12-03-2024  11:15 am   •   PDX and SEA Weather

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NORTHWEST NEWS

Q & A With Sen. Kayse Jama, New Oregon Senate Majority Leader

Jama becomes first Somali-American to lead the Oregon Senate Democrats.

Oregon Tribe Has Hunting and Fishing Rights Restored Under a Long-Sought Court Ruling

The tribe was among the dozens that lost federal recognition in the 1950s and ‘60s under a policy of assimilation known as “termination.” Congress voted to re-recognize the tribe in 1977. But to have their land restored, the tribe had to agree to a federal court order that limited their hunting, fishing and gathering rights. 

Forecasts Warn of Possible Winter Storms Across US During Thanksgiving Week

Two people died in the Pacific Northwest after a rapidly intensifying “bomb cyclone” hit the West Coast last Tuesday, bringing fierce winds that toppled trees and power lines and damaged homes and cars. Fewer than 25,000 people in the Seattle area were still without power Sunday evening.

Huge Number Of Illegal Guns In Portland Come From Licensed Dealers, New Report Shows

Local gun safety advocacy group argues for state-level licensing and regulation of firearm retailers.

NEWS BRIEFS

Portland Parks & Recreation Wedding Reservations For Dates in 2025

In-person applications have priority starting Monday, January 6, at 8 a.m. ...

Grants up to $120,000 Educate About Local Environmental Projects

Application period for WA nonprofits open Jan. 7 ...

Literary Arts Opens New Building on SE Grand Ave

The largest literary center in the Western U.S. includes a new independent bookstore and café, event space, classrooms, staff offices...

Allen Temple CME Church Women’s Day Celebration

The Rev. Dr. LeRoy Haynes, senior pastor/presiding elder, and First Lady Doris Mays Haynes are inviting the public to attend the...

Vote By Mail Tracking Act Passes House with Broad Support

The bill co-led by Congressman Mfume would make it easier for Americans to track their mail-in ballots; it advanced in the U.S. House...

Idaho’s ‘abortion trafficking’ law mostly can be enforced as lawsuit proceeds, court rules

BOISE, Idaho (AP) — A federal appeals court on Monday ruled that most of Idaho's first-in-the-nation law that makes it illegal to help minors get an abortion without the consent of their parents can take effect while a lawsuit challenging its constitutionality continues. The...

Alaska Airlines tech issue briefly grounds planes in Seattle, disrupts bookings on Cyber Monday

SEATTLE (AP) — A technology issue at Alaska Airlines resulted in the temporary grounding of flights in Seattle on Monday morning and problems into the afternoon for people trying to book flights on its website, the airline said. The Seattle-based company said in a statement the...

There's no rest for the well-traveled in the week's AP Top 25 schedule filled with marquee matchups

It wasn't long after Duke had pushed through Friday's win against Seattle that coach Jon Scheyer lamented a missing piece of the Blue Devils' recent schedule. “We need practice time,” Scheyer said. It's a plight facing a lot of ranked teams that criss-crossed the...

Cal visits Missouri after Wilkinson's 25-point game

California Golden Bears (6-1) at Missouri Tigers (6-1) Columbia, Missouri; Tuesday, 7 p.m. EST BETMGM SPORTSBOOK LINE: Tigers -8.5; over/under is 150.5 BOTTOM LINE: Cal visits Missouri after Jeremiah Wilkinson scored 25 points in Cal's 81-55 victory...

OPINION

A Loan Shark in Your Pocket: Cellphone Cash Advance Apps

Fast-growing app usage leaves many consumers worse off. ...

America’s Healing Can Start with Family Around the Holidays

With the holiday season approaching, it seems that our country could not be more divided. That division has been perhaps the main overarching topic of our national conversation in recent years. And it has taken root within many of our own families. ...

Donald Trump Rides Patriarchy Back to the White House

White male supremacy, which Trump ran on, continues to play an outsized role in exacerbating the divide that afflicts our nation. ...

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. ...

