11-26-2024  10:47 am   •   PDX and SEA Weather

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NORTHWEST NEWS

Forecasts Warn of Possible Winter Storms Across US During Thanksgiving Week

Two people died in the Pacific Northwest after a rapidly intensifying “bomb cyclone” hit the West Coast last Tuesday, bringing fierce winds that toppled trees and power lines and damaged homes and cars. Fewer than 25,000 people in the Seattle area were still without power Sunday evening.

Huge Number Of Illegal Guns In Portland Come From Licensed Dealers, New Report Shows

Local gun safety advocacy group argues for state-level licensing and regulation of firearm retailers.

'Bomb Cyclone' Kills 1 and Knocks out Power to Over Half a Million Homes Across the Northwest US

A major storm was sweeping across the northwest U.S., battering the region with strong winds and rain. The Weather Prediction Center issued excessive rainfall risks through Friday and hurricane-force wind warnings were in effect. 

'Bomb Cyclone' Threatens Northern California and Pacific Northwest

The Weather Prediction Center issued excessive rainfall risks beginning Tuesday and lasting through Friday. Those come as the strongest atmospheric river  that California and the Pacific Northwest has seen this season bears down on the region. 

NEWS BRIEFS

Vote By Mail Tracking Act Passes House with Broad Support

The bill co-led by Congressman Mfume would make it easier for Americans to track their mail-in ballots; it advanced in the U.S. House...

OMSI Opens Indoor Ice Rink for the Holiday Season

This is the first year the unique synthetic ice rink is open. ...

Thanksgiving Safety Tips

Portland Fire & Rescue extends their wish to you for a happy and safe Thanksgiving Holiday. ...

Portland Art Museum’s Rental Sales Gallery Showcases Diverse Talent

New Member Artist Show will be open to the public Dec. 6 through Jan. 18, with all works available for both rental and purchase. ...

Dolly Parton's Imagination Library of Oregon Announces New State Director and Community Engagement Coordinator

“This is an exciting milestone for Oregon,” said DELC Director Alyssa Chatterjee. “These positions will play critical roles in...

Eggs are available -- but pricier -- as the holiday baking season begins

Egg prices are rising once more as a lingering outbreak of bird flu coincides with the high demand of the holiday baking season. But prices are still far from the recent peak they reached almost two years ago. And the American Egg Board, a trade group, says egg shortages at grocery...

Two US senators urge FIFA not to pick Saudi Arabia as 2034 World Cup host over human rights risks

GENEVA (AP) — Two United States senators urged FIFA on Monday not to pick Saudi Arabia as the 2034 World Cup host next month in a decision seen as inevitable since last year despite the kingdom’s record on human rights. Democrats Ron Wyden of Oregon and Dick Durbin of Illinois...

Missouri hosts Browning and Lindenwood

Lindenwood Lions (2-4) at Missouri Tigers (5-1) Columbia, Missouri; Wednesday, 6:30 p.m. EST BOTTOM LINE: Lindenwood visits Missouri after Markeith Browning II scored 20 points in Lindenwood's 77-64 loss to the Valparaiso Beacons. The Tigers are 5-0 on...

Pacific hosts Paljor and UAPB

Arkansas-Pine Bluff Golden Lions (1-6) at Pacific Tigers (3-4) Stockton, California; Wednesday, 10 p.m. EST BOTTOM LINE: UAPB faces Pacific after Chop Paljor scored 22 points in UAPB's 112-63 loss to the Missouri Tigers. The Tigers are 1-1 on their home...

OPINION

A Loan Shark in Your Pocket: Cellphone Cash Advance Apps

Fast-growing app usage leaves many consumers worse off. ...

America’s Healing Can Start with Family Around the Holidays

With the holiday season approaching, it seems that our country could not be more divided. That division has been perhaps the main overarching topic of our national conversation in recent years. And it has taken root within many of our own families. ...

Donald Trump Rides Patriarchy Back to the White House

White male supremacy, which Trump ran on, continues to play an outsized role in exacerbating the divide that afflicts our nation. ...

Why Not Voting Could Deprioritize Black Communities

President Biden’s Justice40 initiative ensures that 40% of federal investment benefits flow to disadvantaged communities, addressing deep-seated inequities. ...

