WWW . THESKANNER . COM
O CTOBER 31, 2012
S EATTLE , W ASHINGTON
V OLUME XXXV, N O . 4
25
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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
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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