MAY 21, 2025
Portland and Seattle Volume XLVIII No. 10
25
CENTS
News ................................ 3,6-7 A & E ........................................5
Opinion ...................................2 Ballet the Black Way ......5
Briefs ......................................4 Bids/Classifieds .....................7
CHALLENGING PEOPLE TO SHAPE A BETTER FUTURE NOW
A CONVERSATION
Prosper
Portland
Fights For
Continued
City
Funding
Two city councilors
suggest ending city’s
funding to wide-
reaching economic
development agency.
By Saundra Sorenson
Of The Skanner News
A
s the city council met Wednes-
day in a marathon session to ap-
prove the city’s annual budget,
the future of Prosper Portland
appeared to hang in the balance.
It is the first such budget process un-
der the city’s new form of government,
and the now 12-member council had
more than 120 proposed amendments
to consider before the midnight dead-
line. One of the most contentious of
those amendments was put forward
by councilors Jamie Dunphy and Mitch
Green: to defund what was formerly
known as the Portland Development
Commission, and which now serves as
the city’s economic development and
small business support branch.
“We’re just in a very tight and frank-
ly temporary budget deficit created
by the mayor’s shelter plan,” Coun-
cilor Mitch Green told The Skanner.
“This is a one-time affair. Frankly, the
mayor’s pitch was also supposed to be
temporary. He sold it to council on the
presumption that this is a surge strate-
gy, we’re going to get folks shelter and
See PROSPER on page 3
Trump Demands Probe
of Celebs Who Backed
Harris
page 5
PHOTO BY COURTESY NABCJ
Chabre Vickers, director of equity, policy and
communications for Prosper Portland
Actor & Author Hill Harper and Councilor Loretta Smith NABCJ President Sherman Lea, Jr., Health Department Director Charlene Addy McGee, Actor &
Author Hill Harper, Councilor Loretta Smith, Senator James Manning, Jr., Word is Bond student representative, NY State Police Sr. Investigator Elliot
Boyce, Drug Policy Reform Advocate Art Way, and Word is Bond student representative.
Actor & Author Hill Harper, and National Law
Enforcement Leaders Join Oregon Legislators for
Community Townhall
The Skanner News
“G
aslighting: Chal-
lenging the Dis-
connect Between
Public Policy and
the Reality in Communi-
ty” was recently hosted in
Portland by the National
Association of Blacks in
Criminal Justice (NABCJ),
a group of Black law en-
forcement executives and
experts.
“African Americans are
often used in narratives
stating what we like and
don’t like, but they rare-
ly come and talk to us. As
we’re creating policies
around tobacco, criminal
justice reform, fentanyl,
and homelessness, we need
to be part of those conver-
sations. Today is a conver-
sation with us,” said Coun-
cilor Loretta Smith.
Panelists, led by moder-
ator Actor & Author Hill
Harper, spoke with dozens
of community attendees.
The panel included Sen-
ator James Manning, Jr.,
Councilor Loretta Smith,
NABCJ President Sherman
Lea, Jr., NY State Police Sr.
Investigator Elliot Boyce,
Health Department Di-
rector Charlene Addy Mc-
Gee, Drug Policy Reform
Advocate Art Way, along
with student leaders from
Word is Bond, a Portland
nonprofit leadership incu-
bator for young Black men.
Drug Policy Reform Ad-
vocate Art Way stated,
“Youth at this event told
us that online is the access
point for these already il-
licit products, and a ban
will only make the online
illicit space more preva-
lent. Oregon must tightly
regulate these products for
adults while continuing to
diminish the illegal online
and elsewhere market.”
The dangers and history
of political gaslighting, a
form of psychological ma-
nipulation where policy-
makers make their constit-
uents doubt their reality,
use misinformation, and
deny the research and facts
of what’s happening on the
ground to push their legis-
lative agendas, was a pri-
mary point of the discus-
sion. The panel discussed
See TOWNHALL on page 3
Reparations
Democrats reintroduced the idea of reparations with a resolution that
oers trillions of federal dollars in reparations to Black Americans to
repair the damage of the enslavement of Africans in America for 250 years
By April Ryan
“T
he President doesn’t have a
public position on the issue,”
said a senior White House
O cial, regarding the most
recent debate on reparations or a
reparations study. The question
arises as Maryland’s latest contro-
versy over reparations versus a rep-
arations study continues. Governor
Wes Moore has vetoed any bill that
proposes studying reparations in the
state. Maryland’s Legislative Black
Caucus wants a two-year commis-
sion to study reparations. Maryland
State Senator Ron Watson supports
Governor Moore, saying, “The ves-
tiges of slavery are well known and
See REPARATIONS on page 3