10-19-2024  2:23 pm   •   PDX and SEA Weather

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NORTHWEST NEWS

19 Mayoral Candidates Compete to Lead Portland, Oregon, in a Race With Homelessness at Its Heart

Whoever wins will oversee a completely new system of government.

The Skanner News Endorsements: Oregon Statewide Races

It’s a daunting task replacing progressive stalwart Earl Blumenauer, who served in the office for nearly three decades. If elected to the U.S. House of Representatives, Rep. Janelle Bynum (D-Clackamas) would be the first Black representative Oregon has ever sent to the U.S. Congress. This election offers many reasons to vote.

Washington State Voters will Reconsider Landmark Climate Law

Supporters of repealing the Climate Commitment Act say it has raised energy costs and gas prices. Those in favor of keeping it say billions of dollars and many programs will vanish if it disappears. The law is designed to cut pollution while raising money for investments that address climate change. 

In Pacific Northwest, 2 Toss-up US House Races Could Determine Control of Narrowly Divided Congress

Oregon’s GOP-held 5th Congressional District and Washington state’s Democratic-held 3rd Congressional District are considered toss ups, meaning either party has a good chance of winning. If Janelle Bynum wins in November, she'll be Oregon’s first Black member of Congress. 

NEWS BRIEFS

Outside the Frame Presents Reel Ambitions: Films by Youth Who Have Experienced Homelessness; at Hollywood Theatre November 7

“I look back at my time being homeless and I’m done with looking at it as traumatic. Now it’s art.” – Violet Clyne,...

Seattle Shakespeare Company Announces Twelfth Night at ACT Contemporary Theatre

Memorandum of Understanding signed between organizations regarding their first joint production playing June 2025 ...

Meeting the Demand: The Essential Role of Current and Future Health Professionals

Multiple ,200 United Health Foundation Diversity in Health Care scholarships available. Applications due October 31, 2024. ...

Senator Manning and Elected Officials to Tour a New Free Pre-Apprenticeship Program

The boot camp is a FREE four-week training program introducing basic carpentry skills to individuals with little or no...

Prepare Your Trees for Winter Weather

Portland Parks & Recreation Urban Forestry staff share tips and resources. ...

A fast-moving brush fire in California burned 2 homes while others were damaged by smoke and water

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — A fast-moving fire fed by strong winds burned two homes Friday and damaged several others in a hillside neighborhood in the city of Oakland, where roughly 500 people were ordered to evacuate, officials said. Fire Chief Damon Covington said that at about 1:30...

BetMGM cuts under prop bets on NBA players on 2-way or 10-day contracts

LAS VEGAS (AP) — BetMGM Sportsbook, in light of the lifetime banishment of Toronto Raptors forward Jontay Porter, will not take NBA proposition under bets on players on two-way or 10-day contracts. The sportsbook is joining several others taking this action that, according to ESPN,...

Brady Cook, hobbled by an injury, rallies No. 19 Mizzou to a 21-17 win over Auburn

COLUMBIA, Mo. (AP) — Missouri quarterback Brady Cook returned from a midgame trip to the hospital to have an MRI exam on his ailing ankle and led his team to two fourth-quarter touchdowns, including the go-ahead run by Jamal Roberts with 46 seconds remaining that gave the Tigers a 21-17 victory...

No. 19 Missouri returns to conference play with Auburn visiting Faurot Field for Homecoming game

Auburn (2-4, 0-3 SEC) at No. 19 Missouri (5-1, 1-1), Saturday, 12 p.m. ET (ESPN) BetMGM College Football Odds: Missouri by 4 1/2. Series record: Auburn leads 3-1. WHAT’S AT STAKE? Missouri still believes it can play for the SEC title and a...

OPINION

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. ...

Measure 117 is a Simple Improvement to Our Elections

Political forces around the country have launched an all-out assault on voting rights that targets Black communities. State legislatures are restricting voting access in districts with large Black populations and are imposing other barriers and pernicious...

How Head Start Shaped My Life

My Head Start classroom was a warm environment that affirmed me as a learner. That affirmation has influenced my journey from Head Start to public media president. ...

The Skanner News: 2024 City Government Endorsements

In the lead-up to a massive transformation of city government, the mayor’s office and 12 city council seats are open. These are our endorsements for candidates we find to be most aligned with the values of equity and progress in Portland, and who we feel...

AFRICAN AMERICANS IN THE NEWS

Harris and Lizzo praise Detroit — in contrast to Trump — ahead of an Atlanta rally with Usher

DETROIT (AP) — Vice President Kamala Harris appeared with Lizzo on Saturday in the singer's hometown of Detroit, marking the beginning of in-person voting and lavishing the city with praise after Republican nominee Donald Trump recently disparaged it. “All the best things were...

Chumash people in California to co-steward marine sanctuary in historic partnership

For more than 10,000 years, Native Americans have been living along California’s central coast, an area of breathtaking beauty with stunning turquoise waters rich in biodiversity. Now, in the first partnership of its kind, the area will soon be part of a new national marine sanctuary that Native...

Black male teachers are a rarity in preschools. This pioneering program wants to change that

BALTIMORE (AP) — Before 19-year-old Davontez Johnson found himself in a preschool classroom at Dorothy I. Heights Elementary, he was a senior at a nearby high school who, like many students his age, was unsure of what he wanted to do with his life. Not in his wildest dreams could he have imagined...

ENTERTAINMENT

Book Review: 'Countdown 1960' shows parallels with this year's presidential election season

"Countdown 1960: The Behind-the-Scenes Story of the 312 Days that Changed America's Politics Forever" is a look at a critical period in U.S. history that holds lessons for today. CNN news anchor Chris Wallace starts the book in January 1960, when U.S. Sen. John F. Kennedy of...

