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