02-16-2025  11:29 pm   •   PDX and SEA Weather

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NORTHWEST NEWS

Californians Brace for Mudslides in Areas Torched by Fires as Freezing Rain, Snow Aim for Oregon

Officials in Oregon’s Multnomah County, which includes Portland, extended a state of emergency through at least Thursday and said six emergency shelters would be open.

Labor Leaders Push for Strike Support in the Capital

Lawmakers, picket line veterans argue in favor of SB 916, which would allow individuals involved in qualifying labor disputes to collect unemployment while waiting for a contract.

Pastor Mark Knutson on Strengthening Sanctuary and Responding to Trump’s Threats

Augustana Lutheran Church is part of an interfaith network in Portland organizing to protect immigrants.

“Young Black Men Are ___”, A Multimedia Interactive Storytelling Project, Opens February 1

Word Is Bond partners with the 1803 Fund to explore Black identity.

NEWS BRIEFS

AG Rayfield Files Multistate Lawsuit to Stop Elon Musk’s Power Grab

The lawsuit argues that President Trump has exceeded his authority and violated the Appointments Clause of the United States...

Swift Victory in Lawsuit Stopping DOGE’s Attacks on Americans

Attorney General Dan Rayfield has released a statement after an early morning victory in court last week. ...

AG Rayfield Reacts to Latest Victory in Trump’s Attempt to Block Birthright Citizenship Order

“This just proves what we’ve been saying all along. No president can rewrite the Constitution with the stroke of a pen,” said...

Budget Committee Ranking Member Merkley: Vought Dangerously Unfit to Lead OMB

Merkley spoke on the Senate floor to kick off Democratic opposition to Trump’s Office of Management and Budget (OMB) nominee and...

Portland Trail Blazers Host First-ever Albina Rose Alliance Game

Game to highlight the Albina Rose Alliance – a partnership between Albina Vision Trust and the Portland Trail Blazers ...

Fresh lawsuit hits Oregon city at the heart of Supreme Court ruling on homeless encampments

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — The small Oregon city at the heart of a major U.S. Supreme Court ruling last year that allowed cities across the country to enforce homeless camping bans is facing a fresh lawsuit over its camping rules, as advocates find new ways to challenge them in a legal landscape...

Western Oregon women's basketball players allege physical and emotional abuse

MONMOUTH, Ore. (AP) — Former players for the Western Oregon women's basketball team have filed a lawsuit in federal court alleging emotional and physical abuse. The lawsuit, filed on Wednesday in Marion County, seeks million damages. It names the university, its athletic...

Slaughter leads Missouri against No. 5 Texas

Missouri Tigers (12-10, 1-6 SEC) at Texas Longhorns (20-2, 6-1 SEC) Austin, Texas; Thursday, 9 p.m. EST BOTTOM LINE: Missouri visits No. 5 Texas after Grace Slaughter scored 31 points in Missouri's 78-77 victory against the Mississippi State Bulldogs. The...

Slaughter leads Missouri against No. 5 Texas after 31-point game

Missouri Tigers (12-10, 1-6 SEC) at Texas Longhorns (20-2, 6-1 SEC) Austin, Texas; Thursday, 9 p.m. EST BOTTOM LINE: Missouri visits No. 5 Texas after Grace Slaughter scored 31 points in Missouri's 78-77 win over the Mississippi State Bulldogs. The...

OPINION

Bending the Arc: Advancing Equity in a New Federal Landscape

January 20th, 2025 represented the clearest distillation of the crossroads our country faces. ...

Trump’s America Last Agenda is a Knife in the Back of Working People

Donald Trump’s playbook has always been to campaign like a populist and govern like an oligarch. But it is still shocking just how brutally he went after our country’s working people in the first few days – even the first few hours – after he was...

As Dr. King Once Asked, Where Do We Go From Here?

“Let us be dissatisfied until America will no longer have high blood pressure of creeds and an anemia of deeds. Let us be dissatisfied until the tragic walls that separate the outer city of wealth and comfort from the inner city of poverty and despair shall...

A Day Without Child Care

On May 16, we will be closing our childcare centers for a day — signaling a crisis that could soon sweep across North Carolina, dismantling the very backbone of our economy ...

AFRICAN AMERICANS IN THE NEWS

Trump consoles crash victims then dives into politics with attack on diversity initiatives

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump on Thursday responded to the deadliest American aviation disaster in more than two decades by blaming diversity initiatives for undermining safety and questioning the actions of a U.S. Army helicopter pilot involved in the midair collision with a...