AFRICAN AMERICANS IN THE NEWS

White Florida woman sentenced to 25 years in prison for shooting Black neighbor in lengthy dispute

A white Florida woman who fatally shot a Black neighbor through her front door during an ongoing dispute over the neighbor’s boisterous children was sentenced Monday to 25 years in prison for her manslaughter conviction. Susan Lorincz, 60, was convicted in August of killing Ajike...

Daniel Penny doesn't testify as his defense rests in subway chokehold trial

NEW YORK (AP) — Daniel Penny chose not to testify and defense lawyers rested their case Friday at his trial in the death of an agitated man he choked on a subway train. Closing arguments are expected after Thanksgiving in the closely watched manslaughter case about the death of...

White Florida woman is sentenced to 25 years in prison for shooting a Black neighbor amid a lengthy dispute

OCALA, Fla. (AP) — White Florida woman is sentenced to 25 years in prison for shooting a Black neighbor amid a lengthy dispute....

ENTERTAINMENT

More competitive field increases betting interest in F1's Las Vegas Grand Prix

LAS VEGAS (AP) — There is a little more racing drama for Saturday night's Las Vegas Grand Prix than a year ago when Max Verstappen was running away with the Formula 1 championship and most of the news centered on the disruptions leading up to the race. But with a little more...

Book Review: 'How to Think Like Socrates' leaves readers with questions

The lessons of Socrates have never really gone out of style, but if there’s ever a perfect time to revisit the ancient philosopher, now is it. In “How to Think Like Socrates: Ancient Philosophy as a Way of Life in the Modern World,” Donald J. Robertson describes Socrates' Athens...

Music Review: The Breeders' Kim Deal soars on solo debut, a reunion with the late Steve Albini

When the Pixies set out to make their 1988 debut studio album, they enlisted Steve Albini to engineer “Surfer Rosa,” the seminal alternative record which includes the enduring hit, “Where Is My Mind?” That experience was mutually beneficial to both parties — and was the beginning of a...

U.S. & WORLD NEWS

Auto industry's shift toward EVs is expected to go on despite Trump threat to kill tax credits

DETROIT (AP) — If President-elect Donald Trump makes good on his threat to kill federal tax credits for electric...

Protesters demanding Imran Khan's release march on Pakistan's capital. At least 6 people are killed

ISLAMABAD (AP) — Supporters seeking the release of imprisoned Pakistani former Prime Minister Imran Khan broke...

Presidents have used immigration 'parole' since the 1950s. Now it could disappear under Trump

MIAMI (AP) — Cuba’s at one of its lowest points since the 1959 revolution, with nationwide scarcity fueling...

Philippine president and vice president clash in a feud that's testing an Asian democracy

MANILA, Philippines (AP) — A major political storm set off by a bitter feud between the Philippine president and...

Mali cuts TV news station's signal over broadcast criticizing Burkina Faso's ruling junta

BAMAKO, Mali (AP) — Mali’s ruling junta cut the signal of the popular news broadcaster Joliba TV News after a...

UK Supreme Court hears landmark legal challenge over how a 'woman' is defined in law

LONDON (AP) — The U.K. Supreme Court on Tuesday began hearing a legal challenge focusing on the definition of...

Christine Armario AP Education Writer

MIAMI (AP) -- Wearing a hoodie. Listening to music and talking on his cellphone. Picking up Skittles for his soon-to-be stepbrother. Friends say that's how they would have imagined 17-year-old Trayvon Martin on a Sunday afternoon.

Starting a fight? Possibly high on drugs and up to no good? No, friends say that description of Martin from the neighborhood crime-watch volunteer who shot and killed the unarmed black teenager doesn't match the young man they knew.

"There's no way I can believe that, because he's not a confrontational kid," said Jerome Horton, who was one of Martin's former football coaches and knew him since he was about 5. "It just wouldn't happen. That's just not that kid."

Martin was slain in the town of Sanford on Feb. 26 in a shooting that has set off a nationwide furor over race and justice. Neighborhood crime-watch captain George Zimmerman, whose father is white and mother is Hispanic, claimed self-defense and has not been arrested, though state and federal authorities are still investigating.