AFRICAN AMERICANS IN THE NEWS

Jury deliberations begin in veteran Daniel Penny's trial over using chokehold on Jordan Neely

NEW YORK (AP) — Jurors began deliberating Tuesday in the trial of a military veteran charged with using a fatal chokehold to subdue a man whose behavior was alarming passengers on a New York subway train. The anonymous jury is weighing manslaughter and criminally negligent homicide...

Jury deliberations have begun in veteran Daniel Penny’s trial over using chokehold on Jordan Neely on a New York subway

NEW YORK (AP) — Jury deliberations have begun in veteran Daniel Penny’s trial over using chokehold on Jordan Neely on a New York subway....

Native American students miss school at higher rates. It only got worse during the pandemic

SAN CARLOS, Ariz. (AP) — After missing 40 days of school last year, Tommy Betom, 10, is on track this year for much better attendance. The importance of showing up has been stressed repeatedly at school — and at home. When he went to school last year, he often came home saying the...

ENTERTAINMENT

Book Review: British novelist Naomi Wood is out with an astonishingly good short story collection

Naomi Wood, an English author not yet well known in the U.S., has written three historical novels, including the well-regarded “Mrs. Hemingway,” about the four wives of Ernest Hemingway. During the Covid lockdowns, when her kids were confined at home and she had less time to herself, she turned...

Book Review: 'Dead Air' tells history of night Orson Welles unleashed fake Martian invasion

Long before Donald Trump used the term “fake news” to complain about coverage he didn't like, Orson Welles mastered the art of actual fake news. Welles' 1938 radio adaptation of H.G. Wells' “The War of the Worlds” is the focus of William Elliott Hazelgrove's “Dead Air: The...

Drake will open his Australia tour the same day rival Kendrick Lamar performs at the Super Bowl

TORONTO (AP) — Drake has announced that his first tour of Australia in eight years will begin on the same date as rival Kendrick Lamar’s Super Bowl halftime performance. The Toronto rapper announced the tour during a livestream Sunday night with Félix Lengyel, a Quebec streamer....

U.S. & WORLD NEWS

They fled war in Sudan. But they haven't been able to flee the hunger

ADRE, Chad (AP) — For months, Aziza Abrahim fled from one village in Sudan to the next as people were...

Hunter Biden gun case dismissed after President Joe Biden's sweeping pardon

WASHINGTON (AP) — A federal judge dismissed the gun case against Hunter Biden on Tuesday after President Joe...

US job openings rose last month, though hiring slowed, in mixed picture for labor market

WASHINGTON (AP) — The number of job postings in the United States rebounded in October from a 3 1/2 year low in...

Key players in Syria's long-running civil war, reignited by a shock rebel offensive

BEIRUT (AP) — Syria’s long civil war has reclaimed global attention after insurgents seized most of its...

Venezuelan migrants keep arriving in Colombia. These faith leaders offer them a home away from home

PALMIRA, Colombia (AP) — It’s been three years since Douarleyka Velásquez abandoned her career in human...

NATO's chief avoids talk of Ukraine's membership. He says the priority is helping Kyiv defend itself

BRUSSELS (AP) — NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte on Tuesday sidestepped questions about Ukraine’s possible...

Carla K. Johnson and Robert Ray the Associated Press


Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel

CHICAGO (AP) -- Seven vinyl banners draped this month along one of Chicago's most iconic bridges, advertisements some have dubbed "a visual crime" and "commercial graffiti," are reviving a debate about how governments raise money in tough economic times.

In the aftermath of the Great Recession, a public school district in Colorado is selling ads on report cards and Utah has a new law allowing ads on school buses. Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel's administration, straining to fill a $600 million budget hole, is looking to raise $25 million from ads on city property - including bridges, electrical storage boxes and garbage cans.

The effort kicked off this month with Bank of America ads on the 81-year-old Wabash Avenue Bridge, which crosses the Chicago River and has appeared in movies including "About Last Night" and "The Dark Knight."

