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A UGUST 15, 2012
S EATTLE , W ASHINGTON
V OLUME XXXIV, N O . 33
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C HALLENGING P EOPLE TO S HAPE A B ETTER F UTURE N OW
Governor
Race All
Over Map
WITH
THE
NUNS
Observers: November
election might still
hold surprises
By Rachel La Corte
The Associated Press
PHOTO BY SUSAN FRIED
Hundreds marched on Sunday, Aug.
12, to show support for nuns who were
recently rebuked by the Catholic
Church for promoting “radical feminist
themes.’’ The “I Stand with the Sisters”
marchers carried flowers and sang
hymns on their walk from Capitol Hill
to St. James Cathedral, the seat of the
Archdiocese
of
Seattle.
The
Leadership Conference of Women
Religious represents about 80 percent
of the 57,000 Roman Catholic nuns in
the U.S. A recent Vatican report
labeled
them
dissenters
who
undermine Catholic teaching on all-
male priesthood, birth control and
homosexuality. The group held its
national assembly last week in St.
Louis and its board met on Saturday
with Seattle Archbishop Peter Sartain.
The Vatican has appointed Sartain to
oversee an overhaul of the group.
Doctors Hard to Hire in Cowlitz County
Lack of medical care in rural areas will grow with Health Care Act
By Marqise Allen
The Longview Daily News
LONGVIEW, Wash. (AP) —
The Cowlitz Family Health
Center has been trying to hire a
doctor for three years, and it’s
no closer to filling the vacancy
now than it was when the
process began.
``We’ve had a few applicants,
but not many,’’ said Tamara
Russell, human resources spe-
cialist at the Longview clinic.
``Since January, we’ve had less
than 10 applicants but not much
more than that since the position
opened up.’’
Cowlitz County, like many
similar areas across the United
States, finds itself struggling to
compete with metropolitan
areas for a limited number of
primary care doctors, and the
shortage will, according to
health experts, lead to longer
waits for appointments, delayed
care and poorer health out-
comes.
The national doctor shortage
took root three decades ago
when American medical schools
INDEX
News ..................2,3,6,7
Books ..........................2
Opinion .......................4
Bids/Classifieds............7
established enrollment caps.
The Association of American
Medical Colleges projects the
nation will be short 63,000 doc-
tors by 2015. The shortage is
expected to double by 2025 as
federal health care reform
expands medical coverage and
sends thousands of new patients
into the system.
According to an AAMC
report, ``The United States
already was struggling with a
critical physician shortage, and
the problem will only be exacer-
bated as 32 million Americans
acquire health care coverage,
and an additional 36 million
people enter Medicare’’ under
the federal Affordable Health
Care Act.
The shortage is going to be
even more acute in smaller com-
munities, which are at a recruit-
ing disadvantage. Numerous
studies and surveys, including
one by the American Academy
of Medical Management, show
that only about 10 percent of
doctors want to live in towns
smaller than 100,000 people,
See DOCTORS on page 3
OLYMPIA, Wash. (AP) — What hap-
pens when you have an open primary elec-
tion and less than half of the voters show
up?
You end up with results in a hotly contest-
ed governor’s race that everyone wants to
dissect for clues about what will happen
come November and the expected larger
turnout.
With about a million votes counted so far,
Democratic former U.S. Rep. Jay Inslee
edged Republican Attorney General Rob
McKenna, 47 to 43 percent, in Tuesday
night’s primary.
The sole purpose of the state’s ``top two’’
primary is to winnow down the candidates,
regardless of party. McKenna and Inslee
easily advanced to the general ballot.
While the public isn’t paying attention yet
— at least not enough to send in primary
ballots, anyway — Tuesday’s results are the
latest rough poll in what is expected to be
one of the nation’s most competitive gover-
nor’s races.
Here’s a breakdown of key numbers, all of
which could vary slightly as votes continue
to be counted:
—Turnout: Secretary of State Sam Reed
originally predicted a 46 percent voter
turnout by the state’s 3.7 million voters in
the completely vote-by-mail election.
Spokesman David Ammons said it’s likely
to be closer to 40 percent once all the mailed
ballots, which are still arriving, are counted.
Voter turnout in November is expected to be
at least double that, considering that turnout
in the 2008 election was 85 percent.
—Counties won: McKenna, 29 (including
all of Eastern Washington); Inslee, 10
(including voter-rich King County). This
could shift by a county or two as votes con-
tinue to be counted.
—Democratic vs. Republican vote when
the two Democratic and four Republican
See ELECTION on page 3
Town Near Smelter Sees Rise in Disease
Northport has 10 to 15 times the normal rates of Chrohn’s, colitis
NORTHPORT, Wash. (AP) — Rose Kala-
marides was in her early 20s when she was
diagnosed with ulcerative colitis. Her older
brother also got the debilitating disease. So
did one of her childhood friends, her third-
grade teacher and a former classmate at her
elementary school.
Kalamarides and many other residents of
Northport, Wash., a tiny 296-resident border
town, suspect they got sick because of a
smelter up the Columbia River in British
Columbia.
Now, Harvard Medical School researchers
have determined that the northeast Wash-
ington town has 10 to 15 times the normal
rates of the inflammatory bowel disease,
The Spokesman-Review reported Sunday.
The border town is located downwind and
downriver of a smelter in Trail, British
Columbia, that’s run by Teck Resources.
For years, the smelter dumped pollutants
into the Columbia River.
``When we were kids walking to school,
we could smell it in the air,’’ said Kala-
marides, now 56, who grew up about 15
miles from the smelter’s stacks.
A Teck official declined to comment to
The Spokesman-Review.
See DISEASE on page 2