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About The skanner. (Portland, Or.) 1975-2014 | View Entire Issue (March 23, 2011)
WWW . tHEskaNNER . COM M aRCH 23, 2011 s EattlE , W asHiNgtON V OluME XXXiii, N O . 21 25 CENts i nSide Jalen Rose page 4 Wilmington 10 page 6 Cook Book C hallenging P eoPle to S haPe a B etter F uture n ow page 8 Youth syphillis Cases increase Services stepped up for Seattle-area gay, bisexual men S See hive on page 3 See SyphiliS on page 3 phOtO By SuSan fried reporting. Media members can upload their local stories to the www.SeaBeez.com web- site, where readers can access information about a range of local commu- nities around the Seattle region. Sea Beez was created in May of 2010 by direc- tor Julie Pham, in cooperation with New America Media, the largest nonprofit ethnic media partnership organization in the yphilis cases in King County reached a 30-year high in 2010, prompting public health officials to call for increased testing and education for high-risk populations, especially men who have sex with men. In 2010, 283 cases of syphilis were report- ed, an 82 percent increase from 2009. Syphilis had been virtually eliminated in King County in the early-1990s. Public health officials say they don’t fully understand what is causing the upswing in cases, but are actively working to investi- gate possible causes, increase syphilis test- ing, speed-up treatment, and improve part- ner notification. “Public Health, medical providers and the gay and bisexual community need to work together to solve this important problem,” said Dr. Matthew Golden, director of the Public Health-Seattle & King County HIV/STD Program. “We need medical providers to test their gay and bisexual patients for syphilis often and to be vigilant in looking for signs of the infection,” he said. “However, perhaps more than anything, we need men who have sex with men to take action.” Rates of syphilis among gay and bisexual men also appear to be increasing in other areas of the U.S. Gay and bisexual men -– especially those who are HIV-positive –- have the highest rates of syphilis. Ninety percent of cases diagnosed in 2010 were in men who have sex with men, with HIV-positive gay and bisexual men making up 58 percent of those cases. King County Public Health urges men who have sex with men to use condoms, to test for STDs often, and to immediately seek medical attention if they develop a sore on their genitals or any kind of new rash. “Men who have sex with men need to ask their medical providers to test for syphilis,” said Golden. “Don’t assume that providers will test for syphilis in a routine STD steven tran, 18, and Mario sellers, 17, do some roll playing as part of a workshop on Peer-to-Peer Mentoring at “What do You love to Do?” the king County Youth summit 2011, on March 19, at Cleveland High school in seattle. the all day event included additional workshops on a variety of topics important to young people including social justice, financial aid for college, employment and spoken word. NW Ethnic Media Create News ‘Hive’ Sea Beez helps community news outlets develop on the web A budding network of eth- nic media from around the Pacific Northwest gathered in Seattle Friday, March 18 for the Sea Beez Best Business Practices Roundtable at the offices of public radio sta- tion KUOW. Dozens of newspaper, televi- sion, online and radio networks attended the event to talk about how to work together in devel- oping better local news report- ing that reaches more people. Bellevue Mayor Conrad Lee participated in the event, as did panelists Bernie Foster, publish- er of the Skanner News Group; El Mundo newspaper President Gustavo A. Montoya; Michael Crystal, business consultant to Crosscut.com and former publisher of Seattle Weekly; Northwest Asian Weekly and Seattle Chinese Post Publisher Assunta Ng; John Liu of the Northwest Asian Weekly; and moderator, Somali American TV producer Madhi Maaweel. Janet Matkin of the indeX News .....................2,3,8 Calendar ....................2 Opinion ....................4,5 Bids/Classifieds.........6-7 Washington State Department of Transportation also spoke. ‘We can’t serve our readers if we don’t survive as small businesses’ Sea Beez is a new project in community reporting using the “hive” model of organizing, developing and training within the participating organizations, as well as encouraging citizen Report on Corrections Officer’s Death Biendl had no pepper spray or weapons when confronting inmate By nicholas K. Geranios The Associated Press SpOKane, Wash. (AP) — Corrections officers in the state should wear personal body alarms, carry pepper spray and make other safety improvements to avoid future attacks like the one that killed a guard at the Monroe prison in January, Gov. Chris Gregoire said Monday. The governor went to the Washington State Reformatory at Monroe to announce the findings by the National Institute of Corrections into the Jan. 29 slaying of Jayme Biendl in the prison chapel. Biendl was working alone and was strangled to death during a struggle. “In the face of that loss, we resolved to find out what happened and to take whatev- er steps are necessary to prevent another such attack on our corrections officers,” Gregoire said. “Jayme’s legacy will be enhanced protection of her co-workers, who face inherent dangers while on the job.” Gregoire was joined by Department of Corrections Secretary Eldon Vail. Proposed safety improvements include: add staff who are responsible for the where- See death on page 3
