02-17-2025  12:05 am   •   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

Sal Rodriguez Solitarywatch.com

California prisoners in over a dozen prisons are entering their third week on hunger strike, which began on July 8th with 30,000 prisoners across the state participating. This is the third hunger strike since June 2011 that California prisoners in the Security Housing Units (SHU) have participated in, demanding the same five core demands, with an emphasis on ending California's practice of long-term segregation of inmates suspected of prison gang affiliation. As of Sunday, July 21, 1081 individuals were still on hunger strike.

One hunger striker, J., 36, has been incarcerated since he was 16, and has spent the last seven years in the SHU at California State Prison, Corcoran. J. wrote in a letter to his mother on the 7th day of the hunger strike, that he was "feeling a lot better than I expected so I think I'll be able to last quite a while longer." He reports that the prison administration is "just waiting us out. They're not running yard at all and they finally ran showers for the first time last night. The only medical attention they're giving us is if you go man down or put in a slip, other than that a nurse is walking the tier every 3 days and simply looking in all the cells but not asking any questions at all. Literally if you blink you'll miss the nurse walk by they're going that fast."

J. also states that prison officials "gave everyone who's participating a 128 A memo as a warning that if we continue we'll be getting 115's [disciplinary write ups] next. It's crazy cause they're trying to say us protesting is gang activity, but every race is participating so how is that possible? Then when we eventually all get 115's for it they're gonna use it to continue to keep us in the SHU. That's why they're writing it up like that, it's pretty much a form of retaliation on their part."

"I don't know if all this is gonna do us any good in the end, but this fight is worth the effort for sure," J. writes, "If we don't stand up for ourselves who will?"

The hunger strikers, led by prisoners at the Pelican Bay State Prison SHU, have faced retaliation. The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) has seized prison canteen items from participants' cells, including items such as Kool-Aid packets and coffee. Those identified as leaders of the strike at Pelican Bay and Corcoran have reportedly been transported to different segregation units.

Michael Zaharibu Dorrough, incarcerated in the SHU since 1988 following validation as an affiliate of the Black Guerilla Family, recently wrote a letter to a friend dated July 14th, in which he describes being identified as a leader of the hunger strike at Corcoran. Dorrough and his cellmate, J. Heshima Denham, with whom he has shared a cell designed for one in recent years, were identified as leaders of the hunger strike at the prison, along with two Northern Hispanics, two Southern Hispanics, and one white individual. They were transferred from their SHU cells to the section of Corcoran where gang dropouts and informants are housed. "It's an Absolute Madhouse," Dorrough writes. "A day after we were moved here, mattresses were placed in front of our cell. This was designed to re-enforce, psychologically, the feeling of being isolated. And, I guess, to prevent us from receiving food or beverages from anyone. It's so silly that it borders on being offensive. We have absolutely nothing at all in common with any of the people housed in the building. There is no reason at all to communicate with or accept anything from them. As is said, it's a building full of stool pigeons. This is the CDCR's version of sending us to a black site."

The blocking of cell doors with objects has also been reported by a hunger striker at California Correctional Institution, Tehachapi, where sandbags have been placed at the cell doors of hunger strike participants to prevent the passing of objects or messages. The Public Information Officer at Corcoran confirmed to Solitary Watch on Monday that a "sand bag type of hose has been placed at the bottom of cell doors to effectively monitor and manage hunger strikers and their nutritional intake," and that some hunger strikers have had visitation privileges curtailed for reasons that cannot be stated "due to safety and security."

Dorrough and Denham had participated in the hunger strikes of 2011. Both reportedly lost at least 10 percent of their body weights, with Denham passing out during the first hunger strike in 2011, which lasted for three weeks. Recent events and retaliatory actions during this round of hunger strikes strongly mirrors the actions CDCR took against hunger strikers during their September-October 2011 hunger strike.

Denham wrote the following in October 2011:

On or about Oct. 3, they raided 4B1L-C Section and removed all food and drink items – even coffee and salt packs – from the cells of hunger strikers. A short time later the warden and her entourage arrived in our section laughing and joking like it was a day at the fair and ordered sandbags placed in front of each of our cell doors to prevent any fishing so as to ensure non-hunger strikers are not fishing coffee and kool-aid to those on hunger strike.

Human rights attorneys have been banned and we have been denied access to yard and law library. The warden has directed IGI to open and/or confiscate all legal mail for hunger strikers in 4B1L-C Section. RNs have been dismissive and outright verbally disrespectful to some hunger strikers in a blatant attempt to provoke us.

It was recently reported that attorney Marilyn McMahon of California Prison Focus, who represents many of the leaders of the hunger strike, has been banned from visiting clients in the SHU. She and fellow attorney Carol Strickman had been banned from visiting clients during the September-October hunger strikes for reasons never fully explained to them.

Meanwhile, at Pelican Bay, the leaders of the statewide hunger strike had also been removed from their SHU cells. According to the Prisoner Hunger Strike Solidarity Coalition, "prison officials have been attempting to break the resolve of strikers by blasting cold air into the SHU and Administrative Segregation (AD-Seg) units at Pelican Bay." A similar report has been provided to Solitary Watch by the wife of a Pelican Bay hunger striker who is not among the leaders of the hunger strike. Similar claims were made during the hunger strikes of 2011, though CDCR spokesperson Terry Thornton denies that the temperature has been lowered.

The LA Times reported on Thursday that four hunger strikers have required medical attention. According to California Correctional Health Care Services (CCHCS) policy, strikers who have refused food for at least 14 days will soon be getting a document telling them, "You may die, even after you start to eat again," and that, "Now is the time for you to think about what medical care you want when you are no longer able to talk to health care staff." Strikers will also be "provided with written information about advance directives and a Physician Order for Life Sustaining Treatment."

If you have any information from hunger strike participants, please contact the writer at: [email protected].