Oregonians are likely very familiar with the complicated story of the Astoria house that was featured in “The Goonies,” the 1985 movie whose fans love to travel to the Oregon coast to look at, and take pictures of, the hilltop house. The push-and-pull between how passionate fans feel about locations they associate with movies and TV shows they love, and how folks who live in those homes feel about hordes of visitors camping on their doorstep, are issues explored in a new documentary, “The House From ...” The film, whose executive producers include actor Ryan Reynolds (who also happens to be co-owner of Aviation American Gin, whose distillery is in Portland), includes visits not only to “The Goonies” house, but also to the home of Bella Swan (Kristen Stewart) in “Twilight,” (2008), which is located in St. Helens , and a house featured in the Oregon-filmed movie, “Short Circuit” (1986), also in Astoria. Jason Lee (”My Name Ia Earl”) narrates the feature-length documentary, which looks at such popular spots as “Sex and the City” main character Carrie Bradshaw’s New York City home; the Winnetka, Illinois house from “Home Alone”; the Tanner residence in San Francisco, California, from “Full House”; “The Christmas Story” house, museum and gift shop, in Cleveland, Ohio; the house featured in “Friday,” in West Athens, California; the “Golden Girls” house, located in Brentwood, California; and many more. While in most cases, it’s only the exteriors of the homes that were used in movies and TV, that hasn’t stopped some diehards from showing up, sometimes in the thousands. And while some homeowners and neighbors say they’ve been touched by the emotional connection fans make with the shows and movies associated with these real-life residences, not every homeowner is so upbeat. In one eye-popping sequence, for example, a woman who’s an owner of the Albuquerque home where the “Breaking Bad” character of Walter White (Bryan Cranston) lived, the woman yells R-rated retorts to visitors who insist on gawking at the house, with some even attempting to replicate a moment from the show where Walter angrily tosses a pizza on the roof of the garage. Those complication feelings about what’s a tourist attraction and what is someone’s home come through dramatically in a lengthy segment devoted to the so-called “Goonies” house. In an interview with a man who says he was a friend of former owner Sandi Preston, we hear about some of the frustrations Preston reportedly experienced as thousands of “Goonies” fans kept showing up to see the house. Some were polite, the friend says, and others were less considerate. The documentary includes moments of fans being peeved that homeowners object to their residences being treated like tourist attractions, as some of the fans insist that they have a right to show up, and if owners don’t like it, they should move. The controversy over the “Goonies” house — which saw fans ignoring posted signs that they shouldn’t barge into the Astoria residential neighborhood — culminated in Preston putting the house up for sale, and a self-described “Goonies” fan buying it in 2023. The buyer, a Kansas-based entrepreneur named Behman Zakeri, purchased the home for $1,650,777, as The Oregonian/OregonLive reported. Zakeri appears in the documentary, encouraging “Goonies” fans to visit (even as a neighboring home posted a banner reading, “Goonies Not Welcome”). Some owners of famed residences have made the choice to make the most of fan interest by playing up the movie connections, and turning the properties into vacation rentals, as in the case of the people who own the St. Helens house where “Twilight” heroine Bella Swan lived, and the Astoria home featured in “Short Circuit.” While some homeowners and neighbors may be annoyed by fan visits, “The House From...” makes the point that for many people, going to places they associate with favorite movies and TV shows isn’t simply tourism, but a pilgrimage, a way to connect to something that has been deeply meaningful in their lives. “The House From ...,” directed by Tommy Avallone, is available to rent or purchase on Amazon Prime Video ; it is also streaming on Fubo (which offers a free trial), and the Maximum Effort Channel. ©2024 Advance Local Media LLC. Visit oregonlive.com . Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
Former Virginia guard Jalen Warley is transferring to Gonzaga, according to several reports Monday. Gonzaga appeared to confirm the transfer by reposting the news on social media. Warley, who has 96 college games (58 starts) under his belt, will use a redshirt this year and spend 2025-26 in Spokane, Wash. Warley played three seasons at Florida State before transferring to Virginia before the 2024-25 season. He was allowed to enter the transfer portal again following the surprise retirement of coach Tony Bennett just three weeks before the season. With the Seminoles, Warley averaged 6.0 points, 2.9 assists, 2.5 rebounds and 1.3 steals per game. His junior year was his best, as he put up 7.5 points, 2.8 assists, 2.6 rebounds and 1.3 steals per game over 33 appearances (32 starts). --Field Level Media
