01-20-2025  6:25 pm   •   PDX and SEA Weather

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NORTHWEST NEWS

St. Andrew Parish to Honor Winners of 2025 Martin Luther King Jr. Service Awards  

St. Andrew Catholic Church is awarding its annual Martin Luther King Jr. Awards to people whose service embodies the values of Dr. King, who used nonviolence, civil disobedience and Christian teaching to advance the cause of civil rights in America

POIC and Community Partners Raise Nearly $3 Million to Make Downtown Safer

POIC opened a downtown safety and resource center last fall.

Seattle Griot Project Secures Permanent Home While Putting Exhibits In Virtual Reality

The former Sanctuary at Admiral in central Seattle will house the Washington State Black Legacy Institute.

Janelle Bynum Becomes First Black Member Of Congress For Oregon

The former state representative for Clackamas County takes oath in D.C. and joins historic Congressional Black Caucus.

NEWS BRIEFS

Biden Lauds STEM Award Winners

President Joe Biden has awarded STEM NOLA the prestigious Presidential Award for Excellence in Science, Mathematics, and Engineering...

MLK Day Events 2025

The annual Martin Luther King Jr. Day is a time that we celebrate, commemorate and honor the life, legacy and impact of Dr. Martin...

Gov. Kotek Delivers 2025 State of the State Address

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North Portland Library to Reopen in February

Grand opening celebration begins February 8 with ribbon cutting, cultural events, food and fun ...

Joint Center Mourns the Passing of President Jimmy Carter

"We will continue to honor President Carter’s unwavering commitment to public service and his lifelong dedication to racial,...

On eve of CFP title game, some college players ask, What would it look like to be employees?

ATLANTA (AP) — The way Kardell Thomas sees things, it wasn't so much the schools as it was the system that let him down. When thinking about the pros and cons of college players forming a union as they navigate their way through an industry that's changing by the day, the story of...

Oregon man who kidnapped a Seattle woman and kept her in a makeshift cell gets life sentence

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — An Oregon man has been sentenced to life in federal prison after being convicted of kidnapping and sexually assaulting two women in separate instances, including locking one in a cinder block cell. Negasi Zuberi, 31, was sentenced Friday in federal court in...

Kaluma, Texas Longhorns square off against the Missouri Tigers

Missouri Tigers (15-3, 4-1 SEC) at Texas Longhorns (12-6, 1-4 SEC) Austin, Texas; Tuesday, 9 p.m. EST BOTTOM LINE: Mark Mitchell and Missouri visit Arthur Kaluma and Texas on Tuesday. The Longhorns have gone 8-3 at home. Texas is ninth in the SEC scoring...

Auburn hosts Missouri in conference showdown

Missouri Tigers (11-9, 0-5 SEC) at Auburn Tigers (9-9, 0-5 SEC) Auburn, Alabama; Sunday, 3 p.m. EST BOTTOM LINE: SEC foes Auburn and Missouri will play on Sunday. The Auburn Tigers have gone 5-4 at home. Auburn is fourth in the SEC in team defense, allowing...

OPINION

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 ...

I Upended My Life to Take Care of Mama.

It was one of the best decisions I ever made. ...

Among the Powerful Voices We Lost in 2024, Louis Gossett, Jr.’s Echoes Loudly

December is the customary month of remembrance. A time of year we take stock; a moment on the calendar when we pause to reflect on the giants we have lost. ...

AFRICAN AMERICANS IN THE NEWS

Trump orders reflect his promises to roll back transgender protections and end DEI programs

President Donald Trump signed executive orders Monday rolling back protections for transgender people and terminating diversity, equity and inclusion programs within the federal government in what he described in his inauguration speech as a move to end efforts to “socially engineer race and...

Trump orders government not to infringe on Americans’ speech, calls for censorship investigation

NEW YORK (AP) — President Donald Trump on Monday ordered that no federal officer, employee or agent may unconstitutionally abridge the free speech of any American citizen, an early step toward his campaign promise to dismantle what he called government “censorship” of U.S. citizens. ...

