09-19-2024  1:01 am   •   PDX and SEA Weather

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NORTHWEST NEWS

WNBA Awards Portland an Expansion Franchise That Will Begin Play in 2026

The team will be owned and operated by Raj Sports, led by Lisa Bhathal Merage and Alex Bhathal. The Bhathals started having conversations with the WNBA late last year after a separate bid to bring a team to Portland fell through. It’s the third expansion franchise the league will add over the next two years, with Golden State and Toronto getting the other two.

Strong Words, Dilution and Delays: What’s Going On With The New Police Oversight Board

A federal judge delays when the board can form; critics accuse the city of missing the point on police accountability.

Oregon DMV mistakenly registered more than 300 non-citizens to Vote

Oregon DMV registered more than 300 non-citizens as voters by mistake since 2021. The  “data entry issue” meant ineligible voters received ballot papers, which led to two non-citizens voting in elections since 2021

Here Are the 18 City Council Candidates Running to Represent N/NE Portland

Three will go on to take their seats at an expanded Portland City Council.

NEWS BRIEFS

Common Cause Oregon on National Voter Registration Day, September 17

Oregonians are encouraged to register and check their registration status ...

New Affordable Housing in N Portland Named for Black Scholar

Community Development Partners and Self Enhancement Inc. bring affordable apartments to 5050 N. Interstate Ave., marking latest...

Benson Polytechnic Celebrates Its Grand Opening After an Extensive Three Year Modernization

Portland Public Schools welcomes the public to a Grand Opening Celebration of the newly modernized Benson...

Attorneys General Call for Congress to Require Surgeon General Warnings on Social Media Platforms

In a letter sent yesterday to Congress, Attorney General Ellen Rosenblum, who is also president of the National Association of...

Washington State Library Set to Re-Open on Mondays

The Washington State Library will return to normal public operating hours Monday after remaining partially closed for the past 11...

Accusations of dishonesty fly in debate between Washington gubernatorial hopefuls

SEATTLE (AP) — Washington’s longtime attorney general and a former sheriff known for his work hunting down a notorious serial killer traded accusations of lying to voters during their gubernatorial debate Wednesday, as each made his case for becoming the next governor of the Democratic...

WNBA awards Portland an expansion franchise that will begin play in 2026

The WNBA is headed back to Portland, with Oregon's biggest city getting an expansion team that will begin play in 2026. The team will be owned and operated by Raj Sports, led by Lisa Bhathal Merage and Alex Bhathal, who also own the Portland Thorns of the National Women's Soccer...

Brady Cook helps No. 6 Missouri rally past No. 24 Boston College 27-21

COLUMBIA, Mo. (AP) — Brady Cook passed for a touchdown and ran for another TD, helping No. 6 Missouri top No. 24 Boston College 27-21 on Saturday. Nate Noel rushed for 121 yards for the Tigers (3-0), who trailed 14-3 early in the second quarter. Blake Craig kicked four field goals. ...

Missouri gets Board of Curators approval for 0 million renovation of Memorial Stadium

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — The University of Missouri Board of Curators approved a 0 million renovation for Memorial Stadium on Thursday during a meeting attended by SEC commissioner Greg Sankey on the campus of the University of Missouri-Kansas City. The project, which will break...

OPINION

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

Since 1975 when I was first named director of Albina Head Start, I’ve had the privilege of serving our community by providing educational opportunities for low-income Pre-K students and watching the program flourish.This month,

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' ...

Student Loan Debt Drops $10 Billion Due to Biden Administration Forgiveness; New Education Department Rules Hold Hope for 30 Million More Borrowers

As consumers struggle to cope with mounting debt, a new economic report from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York includes an unprecedented glimmer of hope. Although debt for mortgages, credit cards, auto loans and more increased by billions of...

AFRICAN AMERICANS IN THE NEWS

A 10-year-old Japanese student stabbed near his school in China has died

BEIJING (AP) — Officials in Tokyo said Thursday that a 10-year-old Japanese student attending a Japanese school in southern China who was attacked the day before has died, asking Beijing to provide details of the stabbing and take preventive measures. A suspect is in custody. ...

Why is Congo struggling to contain mpox?

KAVUMU, Congo (AP) — Health authorities have struggled to contain outbreaks of mpox in Congo, a huge central African country where a myriad of existing problems makes stemming the spread particularly hard. Last month, the World Health Organization declared the outbreaks in Congo...

A news site that covers Haitian-Americans is facing harassment over its post-debate coverage of Ohio

NEW YORK (AP) — Journalists at a news site that covers the Haitian community in the United States say they've been harassed and intimidated with racist messages for covering a fake story about immigrants eating the pets of people in an Ohio town. One editor at the Haitian Times, a...

