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About The skanner. (Portland, Or.) 1975-2014 | View Entire Issue (April 25, 2012)
WWW . THESKANNER . COM A PRIL 25, 2012 S EATTLE , W ASHINGTON V OLUME XXXIV, N O . 17 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 GOT GREEN! 1 in 2 Out of Luck New graduates are jobless or underemployed PHOTO BY SUSAN FRIED By Hope Yen The Associated Press Mukhtar and Jibril plant some seeds at the Got Green? Earth Day Shout Out!, April 21 at Southside Commons. The event kicked off the new Got Green? website and featured food, spoken word poets Sista Hailstorm and Yirim Seck and a variety of activities for children. Sen. Murray Pushes Back on VA Report: Bureau failing to provide timely mental care for veterans By Kevin Freking The Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — Federal investigators reported Monday that nearly half of the veterans who seek mental health care for the first time waited about 50 days before receiving a full evaluation, a much longer lag-time than cited by the Department of Veterans Affairs. The VA has been saying that 95 percent of new patients seek- ing mental health treatment get a full evaluation within the department’s goal of 14 days. But an inspector general’s report said that the department’s tracking is flawed and that the VA was overstating its success when it comes to how quickly veterans get care. The department has greatly beefed up staffing in recent years, but the report also con- firmed that many of the VA’s doctors and other medical offi- cials don’t believe they have the manpower necessary to handle the ever-growing veteran case- load. INDEX News .....................2,3,8 Calendar ....................2 Opinion ....................4,5 Bids/Classifieds.........6-7 “This report confirms what we have long been hearing, that our veterans are waiting far too long to get the mental health care they so desperately need,” said Sen. Patty Murray, chairman of the Senate Committee on Veter- ans’ Affairs. “It is deeply dis- turbing and demands action from the VA.” The report comes just days after the administration announced it was increasing its staff of mental health workers by roughly 1,900. The depart- ment has been adding staff at a brisk pace in recent years. Staffing is up 45 percent since 2005, but the increase in patients has gone up by almost that amount. VA officials said the announcement had been months in the making. In response to the report, the department released a statement saying that it was committed to ensuring that veterans had access to quality mental health care and that it would review the IG’s findings. “We have made strong See VETS on page 3 WASHINGTON (AP) — The college class of 2012 is in for a rude welcome to the world of work. A weak labor market already has left half of young college graduates either jobless or underemployed in positions that don’t fully use their skills and knowledge. Young adults with bachelor’s degrees are increasingly scraping by in lower-wage jobs - waiter or waitress, bartender, retail clerk or receptionist, for example - and that’s con- founding their hopes a degree would pay off despite higher tuition and mounting student loans. An analysis of government data conduct- ed for The Associated Press lays bare the highly uneven prospects for holders of bachelor’s degrees. Opportunities for college graduates vary widely. While there’s strong demand in science, education and health fields, arts and human- ities flounder. Median wages for those with bachelor’s degrees are down from 2000, hit by technological changes that are eliminat- ing midlevel jobs such as bank tellers. Most future job openings are projected to be in lower-skilled positions such as home health aides, who can provide personalized atten- tion as the U.S. population ages. Taking underemployment into considera- tion, the job prospects for bachelor’s degree holders fell last year to the lowest level in more than a decade. “I don’t even know what I’m looking for,” says Michael Bledsoe, who described months of fruitless job searches as he served customers at a Seattle coffeehouse. The 23- year-old graduated in 2010 with a creative writing degree. Initially hopeful that his college education would create opportunities, Bledsoe lan- guished for three months before finally tak- ing a job as a barista, a position he has held See GRADS on page 3 Housing Complaints Against Banks Discrimination in foreclosures alleged against Wells Fargo, others By Charlene Crowell Center for Responsible Lending I n the aftermath of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s assassination, Congress enact- ed the federal Fair Housing Act on April 11, 1968. This historic federal act made it illegal to discriminate in housing and hous- ing related-activities on the basis of race, color, national origin, disability or sex. Fur- ther, the law applies to marketing and sales of homes, listings, appraisals and mainte- nance. Now 44 years later – and not for the first time –two of the nation’s largest banks - Wells Fargo and US Bank are accused of serious violations. Following an undercover investigation of foreclosed single-family homes in eight metropolitan areas, the National Fair Hous- ing Alliance (NFHA) filed two discrimina- tion complaints with Housing and Urban Development (HUD). The complaints alleges that in handling foreclosed proper- ties in its possession, US Bank and Wells Fargo show distinct and systematic differ- ences in maintenance and marketing of these homes. And once again, according to See HOUSING on page 3
