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