Notre Dame's Marcus Freeman seeks breakthrough for Black coaches on a historic day in America

ATLANTA (AP) — Notre Dame football coach Marcus Freeman felt more comfortable talking about the national championship his players have a chance to win Monday night than the history attached to it if they pull it off. Still, it’s hard to ignore the connections between Freeman’s...

ENTERTAINMENT

Life of da party: Snoop Dogg to host NFL Honors, which celebrates highs of the 2024 season

NEW YORK (AP) — Grab a gin and juice, Snoop Dogg is hosting the next episode of NFL Honors. He’s sure to be the life of da party. Snoop Dogg will take center stage at the Saenger Theater in New Orleans for the primetime awards show that recognizes the NFL’s best...

Book Review: Robert Crais spins the tale of a hardboiled private eye who uncovers a conspiracy

Traci Beller was 13 when her father — co-owner of a heating and air conditioning company — went out on some service calls and never returned home. The police, who found no trace of him, concluded that he had simply abandoned his family. The family then turned to Jessica Byers, a...

Book Review: 'Open Socrates' shows why philosophy isn't a spectator sport

During a time when many are complaining about divisiveness in politics and in society, it seems counterintuitive for a book to make the case that we need to argue more. But in “Open Socrates: The Case for a Philosophical Life,” Agnes Callard illustrates how philosophy isn't just a...

U.S. & WORLD NEWS

Trump signs orders to remake border security, but his efforts will face challenges

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump signed executive orders Monday to beef up security at the southern...

FACT FOCUS: A look at false and misleading claims Trump made at inaugural events

In his first address after being sworn in on Monday, President Donald Trump repeated several false and misleading...

Inside the intimate inauguration: Close-up encounters between political rivals, some awkward

WASHINGTON (AP) — A president’s inaugural address is typically a choreographed spectacle. A makeshift...

As ceasefire takes hold, Hamas returns 3 Israeli hostages and Israel frees 90 Palestinian prisoners

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Who are the Israelis released on the first day of the ceasefire?

JERUSALEM (AP) — Three hostages held by Hamas were released Sunday after 471 days in captivity as part of a...

Ghana soldiers kill at least 7 people described as illegal gold miners

ACCRA, Ghana (AP) — Soldiers killed at least seven people at a gold mine in southern Ghana, the West African...

Kimberly Dozier AP Intelligence Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Bruised from their latest diplomatic clash, the U.S. and Pakistan are trying to bandage their relationship by forging a new joint intelligence team to go after top terrorism suspects, officials say.

The move comes after Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton presented the Pakistanis with the U.S. list of most-wanted terrorism targets, U.S. and Pakistani officials said Wednesday. The list includes some groups the Pakistanis have been reluctant to attack, U.S. officials said.

It's one of a host of confidence-building measures meant to restore trust blown on both sides after U.S. forces tracked down and killed al-Qaida mastermind Osama bin Laden during a secret raid in Pakistan last month.

But it also amounts to a new test of loyalty for both sides. The Pakistanis say the U.S. has failed to share its best intelligence, instead running numerous unilateral spying operations on its soil.

U.S. officials say they need to see the Pakistanis target militants they've long sheltered, including the Haqqani network, which operates with impunity in the Pakistani tribal areas while attacking U.S. troops in Afghanistan.

All those interviewed spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss matters of intelligence.

The U.S. and Pakistan have engaged in a diplomatic stare-down since the May 2 raid, with the Pakistanis outraged over the unilateral action as an affront to its sovereignty and the Americans angry to find that bin Laden had been hiding for more than five years in a military town just 35 miles from the capital, Islamabad.

The U.S. deliberately hid the operation from Pakistan, recipient of billions in counterterrorism aid, for fear that the operation would leak to militants.

A series of high-level U.S. visits has aimed to take the edge off. Marc Grossman, the special representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan, and CIA Deputy Director Mike Morell met with intelligence chief Lt. Gen. Ahmed Shuja Pasha last month. Last week, the secretary of state and the chairman of the Joint Chiefs, Adm. Mike Mullen, held a day of intensive meetings with top Pakistani military and civilian officials.

