07-01-2024  5:54 am   •   PDX and SEA Weather

  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4

NORTHWEST NEWS

Summer Classes, Camps and Experiences for Portland Teens

Although registration for a number of local programs has closed, it’s not too late: We found an impressive list of no-cost and low-cost camps, classes and other experiences to fill your teen’s summer break.

Parts of Washington State Parental Rights Law Criticized as a ‘Forced Outing’ Placed on Hold

A provision outlining how and when schools must respond to records requests from parents was placed on hold, as well as a provision permitting a parent to access their student’s medical and mental health records. 

Seattle Police Officer Fired for off-Duty Racist Comments

The termination stemmed from an altercation with his neighbor, Zhen Jin, over the disposal of dog bones at the condominium complex where they lived in Kenmore. The Seattle Office of Police Accountability had recommended a range of disciplinary actions, from a 30-day suspension to termination of employment.

New Holgate Library to Open in July

Grand opening celebration begins July 13 with ribbon cutting, food, music, fun

NEWS BRIEFS

Governor Kotek Endorses Carmen Rubio for Portland Mayor

The campaign to elect Carmen Rubio as Portland’s next Mayor has announced that Governor Tina Kotek has thrown her support...

PCC’s Literary Art Magazines Reach New Heights

Two of PCC’s student-led periodicals hit impressive anniversaries, showcasing the college’s strong commitment to the literary...

Merkley Champions Legislation to Repeal the Comstock Act

The Stop Comstock Act would repeal the 1873 law that could be misused to ban abortion nationwide. ...

Art Exhibit 'Feeling Our Age-Sixty Over Sixty' Opens

The exhibition runs through mid-August, 1540 NW 13th Ave. at NW Quimby. ...

PCCEP Forum on Brain Injuries, Policing, and Public Safety

This Wednesday, June 26, 6-8:30 p.m. in person at The Melody Event Center ...

Arizona wildfire advances after forcing evacuations near Phoenix

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. (AP) — More than 200 firefighters were battling a wildfire northeast of Phoenix on Saturday that threatened scores of homes and has forced dozens of residents to evacuate. No structures have been damaged as the wildfire traversed nearly 6 square miles (15 square...

Air tankers and helicopters attack Arizona wildfire that has forced evacuations near Phoenix

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. (AP) — Air tankers and helicopters helped douse flames from the sky as nearly 200 firefighters on the ground battled a wildfire northeast of Phoenix on Friday that threatened scores of homes and forced dozens of residents to evacuate. Authorities expanded the...

Missouri governor says new public aid plan in the works for Chiefs, Royals stadiums

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) — Missouri Gov. Mike Parson said Thursday that he expects the state to put together an aid plan by the end of the year to try to keep the Kansas City Chiefs and Royals from being lured across state lines to new stadiums in Kansas. Missouri's renewed efforts...

Kansas governor signs bills enabling effort to entice Chiefs and Royals with new stadiums

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Kansas' governor signed legislation Friday enabling the state to lure the Super Bowl champion Kansas City Chiefs and Major League Baseball's Royals away from neighboring Missouri by helping the teams pay for new stadiums. Gov. Laura Kelly's action came three days...

OPINION

Minding the Debate: What’s Happening to Our Brains During Election Season

The June 27 presidential debate is the real start of the election season, when more Americans start to pay attention. It’s when partisan rhetoric runs hot and emotions run high. It’s also a chance for us, as members of a democratic republic. How? By...

State of the Nation’s Housing 2024: The Cost of the American Dream Jumped 47 Percent Since 2020

Only 1 in 7 renters can afford homeownership, homelessness at an all-time high ...

Juneteenth is a Sacred American Holiday

Today, when our history is threatened by erasure, our communities are being dismantled by systemic disinvestment, Juneteenth can serve as a rallying cry for communal healing and collective action. ...

AFRICAN AMERICANS IN THE NEWS

After 32 years as a progressive voice for LGBTQ Jews, Rabbi Sharon Kleinbaum heads into retirement

NEW YORK (AP) — For more than three decades, Rabbi Sharon Kleinbaum has led the nation’s largest LGBTQ+ synagogue through the myriad ups and downs of the modern gay-rights movement — through the AIDS crisis, the murder of Matthew Shepard, the historic civil-rights advances that included...

