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About The skanner. (Portland, Or.) 1975-2014 | View Entire Issue (Aug. 8, 2012)
WWW . THESKANNER . COM A UGUST 8, 2012 S EATTLE , W ASHINGTON V OLUME XXXIV, N O .32 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 State Law Broken UMOJA FEST Audit: 28 sex offenders in child care, foster care By Donna Gordon Blankinship The Associated Press PHOTO BY SUSAN FRIED Team Primetime played team Orcas in the semi-finals of the Heal the Hood basketball tournament on Saturday, Aug. 4. The basketball tournament was part of the annual African American Festival and Parade which was held at Judkins Park Aug. 3-5 and had something for everybody including a children's day, a hip hop stage, gospel fest, a break dancing competition, food and a talent competition. No Sandbox Near Seattle Street City puts together a task force to examine issue of kids vs cars By Lynn Thompson The Seattle Times SEATTLE (AP) — When Paulo Nunes-Ueno moved with his family onto a residential street between Wallingford and Greenlake in June, he brought along an 8-by-4-foot wooden sandbox he’d built for his two young children at their previous home. On the new block, where the number of kids is estimated at between 15 and 20, and where many of the front yards are postage-stamp size, the sandbox became an instant gathering place for youngsters and their parents. But not everyone approved. The city received an anonymous complaint the sandbox, located at the end of the Nunes-Ueno driveway, violated city rules about play structures too close to the street. The city sent him a warning he would be fined $500 a day if he didn’t remove the sandbox. The city now has, if not a fight, at least a debate on its INDEX News ..................2,4,6,8 Calendar ....................2 Opinion .......................3 A&E ..........................2,5 Bids/Classifieds............7 hands. Nunes-Ueno, a trans- portation and sustainability director for Seattle Children’s hospital, wants to nudge the city toward more varied uses of the street, planting strip and side- walk. That means at least con- sidering some streets could become as safe for kids to play on as for cars to drive. He’s already had conversa- tions with Seattle’s director of street use, two City Council members, and an urban sustain- ability group in hopes of chang- ing the city prohibition against sandboxes on the planting strip, the area between the street and the sidewalk. “I told them this is a silly rule. We should be encouraging neighbors to get together and children to play outside,’’ he said. What’s particularly ironic to Nunes-Ueno is that his next- door neighbor has two planter boxes on the planting strip that look a lot like the sandbox, minus the corner seats. In fact, neighbors along See TRAFFIC on page 3 SEATTLE (AP) — A new state audit found 28 sex offenders lived in state-regu- lated or subsidized child care or foster care homes between 2002 and 2012, and one sex offender worked as a high school janitor undetected for nine years. The performance review found that all those problems could have been prevented if everyone was strictly following state laws. It also recommended several ways the state can do a better job protecting children from sex offenders in such facilities. Mindy Chambers, a spokeswoman for the auditor’s office, on Friday commended state agencies for taking quick action to improve their procedures when they learned of the problems. “The most important thing is that children are protected,’’ Chambers said. “I think everybody knows that.’’ Lawmakers said the audit makes it clear that more needs to be done to protect chil- dren. Rep. Bruce Dammeier, R- Puyallup, said he found it deeply concerning that only teachers and other certificated school employees such as librarians and counselors were being regularly checked against lists of sex offenders. There has been a state law since 2005 requiring the checking of all school employ- ees against the Washington State Patrol’s database of sex offenders. “I appreciate the fact that the auditor did this and caught the error. The fact that they only uncovered one (school) employee with a sex offense is somewhat good news but without a doubt, one is too many,’’ Dammeier said. The janitor caught by the audit had passed a background check when he was hired in 2000 but was convicted two years later of voyeurism and continued to work in the school and no one in law enforcement See OFFENDERS on page 3 Grandpa Soldier Joins Army Reserves Vancouver physician, 58, tries for two years to enlist -- successfully By Marissa Harshman The Columbian VANCOUVER, Wash. (AP) — T. Scott Woll isn’t what you might expect of a newly commissioned officer in the U.S. Army. For starters, he’s an orthopedic surgeon who’s spent the last couple of decades repairing limbs at Rebound Orthopedics & Neurosurgery in Vancouver. And then there’s his prior weapons expe- rience — or lack thereof. Before deciding he wanted to join the Army Reserves two years ago, Woll had never handled a firearm. And finally, there’s the fact that the lieu- tenant colonel will be serving beside men and women half his age. Woll is 58 years old and has five grown kids, ages 20 to 29. He also has three grandkids. None of that matters to Woll. “Grandpa’s going off to be a soldier,’’ he said. Woll never wanted to be a soldier. His father served during World War II and shared his bad experiences with a young Woll. “When I was younger, it was the farthest See GRANDPA on page 8
