection committee's first rankings of the season. The Ducks are No. 1 in the AP Top 25 for the third straight...

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

New Yorkers may change their constitution to ban discrimination over ‘pregnancy outcomes’

ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) — An amendment to New York’s constitution that would bar discrimination based on things including “gender identity” and “pregnancy outcomes" is up for a final vote Tuesday amid debate over how much it might affect future abortion and transgender rights. ...

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...

Harris campaign spends final hours reminding Pennsylvania of a Trump ally's joke about Puerto Rico

READING, Pa. (AP) — The day before Election Day, 17-year-old girl Carmen Hernandez held a cardboard sign with the Puerto Rican flag outside Trump’s rally in Reading, Pennsylvania, a city that is two-thirds Hispanic. “What you call trash is our treasure,” the sign read. ...

ENTERTAINMENT

There's a ton of Hollywood stars on and off Broadway these days. Here's a game you can play

NEW YORK (AP) — There are so many Hollywood stars on New York theater stages or on the way that you might want to level up your stargazing game. Why not play some bingo? Sure, Robert Downey Jr., Daniel Dae Kim, Jim Parsons, Mia Farrow, and Katie Holmes are currently in New York, and...

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...

U.S. & WORLD NEWS

Here's what to watch as Election Day approaches in the U.S.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Election Day is nearly upon us. In a matter of hours, the final votes in the 2024 presidential...

Puerto Rico holds general election that promises to be historic

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) — Puerto Rico is holding elections that will be historic regardless of which of the...

North Korea fires a barrage of ballistic missiles toward the sea ahead of US election

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — North Korea fired a barrage of short-range ballistic missiles into the sea on Tuesday,...

Mexico's National Guard kills 2 Colombians and wounds 4 on a migrant smuggling route near the US

MEXICO CITY (AP) — Mexico’s National Guard fatally shot two Colombians and wounded four others in what the...

Bolivia's Evo Morales tells AP he'll press on with a hunger strike until his rival accepts dialogue

LAUCA Ñ, Bolivia (AP) — Bolivia's transformative and divisive former President Evo Morales said Sunday that he...

Police in Brazil indict Colombian fish trader in high profile killing in Amazon region

Brazilian police have indicted a Colombian fish trader as the person who planned the slaying of Indigenous expert...

By Alan Silverleib and Tom Cohen CNN

Two weeks ago, the Senate passed a comprehensive immigration reform bill on a 68-32 vote, with 14 Republicans joining the Democratic majority to send the measure drafted by a bipartisan "Gang of Eight" to the GOP-controlled House.

President Barack Obama pushed for the House to quickly take up the measure that would provide a path to citizenship for 11 million immigrants living illegally in the country while bolstering security along the Mexican border.

The proposal also includes stronger worker eligibility verification standards and overall border entry-exit controls.

However, House Republicans made clear Wednesday they opposed the comprehensive approach of the Senate and intended to consider the issue in a series of bills that will take months to reach final votes.

In addition, the House GOP caucus was deeply divided on the question of eventual citizenship for undocumented immigrants, with some calling for a path to legal status while others opposed any kind of what they labeled amnesty for those who broke the law.

While House leaders warned the party faced political harm if it failed to act on immigration legislation, a vital issue for Hispanic Americans who comprise the nation's largest minority demographic, the piecemeal approach and divisions over the legalization issue portend a messy and uncertain future for the issue.

 

Here are five reasons why:

 

Bipartisanship necessary in Senate but not House.

A 60-vote majority is needed to push major legislation through the 100-member Senate, which means Senate Democrats and Republicans usually have to work together to get anything substantive accomplished.

The House, however, does not often require such a super-majority. As long as a simple majority sticks together, it can do virtually anything it pleases.

Mix that rule with increasing ideological orthodoxy and a decreasing willingness to compromise -- particularly within the conservative ranks of the majority House GOP -- and you have a recipe for stalemate with the Democratic-controlled Senate.

"Passing any version of the Gang of Eight's bill would be worse public policy than passing nothing," conservative pundits Bill Kristol and Rich Lowry argued Tuesday in National Review Online. "House Republicans can do the country a service by putting a stake through its heart."

In today's hyper-partisan political climate, doing nothing is the easiest path for House Republicans to take and even a bragging point for tea party conservatives who came to Washington to shake up the status quo.