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — In an era of rising authoritarianism, at the heels of a six-hour martial law decree that unfolded while many South Koreans slept, something noteworthy happened: Democracy held. The past week in Seoul, officials and academics warn, is what a threat to democracy looks like in 2024. It's a democratically-elected president declaring martial law over the nation he leads, asserting sweeping powers to prevent opposition demonstrations, ban political parties and control the media. It's members of the military attempting to block lawmakers from exercising their power to vote on cancelling the power grab. And here's what it took to defeat President Yoon Suk Yeol 's lurch toward government by force: Unified popular support for democracy. Legislators storming the National Assembly past midnight, live-streaming themselves climbing over fences. A politician grabbing at a soldier's rifle and yelling “Aren't you ashamed?” until he retreated. And finally, decisively, Parliament assembling a quorum and voting unanimously to cancel martial law. It was a victory for a hard-won democracy — and for the idea that checks and balances among branches of government must work to counteract each other's ambitions, as the American founders wrote in the Federalist Papers in 1788. But as the drama played out in Seoul, the scaffolding of democracy rattled around the world. It said something about the rule of law In other countries, the grab for power might have worked. Other would-be authoritarians might have been better prepared than Yoon. In deeply polarized societies — the United States, for example, where Republicans are staunchly loyal to president-elect Donald Trump — there might not have been decisive support from the public or the opposition. The military might have used force. And the members of the legislature might not have voted as one to snuff out the attempted takeover. “President Yoon's attempt to declare martial law reveals the fragility of the rule of law in divided societies, especially those with governments in which the chief executive cannot be easily dismissed by the legislature," said Tom Pepinsky, a government professor at Cornell University who studies backsliding among democracies in Southeast Asia. Notably, he said in an email, “No members of President Yoon’s own party were willing to defend his actions in public." Nevertheless, Yoon’s surprise attempt to impose martial law revealed both the fragility and resilience of the country’s democratic system. Within three hours of his stunning announcement to impose military rule — claiming the opposition was “paralyzing” state affairs — 190 lawmakers voted to cancel his actions. In so doing, they demonstrated the strength of the country’s democratic checks and balances. Yoon’s authoritarian push, carried out by hundreds of heavily armed troops with Blackhawk helicopters and armored vehicles sent to the National Assembly, harked back to an era of dictatorial presidents. The country’s democratic transition in the late 1980s came after years of massive protests by millions that eventually overcame violent suppressions by military rulers. Civilian presence was again crucial in shaping the events following Yoon’s late night television announcement on Tuesday. Thousands of people flocked to the National Assembly, shouting slogans for martial law to be lifted and Yoon to step down from power. There were no reports of violent clashes as troops and police officers. “We restored democracy without having a single casualty this time,” said Seol Dong-hoon, a sociology professor at South Korea’s Jeonbuk National University. It's not that easy to become a dictator It’s virtually impossible for any leader of a democracy to pull off a transition toward martial law without a public willing to support it, or at least tolerate it. Opposition leader Lee Jae-myung, who narrowly lost to Yoon in the 2022 presidential election, attracted millions of views as he began live-streaming his journey to the National Assembly, pleading for people to converge to the parliament to help lawmakers get inside. The shaky footage later shows him exiting his car climbing over a fence to get onto the grounds. The vote at the National Assembly was also broadcast live on the YouTube channel of Assembly Speaker Woo Won Shik, who also had to scale a fence to get in. Yoon’s sense of crisis clearly wasn’t shared by the public, whose opinions, Seol said, were