Today in History: June 30, Night of the Long Knives

Today in History Today is Sunday, June 30, the 182nd day of 2024. There are 184 days left in the year. Today’s Highlight in History: On June 30, 1934, Adolf Hitler launched his “blood purge” of political and military rivals in Germany in what came...

Things to know about the case of Missouri prison guards charged with murder in death of a Black man

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Five prison guards have been charged in the December death of a Black man who was pepper sprayed, had his face covered with a mask and was left in a position that caused him to suffocate while in custody at a correctional facility. The charges, announced on...

ENTERTAINMENT

Celebrity birthdays for the week of June 30-July 6

Celebrity birthdays for the week of June 30-July 6: June 30: Actor Nancy Dussault (“Too Close For Comfort”) is 88. Singer Glenn Shorrock (Little River Band) is 80. Jazz bassist Stanley Clarke is 73. Actor David Garrison (“Married...with Children”) is 72. Guitarist Hal Lindes...

‘Hawaii Five-0’ fan favorite and former UFC fighter Taylor Wily dies at 56

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Taylor Wily, a former sumo wrestler who became known for his role as confidential informant Kamekona Tupuola on both “Hawaii Five-0” and “Magnum P.I,” has died, his friend and a “Hawaii Five-0” producer both said Friday. He was 56. “Hawaii Five-0”...

Lyles and Snoop help NBC post best track trials ratings in 12 years

EUGENE, Ore. (AP) — The combination of Noah Lyles, Snoop Dogg and 16-year-old Quincy Wilson running for a spot in the Olympics lifted NBC to its largest audience for the U.S. track trials since 2012, according to Nielsen. Viewership for the Sunday night presentation of the trials...

U.S. & WORLD NEWS

Trump ally Steve Bannon will report to federal prison to serve 4-month sentence on contempt charges

WASHINGTON (AP) — Longtime Trump ally Steve Bannon is scheduled to report to a federal prison in Connecticut on...

The Republicans who want to be Trump's VP were once harsh critics with key policy differences

WASHINGTON (AP) — It’s hard to refer to someone as “Hitler” and end up in their good graces, let alone...

US Supreme Court Latest: Court expected to rule on Trump immunity case as end of term nears

WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. Supreme Court justices will take the bench today to release their last few opinions...

R. Sampanthan, face of the Tamil minority's campaign for autonomy after Sri Lanka's civil war, dies

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (AP) — Rajavarothiyam Sampanthan, an ethnic Tamil leader and lawmaker who became the face of...

Millions in Nigeria have little to no electricity. It's straining businesses and public services

IBADAN, Nigeria (AP) — Dimly lit and stuffy classrooms stir with life every morning as children file in. Rays of...

Firefighters tackle blazes on Greek islands of Chios and Kos as premier warns of 'dangerous summer'

ATHENS, Greece (AP) — Firefighters were racing to tackle wildfires that broke out on the eastern Aegean islands...

From Amanda Davies CNN

MANCHESTER, England (CNN) -- A former assistant to Lance Armstrong and his cycling team who first told her tale of the team's alleged doping abuses nearly a decade ago says her goal has never been to bring the legendary cyclist down.

"I'm hoping and in the long term think it will be good for cycling and it will be good for the riders involved in cycling because I think that now more than ever, this is the opportunity for riders to have the choice to ride clean and stay clean if they choose to," Emma O'Reilly said in an interview to be aired Friday on CNN.

O'Reilly worked with Armstrong for two years as a U.S. Postal Service team soigneur -- part masseuse, part personal assistant. She is one of 26 witnesses who testified to the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency as part of its investigation into doping by Armstrong and other riders on the team.

In its report, released Wednesday, the organization tasked with keeping banned substances out of U.S. Olympic-sanctioned sports said it had uncovered "overwhelming evidence" that Armstrong had participated in and helped run the cycling team's doping program.

The agency described it as "the most sophisticated, professionalized and successful doping program that sport has ever seen."

USADA sent the information to international cycling authorities, who are considering a request to strip Armstrong of his Tour de France titles and other wins.

