11-21-2024  6:26 am   •   PDX and SEA Weather

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NORTHWEST NEWS

'Bomb Cyclone' Kills 1 and Knocks out Power to Over Half a Million Homes Across the Northwest US

A major storm was sweeping across the northwest U.S., battering the region with strong winds and rain. The Weather Prediction Center issued excessive rainfall risks through Friday and hurricane-force wind warnings were in effect. 

'Bomb Cyclone' Threatens Northern California and Pacific Northwest

The Weather Prediction Center issued excessive rainfall risks beginning Tuesday and lasting through Friday. Those come as the strongest atmospheric river  that California and the Pacific Northwest has seen this season bears down on the region. 

More Logging Is Proposed to Help Curb Wildfires in the US Pacific Northwest

Officials say worsening wildfires due to climate change mean that forests must be more actively managed to increase their resiliency.

Democrat Janelle Bynum Flips Oregon’s 5th District, Will Be State’s First Black Member of Congress

The U.S. House race was one of the country’s most competitive and viewed by The Cook Political Report as a toss up, meaning either party had a good chance of winning.

NEWS BRIEFS

Dolly Parton's Imagination Library of Oregon Announces New State Director and Community Engagement Coordinator

“This is an exciting milestone for Oregon,” said DELC Director Alyssa Chatterjee. “These positions will play critical roles in...

Multnomah County Library Breaks Ground on Expanded St. Johns Library

Groundbreaking marks milestone in library transformations ...

Janelle Bynum Statement on Her Victory in Oregon’s 5th Congressional District

"I am proud to be the first – but not the last – Black Member of Congress from Oregon" ...

Veterans Day, Monday, Nov. 11: Honoring a Legacy of Loyalty and Service and Expanding Benefits for Washington Veterans

Washington State Department of Veterans Affairs (WDVA) is pleased to share the Veterans Day Proclamation and highlight the various...

Rain and snow pummel Northern California in latest wave of damaging weather to strike West Coast

SANTA ROSA, Calif. (AP) — A major storm pummeled Northern California with rain and snow Thursday and threatened to cause flash flooding and rockslides in the latest wave of damaging weather to wash over the West Coast. The National Weather Service extended a flood watch into...

Judge keeps death penalty a possibility for man charged in killings of 4 Idaho students

BOISE, Idaho (AP) — The death penalty will remain a possibility for a man charged with murder in the stabbing deaths of four University of Idaho students, a judge ruled Wednesday. Judge Steven Hippler was not swayed by legal arguments made by Bryan Kohberger’s defense team to...

Pacific visits Missouri following Fisher's 23-point game

Pacific Tigers (3-3) at Missouri Tigers (3-1) Columbia, Missouri; Friday, 7:30 p.m. EST BOTTOM LINE: Pacific visits Missouri after Elijah Fisher scored 23 points in Pacific's 91-72 loss to the Arkansas Razorbacks. Missouri finished 8-24 overall with a 6-11...

Cal Poly visits Eastern Washington after Cook's 24-point game

Cal Poly Mustangs (2-2) at Eastern Washington Eagles (1-2) Cheney, Washington; Sunday, 7 p.m. EST BETMGM SPORTSBOOK LINE: Eagles -6.5; over/under is 157.5 BOTTOM LINE: Eastern Washington hosts Cal Poly after Andrew Cook scored 24 points in Eastern...

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

St. Louis was once known as Mound City for its many Native American mounds. Just one remains

ST. LOUIS (AP) — What is now St. Louis was once home to more than 100 mounds constructed by Native Americans — so many that St. Louis was once known as “Mound City.” Settlers tore most of them down, and just one remains. Now, that last remaining earthen structure, Sugarloaf...

New Zealanders are banned from displaying gang symbols as a new law takes effect

WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — A ban on New Zealanders wearing or displaying symbols of gang affiliation in public took effect on Thursday, with police officers making their first arrest for a breach of the law three minutes later. The man was driving with gang insignia displayed on...

Nearly 0 million awarded to the family of a man fatally shot in his apartment by an officer

DALLAS (AP) — The family of a man shot and killed by a Dallas police officer who said she mistook his apartment for her own was awarded nearly 0 million Wednesday in a federal civil trial. The jury found after a three-day trial that ex-officer Amber Guyger used excessive force...

ENTERTAINMENT

From 'The Exorcist' to 'Heretic,' why holy horror can be a hit with moviegoers

In the new horror movie, “Heretic,” Hugh Grant plays a diabolical religious skeptic who traps two scared missionaries in his house and tries to violently shake their faith. What starts more as a religious studies lecture slowly morphs into a gory escape room for the two...

Book Review: Chris Myers looks back on his career in ’That Deserves a Wow'

There are few sports journalists working today with a resume as broad as Chris Myers. From a decade doing everything for ESPN (SportsCenter, play by play, and succeeding Roy Firestone as host of the interview show “Up Close”) to decades of involvement with nearly every league under contract...

Was it the Mouse King? ‘Nutcracker’ props stolen from a Michigan ballet company

CANTON TOWNSHIP, Mich. (AP) — Did the Mouse King strike? A ballet group in suburban Detroit is scrambling after someone stole a trailer filled with props for upcoming performances of the beloved holiday classic “The Nutcracker.” The lost items include a grandfather...

U.S. & WORLD NEWS

Volcano on Iceland's Reykjanes Peninsula erupts for the 7th time in a year

GRINDAVIK, Iceland (AP) — A volcano on the Reykjanes Peninsula in southwestern Iceland has erupted for the...

