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