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About The skanner. (Portland, Or.) 1975-2014 | View Entire Issue (Oct. 31, 2012)
WWW . THESKANNER . COM O CTOBER 31, 2012 S EATTLE , W ASHINGTON V OLUME XXXV, N O . 4 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 Terrorist Gets 37 Years FALL FUN Ahmed Ressam tried to Bomb Los Angeles Airport in 1999 By Gene Johnson The Associated Press PHOTO BY SUSAN FRIED Chance, 4, bounces on an inflatable toy during the Rainier Toddler Harvest Festival, Saturday October 27th at the Rainier Community Center. The event gave children ages 1 to 5 a chance celebrate the season by playing and having fun with kids their own age. Community College Tuition Keeps Rising Colleges have not been able to keep up with students’ financial aid By Donna Gordon Blankinship The Associated Press SEATTLE (AP) — Commu- nity college tuition has gone up so much during the economic downturn that students at Wash- ington’s two-year colleges are now paying what a University of Washington student paid just over a decade ago. College officials say $4,000 to $5,000 a year in full-time tuition, depending on credit hours and majors, is still a bar- gain compared to what it costs to go to UW today but the state’s 34 community and tech- nical colleges do have about 6 percent fewer students this fall. Marty Brown, the executive director of the State Board for Community and Technical Col- leges, believes that drop in stu- dent enrollment is due to a number of factors including tuition and the fact that some people are going back to work. Kevin Moh, who is in his final quarter at Seattle Central Com- munity College, has seen his INDEX News ........................2,4 Calendar ....................2 Opinion .......................3 Bids/Classifieds............3 quarterly tuition and fees go from about $1,100 a quarter two and a half years ago to about $1,500 a quarter this year. Moh works several part-time jobs as a dishwasher, works summers helping his uncle who runs a landscaping business and gets some financial aid. But he doesn’t complain about the cost of tuition. ``School’s an investment,’’ said Moh, who plans to transfer to Central Washington Universi- ty to study aviation after he gets his associates degree from Seat- tle Central. Colleges have not been able to keep up with students’ financial aid needs, but they’re doing what they can from financial aid to online classes and open source textbooks, Brown said. The state’s Running Start pro- gram also saves more than 3,000 young people money by enabling them to earn college credits for free while still enrolled in high school. Despite the additional money the Legislature has put into the See COLLEGE on page 3 SEATTLE (AP) — Algerian terrorist Ahmed Ressam was sentenced Wednesday to 37 years in prison for plotting to bomb Los Angeles International Airport around the turn of the new millennium. Ressam, who had trained at al-Qaeda’s training camps in Afghanistan, was arrested in December 1999 when a customs agent noticed that he appeared suspicious as he drove off a ferry from Canada onto Wash- ington’s Olympic Peninsula. A resulting search turned up a trunk full of explosives. Ressam’s capture, after a brief foot chase, prompted fears of a terrorist attack and the cancellation of Seattle’s New Year’s Eve fireworks. U.S. District Judge John C. Coughenour had twice ordered him to serve 22-year terms, but both times the sentences were rejected on appeal. This time, Ressam’s attorneys conceded that he should face at least three decades to satisfy the appeals courts, but no more than 34 years. The Justice Department, which previously sought sentences of 35 years and of life in prison, recommended a life sentence again because of the mass murder Ressam intend- ed to inflict. In those pre-Sept. 11, 2001 days, it was ``a virtually unimaginable hor- ror,’’ Assistant U.S. Attorney Helen Brunner told the court. ‘If Mr. Ressam had succeeded,’’ she said, “it is likely hundreds if not thousands of innocent lives would have been lost.’’ Brunner also argued that Ressam contin- ues to pose a threat, as evidenced by his recantation of prior cooperation, which forced the government to dismiss charges against two coconspirators. Ressam’s lawyer, Thomas Hillier, dis- agreed, pointing to a letter Ressam sent the judge this week in which he wrote: ``I am against killing innocent people of any gen- See TERRORIST on page 6 Water Pollution: International Test Case Teck says waste doesn’t harm humans or wildlife as study underway By Nicholas K. Geranios The Associated Press SPOKANE, Wash. (AP) — The glisten- ing waters and sandy beaches of the Lake Roosevelt National Recreation Area have drawn millions of tourists over the years. But the lake for decades also collected wastes dumped into the Columbia River from one of the world’s largest lead and zinc smelters, just across the border in Trail, British Columbia. Now, in a landmark case, a federal judge in Yakima soon will decide if the Canadian smelter operator is subject to the U.S. Superfund law and must pay to clean up nearly a century of pollution. Teck Metals Ltd., based in Vancouver, British Columbia, contends that as a Cana- dian company operating in Canada, it is not subject to U.S. laws. The state of Washing- ton and an Indian tribe, which have sued the company, believe Teck intentionally pollut- ed Lake Roosevelt for decades and now must pay to clean it. For John Sirois, chairman of the Confed- erated Tribes of the Colville Reservation, the issue is simple. ``Where does the pollution end up?’’ he See WATER on page 3