US Supreme Court rejects likely final appeal of South Carolina inmate a day before his execution

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — The U.S. Supreme Court rejected Thursday what is likely the final appeal of a South Carolina inmate the day before his scheduled execution for a 2001 killing of a friend found dead in her burning car. Marion Bowman Jr.'s request to stop his execution until a...

Trump's orders take aim at critical race theory and antisemitism on college campuses

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump is ordering U.S. schools to stop teaching what he views as “critical race theory” and other material dealing with race and sexuality or risk losing their federal money. A separate plan announced Wednesday calls for aggressive action to...

ENTERTAINMENT

U.S. & WORLD NEWS

Ivan Watson and Gul Tuysuz CNN


DIYARBAKIR, Turkey (CNN) -- The jailed leader of the Kurdistan Workers Party has called an end to a mass hunger strike in Turkey staged by Kurdish prison inmates and politicians.



"End the hunger strikes as soon as possible without any hesitation ... this action has reached its place and fulfilled its goals," Abdullah Ocalan said, the Kurdish Dicle News Agency reported Saturday.



Ocalan passed along that message to his brother Mehmet, who had been permitted by Turkish authorities to visit the notorious guerrilla leader on the island in the Marmara Sea where he has been kept in solitary confinement.



Mehmet Ocalan then relayed along the comment Saturday to protesters, some of whom have gone without solid food for 66 days:



A leader of the main Kurdish nationalist party, Selahattin Demirtas, appeared to endorse the message.



The Kurdish lawmaker announced on his Twitter feed that "the statement by Mr. Ocalan is a very important development... We support this statement...we hope that the prisoners will reconsider in light of the statement."



On Saturday night, after the entire predominantly Kurdish city of Diyarbakir echoed with the clangs of residents banging pots and pans in support of the hunger strikers, two Kurdish lawmakers had been allowed into one of the city's main prisons, presumably to meet with inmates who have been starving themselves, a spokesman for the hunger strikers told CNN 



There was a huge police presence in front of a municipal building where at least 22 Kurdish politicians, including several lawmakers from the main Kurdish nationalist party and the elected mayor of Diyarbakir, have been staging the hunger strike.



The parliament members had joined a much larger mass hunger strike that started and spread through the Turkish penal system more than a month ago. More than 680 Kurdish inmates have now limited their diets to water, sugar, tea and salt.



Those on the hunger strike have issued several demands: Authorize Kurdish language education in schools, allow defendants to speak Kurdish while representing themselves in court and Ocalan's release from prison.



The problem is many Turks consider Ocalan the country's No. 1 terrorist. The movement he helped found decades ago has been fighting a guerrilla war against the Turkish state for 30 years, a conflict that has claimed more than 30,000 lives. Turkey, as well as the European Union and the United States, have labeled the Kurdistan Workers Party a terrorist organization.



On Saturday, the governor of Diyarbakir blamed the hunger strike and the street protests on the party.



"The legal and civilian extensions of the terrorist organization are increasing the tensions on the streets," Mustafa Toprak, Diyarbakir governor, said in an interview with CNN.



He said police reinforcements had been brought into Diyarbakir to deal with what was said to be a two-day strike. He also said more than 100 people had been detained this week, as Kurds have organized nightly protests in Diyarbakir and other cities and towns throughout the largely Kurdish southeast.



Demonstrators appear to have adopted an unusual tactic to deal with the security forces. 



Throughout the Kurdish region of Turkey, the overwhelming majority of demonstrators seen burning tires and overturning garbage bins were children younger than 15. Boys as young as 7 and 8 were seen torching barricades that had been dragged out to block city streets.



"Children are not terrorists," said Toprak, the Diyarbakir governor. "But the things they are doing, if they were committed by adults, would be considered terrorist acts."



According to a recent report by the nonprofit conflict mediation organization International Crisis Group, Turkish authorities have arrested more than 7,000 Kurdish activists on suspicion of terrorist activities in the past several years.



Gulten Kisanak, one of the Kurdish parliament members on hunger strike, said she and her 34 fellow lawmakers from the Kurdish BDP party were battling more than 750 legal cases against them in court, which could lead to more than 3,000 years in prison.



As barricades burned in the streets outside, Kisanak and her fellow hunger strikers gathered in a reception room decorated with a giant poster of Ocalan.



"We are willing to die," Kisanak vowed. And she repeated her demand for the release of Ocalan, a Kurdish leader she described as "a man of peace."



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