11-26-2024  7:51 pm   •   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

Walmart's DEI rollback signals a profound shift in the wake of Trump's election victory

NEW YORK (AP) — Walmart's sweeping rollback of its diversity policies is the strongest indication yet of a profound shift taking hold at U.S. companies that are re-evaluating the legal and political risks associated with bold programs to bolster historically underrepresented groups. ...

Trump vows tariffs over immigration. What the numbers say about border crossings, drugs and crime

WASHINGTON (AP) — In a Monday evening announcement, President-elect Donald Trump railed against Mexico and Canada, accusing them of allowing thousands of people to enter the U.S. Hitting a familiar theme from the campaign trail and his first term in office, Trump portrayed the...

Louisville police officer alleges discrimination over his opinion on Breonna Taylor's killing

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) — A Kentucky police officer who was shot in 2020 during protests over Breonna Taylor’s death is suing his department, alleging his superiors discriminated against him after he expressed his opinion about Taylor's shooting. Louisville Officer Robinson Desroches...

ENTERTAINMENT

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...

Celebrity birthdays for the week of Dec. 1-7

Celebrity birthdays for the week of Dec. 1-7: Dec. 1: Actor-director Woody Allen is 89. Singer Dianne Lennon of the Lennon Sisters is 85. Bassist Casey Van Beek of The Tractors is 82. Singer-guitarist Eric Bloom of Blue Oyster Cult is 80. Drummer John Densmore of The Doors is 80....

U.S. & WORLD NEWS

Biden proposes Medicare and Medicaid cover costly weight-loss drugs for millions of obese Americans

WASHINGTON (AP) — Millions of Americans with obesity would be eligible to have popular weight-loss drugs like...

Surveillance tech advances by Biden could aid in Trump's promised crackdown on immigration

President-elect Donald Trump will return to power next year with a raft of technological tools at his disposal...

New rule allows HIV-positive organ transplants

People with HIV who need a kidney or liver transplant will be able to receive an organ from a donor with HIV under...

G7 ministers throw support behind Israel-Hezbollah ceasefire but make no mention of ICC warrant

FIUGGI, Italy (AP) — Foreign ministers from leading industrialized countries threw their strong support Tuesday...

Russia expels British diplomat after accusing him of spying

MOSCOW (AP) — Russian authorities on Tuesday ordered a British diplomat to leave the country on allegations of...

Russian journalist convicted of cooperating with a foreign organization and jailed for 4 years

A journalist who once worked as a freelance reporter for the U.S. government-funded Radio Free Europe/Radio...

Nima Elbagir CNN

MOGADISHU, Somalia (CNN) -- Bashir Osman moves hurriedly along a white sandy beachfront, giving instructions to a driver operating a bulldozer. Near them, a large truck is ferrying away piles of rocks, clearing a sun-soaked beach lapped by the azure blue waters of the Indian Ocean.

Work here is well underway as Osman presses ahead with his new multi-million dollar project: to build a luxury beach resort in Mogadishu, the capital of war-torn Somalia.

"I knew one day that Mogadishu will become peace and we'll get stability," says Osman, who already owns two hotels in the city. "That is why I started to buy that land."

After more than 20 years of violence, Somalia moved a step closer to stability last September after picking its first president elected on home soil in decades.

And now, hope is gradually returning to parts of the East African country.

Although security is still an issue, Mogadishu has been experiencing an economic renaissance in recent months, boosted by members of the diaspora returning home to rebuild the country, as well as the efforts of local businessmen who never left.

Osman, who stayed in Somalia throughout its conflict, hopes his new development will attract holidaymakers from abroad. He says that he's already had American and British visitors staying in his hotels.

"More than 20 tourists they came," he says. "Some of them they came with their family to show Somalia, especially Mogadishu," adds Osman. "And really when they went back, they were so excited when they saw how Mogadishu looks like, how beautiful city we have, how beautiful beach we have and that is what we want to show them again and again."

Osman's ambitious new projects are part of a growing building activity that is reshaping many of the neighborhoods of bullet-ridden Mogadishu.

"If you go to Mogadishu the construction is very, very booming," says Osman. "That is the sign of peace," he adds. "Especially the people who came back from America and Europe, they start to open the new businesses."

Mogadishu's growing economy is manifested not just in real estate and the hotel sector. Telecommunications is also on the rise, while the aviation industry is spreading its wings too, with about 15 daily domestic and international flights.

"We have six different routes and basically next we'll be eight," says Osman Abdullahi, a young Somali entrepreneur who set up the ODAY express airline. "There is a lot of airlines that are planning to (come to) this country and hoping to (have) a hub over here."

Abdullahi admits that leaving the United States in 2010 to return home and start his business was a "100% huge risk."

He says that when moved back back to Somalia, it was too dangerous to even drive in Mogadishu. "That picture is already gone. It's a different picture today," he says.

This new picture can also be witnessed at Mogadishu's seaport -- Somalia's key national asset -- where creaking cranes lift goods from the commercial ships and boats lining the harbor. The wide array of imported construction materials, household goods and food are then loaded onto rows of waiting trucks.

The customs revenue collected from here has increased exponentially in recent times. And while the system is far from perfect, the income is crucial to the newly formed government in rebuilding the city, whose basic infrastructure has been shattered by war.

Currently, Somalia's economy is largely supported by aid from donor governments, while the relatively peaceful business environment is propped up by the African Union Mission in Somalia African (AMISOM).

The security forces squeezed the al Qaeda-linked Islamist militant group Al-Shabaab out of Mogadishu, but the insurgents still lurk and periodically launch terror attacks.

Brigadier Michael Ondoga, of AMISOM, told CNN recently that although Al-Shabaab was "largely defeated" in Mogadishu, there were still issues with its members "melting into the population" and taking advantage of the city's large size to hide.

But Somali security forces have succeeded in pre-empting many suicide attacks and have arrested some of the Al-Shabaab operatives hiding among the capital's population.

"The situation is generally good at the moment -- the security forces are controlling it very well," Ondoga said. "Here in the city now, the big guns are quiet, the streets are lit, many (in the) diaspora are coming back, new construction is going on, business is booming," he said.

And despite the long list of challenges, Mogadishu businessmen like Osman are hopeful of a brighter future.

"For me I was here (during the conflict) and the situation I see now is a situation I have never seen before. So the situation now is getting better," he says.

 

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