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About The skanner. (Portland, Or.) 1975-2014 | View Entire Issue (March 30, 2011)
www . theSkANNer . COM M ArCh 30, 2011 S eAttLe V OLuMe XXXIII, N O . 22 25 CeNtS i nSide Poetry Grand Slam page 2 Green Jobs page 3 Obama’s Libya Attack C hallenging P eoPle to S haPe a B etter F uture n ow page 5 Van Jones NAACP March In Spokane National President Ben Jealous to talk about MLK bomb N See ConSumption on page 3 See marCh on page 3 photo BY SuSan fried diagnosed in King County in 2010, six were caused by the PCR0001 strain, including three outside the homeless popula- tion. The TB Control Program has made focused efforts in recent years that have helped to control the spread of the PCR0001 strain among the homeless pop- ulation, and is now prioritizing its work on controlling the spread of the strain more broad- ly. Approximately one third of AACP National President Benjamin Todd Jealous travels to Spokane this Sunday, April 3, to march with local civil rights activists against the attempted bombing of a Martin Luther King holiday parade last January. Facing prosecution in the case is Kevin Harpham, 36, is in the Spokane County Jail without bail with a trial date set for May 31. He has pleaded not guilty. Regional NAACP members say they called the march in part to commemorate the 43rd anniversary of King’s assassina- tion, which falls on April 4. The Southern Poverty Law Center, which tracks hate groups, has said that Kevin Harpham made more than 1,000 postings on an Internet site used by racists called the Vanguard News Network. The SPLC has also said that Harpham belonged to a neo-Nazi group called the National Alliance. Spokane NAACP leader V. Anne Smith said several groups in the town have held forums this spring trying to come to grips with the incident. “I think it’s a wake up call when we’re worrying about terrorists when we have individuals like this coming in and trying to destroy a community,” she said. “I’m thinking about the babies that were strapped to their fathers’ backs and the mothers with strollers who were walking in the parade that day, and the power of this bomb that was right where they were pass- ing by. What kind of a person could hate like that?” She said the Sunday forum will include speakers on a range of issues such as fail- ures such as educational inequality, health care and the courts system. Still, local activists have praised the FBI and police department’s work in defusing the bomb – which was discovered by sani- tation workers – and arresting the suspect. The incident has changed the community in Spokane, she said. Van Jones spoke about the American Dream at the 6th Annual Guiding Lights weekend March 25 and 26 at Seattle Center. the gathering focused on citizenship and featured live video conferences with uS Secretary of education Arne Duncan, a video interview with Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, workshops and panel discussions. king County: Potent tB Strain Spreads General population is increasingly at risk from hard-to-treat disease K ing County, Wash., pub- lic health officials say a strain of tuberculosis, called PCR0001, which is responsible for 76 cases in the local homeless population since 2002, is now being transmitted among the broader community as well. Health officials say they’re worried because the strain appears more likely to infect others and cause active TB dis- ease than the more commonly seen strains. “We aren’t immune in King County from the global epidem- ic or the changing nature of the disease itself,” said Dr. David Fleming, Director and Health Officer for Public Health - Seattle & King County. “The wider spread of what appears to be a more potent strain is con- cerning, and it’s an important example of why we can’t afford to relax our efforts in control- ling TB.” Tuberculosis, also called TB, is an infectious disease caused by a bacterium named Mycobacterium tuberculosis. indeX News ........................2,3 Calendar ....................2 Opinion ....................4,5 Bids/Classifieds............6 TB often involves the lungs (pulmonary TB) but can infect almost any organ in the body. TB is almost always curable with antibiotics that are readily available in countries such as the United States. People with active TB disease are made sick by bacteria that are active in their body. People with inactive, or latent, TB infection are not sick because the germ is inactive inside their body, and they cannot spread TB infection to others. Of the 116 active TB cases Judge Saves Food Assistance Program Now, state worries about what authority it has to cut budgets By robin hindery The Associated Press oLYmpia, Wash. (AP) — A federal judge’s decision to protect a state-funded food assistance program from elimination has raised concerns among state officials about their ability to successfully carry out future budget cuts in times of fiscal crisis. U.S. District Court Judge Marsha Pechman on Tuesday denied the state’s request that she reconsider her preliminary injunction last month forcing the state Department of Social and Health Services to fully restore the Food Assistance Program for Legal Immigrants, or FAP. The program, which had been cut on Jan. 31, serves more than 10,300 households and provides benefits to immigrants who are ineligible for federal food stamps. The state had hoped to save an estimated $7.2 million for the remainder of the current biennium and about $60.5 million for the next one by terminating the FAP. But Pechman found that by cutting off food assistance to a certain class of legal immi- See food on page 3
