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Page 2 The Skanner Portland & Seattle October 7, 2020 ® Challenging People to Shape a Better Future Now Sounding Increasingly Desperate, Trump Attacks Black Congresswoman at Minnesota Rally Bernie Foster Founder/Publisher Bobbie Dore Foster Executive Editor Jerry Foster Advertising Manager By Lauren Victoria Burke NNPA Columnist Patricia Irvin Graphic Designer Monica J. Foster Seattle Office Coordinator Susan Fried Photographer 2019 MERIT AWARD WINNER The Skanner Newspaper, es- tablished in October 1975, is a weekly publication, published every Wednesday by IMM Publi- cations Inc. 415 N. Killingsworth St. P.O. Box 5455 Portland, OR 97228 Telephone (503) 285-5555 Fax: (503) 285-2900 info@theskanner.com www.TheSkanner.com The Skanner is a member of the National Newspaper Pub lishers Association and West Coast Black Pub lishers Association. All photos submitted become the property of The Skanner. We are not re spon sible for lost or damaged photos either solicited or unsolicited. ©2020 The Skanner. All rights re served. Reproduction in whole or in part without permission prohibited. LOCAL NEWS BRIEFS LOCAL EVENTS Updated daily online. n F ebo TheSkannerNews o k • learn • co m me in y o u r c o m m u n d ay ! • L i ke u s o ac it Hear about it first. Sign up for Breaking News and Events at • nts A s the 2020 campaign for the White House enters the final stretch, Pres- ident Donald Trump is looking and sounding in- creasingly desperate. After a debate performance featuring a call to support- ers to go to the polls and ob- serve followed by a backlash for not denouncing white supremacy, Trump’s Repub- lican supporters in the halls of Congress are increasingly concerned his presence at the top of the GOP ticket will im- pact the party down ballot. The day after a debate he was roundly criticized for, Trump went to an old stand- by: Attacking African Amer- ican women in positions of leadership. During a rally in Minnesota on September 30, Trump said, “What is going on with Omar? I’ve been reading these re- ports for two years about how corrupt and crooked she is. Let’s get with it. Let’s get with it.” Trump was referring to unverified claims linking the Congresswoman to a “ballot harvesting” scheme. A con- servative website that traffics in conspiracies attempted to make the unverified informa- tion go viral on September 28. “ Not only are Minnesotans welcoming of refugees, they have sent one to Washing- ton to repre- sent them Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) said on Oct. 1st that she was not surprised by President Trump’s attacks. “This man is a white su- premacist. It’s no surprise that he has ideas of feeling that Somalis are worthless… Representative, Ilhan Omar (D-MN) speaking at a Hillary for MN event at the U of MN, October 2018. (Photo: Lorie Shaull / Wikimedia Commons) We are very clear that in Minnesota, we are greater than hate. That is why he didn’t win Minnesota in 2016, “Rep. Omar said during an in- terview on MSNBC. “Not only are Minnesotans welcoming of refugees, they have sent one to Washington to represent them. We are very clear that in Minnesota we are greater than hate. That is why he didn’t win Minne- sota in 2016, and why he’s not going to win Minnesota in 2020,” he added. Trump has attacked Omar before, along with Reps. Max- ine Waters (D-Calif.), Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.) and Rep. Ayanna Pressley (D-Mass.). Polling in Pennsylvania, Minnesota, Wisconsin and Arizona shows that Trump is trailing Vice President Joe Biden. States such as Georgia and South Carolina, usually reliable for Republican vic- tory, are in play with either Biden tied with Trump or only one or two points be- hind. Genetics, Diagnosis, Treatment: NIH Takes on Sickle Cell Disease Globally By NNPA E ach year, some 150,000 children in Nigeria are born with sickle cell dis- ease, the most common— and often life-threatening— inherited blood disorder in the world. “I was not happy when I read that Nigeria will have the highest contribution to the global burden of sickle cell disease by 2050—if we continue at the present birth rate and the level of inactivity Local News Pacific NW News World News Opinions Jobs, Bids Entertainment Community Calendar to y • Opinion “ and Asian-Americans, too. To help address the problem on a global scale, the NHLBI has been supporting programs in sub-Saharan Africa, where more than 75 percent of the sickle cell disease births worldwide occur. SPARCo, with a hub in Tanzania, and additional sites in Nigeria and Ghana, works to develop an infrastructure for sickle cell disease research, health care, education, and training to take place in Africa. “We are showing that with The genetic diversity of Africa’s population allows scientific re- search that will increase our un- derstanding in newborn screening,” said hematologist Obiageli Nnodu, M.D., the lead researcher in Nigeria for the Sickle Pan Af- rican Research Consortium (SPARCo), funded by the Na- tional Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI), part of the National Institutes of Health. “As a country, we can do bet- ter than that. After all, this is a disease where children die undiagnosed, and largely from preventable causes such as bacterial infections.” Sickle cell disease affects 20 million people worldwide, in- cluding at least 100,000 in the United States, mainly African Americans, but Hispanics effective partnerships, sig- nificant advances in health and biomedical science can be achieved,” said Tanza- nia-based Julie Makani, M.D., Ph.D., who leads the SPARCo consortium. SPARCo, in col- laboration with the Sickle Af- rica Data Coordinating Cen- ter, led by Ambroise Wonkam, M.D., in South Africa, created Sickle In Africa, which has a growing electronic registry of more than 10,000 individu- als with sickle cell disease. “The genetic diversity of Africa’s population allows scientific research that will increase our understanding of how a disease caused by a “A person’s health should not be limited by their geographic location, whether it’s in rural America or sub-Saharan Africa,” said Gary H. Gibbons, M.D., director of the NHLBI. “Harnessing the power of science is needed to transcend borders if we want to improve health for all.” single gene can manifest in such different ways,” Makani explained. Newborn screening, as Nno- du noted, is the first step to reduce mortality and suffer- ing for these children, and for that, they need good tests readily available at the point of care. That’s why NHLBI supports research towards development of diagnostics, such as a new rapid result test that is relatively inexpensive, accurate, and can provide a timely diagnosis of sickle cell disease. The test does not re- quire sophisticated laborato- ry equipment, electricity, re- frigeration, or highly trained personnel—a critical advan- tage for countries with few resources. On the treatment front, a large multinational NHL- BI-funded clinical trial found that a daily hydroxyurea pill was safe and effective for young children living with sickle cell disease in sub-Sa- haran Africa. The NHLBI also has its sights on developing genetic therapies for the dis- ease, as part of a newly an- nounced NIH collaboration with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. The goal of the partnership, which also ad- dresses HIV, is to advance possible gene-based cures to clinical trials in the United States and relevant countries in sub-Saharan Africa within the next seven to 10 years. “A person’s health should not be limited by their geo- graphic location, whether it’s in rural America or sub-Sa- haran Africa,” said Gary H. Gibbons, M.D., director of the NHLBI. “Harnessing the power of science is needed to transcend borders if we want to improve health for all.” nt • lo c a l n e w s • eve
