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A4 U.S. NEWS
Saturday 12 december 2020

Utah senator blocks national

museums for Latinos, women

By MARY CLARE JALONICK the museums, including by
Associated Press adding the bills to a must-
WASHINGTON (AP) — A pass spending package,
lone senator from Utah has but doing so could further
singlehandedly blocked complicate passage of
the bipartisan approval of that legislation.
two new national museums Lee’s move came after
to honor American Latinos his Republican colleagues
and women, arguing that had spoken in favor of the
“last thing we need is to efforts. Texas Sen. John
further divide an already Cornyn, who authored the
divided nation.” legislation to create the
Republican Sen. Mike Lee National Museum of the
objected Thursday to the American Latino with New
creation of the two pro- Jersey Sen. Bob Menendez,
posed Smithsonian muse- a Democrat, said just be-
ums, stalling two projects fore Lee’s objection that it In this Nov. 10, 2020, file photo, Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, speaks during a Senate Judiciary Committee
that have been in the mak- was an effort 25 years in the hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington.
ing for decades and enjoy making. Associated Press
broad bipartisan support. “Many Americans simply our distinct national iden- “Surely, in a year where we those communities’ specif-
Senate approval would aren’t aware of the vast tity,” Lee said, adding that are celebrating the 100th ic stories today at dedicat-
have sent the legislation contributions made by such national division “has anniversary of women’s suf- ed museums in the specific
approving the Latino mu- these men and women turned our college cam- frage, this is the time, this is context of having been so
seum to President Donald who have come before us, puses into grievance pag- the moment,” Collins said. long excluded.”
Trump for his signature. The and one critical way we eants and loosed Orwellian Lee said he sees an ex- Livid, Menendez pointed
Senate was attempting to can right this wrong is by mobs to cancel anyone ception for museums dedi- to a 1994 internal examina-
pass the measures by voice providing a home for their daring to express an origi- cated to American Indians tion by the Smithsonian —
vote, which requires every stories in the nation’s capi- nal thought.” and African Americans the impetus for the effort to
senator’s consent. tal,” Cornyn said. Lee similarly objected to that already sit on the Na- create the museum — that
The dispute on the Senate Objecting, Lee countered legislation by Sen. Susan tional Mall. He said those described “willful neglect”
floor came amid the im- that point, saying the cre- Collins, R-Maine, to create groups were “essentially on the part of the institution
passe over a new corona- ation of museums that cel- a national women’s mu- written out of our national toward Hispanic and Latino
virus relief bill and highlight- ebrate individual groups seum. Collins said it was a story and even had their culture.
ed the difficulty of achiev- “weaponizes diversity.” “sad moment” and that own stories virtually erased” “We have been system-
ing even widely supported “Especially at the end of she had hoped the bills by the U.S. government, atically excluded, not be-
goals in the polarized Con- such a fraying, fracturing would move before the therefore it is “uniquely ap- cause this senator said so
gress. Lawmakers could year, Congress should not end of the year. She said propriate that the federal but because the Smithson-
still find a way to move splinter one of the national she would not give up the government provide the ian itself said so,” Menen-
forward on the creation of institutional cornerstones of fight. funding to recover and tell dez said.q

Investor in Portland eviction protest says he’d sell home

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — The ed the office of Portland The scene has recalled
real estate investor who Mayor Ted Wheeler, who more than four months of
owns the Portland, Oregon has said that he hopes to confrontations between
house that anti-gentrifica- negotiate a settlement to police and protesters de-
tion protesters have sur- end the demonstrations at crying racial injustice and
rounded with barricades the site. police brutality that only
has offered to sell the prop- Ozeruga said he fears for abated weeks ago.
erty back to the former his family’s well-being be- Supporters of the Kinney
owners. cause of the protest activ- family say the home was
Roman Ozeruga bought ity. unjustly taken through
the home through a fore- “I myself am a father of predatory lending prac-
closure sale in 2018 for little kids,” he said. “I don’t tices that target people of
$260,000. He told The Or- have a publicity team or color.
egonian/OregonLive in even a lawyer for this. I’m It’s in a historically Black
a story published Friday concerned for safety to be part of Portland that for de-
that he would sell it back Masked protesters by an occupied home speak with a honest.” cades was one of the few
to the Kinneys, the Black neighborhood resident opposed to their encampment and The street behind the block- areas Black residents could
and Indigenous family that demonstration in Portland, Ore., on Wednesday, Dec. 9, 2020. ade in the neighborhood own homes because of
owned the house since the Associated Press of homes, coffee shops racist real estate and zon-
1950s. “We are a small family busi- fered to sell back the prop- and restaurants is laced ing laws.
Fencing, lumber and other ness, we don’t seek to hurt erty at cost because of with booby traps aimed at Police have said between
makeshift barricades went anyone of course,” said course we’ve paid taxes, keeping officers out — in- Sept. 1 and Nov. 30, there
up around the property on Ozeruga, the co-owner of legal fees, bank fees, etc.” cluding homemade spike has been 81 calls to the
Dec. 8 after officers arrest- Urban Housing Develop- Ozeruga said he would sell strips, piles of rocks and property for fights, gun-
ed about a dozen people ment LLC. “We’re over- the home at cost without thick bands of plastic wrap shots, burglary, vandal-
in a clash over the eviction whelmed by the attention providing more specifics stretched at neck-height ism and noise complaints,
of the Kinney family. to this. We’ve already of- and that he has contact- across the roadway. among other thing.q