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About The skanner. (Portland, Or.) 1975-2014 | View Entire Issue (Nov. 9, 2011)
WWW . THeskaNNer . COm N OvemeBr 9, 2011 s eaTTle , W asHiNgTON v Olume XXXiii, N O . 54 25 CeNTs i nSiDe ‘Tower Heist’ page 2 Big Business page 5 Wendy Williams C hallenging P eoPle to S haPe a B etter F uture n ow page 6 Mayors on CriMe special elections results Voters approve liquor privatization, budget savings plan, more pHoto By liSa loving W seattle mayor mike mcginn traveled to Portland to sign a “statement of support” for regional collaboration on gang violence, human trafficking, and weapons trafficking along the interstate 5 corridor. mcginn joined vancouver, Wa., mayor Tim leavitt, left, and Portland mayor sam adams, right, as well as police chiefs and members of the FBi. He took the opportunity to call out village voice media’s www.backpage.com commercial website where, he said, pimps are prostituting under-aged girls via the Seattle Weekly. in Portland, the Willamette Week sponsors backpage.com – but the issue has not yet reached the public’s radar. Orchards Desperate for Pickers Bumper crop is destroyed by anti-immigration measures By Shannon Dininny the associated press yakiMa, wash. — Apple growers say they could have had one of their best years ever if a shortage of workers hadn’t forced them to leave some fruit on trees. Growers in Washington state, which produces about half of the nation’s apples, say the labor shortage was made worse by a late start to their harvest. The growing season got off to a slow start because of a cold, wet spring, and some migrant work- ers didn’t stick around to wait for it. But farmers say an immigra- tion crackdown by the federal government and states such as Arizona and Alabama scared off many more workers. They have tried to replace them with domestic workers with little success and inmates at a much greater cost. Many growers have resorted to posting “pick- ers wanted” signs outside their orchards and asking neighbors to send prospective workers inDeX News ..................2,3,6,7 Calendar ....................2 Opinion ....................4,5 Bids/Classifieds............7 their way. Jeff Pheasant and his sister Darla Grubb are the fourth gen- eration in their family to grow apples near Soap Lake, about 120 miles east of Seattle. They said their harvest was a week behind because the fruit wasn’t ripe, then another week behind because they had no workers to pick it. Pheasant Orchards usually has 65 workers at the peak of har- vest. Only 50 pickers arrived this year, and many were inex- perienced, Pheasant said. “You have to have people,” Grubb said. “They’re the reason we have fruits and vegetables. We couldn’t do this without our workers.” About 15 billion apples are picked in Washington each year, all by hand. Orchards line the hillsides and valleys east of the Cascade Range from the Canadian border in the north to the Columbia River in the south. Growers have struggled for years with labor shortages, but they say this harvest season is See workerS on page 3 ashington voters on Tuesday approved a plan to privatize liquor sales and dismantle controls that have been in place since Prohibition, siding with retailing giant Costco in the costliest initiative campaign in state history. Unofficial results Wednesday afternoon showed the measure with 59.69 percent sup- port. Costco Wholesale Corp. had commit- ted $22 million to supporting the measure — $6 for every registered voter — as exec- utives portrayed the Issaquah-based compa- ny as a crusader for consumers and said that it could take years to make up the invest- ment in the initiative. Also passing were Measure 1163 requir- ing better training and background checks for care workers; Senate Joint Resolution 8205, removing an inoperative provision from the state constitution regarding how long a voter must reside in the state before becoming eligible to vote; and Senate Joint Resolution 8206, requiring the state to maintain a financial stabilization account. Narrowly defeated in unofficial returns was Measure 1125 which would have pro- hibited use of motor vehicle fund revenue and vehicle toll revenue for non-transporta- tion purposes. The company also harnessed support from restaurants, groceries and other retailers. “We are very grateful to all of our coali- tion partners across the state,” said Joel Benoliel, senior vice president and chief legal officer at Costco. “The voters over- whelmingly demonstrated that facts trump scare tactics.” Wholesalers provided much of the opposi- tion funding, as retailers will now be able to bypass them and buy product directly from producers. The new rules go into effect in June, and about 1,000 people who currently operate the state’s system will lose their jobs. Costco had backed another privatization measure that failed last year with 47 percent of the vote. Acknowledging that the 2010 See electionS on page 3 Occupy seattle grows Base of support College professors host night classes at protest encampment By Manuel valdes the associated press Seattle — In the dead of night, as drunken Halloween revelers streamed into the street from nearby bars, Karen Strickland tried to teach Occupy Seattle pro- testers how to get their message across to politicians. Other lessons - including the history of labor movements, writing a “position state- ment” and the language of a Martin Luther King letter - were held as community col- lege instructors from around the Emerald City gave free classes earlier this week in an attempt to bolster a protest that had been struggling to capture the attention of a city with a vibrant history of protests. And as the Occupy movement shows signs of fracturing after violent outbreaks in Oakland and elsewhere, instructors here say they’ll continue efforts to mentor the most- ly young people who have taken to the streets over the last several weeks. “We didn’t talk about their particular strategies,” said Strickland, who is the pres- ident of the American Federation of Teachers Seattle Local 1789. “I guess my See occupy on page 3
