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About The skanner. (Portland, Or.) 1975-2014 | View Entire Issue (May 18, 2011)
www . tHEskaNNEr . COm m ay 18, 2011 s EattlE , w asHiNgtON V OlumE XXXiii, N O . 29 25 CENts i nSide Operation: Backpack page 2 Editorial page 3 Harbor Fest C hallenging P eoPle to S haPe a B etter F uture n ow page 2 Breathe easy Coach’s Death a tragedy Shooting death was called avoidable; may be self-defense By gene Johnson associated Press rev. lennox yearwood Jr. will be speaking out about asthma rates in seattle Friday may 20, and saturday, may 21, keynoting this year’s green Festival-seattle High asthma rates among youth Rev. Lennox Yearwood Jr. speaks out on Seattle’s air pollution R ev. Lennox Yearwood Jr., President and CEO of the Hip Hop Caucus, will be in Seattle Friday May 20, and Saturday, May 21, keynoting this year’s Green Festival-Seattle. Linking the issues of poverty and pollution, Rev Yearwood will address rising asthma rates and other health disparities from air pollu- tion among youth and communities of color in Seattle. “The fact that people cannot breathe clean air is un-American,” Rev. Yearwood says. “Illness and death from dirty air among our most vulnerable populations – children and the elderly, particularly in poor communities – is a direct assault on American values of life, liberty and pur- suit of happiness. Seattle, one of our great- est American cities, deserves better.” May is National Asthma Awareness Month. The CDC recently released a report which found that asthma rates are rising sharply across the nation: 1 in 10 children and 1 in 12 adults have asthma; for African American children, it is far worse: 1 in 6 have asthma. According to the Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America, Seattle is one of the top 100 asthma capitals of 2011. The Seattle-Tacoma-Olympia metro area is the 18th most-polluted in the country for fine particle pollution, according to a report released by the American Lung Association. Yearwood is the subject of a current Discovery Network feature documentary, “Hip Hop Rev,” that premiered Earth Day 2011 on the Planet Green Channel. The film captures Rev Yearwood’s activism and community organizing on environ- mental justice and climate issues in com- munities of color across the nation. The documentary highlights Rev Yearwood launching environmental initia- See aSthma on page 2 auBuRn, Wash. (AP) — The small cul-de-sac of beige duplexes in this Seattle suburb gave every illusion of tranquility on a sunny Sunday afternoon. Thankful for the reprieve from Pacific Northwest rain, two women cleaned their cars. Their young sons shot water guns in the shaggy grass and dandelion thicket between their driveways. A few houses over, an Indian immigrant named Jaspal Mangat sat on her stoop. Kids played bas- ketball in the street. Even so, strife-weary neighbors knew the idyll was unlikely to last. The adjacent public housing complex and nearby trailer parks are filled with teenagers, and it seems hardly a weekend goes by that some aren’t brawling or getting into public, pro- fane arguments with their parents — either up the street, or outside the Boys and Girls Club, or right here in the cul-de-sac. So it was with a mixture of frustration and alarm that residents called 911 that May 1 afternoon to report that yet another fight had broken out. But this one would end much differently — with a popular middle school coach dead; with his broth- er staggering on a front lawn, clinging to life; with a completely avoidable tragedy that devastated two families. “It’s a shame it did happen, but it had to happen,” said Dave Maun, whose house faces the cul-de-sac. “It’s been building up to this. It is not a safe neighborhood.” Shennon Shelton, 22, helped coach bas- ketball and football at Cascade Middle School. He came from a big Samoan fam- ily with athletic brothers. One of his younger brothers, Danny, 6-foot-3 and 300 pounds, is one of the University of Washington’s most prized football recruits this year. It was a point of pride that prom- ised a new future for the family. He may have escaped harm when the shooter’s gun See Shooting on page 2 indeX News ........................2-4 Calendar ....................2 Opinion .......................3 Bids/Classifieds............4 libya Ends College Funding for students Those studying in Washington, U.S., have nothing for tuition, expenses By nicholas K. geranios associated Press SPoKane, Wash. (AP) — About 2,000 Libyan students who attend college in the U.S. will lose financial support after Libya stopped funding a scholarship program when the U.N. froze about $30 billion of that country’s assets. Among the students is Abdalhamid Alkar, one of about 40 Libyan students at Washington State University in Pullman who will see their government support end on May 31 unless the situation changes. “This is a big problem for all of us,” Alkar said Friday. “We don’t have any way to sup- port our living here.” Student visa requirements prohibit the stu- dents from working, and lack of support from their government means the students will be left without money for tuition and living expenses. Alkar actually graduated in May in veteri- nary medicine but still needs support from the Libyan government while he waits sev- eral months for permission to get a job. “I have no funds for that,” Alkar said. Various groups at Washington State See StudentS on page 3
