MARCH 6, 2019
25
CENTS
Portland and Seattle Volume XLI No. 23
News ...............................3,8-10 A & E .....................................6-7
Opinion ...................................2 Slave Voyages .................9
Calendars ........................... 4-5 Bids/Classifieds ....................11
CHALLENGING PEOPLE TO SHAPE A BETTER FUTURE NOW
PHOTO COURTESY OF GREEN HOP
CELEBRATING
COMMUNITY
Green Hop was one of the first dispensaries to
receive a grant from Prosper Portland.`
City Doles
Out Pot
Grants
Funds come from
voter-approved tax on
recreational sales
See CANNABIS on page 3
Northwest Tap Connection performs during “Celebrating Community4Culture” Feb. 27 at Washington Hall. The event celebrated two years of
Community4Culture providing grants, fellowships and legacy awards to organizations and individuals who are working towards racial equity in the
arts. The program supports individuals and organizations serving people of color, immigrants, refugees, English language learners, people with low
incomes, and King County’s rural residents. During the program King County Council member Larry Gossett was recognized for his advocacy and there
were performances by Community4Culture grant recipients JHP, Northwest Tap Connection and Griot Girlz.
Nonprofit Focuses on Putting Women First
Organization focuses on re-entry from the criminal justice system
By Christen McCurdy
Of The Skanner News
AP PHOTO/EUGENE HOSHIKO
I
Former Nissan chairman Carlos Ghosn, front,
travels in a car March 6, 2019, in Tokyo, after
posting 1 billion yen ($8.9 million) in bail once an
appeal by prosecutors against his release was
rejected. Ghosn was arrested in November and
is charged with falsifying financial reports and
breach of trust.
World News
Briefs page 9
t took 10 years for Shan-
non Olive to start Wom-
enFirst Transition &
Referral Center, the
nonprofit that celebrates
its second anniversary this
month.
She had the idea in 2007
to create a program to
help support women who
need help rebuilding their
lives, but didn’t get the or-
ganization off the ground
until March 2017. In the
meantime, Olive volun-
teered at Oregon Action,
became the director of leg-
islative affairs for the As-
sociated Students of Port-
land Community College,
and worked at the Urban
League, Human Solutions
and Janus Youth Programs.
She also got involved in
advocating for local cam-
paign finance reform and
for extended times on bus
fares.
When she graduated
from college in 2015, Ol-
ive sought a job relating
to corrections or re-entry,
and ended up becoming a
page 7
said.
In November 2017 Olive
launched a women’s em-
powerment group called
“I Love Me,” a 12-week pro-
gram meant to encourage
women to learn to love
and value themselves.
That has been a focus of
WomenFirst, but the orga-
nization also offers emer-
gency clothing (as well as
connecting with Dress For
Success to provide pro-
fessional clothing for in-
terviews and court dates),
a meditation and healing
See WOMEN on page 3
‘Sanctuary’ Cities and States — Except Oregon — Are
Getting Their Grants Despite Threats
28 other sanctuary jurisdictions have been
cleared to receive 2017 lawn-enforcement grants
By Wilson Ring
Associated Press
Kam Reviews ‘Roma,’
‘The Favourite’
residential services coor-
dinator at a public housing
complex. Then, she said,
she was inspired by faith
to start the organization
she’d dreamed of years be-
fore.
“The Lord came and said,
‘Now is the time for Wom-
en First,’” Olive told The
Skanner. She realized the
reason it took so long is
that she needed 10 years
to build connections and
learn what resources are
already available.
“We’re not her trying to
reinvent the wheel,” Olive
MONTPELIER, Vt. — About 18
months after the Trump adminis-
tration threatened to withhold law
enforcement grants from nearly
30 places around the country it felt
weren’t doing enough to work with
federal immigration agents, all but
one have received or been cleared
to get the money, the Justice Depart-
ment said.
In most cases, courts chipped away
at the crackdown that escalated in
-November 2017 with letters from the
Justice Department of former Attor-
ney General Jeff Sessions to 29 cities,
metro areas, counties or states it con-
See SANCTUARY on page 3
AP PHOTO/RICH PEDRONCELLI, FILE
T
wo Black-owned cannabis busi-
nesses in Portland have been
awarded the first-ever small busi-
ness grants earmarked from the
city’s recreational marijuana tax rev-
enue.
In 2016, Portland voters passed Mea-
sure 26, specifying that a 3 percent tax
on recreational sales would be used in
part to support minority-owned and
women-owned local businesses in the
cannabis industry. It is the first such
tax initiative in the U.S. Further lan-
guage in the measure emphasizes that
these funds will provide “economic op-
PHOTO BY SUSAN FRIED
By Saundra Sorensen
For The Skanner News
In this June 20, 2018, file photo, demonstrators are
outside the federal courthouse in Sacramento,
Calif., where a judge heard arguments over
the U.S. Justice Department’s request to block
three California laws that extend protections to
people in the country illegally.