At least 38 killed as gunmen open fire on vehicles carrying Shiites in northwest Pakistan

PESHAWAR, Pakistan (AP) — Gunmen opened fire on vehicles carrying Shiite Muslims in Pakistan's restive northwest...

Federal Reserve's likely slowdown in rate cuts could disappoint borrowers

WASHINGTON (AP) — Just a few weeks ago, the path ahead for the Federal Reserve looked straightforward: With...

Thai court dismisses activist's suit against Israeli spyware producer over lack of evidence

BANGKOK (AP) — A Thai court on Thursday threw out a lawsuit brought by a pro-democracy activist which alleged...

Southeast Asian defense chiefs discuss regional security with US, China and other partner nations

VIENTIANE, Laos (AP) — Southeast Asian defense chiefs met Thursday with their counterparts from China, the...

Russia and China oppose changing the Kenya-led force in Haiti to a UN peacekeeping mission

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — Russia and China on Wednesday opposed a U.S.-led campaign to transform the Kenya-led...

Michael Liedtke AP Technology Writer

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) -- Bloggers and activists from China, the Middle East and Latin America said Friday they were afraid that new Twitter policies could allow governments to censor messages, stifling free expression.

Thursday's announcement that Twitter had refined its technology to censor messages on a country-by-country basis raised fears that the company's commitment to free speech may be weakening. Twitter is trying to broaden its audience and make more money by expanding around the globe.

"I'm afraid it's a slippery slope of censorship," said social media commentator Jeff Jarvis, interviewed at a gathering of business and government leaders in Davos, Switzerland.

"I understand why Twitter is doing this - they want to be able to enter more countries and deal with the local laws. But, as Google learned in China, when you become the agent of the censor, there are problems there," he added.

Egyptian activist Mahmoud Salem, who tweets and blogs under the name "Sandmonkey," questioned in a tweet whether Twitter "is selling us out."

Twitter sees the censorship tool as a way to ensure individual messages, or tweets, remain available to as many people as possible while it navigates a gauntlet of different laws around the world.

Before, when Twitter erased a tweet it disappeared throughout the world. Now, a tweet containing content breaking a law in one country can be taken down there and still be seen elsewhere.

Twitter will post a censorship notice whenever a tweet is removed. That's similar to what Internet search leader Google Inc. has been doing for years when a law in a country where its service operates requires a search result to be removed.

Like Google, Twitter also plans to the share the removal requests it receives from governments, companies and individuals at the chillingeffects.org website.

The similarity to Google's policy isn't coincidental. Twitter's general counsel is Alexander Macgillivray, who helped Google draw up its censorship policies while he was working at that company.

"One of our core values as a company is to defend and respect each user's voice," Twitter wrote in a blog post. "We try to keep content up wherever and whenever we can, and we will be transparent with users when we can't. The tweets must continue to flow."

Twitter, which is based in San Francisco, is tweaking its approach now that its nearly 6-year-old service has established itself as one of the world's most powerful megaphones. Daisy chains of tweets already have played instrumental roles in political protests throughout the world, including the Occupy Wall Street movement in the United States and the Arab Spring uprisings in Egypt, Bahrain, Tunisia and Syria.

It's a role that Twitter has embraced, but the company came up with the new filtering technology in recognition that it will likely be forced to censor more tweets as it pursues an ambitious agenda. Among other things, Twitter wants to expand its audience from about 100 million active users now to more than 1 billion.

Reaching that goal will require expanding into more countries, which will mean Twitter will be more likely to have to submit to laws that run counter to the free-expression protections guaranteed under the First Amendment in the U.S.

If Twitter defies a law in a country where it has employees, those people could be arrested. That's one reason Twitter is unlikely to try to enter China, where its service is currently blocked. Google for several years agreed to censor its search results in China to gain better access to the country's vast population, but stopped that practice two years after engaging in a high-profile showdown with Chain's government. Google now routes its Chinese search results through Hong Kong, where the censorship rules are less restrictive.

In China, where activists quickly caught on to Twitter despite it being blocked inside the country, artist and activist Ai Weiwei tweeted Friday: "If Twitter censors, I'll stop tweeting."

China's Communist Party remains highly sensitive to any organized challenge to its rule and responded sharply to the Arab Spring, cracking down last year after calls for a "Jasmine Revolution" in China.

Many Chinese find ways around the so-called "Great Firewall" that has blocked social networking sites such as Twitter and Facebook.

Nelson Bocaranda, a Venezuelan journalist, radio host and outspoken opponent of President Hugo Chavez, warned that Twitter's decision could prompt a government crackdown on critics' tweets ahead of the Oct. 7 presidential election.

"Twitter has become a weapon to preserve our embattled democracy," said Bocaranda, who has more than 482,000 followers.

Twitter is "an important tool" for Venezuelans to share information as local media resort to self-censorship as means of avoiding conflict with government officials, Bocaranda added.

Salem, the Egyptian activist, added in a tweet on his account: "This is very bad news."

"Is it safe to say that (hash)Twitter is selling us out?" he wrote.

"Clearly there is a huge user backlash against this latest move by Twitter," said blogger Mike Butcher, editor of Tech Crunch Europe.

"It was seen as one of the few platforms that was free of any kind of censorship, heavily used during for example Arab spring and even in Russia lately over protests over the elections. It is, to some extent, something that we could have predicted," Butcher said.

In its Thursday blog post, Twitter said it hadn't yet used its ability to wipe out tweets in an individual country. All the tweets it has previously censored were wiped out throughout the world. Most of those included links to child pornography.

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Associated Press writers Christopher Toothaker in Caracas, Venezuela, Angela Charlton in Davos, Switzerland, Cara Anna in New York and Ben Hubbard in Cairo contributed to this story.

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