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About The skanner. (Portland, Or.) 1975-2014 | View Entire Issue (Aug. 22, 2012)
WWW . THESKANNER . COM A UGUST 22, 2012 S EATTLE , W ASHINGTON V OLUME XXXIV, N O . 34 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 OTHELLO PARK Support for the Troops Second ‘Seattle Stand Down’ focuses on women veterans By Andrew Gospe Special To The Skanner News PHOTO BY SUSAN FRIED B MariAnna Brooks, 7, makes a pot on the pottery wheel with the help of Nima Forghani at the Othello Park International Music and Arts Festival, Sunday, Aug. 19. The annual event featured musical performances by Jazz guitarist Michael Powers, Spanish guitarist Angelo Pizarro, hip-hop artist Choklate, martial arts demonstrations, and much more. Beloved Figure Will Be Missed Tuskegee airman George Hickman dies; Husky stalwart mourned By Phuong Le The Associated Press SEATTLE (AP) — George Hickman, one of the original African-American airmen, has died at age 88. His wife, Doris, confirmed Monday that he died early Sun- day morning in Seattle. Hickman was one of the first black military pilots and ground crew, known as Tuskegee air- men, who fought in World War II. In 2007, he and other Tuskegee airmen traveled to Washington, to receive the Con- gressional Gold Medal, the highest U.S. civilian honor. In 2009, he attended President Barack Obama’s inauguration as a special guest. Hickman was a fixture at Seattle sporting events. He per- sonalized the often anonymous job of ushering fans to their seats, and most regulars to UW basketball and football games knew him by first name. He was perhaps the best known person at Husky Stadium. INDEX News ..................2,4,6,8 Calendar ....................2 Opinion .......................4 A&E .............................5 Bids/Classifieds............7 University of Washington football coach Steve Sarkisian also tweeted: ``He represented the UW and the Tuskegee Air- men with class. I will always appreciate how he treated my family.’’ ``He was just a wonderful man,’’ Doris Hickman said Monday of her husband. The grandson of slaves, Hick- man nurtured an interest in avi- ation as a curious boy gazing up at the sky above St. Louis. That passion evolved from buying cheap model airplanes to joining the segregated pilot training program in Tuskegee, Ala., and later to a nearly three- decade long career at Boeing in Seattle. He served in the Army Air Corps from 1943-45, which trained African-Americans to fly and maintain combat air- craft, and was part of the gradu- ating class of 1944, according to an Army profile. He graduated from the airman program as a crewman and served in Europe as a flight mechanic during See AIRMAN on page 3 y most measures, last year’s first- ever Seattle Stand Down was a suc- cess. The now-annual event, which aims to provide services and information to homeless and at-risk veterans, served more than 300 people at Seattle Central Commu- nity College (SCCC). There was, however, something missing last year. “It was noticed by pretty much everybody that was there that there were hardly any women there as veterans receiving servic- es,” said Rebecca Murch, Seattle Stand Down’s associate director. That’s why Murch has been tasked with gearing this year’s Stand Down, scheduled for Sept. 12 from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. at SCCC, toward female veterans, especially those who are homeless. A veteran herself, Murch said women vets have unique needs. “We definitely know that they are out there, but you need to outreach to them in different ways,” she said. “Women approach things differently. They have different, unique problems.” Among these is Military Sexual Trauma (MST), a term used to refer to any instance of rape, sexual assault or sexual harassment that occurs while a woman is serving in the armed forces. Murch said that the sort of behavior that causes MST, especially sexual harassment, was “pretty rampant” when she was dis- charged from the Navy nearly 20 years ago. Today, it still is. The Veterans Health Administration says that one in five women say “yes” when screened for MST. Plus, more women are serving than ever before: Since 9/11, more than 200,000 women have been deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan. According to Murch, the condition can make female veterans reluctant to identify as such, and as a result, they may avoid seeking help from the Department of Veter- See VETERANS on page 3 New Challenge for Marijuana Providers: 50 dispensaries help the state collect $750,000 in taxes from the By Mike Baker The Associated Press OLYMPIA, Wash. (AP) — Tax enforcers have started auditing medical marijuana dis- pensaries in Washington, escalating a dis- pute over whether the outlets should be collecting money for state government. The state Department of Revenue has worked since 2010 to tell marijuana estab- lishments that they must remit sales taxes on their transactions. Some 50 dispensaries have registered with the state, helping the state collect some $750,000 in taxes from the industry over the span of one year. Officials believe that there are many other outlets that remain unregistered, and that some registered entities are improperly reporting that they had no taxable business. ``We’ve been doing the educational part and now we’re doing the enforcement part,’’ said Mike Gowrylow, a spokesman for the Department of Revenue. He empha- sized that there was no particular focus or crackdown on medical marijuana entities, just that the state was continuing its normal efforts to identify noncompliant businesses. The agency is currently conducting audits See POT on page 3
