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