ENTERTAINMENT

,000 literary award named for the late author Gabe Hudson goes to Ayana Mathis' 'The Unsettled'

NEW YORK (AP) — A ,000 literary award named for the late author-editor-podcaster Gabe Hudson has been established by the publisher McSweeney's, where Hudson once worked. The inaugural winner, Ayana Mathis' “The Unsettled,” was announced Thursday, on what would have been...

Celebrity birthdays for the week of Sept. 22-28

Celebrity birthdays for the week of Sept. 22-28: Sept. 22: Singer-dancer Toni Basil is 81. Actor Paul Le Mat (“American Graffiti”) is 79. Singer David Coverdale (Whitesnake, Deep Purple) is 73. Actor Shari Belafonte is 70. Singer Debby Boone is 68. Country singer June Forester of...

Book Review: Joe Posnanski scores with poignant, informative, hilarious 'Why We Love Football'

Joe Posnanski is getting pretty good at this whole sports countdown thing. The award-winning sportswriter's previous books have profiled significant ballplayers ("The Baseball 100") and ticked off 50 of the biggest occasions in the history of our national pastime ("Why We Love...

U.S. & WORLD NEWS

Colombia suspends peace talks with ELN rebel group after a deadly attack on the military

BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) — Colombia on Wednesday suspended peace talks with the National Liberation Army, or ELN,...

Refugees in New Hampshire turn to farming for an income and a taste of home

DUNBARTON, N.H. (AP) — It's harvest time in central New Hampshire, and one farm there appears to have been...

Threats and assassination attempts come with the office Donald Trump once held and is seeking again

WASHINGTON (AP) — Former President Donald Trump, following an apparent assassination attempt on him on Sunday,...

Relentless fighting is devastating Sudan and escalating in Darfur's capital, UN says

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — Relentless violence has devastated Sudan and large-scale fighting has escalated in and...

Vietnamese real estate tycoon, already sentenced to death for fraud, faces trial on new charges

HANOI, Vietnam (AP) — The second trial for Vietnamese real estate typcoon Truong My Lan — who was sentenced to...

A 10-year-old Japanese student stabbed near his school in China has died

BEIJING (AP) — Officials in Tokyo said Thursday that a 10-year-old Japanese student attending a Japanese school...

Lisa Loving and Brian Stimson of The Skanner News

Grand Jury transcripts in the shooting death of Keaton Dupree Otis may be released as early as today, Multnomah County District Attorney spokesman Norm Frink said.
The May 12 shooting is the third fatal incident involving police interacting with men in mental health crisis so far this year. City leaders have made it clear they support release of Grand Jury transcripts -- which have previously been kept secret -- as a police accountability measure.

Officer Chris Burley, center, flanked by Sgt. Don Livingstone, left, and Officer Ryan Foote, right, describes his shooting May 12. All the officers were on the scene of Otis' shooting; none of the three fired their weapons.

A court reporter has been ill, which delayed the expected release of documents, Schrunk said Friday. A Grand Jury cleared Portland Police officers of wrongdoing in the case.

Among the questions which may be answered by the Grand Jury transcripts is the mystery of why no bullet casings were found on the scene from Otis' gun. Police say Officer Chris Burley was shot twice by Otis, but a roster of items recovered at the crime scene indicated Otis' gun would have discharged "gold-colored" casings, none of which are listed on the evidence log.

However some 30 "silver-colored" casings are listed, all apparently from police weapons. In the course of the shooting, the police investigation showed that Officer Jim Defrain had fired 15 rounds; Officer Andrew Polas had fired six rounds; and Officer Cody Berne fired 11 rounds. All used the same make and model service weapon, a 9 mm Glock.

The police documents indicate Otis was carrying a Taurus Millenium 111 PT semi-automatic handgun, a model made in Brazil and designed for concealed carrying, according to the company's website.

 

In documents released by the police bureau, Officer Brian Dale reports that he "later saw a silver semi-auto handgun on the driver's seat of the suspect's car," but nothing else is noted about its condition. Otis' dead body was reportedly half in, half out of the Toyota Corolla, as officers had tried to physicallly drag him out of the driver's seat.

Burley confirmed at a press conference Thursday morning that he was one of the officers trying to drag Otis out of the car, and that he had his hands on Otis' shoulders just before the shots were fired. He is shown in the diagram as being well away from Otis' vehicle, on the driver's side, during the shooting.

Burley spoke surrounded by middle school graduates of the Gang Resistance Outreach and Training group he leads.
The GREAT kids faced a bank of television, radio and newspaper reporters to recount their feelings of sadness and fear upon learning their teacher was shot in a traffic stop.
Afterward, Burley told his emotional story about how the incident affected him, and described the counseling and support services he's getting to recover from the shooting. Burley did not fire his weapon in the incident.

A television reporter pressed him on the issue of whether he knew Otis was planning to shoot. Burley twice said he had no idea what was going to happen.