"I think it's disgusting," Chicago resident Linda Rosenthal said recently, shaking her head as she surveyed the signs. "The architecture in Chicago is stunning. To see this awful advertisement angers me."

The white ads with blue lettering and Bank of America's logo are posted on limestone bridge tender houses, which hold the equipment used to raise the bridge when tall boats pass beneath. Bank of America paid $4,500 to put seven signs on the bridge for about a month, said city spokeswoman Kathleen Strand.

Strand promised the city's new campaign will have "policies to protect the integrity of Chicago's facade" and likened the initiative to the Chicago Transit Authority bringing in about $20 million annually from abundant ads on buses and elevated trains that don't seem to anger anybody.

"The municipal marketing strategy is really about pursuing innovative opportunities to avoid having to cut city services or increase the tax burden on Chicagoans," Strand said.

Still, some ask where the line will be drawn. Could the city's historic Water Tower be next? Or Grant Park's famed Buckingham Fountain?

The city's two major daily newspapers have faced off with opposing views. Chicago Tribune architecture critic Blair Kamin called the bridge ads "a visual crime" and "a grotesque cheapening of the public realm." A Chicago Sun-Times editorial said the ads, while unappealing, "beat going bust."

Bank of America spokeswoman Diane Wagner said the company said yes when Chicago officials asked if the bank wanted to advertise on the bridge because it's a major employer and philanthropic supporter in the city.

"We agreed to be the first company to display on the bridge because we want to help the city explore new revenue sources and we think this is an innovative way to generate new revenue," Wagner said.

Chicago advertising professionals doubt it was a smart move for either side.

"I have made my living in advertising, but there has to be better ways to raise money," said Tim Terchek, executive creative director of the Drucker Group ad firm. What's more, the bridge ads could backfire if public disgust sticks to the bank, he said.

Leo Burnett Company's chief strategy officer Stephen Hahn-Griffiths, whose office overlooks the bridge ads, said they are a blight.

"It's like commercial graffiti," Hahn-Griffiths said. "It makes no sense from a marketing perspective and I question the intent of doing this because it does not seem like a smart decision."

Former Milwaukee Mayor John Norquist, president and CEO of the Chicago-based Congress for the New Urbanism, suggested the city could instead rent out spaces like the City Hall lobby or library and cultural center theaters for weddings and other events.

"Placing advertising on a city's architectural assets takes away from the public realm," Norquist said.

Some officials across the country, and the world, are turning to private money for public projects.

In Rome, an Italian shoe company founder has pledged to foot $34 million to restore the Colosseum - the ancient arena blackened by pollution - and its founder has said the gesture could launch more private sponsorship for public benefit in Italy. In Venice, Mayor Giorgio Orsoni defended the use of publicity on restoration of such projects as the famed Doges Palace, saying sponsors' contribution allowed the work to be accelerated.

But Venice also has strict rules on the use of advertisements. Only 10 percent of an exposed facade can be covered, and ads for cigarettes, alcohol and those featuring nudity are banned.

Back in the U.S., a suburban Salt Lake City school district plans to be Utah's first to plaster its buses with advertisements in an effort to generate additional revenue without raising taxes. While the ad revenue is expected to supplement the Jordan School District's budget, officials said it won't be enough to make up for the recent budget cuts.

It's a similar story in Golden, Colo., where Jefferson County Public Schools' report cards now feature ads for the CollegeInvest college savings program. The ads raise $30,000 a year.

"Parents understand where we are at with the funding issues and most of the reaction has been positive," said school district spokeswoman Lorie Gillis.

Retiree Jim Phillips, who leads free tours of Chicago's bridges, challenged the city to channel public curiosity about the structures into money-making ventures, such as charging tourists to see the bridge houses' inner workings.

"If it gets to the point advertisements go on more of these historic structures, I don't think there's any way to stop them on others," Phillips said. "What if you put a NASCAR suit on the Picasso? What if you slapped a Google sign on one of the lions at the Art Institute?"

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Associated Press writers Peter Banda in Golden, Colo., and Colleen Barry in Milan, Italy, contributed to this report.

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