11-08-2024  10:03 pm   •   PDX and SEA Weather

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NORTHWEST NEWS

In Portland, Political Outsider Keith Wilson Elected Mayor After Homelessness-focused Race

Wilson, a Portland native and CEO of a trucking company, ran on an ambitious pledge to end unsheltered homelessness within a year of taking office.

‘Black Friday’ Screening Honors Black Portlanders, Encourages Sense of Belonging

The second annual event will be held Nov. 8 at the Hollywood Theatre.

Democratic Attorney General Bob Ferguson Wins Governor’s Race in Washington

Ferguson came to national prominence by repeatedly suing the administration of former President Donald Trump, including bringing the lawsuit that blocked Trump’s initial travel ban on citizens of several majority Muslim nations. 

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.

NEWS BRIEFS

Volunteers of America Oregon Announces Retirement CEO, Kay Toran

Toran's tenure at VOA Oregon is marked by decades of dedicated public service in the State of Oregon and unwavering commitment to...

NAACP Launches Innovative $200 Million Fund of Funds to Transform the Venture Capital Landscape

The fund will invest in fund managers and startups that are focused on closing gaps facing communities of color. ...

Legal Services Corporation Announces 2025 Grant Awards for Civil Legal Services

The grants are part of LSC's ongoing effort to support legal aid organizations in providing essential services to underserved...

Maxine Dexter Elected to Fill Earl Blumenauer's Seat

Blumenauer: “I can think of no person I would rather have take my place” ...

Dan Rayfield Elected Oregon’s Next Attorney General

Rayfield thanks AG Ellen Rosenblum and is honored "to follow her footsteps." ...

Police arrest a man after 9 people are stabbed over 2 days in Seattle

SEATTLE (AP) — A man has been arrested in connection with a spate of random stabbings over two days in Seattle, in which nine people were injured -- five of them on Friday afternoon, police said. “This incident was apparently one individual over a 38-hour period of time committing...

Democrat Andrea Salinas wins reelection in Oregon’s 6th District

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — Democratic U.S. Rep. Andrea Salinas has won reelection in Oregon’s 6th Congressional District, beating Republican Mike Erickson to earn a second term in Congress after outraising him by millions of dollars. Oregon’s newest congressional district, the 6th...

Davis scores 22, Southern Illinois defeats Missouri S&T 86-64

CARBONDALE, Ill. (AP) — Kennard Davis scored 22 points as Southern Illinois beat Missouri S&T 86-64 on Friday night. Davis also had five rebounds, eight assists, and seven steals for the Salukis (1-1). Elijah Elliott scored 14 points, going 5 of 10 from the floor, including 1...

Tamar Bates scores 17 and Mark Mitchell has 16 to lead Missouri past Howard 77-62

COLUMBIA, Mo. (AP) — Tamar Bates scored 17 points, Mark Mitchell added 16 and Missouri defeated Howard 77-62 on Friday night. Missouri (1-1) led by 12 at halftime but it took a late second-half run to put the game away. The Tigers' lead was only 61-57 after Howard's Marcus Dockery...

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

Majority Black Louisiana elementary school to shut down amid lawsuits over toxic air exposure

RESERVE, La. (AP) — A southeast Louisiana school board voted on Thursday to shut down a predominantly Black elementary school adjacent to a petrochemical facility embroiled in multiple lawsuits linked to its high levels of toxic emissions. Denka Performance Elastomer LLC produces...

FBI, Justice Department investigating racist mass texts sent following the election

WASHINGTON (AP) — Several federal and state agencies are investigating how racist mass texts were sent to Black people across the country in the wake of the presidential election this week. The text messages invoking slavery were sent to Black men, women and children, prompting...

Mississippi Senate paid Black attorney less than white ones, US Justice Department says

JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — The Mississippi Senate discriminated against a Black attorney by paying her about half of what her white colleagues were paid for doing the same job, the U.S. Justice Department says in a lawsuit it filed Friday. “Discriminatory employment practices, like...

ENTERTAINMENT

Macy’s Thanksgiving Parade will feature Ariana Madix, T-Pain, 'Gabby’s Dollhouse' and pasta

NEW YORK (AP) — A eclectic group of stars — including reality TV's Ariana Madix, Broadway belter Idina Menzel, hip-hop's T-Pain, members of the WNBA champions New York Liberty and country duo Dan + Shay — will feature in this year's Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade. Music...

Celebrity birthdays for the week of Nov. 10-16

Celebrity birthdays for the week of Nov. 10-16: Nov. 10: Blues singer Bobby Rush is 90. Actor Albert Hall (“Ally McBeal,” ″Beloved”) is 87. Country singer Donna Fargo is 83. Lyricist Tim Rice is 80. Actor Jack Scalia is 74. Director Roland Emmerich (“The Patriot,”...

Music Review: State Champs’ self-titled album is enjoyable, quintessential, predictable pop-punk

New York pop-punk band State Champs’ self-titled album is one fans of the genre have heard before — a band musing about awkward interactions at parties, overthinking their romantic relationships and scorning the mundane. Across 12 tracks, the album is charming, but unchallenging. ...

U.S. & WORLD NEWS

Australian states back national plan to ban children younger than 16 from social media

MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) — Australia’s states and territories on Friday unanimously backed a national plan to...