On Friday, the International Olympic Committee said it also is examining USADA's evidence to decide whether it should consider taking away the bronze medal Armstrong won in the 2000 Sydney Olympics, according to spokesman Andrew Mitchell.

On Wednesday, Armstrong lawyer Tim Herman dismissed the USADA report as a "one-sided hatchet job" and a "government-funded witch hunt" against the seven-time Tour de France winner, who has consistently denied doping accusations, including those made by O'Reilly. Armstrong decided to give up fighting the agency's investigation in August, after a federal judge dismissed a lawsuit he had filed seeking to stop the probe.

In her affidavit, released Wednesday, O'Reilly reiterated allegations she first made in 2003, in a book by two journalists on allegations against Armstrong.

She told the agency she engaged in clandestine trips to pick up and drop off what she assumed were doping products and said she was in the room when Armstrong and two other team officials came up with a plan to backdate a prescription for corticosteroids for a saddle sore to explain a positive steroid test result during the 1999 Tour de France.

"Now, Emma, you know enough to bring me down," she says Armstrong told her after the meeting.

"The quote has got a bit dramatized," she told CNN. "History has shown that I didn't have enough to bring him down and I never wanted to bring him down. Never, ever wanted to bring Lance down."

But she said in the interview, recorded Thursday, that while she never saw Armstrong use banned substances, she's sure that he did.

"I'm in no doubt about that at all," she said.

Doping was commonplace in cycling in the '90s, she said, as integral to the sport as the bikes that bore riders up and down the French hillside.

"Yeah, this was the '90s in cycling. That was the way, the normal way of doing things. So people who weren't on the program and actually got results were like, 'Wow! Good lord, how did that happen?' "

She said in the CNN interview that she tried to distance herself from doping activities but felt some pressure to go along.

"You know, I always felt kind of guilty in a way that I wasn't a proper soigneur by not getting involved in the medical program," she said. "Because traditionally with soigneur, that's been our role, to be involved with the medical program. And at the time, I probably stood out a bit because I didn't, so I probably felt a bit like, yeah, I'll do it."

She said she first came across doping by the team in 1998, when she said a man gave her a package that he described as testosterone for team cyclist George Hincapie. The man, whose name is redacted from the affidavit, warned her not to travel to the United States with it, O'Reilly said.

Hincapie acknowledged using banned substances in his affidavit to USADA and in a statement released the same day.

That same year, she says Armstrong gave her a small plastic-wrapped package after a race in The Netherlands and asked her to dispose of it. O'Reilly said Armstrong told her it "contained some things he was uneasy traveling with and had not wanted to throw away at the team hotel."

"From Lance's explanation and the shape and feel of the package, I assumed that the package contained syringes that had been used by Lance during the Tour of the Netherlands," she said in the affidavit. "I do not know what the syringes were used for; but, if they had been used to administer legitimate recovery products, then there is no reason they could not have been disposed of by a doctor or trainer at the team hotel."

In 1999, she says, she agreed to a request from Armstrong to go to Spain to pick up a package she assumed involved doping supplies. She said she dropped them off with Armstrong in the parking lot of a McDonald's restaurant in France but never learned what the small white tablets were.

She also recounted buying makeup for Armstrong to conceal what she said he described as bruise from a syringe injection during a race.

In her affidavit, O'Reilly said she didn't talk about what she had seen for years after leaving the team in 2000 "out of a sense of loyalty to the team and because I thought it was better to let sleeping dogs lie."

O'Reilly first discussed the allegations in 2003, when she spoke out to journalist David Walsh for what would ultimately become a book by Walsh and Pierre Ballester on the allegations against Armstrong, "L.A. Confidentiel."

"A lot of riders had died in the previous year, and I was convinced that their deaths were prematurely caused by the use of doping products," she said in her affidavit. "I started to feel that my silence helped allow the doping culture to remain in place and thought that by refusing to speak up about my experience in cycling, I was no better than the directors, doctors and trainer who were actively running the doping programs."

CNN's Zayn Nabbi, Kabeer Mahajan and Michael Pearson contributed to this report.

™ & © 2012 Cable News Network, Inc., a Time Warner Company. All rights reserved.