09-19-2024  1:03 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 of The Skanner News

The more-than 700-page plus Grand Jury transcript of the Keaton Otis shooting shows the police officer Otis shot never saw a gun, and also that Otis had assaulted a man in North Portland on Feb. 9.
The Grand Jury ruled last week that there was no wrongdoing on the part of officers in the traffic stop, which resulted in death and injury.
Officer Chris Burley was reportedly shot twice by Otis during the traffic stop May 12. Seven Portland police officers surrounded his car, three of whom fired more than 30 bullets into it.
Otis died at the scene from multiple gunshot wounds. Burley was hospitalized and released, and is expected to make a complete recovery.
Otis' family has publicly stated their 25-year-old son had been diagnosed with a "mood disorder." Otis, who lived with his parents, had no known gang ties, but was shot to death by members of the Portland Police anti-gang squad.
The Grand Jury documents, released Monday afternoon, show that after the hail of bullets ended and Otis stopped moving, officers were ordered to move in and Taser him, then fire three beanbag rounds at his body.
When there was no physical response, an arrest team moved in, pulled Otis' lifeless body out of the car, and handcuffed it.
An unidentified questioner during the Grand jury proceedings asks, "Just to be clear, why did you have him fire beanbag rounds?"
"…I thought potentially we could move forward and take him into custody and, in turn, get him medical care," Sgt. Don Livingstone says. "But before I did this, I wanted to make sure he was not faking, he was not lying in wait for us to make a movement and then again would shoot at us when we walked forward," he said.
A few minutes later Livingtone adds, "We move forward. They grab the suspect's arms. They pull him out of the vehicle, up onto the sidewalk and place him into custody without incident."
Another unidentified person says, "What do you mean when you say, 'They placed him into custody?'"
"They put handcuffs on him,' Livingstone says.
"Around his back on in front?"
"Behind his back, put handcuffs behind his back. We're still going to have to make sure he doesn't have a weapon on him before medical can come in and check him," Livingstone says.
Detective Erik Kammerer reported to the Grand Jury that out of 32 shell casings found at the scene, only one did not correspond with the officers' own bullets.
Kammerer said the unique bullet was found in the front passenger floor of Otis' car.
The AMA Coalition for Justice and Police Reform announced Monday afternoon they'll be holding a press conference to look at "Lingering questions about the incident and the investigation."
In the court transcripts released Monday, Burley testifies that he never saw a gun at the scene. Just before he was shot, he tried unsuccessfully to use a choke hold on Otis.
Burley says that "the last situation" he dealt with like that involved a meth addict who assaulted both him and his partner.
"And I'm backing up, I'm backing up, and then it looks – I'm still kind of got this vision just straight into the car of this guy. And I believe I hear – I believe I hear 'Gun'. And then it looks like he's looking over at me. And I couldn't tell if he was arched back in the seat like this or if he was – kind of bent over in the car so he's hunched over. I couldn't—couldn't tell which was he was situated, because everything's happening so quickly. And then I hear two gunshots from inside the car. And then I automatically – as soon as I hear the gunshots, I feel burning in my legs and I realized that I have been hit, and I go to the ground," Burley says.
On further questioning, Burley said he did not remember that any officers were facing him as he was shot. He said he could not recall seeing any of the officers with their guns out, and also couldn't remember whether Otis had his seatbelt on.
Also in the testimony, a local merchant with a booth at the Lloyd Center said that Otis drove up to him on the street in February, and threatened him with an aluminum baseball bat over a woman the merchant employs.
Farhan Rashtabadi said Otis was under the impression that he was a rival for the woman's affections.
The businessman said Otis waved the bat in his face, cursing and saying, "Leave her alone. She's mine."
After the altercation came to a close, Rashtabadi noted the Toyota's license plate number and reported the incident to the police.
His employee indicated she had dated Otis once, and that he still occasionally sent her "weird" text messages.
"I thought maybe he is just being a psycho or something, he is obsessed with my employee," Rashtabadi said.
As police May 12 decided to pull over Otis' car, they noted that it wasn't linked to any offenses, but that it came back "registered to a woman." After they put on sirens and tried to pull Otis over, his driving became erratic; they eventually boxed in the vehicle and began the fatal stand-off.