Since his death, Martin's name and photographs - in football jerseys, smiling alongside a baby, and staring into the camera in a gray hoodie - have been held up by civil rights leaders and at rallies stretching from Miami to New York demanding Zimmerman's arrest.

On Friday, President Barack Obama called the shooting a tragedy, vowed to get to the bottom of the case, and added: "When I think about this boy, I think about my own kids."

Since the slaying, a portrait has emerged of Martin as a laid-back young man who loved sports, was extremely close to his father, liked to crack jokes with friends and, according to a lawyer for his family, had never been in trouble with the law.

The son of divorced parents, he grew up in working-class neighborhoods north of Miami's downtown. He and his father, a truck driver, were active in the Miramar Optimist Club, an organization that runs sports and academic programs for young people. Tracy Martin, the teen's father, coached his son's football team.

The boy was a swift athlete, according to a friend, and played a range of positions up to about age 14. After he stopped playing, he remained active in the organization, volunteering six days a week from June through November of last year to help run the team's concession stand.

Martin cooked hamburgers, hot dogs and chicken wings alongside his father at the stand. He loved talking to the kids, asking them what position they played and whether they were good, Horton recalled. He would call the mothers "Ma'am," and if they had a stroller or an item they needed help with, Martin stepped in.

"Everyone out there loved him," Horton said.

Martin was tall and lanky - only 140 pounds, according to the family's attorney - and his nickname was "Slimm."

The teen spent a big part of his week living with his father in a one-story, peach-colored home. Neighbor Fred Collins Jr. said he would see Trayvon Martin outside every week mowing the lawn and trimming the trees. The teen also helped Collins' son learn how to ride a bike.

"He was coaching him, giving him words of advice, encouragement," Collins said.

No one answered the door on a recent afternoon, and a child's plastic tricycle sat in the driveway.

Tracy Martin often recounted how his son saved his life. The elder Martin had begun heating up some oil to fry fish and fell asleep. The grease caught fire, and when Tracy Martin awoke and tried to put out the flames, he spilled the oil on his legs, severely burning himself. Trayvon Martin pulled his father out of the home and called 911.

Martin's parents kept a close eye on him, but they didn't have to be too strict, since he stayed out of trouble, Collins said. However, he had recently been suspended from school for five days for tardiness, his English teacher, Michelle Kypriss, told the Orlando Sentinel. School officials did not respond to a request for comment.

Martin's father was not happy and grounded the teen for the duration of the suspension.

Trayvon Martin "knew he was wrong," Horton said.

Martin dreamed of becoming a pilot. He had flown on school vacations to various places around the country with his mother, skiing in Colorado one year, going off to Texas another.

"There's no little black kids that want to be pilots," Horton joked with him when he was about 13.

"Well, I'll be the first one," the teen replied.

At Dr. Michael M. Krop High School, where Martin was a junior, he was on the quiet side, but he would sit in the middle of the classroom, participate in class and especially liked math.

Schoolmates remembered his humorous side.

"Brrrrian!" Trayvon would call out, rolling his r's as is done in Spanish, whenever 16-year-old Brian Paz got a phone call from his Colombian mother, the friend recalled.

"I'd just burst out laughing," Paz said.

Paz and other friends said Martin liked rap music and funny movies. He had written some lyrics, though he hadn't had a chance yet to perform them. Martin was especially a fan of a student musical group at his school called Bison. He had two of the group's pins on his backpack and helped spread the word about shows.

John Emmanuel, 17, said the group was about encouraging young men to be strong, independent leaders.

"That's how we liked to think of ourselves," Emmanuel said.

Martin had gone up to Sanford to visit his father's fiancée, who lived there with her young son. Friends said Martin regarded the boy as his little brother and had been looking forward to watching the NBA All-Star game with him that weekend.

On that Sunday, Martin went out to get candy and an iced tea at a convenience store and was walking back to the fiancee's townhouse. Zimmerman, 28, spotted him and told a police dispatcher: "This guy looks like he is up to no good - he is on drugs or something."

After the shooting, Zimmerman claimed that Martin attacked him as he was returning to his truck.

But Martin's friends said they find that hard to believe. They said they had never seen him fight at all.

"As far as attacking the guy without him attacking him, no way," Horton said.

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