Police records indicate the officers, all members of the HEAT gang enforcement squad, pulled Otis over for what appears to be a pretext stop.

Officer Burley's GREAT students showed their support for his recovery at a press conference at the East Precinct June 3

Officers testified in the bureau's internal investigation that Otis failed to signal lane changes, was wearing a hoodie up, and stared at one police car through his rear-view mirror, all of which gained the attention of officers who pulled him over near Lloyd Center.
The nearly 700-page collection of reports released by the Portland Police Department this week raises a number of questions, which may be answered by the Grand Jury transcripts, including motivation for the stop in the first place, as well as what may be questionable actions at the scene.

A police bureau diagram shows that one officer actually ran through the trajectory of gunfire unleashed by three other police officers to get out of the line of fire.

Police Chief Reese and Mayor Sam Adams today released to the media the results of the bureau's investigations into the May 12 incident, which ended in Otis' death from multiple shotgun wounds, and an officer hospitalized, also with gunshot wounds.
The transcripts from the Grand Jury investigation, which found no wrongdoing by the police officers, may be released this week, pending a judge's order.

 
Police Chief Mike Reese

Police report that Otis was armed with a semi-automatic handgun, and that the situation went out of control as he reached for the gun in a car's glove box.
They say Otis was hit by "less lethal" weapons three times before the gunshots were fired, and that he was treated at the scene by paramedics before being pronounced dead.
Burley has since been released from the hospital and is expected to make a full recovery.
The police documents indicate Otis was carrying a Taurus Millenium 111 PT semi-automatic handgun, a model made in Brazil and designed for concealed carrying, according to the company's website.
The official police bureau diagram of the Otis shooting shows Officers Defrain, Berne and Polas on the left side of the car firing at the driver, while Murphy is on the right side of the car.
Murphy apparently ran from a position just behind the passenger side window, forward in a trajectory parallel to the line of fire.
Also this year, Murphy was involved in a Jan.28 incident in which a Portland Community College women's basketball team member was stopped by police, cuffed, and released, triggering an investigation by the Independent Police Review Board.
Records showed Murphy held Delease Carter's legs as another officer cuffed her. Carter, whose coach at PCC pulled her from a basketball game the next morning because of fears she had a concussion, and who was treated at Emanuel Hospital for injuries sustained in the encounter, has filed a tort claim against the city.
The records in the May 12 Otis shooting show that a bicyclist who stopped on a nearby street corner, as well as a nearby resident who recorded the stop on an iphone, were key witnesses able to describe the entire scene as it unfolded.
However their testimony – and the rest of the witness testimony – was contradictory, the police reports show. All witness names were blanked out from the police records released Tuesday morning.
The police report quotes the bike witness describing the three-minute stop as "routine," but adding that it progressively "got tense." By the times shots were fired, he said, the scene had become one of "controlled hysteria."
Within minutes four patrol cars boxed Otis' car in near the corner of Northeast Halsey and 6th Avenues, with seven officers on the scene at the time the gunshots rang out, police reports show.
The bike witness says Otis appeared to start arguing with the police after refusing to get out of his car.
One officer then fetched a Taser, while others tried to pull Otis out by the arms as he sat in the driver's seat.
"(Blanked out) said the officer with the taser fired it at the person in the car, and the person responded by leaning or slumping over. He said very quickly afterward, there were shots fired by the officers at the person inside the car. (Blanked out) said he could not see well enough to determine if the person inside the car had a weapon to fire back."
According to the police report, this witness described himself as "neutral to the police," and said he did not think officers "provoked" Otis until he refused to step out of the car.
The iphone witness said the officers started screaming at Otis from the very beginning of the stop because he would not raise his hands as he was ordered to do. She decided to video the traffic stop because she "figured things were not going to go well," according to a detective's report on the interview.
A third witness, who is described in other testimony as an "elderly African American woman," told officers that Otis promptly put his hands up when commanded to do so, and that when Otis' hands were raised an officer "started to hit him."
The African American witness told officers she was going to pick up her granddaughter from elementary school for a trip to McDonald's with when she saw the unmarked police car pull in front of Otis' Toyota.
She said a "bald headed officer" yelled at Otis and hit him, then a second officer Tased him through the open back passenger window before the bald officer Tased Otis again through the front drivers' side window.
"She stated shortly after OTIS was tazed the second time, he looked at her and asked her not to leave him because the police were going to kill him," the police report says.
In her interview with officers after the incident, the woman – who was described elsewhere in the report as "convulsing" and in shock after Otis' death – says she could "see the front of OTIS from his belt to the top of his head and she knew he didn't have a gun."

Otis' family, in a statement to the media, declared that the budding artist had been diagnosed with a "mood disorder," which made it difficult for him to get along in the larger society.