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About The skanner. (Portland, Or.) 1975-2014 | View Entire Issue (Feb. 15, 2012)
WWW . THESKANNER . COM F EBRUARY 15, 2012 S EATTLE , W ASHINGTON V OLUME XXXIV, N O . 7 25 CENTS For The Skanner news alerts Text "NEWS" to 503-715-0890 or scan this QR code C HALLENGING P EOPLE TO S HAPE A B ETTER F UTURE N OW CAREGIVERS RALLY Johns Target of New Law House passes bills against sex trade, penalizes customers PHOTO BY SUSAN FRIED T Hundreds of people attended a town hall Feb. 11 at Greenwood Senior Center on the issue of the lack of affordable care for the elderly and disabled Americans and the lack of respect for the people doing the care taking. Local Event, National Reach Over 200 caregivers and recipients rally in Seattle on care crisis O ver 200 care givers, care recipients, fami- lies and community members met in Seattle Satur- day, Feb. 11, in a town-hall style event looking at the lack of affordable quality care options for older Americans and people with disabilities, and the struggle of caregivers for respect, support, and train- ing. The Seattle meeting was the local launch of a national grassroots campaign to trans- form America’s long-term care industry, called Caring Across Generations. Seattle’s “Care Congress” was the first in the nation and similar events will be taking place in at least 14 other U.S. cities over the next 12 months. As America’s “age wave” begins this year—with one American turning 65 every eight seconds—transforming long-term care will become even more urgent. In Seattle, 3,792 individuals currently receive home care support through DSHS. With 10.3 per- cent of the Seattle population 65 or older and another 12.1 percent of Seattle residents between the ages of 55 and 65, the amount of people needing home care will only increase in future years. The campaign, made up of over 70 organizations nation- ally, aims to protect what we have—Medicaid, Medicare, Social Security—while creat- ing what we need: two million new care giving jobs, training and protection for care providers, new paths to citi- zenship for immigrant care providers, and measures to make care more affordable for struggling families. In Washington State, the Caring Across Generations local coalition is led by 23 organizations. The first step is to pass a Seattle city council resolution in support of the values of the campaign. If passed, Seattle would be the first city in the country to pass local legislation around the issue. See ELDERS on page 3 hanks to strong bi-partisan collabora- tion, two measures aimed at reducing the commercial sale of sex in Wash- ington State passed the House unanimously this week. House Bill 2692 would impose heftier fines on johns convicted of soliciting sex from victims of the sex trade. “Under current law, anyone convicted of patronizing a person being sold for sex in Washington state must pay a fine amounting to a mere $150, in addition to any court costs,” said Rep. Tina Orwall (D-Des Moines) who authored the bill. “My legisla- tion would increase the severity of the financial repercussions on the johns, with the revenue being put toward helping law enforcement arrest and divert users, and helping these young victims get out of the sex trade industry.” Orwall’s bill establishes a $1,500 for a first offense, $2,500 for a second offense, and $5,000 for a third or subsequent offense. These fines may not be reduced, suspended, or waived. The revenue gener- ated by these higher fines would be used to fund “john schools” with programs designed to educate offenders about the negative costs of prostitution. “Raising the amount of the fines imposed on johns is a small, but significant step to provide more and better services enabling our youth to avoid a life of sexual exploita- tion,” said Orwall. The funds must also be spent on preven- tion and rehabilitative services such as men- tal health and substance abuse counseling, parenting skills training, housing relief, edu- cation, vocational training, drop-in centers, and employment counseling to help individ- uals transition out of the sex trade. The other measure, House Bill 1983, prime sponsored by Rep. Kevin Parker, would increase the penalties for those con- victed of promoting prostitution to $3,000 for a first offense, $6,000 for a second offense, and $10,000 for a third or subse- See JOHNS on page 3 INDEX News ........................2,3 Calendar ....................2 Opinion ....................4,5 A&E ..........................6-8 Bids/Classifieds............7 National Black HIV/AIDS Awareness Day Community event builds testing options, services for women N early 150 people attended a commu- nity celebration at Mount Zion Bap- tist Church to mark National Black HIV/AIDS Awareness Day on Tuesday, Feb. 7. As part of the event, community members received free HIV tests and raised funds to support BABES Network, which provides one-on-one peer support, mental health counseling, support groups, and education for HIV-positive women. The Rev. Dr. Linda Smith from the Church of Mary Mag- dalene took an HIV test and shared her experience with the audience in an effort to demonstrate how important—and easy— HIV testing is to prevention efforts. In the U.S., almost half of the people liv- ing with HIV are black. In King County, blacks make up six percent of the popula- tion, but 17 percent of people living with HIV. Compared with whites, rates of HIV are twice as high among U.S.-born blacks and five times as high among foreign-born blacks. Testing is a critical part of HIV preven- tion. The CDC recommends that everyone age 13-64 who is sexually active should test for HIV at least once. Some people whose See AWARENESS on page 3
