WWW . THESkANNER . COM
, 2011
P ORTLAND & S EATTLE
V OLuME XXXIII, N O .
25
CENTS
i nSiDe
State of Black America
page 4
Manning Marable
page 6
Ma Rainey
C hallenging P eoPle to S haPe a B etter F uture n ow
Teen
Dating
Violence
page 9
Vaughn Vigil
Help is out there for
girls and boys in
abusive relationships
What’s the Problem?
“Nationally the statistics show that one in
four women will experience intimate part-
ner violence in their lifetime,” says Vanessa
Timmins, a domestic violence specialist
with Multnomah County. “And the figures
show there is a greater risk for young peo-
ple.”
In fact, girls aged 16-24 are more vulner-
able to intimate partner violence than any
other age group.
“They are so new to relationships that
they don’t have a road map of what a
healthy relationship feels like,” Timmins
says.
The Love is Respect study also found that
40 percent students aged 11- 12 report that
their friends are victims of verbal abuse in
relationships.
One-in-five students aged 13 -14 say their
friends are victims of dating violence, such
as getting struck, hit or slapped by a
boyfriend or girlfriend.
Only 51 percent of tweens (aged about 9-
See violence on page 3
inDeX
News ...................2,3,6
Opinion ..................4,5
Finances.................7,8
A & E ....................9,14
Food........................10
Energy.....................11
Bids/Classifieds ...12,13
Photo BY Julie keefe
Y
ashawnee Vaughn’s tragic disap-
pearance set hearts beating anxious-
ly across the city. Now police say
that the lovely 14-year-old with the smile
that wouldn’t quit is dead. And another teen,
16-year-old Parrish Bennette, awaits trial in
the juvenile detention center charged with
manslaughter. He has pleaded innocent.
Yashawnee’s grief-stricken family and
friends are still waiting for her body to be
recovered.
We don’t know what happened to
Yashawnee Vaughn, and we don’t know
whether Parrish Bennette bears any respon-
sibility. However, the tragedy is touching
students and parents in a very personal way,
and it is raising all kinds of questions and
concerns about teen violence.
To answer some of those questions, which
may be quite unrelated to Vaughn’s sad
story, The Skanner News decided to take a
look at teen dating violence.
Last Saturday’s vigil for Yashawnee Vaughn. From left, Swehsac Vaughn, Yashawnee’s aunt(in green shirt); mother
Shaquita Louis; brother Cedrell Washington; and cousin André Montgomery (in profile with red hat) listen to testimony
of friends and search and rescue volunteers.
Race-Based Health Differences Remain
VA study shows equality in care doesn’t eliminate disparities
In the past decade, the
Veterans Affairs Health Care
System has made great progress
in providing screenings and
treating high-risk conditions for
all its patients, thus substantial-
ly closing the gaps in care pro-
vided white and African
American enrollees.
However, a new study shows
that big differences still persist
between black and white veter-
ans when it comes to outcomes
in heart disease, diabetes, and
hypertension.
The research appears in the
April 2011 edition of the month-
ly journal Health Affairs. The
Robert
Wood
Johnson
Foundation, the nation’s largest
philanthropy focused solely on
health and health care, spon-
sored the issue.
The study examined a nation-
al sample of more than 1.2 mil-
lion VA enrollees between 2000
and 2009 for 10 clinical per-
formance measures related to
cancer screening and cardiovas-
cular and diabetes care. The
authors of the study say that,
while the VA greatly improved
the quality of care for white and
black veterans over that period,
those efforts have not narrowed
racial gaps in clinical outcomes.
“The VA has narrowed care
gaps that are directly under the
control of the providers - order-
ing tests, referring to the appro-
priate specialist, and conducting
screenings,” says Amal Trivedi,
research investigator at the
Providence VA Medical Center
and an assistant professor at the
Warren Alpert Medical School
of Brown University. However,
among all VA medical centers,
there was as much as a nine per-
centage
point
difference
between black and white veter-
ans in measures indicating
whether cholesterol, diabetes,
and blood pressure were under
control. Thus, improvements in
clinical performance were not
accompanied by meaningful
reductions in racial disparities
for outcomes that not only affect
how healthy people are and how
long they live, but also signifi-
cantly drive up health costs.
The bottom line, says Trivedi,
See health on page 3
Washington May Cut Prison System
Budget limits may crush tough-on-crime laws from past years
nicholas k Geranios
The Associated Press
SPokane, Wash. (AP) Like many
states, cash-strapped Washington is looking
to save money by reducing the size of its
prison population.
But the state has actually been releasing
non-violent offenders for years, leaving rel-
atively few inmates who would be good
candidates for early release. Washington has
only about 17,000 prison inmates, well
below the average for a state of 6.6 million.
“Over the last 10 years we have moved
away from incarcerating in any great num-
bers people who don’t deserve to be in
prison,’’ said Tom McBride, a spokesman
for the state Association of Prosecuting
Attorneys.
That is not the case in all states. Huge
budget deficits are causing politicians in
many states to take a hard look at prisons,
and the tough-on-crime laws that locked up
more people for longer periods. At least two
dozen states are considering early release of
inmates to save money. Tougher sentencing
laws have contributed to a fourfold increase
in prison costs across the nation over two
See PriSonerS on page 8