WWW . THESKANNER . COM
F EBRUARY 15, 2012
S EATTLE , W ASHINGTON
V OLUME XXXIV, N O . 7
25
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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