While moderate House GOP leaders call for passing some kind of immigration legislation to avoid a potential political backlash, conservatives in the rank-and-file say such fears are unfounded as voters will reward Republicans for opposing what they call a bad Senate bill.

 

Republicans don't trust Obama on border security.

Kansas Rep. Tim Huelskamp might have said it best. The two-term conservative Republican tweeted Wednesday that "trusting Obama (with) border security is like trusting Bill Clinton (with) your daughter."

Ouch.

Virtually every congressional Republican says the Mexican border needs to be properly enforced before Democrats get their priority -- a path to citizenship for America's 11 million undocumented residents. Sens. Bob Corker, R-Tennessee, and John Hoeven, R-North Dakota, added billions for Mexican border security to the "Gang of Eight" bill.

For a lot of Republicans, though, the issue involves trust, not money. They remember the last major immigration reform effort, in 1986 under GOP President Ronald Reagan, that also called for tightened immigration controls while giving three million undocumented immigrants legal status.

They say the amnesty occurred but the tougher border controls didn't, leading to the much-worse situation today.

Now they don't trust Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano to secure the border. They also claim Obama's recent decision to delay implementation of part of health care reform showed the administration can't be counted on to fully enforce any law.

By taking a piecemeal approach, House Republicans hope to secure the tougher border security they seek before acting on a separate plan that could provide legal status for at least some undocumented immigrants.

In short, pass a border security bill now, and then come back to the legalization issue once everyone agrees the border is sealed. Democrats reject such an approach.

 

The conundrum of citizenship/legalization

While the Senate measure provides a multi-year path to citizenship for most undocumented immigrants, House Republicans made clear Wednesday they remained split about 50-50 on the matter.

Reasons for opposing any kind of legalization range from punishing lawbreakers to political protectionism, with conservatives fearing that most immigrants given what they call amnesty and the eventual right to vote will lean Democratic.

However, the issue of legalizing immigrants is broad and complex, creating lots of uncertainty.

For example, the Senate bill would automatically give immigrants living illegally in the United States temporary legal status as "registered provisional immigrants." Only when certain border security steps had been taken could they apply for permanent residency, or green cards, as a step toward potential citizenship in process that would take more than a decade.

Many House Republicans made clear they don't want any kind of legal status for undocumented immigrants until the borders are secure. Even those open to legalization don't want it to include a path to full citizenship.

The labels and definitions of legal status will be a major sticking point in the continuing debate, but also could be a source of compromise.

House Majority Leader Eric Cantor of Virginia told Wednesday's GOP caucus meeting that children of undocumented immigrants brought illegally to America through no fault of their own should be provided a path to legal status, a position strongly favored by Democrats.

The backing of Cantor and other House Republicans for such a provision showed room for maneuvering exists.

After meeting with Obama at the White House on Thursday, GOP Sen. John McCain of Arizona called on House Republicans to negotiate an immigration bill.

"We are ready to sit down with you and negotiate and bring this issue to a conclusion," said McCain, part of the bipartisan Senate "Gang of Eight."

 

Sweeping reform isn't popular with GOP in either chamber.

There may be more Senate GOP support for comprehensive immigration reform, but not that much. Only 14 of 46 GOP senators backed the "Gang of Eight" bill heralded in its creation as a triumph of bipartisanship in a sharply divided Congress. Why should House Republicans be more in favor?

Remember that all politics is still local -- especially in the House. Many House Republicans represent ruby red districts with few Hispanics, where any path to citizenship is unpopular and the big fear is a primary challenge from the right.

Which leads us to ...

 

The Hastert rule

House Speaker John Boehner has made clear that the House will only take up immigration reform that is backed by a majority of its Republican members. That is keeping with the maxim of former House Speaker Dennis Hastert that prevented votes on legislation that lacked strong support from the controlling party.

Democrats contend the Senate version would pass the House with a few dozen Republicans joining them to overcome opposition by most of the GOP caucus.

While it is unclear if that's true, permitting it to happen would antagonize many of Boehner's fellow Republicans.

"If the speaker allows a vote on any immigration bill that results in passage despite a majority of the Republican conference voting against it, then it will be interesting to see if he can muster the votes to get re-elected after the next election," Alabama GOP Rep. Mo Brooks recently told CNN.

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