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About The skanner. (Portland, Or.) 1975-2014 | View Entire Issue (July 25, 2012)
WWW . THESKANNER . COM J ULY 25, 2012 S EATTLE , W ASHINGTON V OLUME XXXIV, N O . 30 25 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 TASTE OF VAN ASSELT Shea Pulled Gun PHOTO BY SUSAN FRIED State legislator cited for gun law violation in road rage case Darryl Gant, with the Seattle Parks Department, flips a slab of ribs July 14 at the ‘Taste of Van Asselt.’ The event which was held at the Van Asselt Community Center included music, dance and food. In Wenatchee, Exercises on Poverty Program helps social service providers learn about their clients lives By Dee Riggs The Wenatchee World WENATCHEE, Wash. (AP) — The Xanthos family had a rough time on Thursday. The family of four got evicted from their home, the two chil- dren were taken by Child Pro- tective Services, and the grandfather got shot while try- ing to cash a check at the bank. All this, and the poverty-level family still had to pay bills on a very limited budget. ``I know why people living in poverty get upset when they pay bills,’’ said Connie Mendez of Wenatchee who played the part of 50-year-old Zelda Xanthos in a poverty simulation held at the Wenatchee Community Center. ``They just can’t do it all in the time they’ve got and with the resources they have.’’ Coming to that understanding was the purpose of the poverty exercise, sponsored by the Chelan-Douglas Community Action Council. About 50 people participated. Most were from private and INDEX News .....................2,6,8 Calendar ....................2 Opinion ....................4,5 Bids/Classifieds............7 public agencies that work with the public. All were assigned to be part of a family, and each family had a different set of cir- cumstances. The only thing all had in com- mon was that their family was in poverty. ``The idea is to show you what people in poverty deal with on a regular basis,’’ said Julie Kagele, deputy director of Community Action. The fictitious Xanthos family included grandparents who were raising grandchildren, ages 7 and 9. Only the grandmother, played by Mendez, worked. The grandfather was on disability and was a diabetic. Their daugh- ter, the children’s mother, was in prison on drug charges. With an after-taxes monthly income of $1,846, they had to spend $505 for their mortgage, $295 for utilities, $110 for food, $55 for clothing, $350 for pre- scriptions and $225 for a car loan. During the simulation they were also hit with an unexpect- See POOR on page 3 SPOKANE, Wash. (AP) — A Washing- ton state legislator was cited for two viola- tions of state firearms law last fall following a confrontation that police reports describe as a road rage incident. Republican Matt Shea, a state representa- tive from Spokane Valley, was charged in December with a single misdemeanor count of having a loaded handgun in a vehicle without a concealed weapons permit, the Spokesman-Review reported Sunday. The charge will be dismissed next January if he has no further criminal violations before then. Shea had a handgun in his pickup truck and had let his concealed weapons permit expire when Spokane police contacted him last November to investigate reports of erratic driving and one driver threatening another with a handgun, according to court documents sent to the newspaper. Shea declined comment, referring ques- tions to his attorney, Bob Cossey, who said the gun was not loaded and the other driver was aggressive and angry. ``Matt doesn’t keep a loaded gun in his car. He has small children,’’ Cossey told the Spokesman-Review. Shea is an attorney who serves on a com- mittee with jurisdiction over most firearms legislation. He is seeking a third term this fall. According to police reports, Shea and two other motorists called 911 on Nov. 23 to report erratic driving on downtown Spokane streets. One driver reported a green Chevy Lumi- na driving in an aggressive manner. The driver of the Lumina, Leroy Norris, also called police to report that a pickup truck cut him off and he had to slam on the brakes to avoid a collision. According to the police report, he said the driver of the pick- up pulled a handgun from the passenger side of the car and pointed it at him. He ``freaked out’’ and drove away ``crazy’’ because he thought his life was in danger, he added. See GUNS on page 3 Hit with Clean-up, State Changes Rules Greenhouse gases keep on coming despite Gregoire’s promise By Craig Welch The Seattle Times SEATTLE (AP) — In 2009, Gov. Chris Gregoire declared that Washington would treat climate-changing gases as harmful pol- lutants that must be curbed. So environmental groups were surprised two years later when the Department of Ecology refused to use existing state rules to curb greenhouse gases from Puget Sound’s five oil refineries. Refineries, after all, are Washington’s second-largest non-vehicle source of emissions. Environmentalists sued the state and won. A federal judge this spring told Ecology it must hunt for ways to reduce refinery emis- sions. But Ecology, joined by the petroleum industry, has appealed the decision — and is rewriting the very rules the judge relied upon to reach her conclusion. ``They’re doing everything they can to avoid having to do this,’’ said Becky Kelley, with the Washington Environmental Coun- cil, one of the groups that filed suit. ``Until we sued them they weren’t doing anything, and they’ve pretty much told us See POLLUTION on page 3