Teen is in custody after trying to enter Wisconsin elementary school while armed, police say

MADISON, Wis. (AP) — A 13-year-old boy who had researched school shootings online was arrested hours after he...

2 men accused of plotting to shoot at immigrants are convicted of attempting to kill federal agents

Two men who co-founded a militia group have been convicted of attempting to murder federal agents ahead of a...

German chancellor’s last remaining coalition ally makes his move before expected early election

BERLIN (AP) — Germany's economy minister said Friday that he hopes to become his Green Party's candidate for...

Greece and Turkey press ahead with talks in effort to smooth often volatile relations

ATHENS, Greece (AP) — Recent efforts to smooth the frequently volatile ties between neighbors and regional...

Weather extremes influence illegal migration and return between the U.S. and Mexico, study finds

Extreme weather is contributing to undocumented migration and return between Mexico and the United States,...

George E. Curry NNPA Columnist

Give conservatives credit: They have a loud echo chamber.  It usually begins with a lie or, at best, a clever distortion, and the rest of the right-wing crowd are immediately off to the races. The most recent example is the assertion that President Obama made the economy worse.

That point was advanced in a Wall Street Journal column by Peggy Noonan, a former speechwriter for Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush and, briefly, George W. Bush. She is the author of 10 books, including When Character was King: A Story of Ronald Reagan and The Case Against Hillary Clinton.

In her attempt to make a case against Obama, Noonan wrote in the June 3 Wall Street Journal:

"Two years ago I wrote of Clare Booth Luce's observation that all presidents have a sentence: 'He fought to hold the union together and end slavery.' 'He brought America through economic collapse and a world war.' You didn't have to be told it was Lincoln or FDR. I said that Mr. Obama didn't understand his sentence. But Republicans think they know it.  "Four words: He made it worse.  "Obama inherited collapse, deficits and debt. He inherited a broken political culture. These things weren't his fault. But through his decisions, he made them all worse."

Fox, the network that likes to blame all bad things on Obama all the time, was quick to amplify what is certain to be a GOP campaign theme in 2012.

Conservative columnist Charles Krauthammer said during a June 7 Fox News' Special Report with Bret Baier, "…And I think you can argue strongly that the Obama administration made it worse.  In the midterm election last year, the idea that Republicans ran on was that he's a left liberal.  What they're going to run on in 2012 is he's at failure.  He tried all of this stuff.  He promised us we'd get improvement, and it hasn't worked.  It was a huge Keynesian experiment, and it hasn't panned out."   

Bill O'Reilly, host of The O'Reilly Factor on Fox, argued Peggy Noonan's point against resident liberal Alan Colmes [June 7].



O"REILLY: … For you to sit there and say the Obama administration has not made it worse --



COLMES: They made it better.



O'REILLY: -- is for you to just ignore the statistics.



Clearly, Bill O'Reilly is the one ignoring the statistics.

The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO), in a report issued last month on the effectiveness of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, noted that President Obama's economic stimulus plan had helped local and state governments by raising federal matching funds under Medicaid and increased funding for transportation projects.

The stimulus program also provided tax relief for individuals and businesses, increased business write-offs and helped people in need by extending and expanding unemployment benefits as well as increasing benefits under the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, formerly known as the Food Stamps program.

According to the CBO, the stimulus program had the following effects in the first quarter of 2011:

·         Raised real (inflation-adjusted) gross domestic product (GDP) between 1.1 percent and 3.1 percent

·         Lowered the unemployment rate between 0.6 percentage points and 1.8 percentage points

·         Increased the number of people employed between 1.2 million and 3.4 million

·         Increased the number of full-time equivalent jobs by 1.6 million to 4.6 million compared with what would have happened otherwise



The Center on Policy and Budget Priorities, an independent think tank in Washington, D.C., noted that economic activity as measured by inflation-adjusted gross domestic product (GDP) was contracting when the financial stabilization bill known as the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) and the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act were enacted. Since then, however, the economy has grown for seven straight quarters.

Media Matters, the watchdog group, observed: "Economists also agreed that the stimulus was effective.  A March 2010 study in the Wall Street Journal found that 70 percent of economists surveyed said the stimulus 'boosted growth and mitigated job losses.' ABC News reported on February 18, 2010, that most of the economists on its panel thought the economy 'would be worse today without the big aid package.' And a February 2010 survey of 203 members of the National Association for Business Economics (NABE) found that 'eighty-three percent believe that GDP is currently higher than it would have been without the 2009 stimulus package."

Those are the statistics that Bill O'Reilly chooses to ignore.

None of this campaign to blame Obama for everything wrong in America should be surprising.  It is part of a pattern by conservatives:  Make up an outrageous lie – such as the President was not born in the United States and is therefore unqualified to hold office – keep repeating that lie over and over until a large segment of ill-informed people believe it and even when the lie is proven to be a lie, continue claiming it is the truth while you make up yet another lie.

Perhaps we should send O'Reilly and the folks at Fox News the lyrics to Sunshine Anderson's 'Heard it all Before:' "Heard it all before. All of ya lies…But your lies ain't working now."



George E. Curry, former editor-in-chief of Emerge magazine and the NNPA News Service, is a keynote speaker, moderator, and media coach. 

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