Jack Nicholson, Spike Lee and Billy Crystal set to become basketball Hall of Famers as superfans

Back when the Lakers were putting on shows as good as anything coming out of Hollywood, the coolest guy in the building might've been courtside. Even across the country, everyone noticed Jack Nicholson. “Growing up, the guy I looked at was Jack Nicholson,” Spike Lee...

Next Met Gala chairs: Pharrell Williams, Lewis Hamilton, Colman Domingo, A$AP Rocky and LeBron James

NEW YORK (AP) — The theme of the next Met Gala and its celebrity chairs have been announced: Pharrell Williams, Lewis Hamilton, Colman Domingo, A$AP Rocky and LeBron James will help the museum launch an exhibit examining Black style in menswear over the centuries. Williams and...

U.S. & WORLD NEWS

Cuba gets some electricity back after major power outage left millions in the dark

HAVANA (AP) — Some electricity was restored in Cuba, the government said Saturday, after the island nation's...

Video published by Ukraine allegedly shows North Korean soldiers in Russia

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — A video purporting to show dozens of North Korean recruits lining up to collect Russian...

The last in-person vote in the US will be cast on the desolate tundra of Alaska's Aleutian Islands

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — On a desolate slab of island tundra in western Alaska, a resident of Adak will again...

What to know about Yahya Sinwar, the Hamas leader who was killed in Gaza

Yahya Sinwar, the Hamas leader who was killed by Israeli forces in the Gaza Strip, was the mastermind behind the...

Video published by Ukraine allegedly shows North Korean soldiers in Russia

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — A video purporting to show dozens of North Korean recruits lining up to collect Russian...

The first migrants sent to Albania for processing return to Italy

SHENGJIN, Albania (AP) — An Italian navy ship on Saturday took back to Italy the first 12 migrants from newly...

The Skanner News

The FBI has released case files on the shooting murder of rap artist Christopher "Biggie Smalls" Wallace, AKA Notorious B.I.G. The files, detail the case investigation, dating from Smalls' murder in 1997 through 2005 when the case was closed. Three files have been released online as part of the FBI's 'Vault' program.
 The three files contain hundreds of pages of investigation. While heavily redacted in places, the files report the speculation that Smalls was murdered in retaliation for the murder of Tupac Shakur, and that Death Row records and Los Angeles police officers were involved. The Skanner News Video: Biggie and Tupac
"Several sources have identified the shooter as a light-skinned Black male wearing a suit and a bow ties," the file says on page one. "It has also been noted by several sources that (name is redacted) and several other LAPD officers attended this party and were seen with (name redacted) just prior to the shooting."
FBI agents on both coasts participated in a nearly two-year investigation aimed at finding out who gunned down the Notorious B.I.G. and whether any Los Angeles police officers were involved, according to recently released records. 
The inquiry ended in early 2005, after federal prosecutors concluded there wasn't enough evidence to pursue a case against any officers or another man implicated in the rapper's 1997 shooting death. 
The decision was made after agents in Los Angeles, San Diego and New York tried to track down potential suspects and witnesses who might shed new light on the unsolved killing that came months after another rap superstar, Tupac Shakur, was shot dead in Las Vegas. 
The New York Daily News has reported that the files say the bullets that killed Smalls were a "very rare"  German ammunition that could pierce metal. The FBI traced the 9mm Gecko bullets to just two distributors in the U.S. -- one in New Jersey, the other in California.
The rare ammunition was found in the home of a rogue L.A. cop named David Mack, who was was arrested for armed robbery. According to the New York Daily News report, Mack's name was redacted in the files but his identity was clear because of details about his arrest for armed robbery and the discovery in his home of a "shrine" to Tupac Shakur. Mack has denied any involvement in the case.  He was released from jail in May 2010.
 Mack has denied any MM Mac
The investigation started out as a civil rights violation and public corruption review, but efforts were made to solve the homicide case. The FBI's file included police reports. 
Informants told the FBI that the killing of B.I.G., whose real name was Christopher Wallace, may have been aided by corrupt police officers. The heavily redacted case files include several mentions of sources who wouldn't talk to Los Angeles police investigators about Wallace's death because of suspicions about corruption. 
The records showed that agents conducted surveillance on one man in San Diego who they thought may have fired the fatal shots at Wallace, and even went through his mail and garbage. They also showed an agent consulted frequently with a civil attorney who was pursuing a wrongful death on behalf of Wallace's estate against the city of Los Angeles. 
No one has been arrested for Wallace or Shakur's killings, although both deaths have been the subject of rampant speculation about the motives. The one-time friends became rivals and instigators in an East Coast-West Coast rap rivalry during the mid-1990s. 
Wallace was shot and killed with a 9mm gun on Wilshire Boulevard in March 1997 after leaving a Los Angeles music industry event. 
The FBI released Wallace's file on March 27 on its website, The Vault, which contains the bureau's most requested case documents that can be released. The FBI on Friday publicized that it had added more than 25 new files that it had never released electronically and by Wednesday, fans and journalists were poring over the Wallace file. 
Wallace's family dismissed a federal lawsuit against Los Angeles last year, which their attorney said was done in order for the FBI and other agencies to pursue new leads in the case. A 2005 trial ended with a mistrial after attorneys for Wallace's family discovered the city had withheld a trove of LAPD documents. 
Attorney Brad C. Gage said Wednesday he had not reviewed the recently released FBI documents.