After that outreach, Pakistan allowed the CIA to re-examine the bin Laden compound last Friday. Pakistan also returned the tail section of a U.S. stealth Black Hawk helicopter that broke off when the SEALs blew up the aircraft to destroy its secret noise- and radar-deadening technology.

The CIA has also shared some information gleaned from the raid, and Pakistan has reciprocated, U.S. and Pakistani officials said Wednesday.

The investigative team will be made up mainly of intelligence officers from both nations, according to two U.S. officials and one Pakistani official. It would draw in part on any intelligence emerging from the CIA's analysis of computer and written files gathered by the Navy SEALs who raided bin Laden's hideout in Abbottabad, as well as Pakistani intelligence gleaned from interrogations of those who frequented or lived near the bin Laden compound, the officials said.

The formation of the team marks a return to the counterterrorism cooperation that has led to major takedowns of al-Qaida militants, like the joint arrest of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed in 2003.

The joint intelligence team will go after five top targets, including al-Qaida No. 2 Ayman al-Zawahri, a possible bin Laden successor, and al-Qaida operations chief Atiya Abdel Rahman, as well as Taliban leader like Mullah Omar, all of whom U.S. intelligence officials believe are hiding in Pakistan, one U.S. official said.

Another target is Siraj Haqqani, leader of the Haqqani tribe in Pakistan's lawless tribal areas. Allied with the Taliban and al-Qaida, the Haqqanis are behind some of the deadliest attacks against U.S. troops and Afghan civilians in Afghanistan. U.S. intelligence officials say their top commanders live openly in the Pakistani city of Miram Shah, close to a Pakistani army outpost.

Pakistani officials say the U.S. has never provided them accurate intelligence as to the Haqqani leadership's location. Pakistani officials also argue that as the Haqqani network has been careful never to attack the Pakistani government, there is no reason to attack them.

One official said a final target on this preliminary list is Mohammad Ilyas Kashmiri, leader of a group called Harakat-ul-Jihad al-Islami, which the State Department blames for several attacks in India and Pakistan, including a 2006 suicide bombing against the U.S. consulate in Karachi that killed four people.

A second U.S. official confirmed that the Pakistanis and Americans have agreed to go after a handful of militants as a confidence-building measure, but the official would not confirm the specific names on the list.

Pakistani officials say those five have always been top targets, but they also did not confirm that the new agreement specifically names them as joint targets.

Intelligence-sharing operations between the U.S. and Pakistan were already strained before the bin Laden raid, particularly by the arrest and detention in January of CIA security contractor Raymond Davis in the shooting deaths of two Pakistani men. Davis said the two were trying to rob him.

Davis was eventually released in March after the dead men's relatives agreed to accept blood money under Islamic tradition, an agreement Pakistani intelligence officials say they brokered.

But only a day after his release, a covert CIA drone strike killed at least two dozen people in the Pakistani tribal areas - people the CIA said were militants and the Pakistanis said were civilians.

Both sides disputed media reports that Pakistan had completely shut down joint intelligence centers it operates with the Americans following the bin Laden raid.

Two of the five "intelligence fusion centers" where the U.S. shares satellite, drone and other intelligence with the Pakistanis were mothballed last fall, long before either the Davis or bin Laden controversies, the Pakistani official and another U.S. official say. It was part of the fallout of the public embarrassment of the WikiLeaks cables disclosures, which revealed a closer U.S.-Pakistani military relationship than publicly acknowledged by Pakistan.

Two other fusion centers, plus smaller cooperative intelligence-sharing facilities, remain operational, both sides say, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss matters of intelligence.

The high-value target team is expected to use any intelligence found at the bin Laden compound in the hunt, although a month after the raid analysts have found nothing "actionable," a term describing intelligence that leads to a strike or operation against a new al-Qaida target, two U.S. officials say. The CIA-led teams have gotten through more than 60 percent of the computer files and written material taken from the compound so far.

They spoke on condition of anonymity to describe the ongoing review of the now-classified bin Laden files.