07-04-2024  12:40 am   •   PDX and SEA Weather

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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

Pier Pool Closed Temporarily for Major Repairs

North Portland outdoor pool has a broken water line; crews looking into repairs ...

Music on Main Returns for Its 17th Year

Free outdoor concerts in downtown Portland Wednesdays, July 10–August 28 ...

Oregon Department of Early Learning and Care Marks One Year Anniversary

New agency reflects on progress and evolves strategies to meet early care needs ...

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...

1 shot at shopping mall food court in Seattle suburb

LYNNWOOD, Wash. (AP) — A person was shot in a shopping mall food court in a Seattle suburb on Wednesday evening, law enforcement officials said. The female of unknown age was shot at Alderwood Mall in Lynnwood, said Lt. Glenn DeWitt of the Snohomish County Sheriff’s Office. He was...

Flight to New Hampshire diverted after man exposes himself, federal officials say

BUFFALO, N.Y. (AP) — A flight to Manchester, New Hampshire, was diverted Wednesday after a man allegedly exposed himself and urinated in the aisle of the airplane, officials said. The 25-year-old Oregon man was arrested and charged with indecent exposure after the flight landed at...

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

As temperatures soar, judge tells Louisiana to help protect prisoners working in fields

Amid blistering summer temperatures, a federal judge ordered Louisiana to take steps to protect the health and safety of incarcerated workers toiling in the fields of a former slave plantation, saying they face “substantial risk of injury or death.” The state immediately appealed the decision. ...

California budgets up to million for reparations bills, a milestone in atoning for racist legacy

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — California plans to spend up to million on reparations legislation under a budget signed by Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom, marking a milestone in the state's efforts to atone for a legacy of racism and discrimination against Black Californians. The...

Microsoft will pay M to settle allegations it discriminated against employees who took leave

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Microsoft Corp. has agreed to pay .4 million to settle allegations that the global software giant retaliated and discriminated against employees who took protected leave, including parental and disability, the California Civil Rights Department announced Wednesday. ...

ENTERTAINMENT

Book Review: Iris Mwanza goes into 'The Lions' Den' with a zealous, timely debut novel for Pride

Grace Zulu clawed her way out of her village and into college to study law in the Zambian capital Lusaka. Now, at the end of 1990 and with AIDS running rampant, her first big case will test her personally and professionally: She must defend dancer Willbess “Bessy” Mulenga, who is accused of...

Book Review: What dangers does art hold? Writer Rachel Cusk explores it in 'Parade'

With her new novel “Parade,” the writer Rachel Cusk returns with a searching look at the pain artists can capture — and inflict. Never centered on a single person or place, the book ushers in a series of painters, sculptors, and other figures each grappling with a transformation in their life...

Veronika Slowikowska worked toward making it as an actor for years. Then she went viral

LOS ANGELES (AP) — When Veronika Slowikowska graduated from college in 2015, she did what conventional wisdom says aspiring actors should do: Work odd jobs to pay the bills while auditioning for commercials and background roles, hoping you eventually make it. And although the...

U.S. & WORLD NEWS

Fires have become the most visible sign of the conflict heating up on the Lebanon-Israel border

CHEBAA, Lebanon (AP) — With cease-fire talks faltering in Gaza and no clear offramp for the conflict on the...

Ahead of Iran's presidential runoff, a floated rise in gasoline prices may spark new protests

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — As Iran's runoff presidential election nears, comments by an official in the...

Masoud Pezeshkian, a heart surgeon who rose to power in parliament, runs to be Iran's next president

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — After the 2022 death of Mahsa Amini, Iranian lawmaker Masoud Pezeshkian wrote...

Israel turbocharges West Bank settlement expansion with largest land grab in decades

JERUSALEM (AP) — Israel has approved the largest seizure of land in the occupied West Bank in over three...

Severe overcrowding and a lack of exits contributed to the deadly stampede at an Indian festival

HATHRAS, India (AP) — Severe overcrowding and a lack of exits contributed to a stampede at a religious festival...

Japan's top court orders government to compensate disabled people who were forcibly sterilized

TOKYO (AP) — In a landmark decision, Japan’s Supreme Court ordered the government Wednesday to pay suitable...

By Lisa Loving of The Skanner News

You've almost certainly seen her work – she's currently showing her paintings and drawing at four different locations around town, plus on cars and exterior walls.

Or your kids have probably spent time engrossed in an art project she's led – including scores of students just in the past few weeks.
She's just as likely to be hanging her jewel-toned canvases in banks or government buildings as she is to be offering support to a grieving community through art, as she did in December at the Community Healing Ceremony organized by the Healing Roots Center for the Medina family after the death of their daughter and her young son.
Nevertheless you may never have heard her name. It's Mo – just Mo.
"I make a point of making sure that I'm involved," she says.
"I've taught out at the juvenile detention center for the past three years I just did a thing with Ockley Green where we did 80 self portraits with kindergarten through second grade, and instead of making it a visual portrait we did portraits about things that we like and things that we did representing us not what we look like."
Mo was the first African American Visual Arts scholarship winner at Portland State University – an honor her straight-A's allowed her to pull down four years in a row.
She received degrees in art as well as history, investing time in research on African American artists through history.
Her biggest mentors have been Portland State art instructor and muralist Isaka Shamshuddin, and her mother.
"The back of my mom's piano still has drawings from when I was five," Mo says. "My mother always doodled and she was always drawing eyes, and eyes are very important in my stuff."
Currently Mo has a whopping four shows.
A stunning all-ink show is at Paccini's Restaurant and Bar, 1717 SW Park Ave., that she describes as "busy crazy basically sharpie and paper."
Her other collections are on the walls at The Calabash 835 SW 2nd Ave., at the Salmon Street Studios in Southwest Portland, and a large Black History Month show is up at the Albina Community Bank in the Pearl District, at 430 NW 10th Ave.
Mo has a special relationship to the Internet, which she sees not as an isolating force, but an educational and empowering one which shaped her many canvases – some tiny, some huge — on important historical figures currently covering several walls of the Albina Community Bank.
"A lot of people on those walls are not necessarily celebrated as heroes, and they need to be," she says.
She lists Malcolm X, Carmichael, and many music and entertainment figures as worthy of more public attention and respect.
"Pretty much anyone on that wall – Paul Robeson, he should be known about," Mo said. "He has, out of the FBI files on people, the biggest file historically, as far as someone they were watching, and a lot of people don't know that, and we should. That's our history combined, all of ours."
Mo is also currently tutoring two young people at Jefferson High School as part of the Professional Artist Mentoring program that will culminate in an art show at the Interstate Firehouse Cultural Center running Feb. 25 through March 20, Tuesdays through Fridays, 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. and Saturdays noon to 4 p.m.
"We need to be involved in our community and giving back, paying forward, through the younger generation," she says. "We have gotten kind of cubicalized where we're really independent and self-centered in our thought process and our function without really thinking about the generations that are coming up underneath us.
"We wonder what's wrong with them – what's wrong with them is us, we're not giving to them like we're supposed to."