www . ThESKaNNEr . CoM
J uNE 22, 2011
S EaTTlE , w aShiNgToN
V oluME XXXiii, N o . 34
25
CENTS
I NSIDE
Family Events
page 2
hip hop Summit
page 3
Farmers’ Market
C hallenging P eoPle to S haPe a B etter F uture n ow
page 3
Precinct Party
State
Spending
Plan
Governor’s budget
includes big cuts for
school spending
PHOTO BY SuSaN FrIED
By Mike Baker
The Associated Press
Despite the rain, Northwest Tap Connection’s Totally Tap Kids performed Saturday, June 18, at the Seattle Police
Department’s East Precinct Community Picnic. Members of the community had an opportunity to meet their local
officers, take a tour of the precinct, enjoy some free entertainment and eat a free hot dog and enjoy some ice
cream.
uS attorney Pushes Pot legalization
Former prosecutor says it’s time to regulate the drug like alcohol
By gene Johnson
The Associated Press
SEaTTLE (AP) — A man
who once served as the Justice
Department’s top official in
Seattle said Tuesday that he is
sponsoring an initiative to legal-
ize possession of up to an ounce
of
dried
marijuana
in
Washington state, a measure he
hopes will help “shame
Congress” into ending pot pro-
hibition.
John McKay spent five years
enforcing federal drug laws as
the U.S. attorney in Seattle
before he was fired by the Bush
administration in early 2007. He
told The Associated Press on
Tuesday that laws criminalizing
marijuana are wrongheaded
because they create an enor-
mous black market exploited by
international cartels and crime
rings.
“That’s what drives my con-
cern: The black market fuels the
cartels, and that’s what allows
them to buy the guns they use to
kill people,” McKay said. “A lot
of Americans smoke pot and
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they’re willing to pay for it. I
think prohibition is a dumb pol-
icy, and there are a lot of line
federal prosecutors who share
the view that the policy is sus-
pect.”
McKay is joining Seattle City
Attorney Pete Holmes, travel
guide Rick Steves and the state
chapter of the American Civil
Liberties Union in forming a
group called New Approach
Washington. They’re pushing an
initiative to the Legislature that
would regulate the recreational
use of marijuana in a way simi-
lar to how the state regulates
alcohol. Their bill would legal-
ize marijuana for people over
21, authorize the Liquor Control
Board to regulate and tax mari-
juana for sale in “standalone
stores,” and extend drunken
driving laws to marijuana, with
blood tests to determine how
much of pot’s active ingredient
is present in a driver’s blood.
New Approach Washington
planned a news conference
Wednesday to announce the
effort. No state has legalized
See POT on page 4
OLYMPIa, Wash. (AP) — A dejected
Gov. Chris Gregoire gave final approval last
week to a new state spending plan, bemoan-
ing in particular the sweeping cuts it makes
to one of her prized issues: education.
Gregoire said the spending reductions —
totaling $4.5 billion over the next two years
— were necessary at a time of economic
turmoil. But she was not pleased with the
results of the last two-year spending plan
she will sign before departing office in
2012.
“I undo how many years of my career?
I’m going to undo how many of the things
I’ve worked for?” Gregoire said. “I have a
very heavy heart today.”
Gregoire said she was particularly panged
by the impacts on education, which bore the
brunt of the reductions. The spending plan
reduces salaries for teachers and classified
educational staff by 1.9 percent while slash-
ing pay for administrative staff by 3 percent.
It suspends programs designed to keep class
sizes low.
Higher education will also endure a large
share of the cuts. To offset the spending
reductions, Gregoire and lawmakers
approved double-digit tuition hikes in each
of the next two years.
Those increases, combined with ones in
previous years, mean tuition at the
University of Washington will be twice as
expensive when Gregoire departs office
than when she began. Rates could still go
higher because Gregoire pushed a measure
giving institutions the power to set their
own rates.
The budget was just one of many key bills
that Gregoire approved Wednesday to con-
clude her work for the legislative session.
She also green-lighted an overhaul of the
state’s workers’ compensation system, new
limits on the state’s debt and a bill that
allows Washington to solicit bids for a pos-
See SPENDINg on page 2
is Big City life getting You Down?
New research shows your neighbors are stressing you out
By Malcolm ritter
aP Science Writer
NEW YOrK (AP) — This may come as
no surprise to residents of New York City
and other big urban centers: Living there
can be bad for your mental health.
Now researchers have found a possible
reason why. Imaging scans show that in city
dwellers or people who grew up in urban
areas, certain areas of the brain react more
vigorously to stress. That may help explain
how city life can boost the risks of schizo-
phrenia and other mental disorders,
researchers said.
Previous research has found that growing
up in a big city raises the risk of schizo-
phrenia. And there’s some evidence that city
dwellers are at heightened risk for mood and
anxiety disorders, although the evidence is
mixed.
In any case, the volunteers scanned in the
new study were healthy, and experts said
that while the city-rural differences in brain
activity were intriguing, the results fall short
of establishing a firm tie to mental illness.
The study, done in Germany and pub-
lished in Thursday’s issue of the journal
See STrESS on page 2