shaped predominantly by the shocking videos broadcast to their devices. “Ultimately, democracy is all about moving public opinion,” he said. “What was most crucial in this case was that everything was broadcast live on smartphones, YouTube and countless other media.” Opposition lawmakers are now pushing to remove Yoon from office, saying he failed to meet the constitutional requirement that martial law should only be considered in wartime or a comparable severe crisis — and that he unlawfully deployed troops to the National Assembly. On Saturday, an opposition-led impeachment motion failed after most lawmakers from Yoon’s party boycotted the vote. Yet the president’s troubles persist: The vote’s defeat is expected to intensify nationwide protests and deepen South Korea’s political turmoil, with opposition parties preparing to introduce another impeachment motion when parliament reconvenes next Wednesday. Han Sang-hie, a law professor at Seoul’s Konkuk University, said the martial law debacle highlights what he sees as the most crucial flaw of South Korea’s democracy: that it places too much power in the hands of the president, which is easily abused and often goes unchecked. It's called a ‘self-coup’ Political scientists call what happened in South Korea an “autogolpe” — a “self-coup” — defined as one led by incumbent leaders themselves, in which an executive takes or sponsors illegal actions against others in the government. Yoon qualifies because he used troops to try to shut down South Korea's legislature. Self-coups are increasing, with a third of the 46 since 1945 occurring in the past decade, according to a study by researchers from Carnegie Mellon University and Penn State University. About 80% of self-coups succeed, they reported. In 2021, a power grab by Tunisian President Kais Saied raised similar concerns around the world after the country designed a democracy from scratch and won a Nobel Peace Prize after a largely bloodless revolution. In the United States, some have expresed worry about similar situations arising during the second administration of Donald Trump. He has vowed, after all, to shake some of democracy's pillars . He's mused that he would be justified if he decided to pursue “the termination of all rules, regulations, and articles, even those found in the Constitution.” That’s in contrast to the oath of office he took in 2017, and will again next year, to “preserve, protect and defend the Constitution” as best he can. Nearly half of voters in the Nov. 5 election, which Trump won, said they were “very concerned” that another Trump presidency would bring the U.S. closer to authoritarianism, according to AP Votecast survey data. Asked before a live audience on Fox News Channel in 2023 to assure Americans that he would not abuse power or use the presidency to seek retribution against anyone, Trump replied, “except for day one," when he'll close the border and “drill, drill, drill.” After that, Trump said, "I'm not a dictator.” Kellman reported from London.Canada's Trudeau returns home after Trump meeting without assurances that tariffs are off the tableFamilies Fighting Flu Marks 20th Anniversary During National Influenza Awareness Week
OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Creighton point guard Steven Ashworth likely won't play Tuesday in the No. 21 Bluejays' game against San Diego State in the Players Era Festival in Las Vegas. Ashworth sprained his right ankle late in a loss to Nebraska on Friday, and coach Greg McDermott said he didn't know how long he would be out. “He stepped on a guy's foot on a 3-point shot and you're defenseless in that situation," McDermott said after the game. "He torqued it pretty good.” An athletic department spokesman said Monday that Ashworth's status was doubtful for the game against the Aztecs. Ashworth is Creighton's second-leading scorer with 16 points per game and leads the team with 6.4 assists per game. He also is 23 of 23 on free throws. Get poll alerts and updates on the AP Top 25 throughout the season. Sign up here . AP collegebasketball: https://apnews.com/hub/ap-top-25-college-basketball-poll and https://apnews.com/hub/college-basketball Copyright 2024 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission. Get local news delivered to your inbox!PHILADELPHIA (AP) — The mood in the Eagles' locker room was a bit more bleak than it should have been for a team riding a nine-game winning streak and celebrating a franchise rushing record. Former 1,000-yard receiver DeVonta Smith — who caught a touchdown pass and not much else — was exasperated at the offensive no-show. Javascript is required for you to be able to read premium content. Please enable it in your browser settings.New Hampshire courts hear two cases on transgender girls playing girls sports