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About The skanner. (Portland, Or.) 1975-2014 | View Entire Issue (June 29, 2011)
www . theSkaNNer . com J uNe 29, 2011 S eattle , w aShiNGtoN V olume XXXiii, N o . 35 25 ceNtS Have a Safe Fourth C hallenging P eoPle to S haPe a B etter F uture n ow Pride Parade attackers wanted attention Accused Seattle terrorists wanted media attention PHOTO bY SuSan Fried Gene Johnson The associated Press Following the historic passage of a bill allowing gay marriage in New York State, thousands of people came out Sunday, June 27, to watch the Gay Pride Parade in Downtown Seattle. teen Fights red light cameras Josh Sutinen, 17, calls them a ‘taxation through citation’ mike baker The associated Press OLYmPia, Wash. (AP) — Josh Sutinen isn’t old enough to vote and only got his driver’s license last month, but he’s already among the leaders in a growing national backlash against cameras that issue traffic tickets. The 17-year-old has worked for most of this year - frequent- ly on school nights - pushing an initiative to ban Longview’s new red-light and speed cam- eras. He’s now in the final stages of a signature-collection effort that has him fighting city council and asking fellow citi- zens to join his crusade. “These cameras are really just another big government attack on our rights,” Sutinen said in an interview. “It’s just taxation through citation.” Sutinen’s plan is one of four similar ballot proposals around Washington this year. Voters in more than a dozen cities nation- wide have passed referendums banning the cameras while nine indeX states now prohibit them. Officials in Los Angeles, where a single ticket can cost hundreds of dollars, moved this week to end a camera program there. Opponents question whether the cameras actually improve safety, noting that many citations are issued to drivers who simply don’t fully stop as they take free right turns at red lights. They also believe governments are largely using the cameras as a revenue source. Washington’s activists hope to repeat the local success that state initiative guru Tim Eyman had in his hometown of Mukilteo last year. A group in Bellingham turned in nearly 7,000 signatures this week, and a movement in Redmond is still collecting. Some city leaders are fighting to save the programs: On Tuesday night, Monroe officials moved to block an initiative from the ballot after promoters got enough signatures validated. The Longview plan led by See cameraS on page 2 SeaTTLe (AP) — Two ex-convicts planned an attack on a Seattle military recruiting station hoping that it would get attention from the media, authorities say, and even imagined the headlines: “Three Muslim Males Walk Into MEPS Building, Seattle, Washington, And Gun Down Everybody.” Abu Khalid Abdul-Latif, also known as Joseph Anthony Davis, 33, of Seattle, was arrested Wednesday when he and another man showed up at a warehouse garage to pick up machine guns they planned to use in the attack, authorities said Thursday. The weapons had been rendered inoperable by federal agents and posed no risk to the pub- lic. Authorities learned of the plot this month when a third person recruited to participate alerted Seattle police, according to court documents. Agents then set up the sting through the confidential informant, who had known Abdul-Latif for years. Abdul-Latif had little knowledge of weapons, but served briefly in the Navy in the mid-1990s and was familiar with recruiting stations like the one they targeted, a criminal complaint said. The U.S. Attorney’s Office in Seattle said he and his alleged accomplice, Walli Mujahidh, planned to attack Joint Base Lewis- McChord but later changed targets. “If we can get control of the building and we can hold it for a while, then we’ll get the local news down there, the media down there, you know what I’m saying,” Abdul- Latif was quoted in a court document as saying. “It’s a confined space, not a lot of people carrying weapons, and we’d have an advantage.” Mujahidh pictured the headline - “Three Muslim Males Walk Into MEPS Building, Seattle, Washington, And Gun Down Everybody” - according to the court docu- See aTTackS on page 2 census: more Babies Born to minorities Fast-growing ethnic populations could reshape U.S. policies News ........................2,4 calendar ....................2 Bids/classifieds............3 Hope Yen The associated Press WaSHinGTOn (AP) — For the first time, more than half of the children under age 2 in the U.S. are minorities, part of a sweeping race change and a growing age divide between mostly white, older Americans and fast-growing younger ethnic populations that could reshape government policies. Preliminary census estimates also show the share of African-American households headed by women - mostly single mothers - now exceeds African-American households with married couples, reflecting the trend of declining U.S. marriages overall. The findings, based on the latest govern- ment data, offer a preview of final 2010 cen- sus results being released this summer that provide detailed breakdowns by age, race and household relationships. Demographers say the numbers provide the clearest confirmation yet of a changing social order, one in which racial and ethnic minorities will become the U.S. majority by midcentury. “We’re moving toward an acknowledg- See babieS on page 4
