WWW . THESKANNER . COM
N OVEMBER 21 , 2012
P ORTLAND , O REGON
V OLUME XXXV, N O . 7
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
Girls
Meet on
Gangs
DYNAMIC
Renowned vocalist
Josephine
Howell
highlighted
the
performance
of
trumpet
player
Gabriel
Burbano
during
her
performance Nov.
17 at the Langston
Hughes Performing
Arts Center in Seattle.
Josie is famous for
her
dynamic
audience interaction
and her Langston
Hughes performance
was no exception.
Judge Nan Waller
hosts courthouse
intervention
We love you. We want to help you. But
you have to help us too, by staying away
from gangs, drugs and weapons.
Work to stay out of trouble and your
future can be anything you want it to be.
Stay involved with criminals and crime, and
you could find yourselves behind bars for a
long time.
That was the powerful message delivered
to a small group of girls on probation last
Friday evening in Judge Nan Waller’s
downtown courtroom. Roy Jay, chair of the
African American Chamber of Commerce
and founder of Project Clean Slate, hosted
the hour-long event, designed to help the
girls get their lives on track.
The girls’ meeting was part of a series of
“call ins” named, “Standing up to Gang Vio-
lence: Not One More Drop. ” The call ins,
also brought together small groups of gang-
affiliated men and boys to hear from com-
munity members, pastors, police, parents
who had lost children and former gang
members.
Ericka Pruitt of Multnomah County’s
Department of Community Justice, told
Portland’s Nov. 9 gang task force meeting
that 75 gang members have attended four
recent call ins.
“Everybody was there really, clearly giv-
ing a message about accountability, but also
a message about love,” Pruitt said.
Girls make up an increasing number of
youth in Multnomah County’s juvenile jus-
tice system. Last year almost one in four
youth admitted to Multnomah County’s
Donald E. Long Detention Center were
girls. All told that was 91 girls. Their aver-
age age was almost 16, more than half of
them were minorities. And in our city, with
its African American population of less than
7 percent, a third of them were Black girls.
Modeled on the work of David Kennedy,
who created the gang-intervention program
Ceasefire, call ins bring in small groups of
PHOTO BY SUSAN FRIED
By Helen Silvis
Of The Skanner News
The Unequal States of America
Why has inequality increased and what can states do about it?
By Helen Silvis
Of The Skanner News
When the economy grows,
incomes rise and everyone ben-
efits. During the 1950s that’s
exactly how it worked. But for
the last 30 years, the top 20 per-
cent of Americans have benefit-
ed far more from growth than
middle-income or lower-income
households.
The result? Income inequali-
ty has risen steeply across the
country.
That’s the conclusion of a
See GIRLS on page 3
INDEX
News ................2,3,5,6
Opinion .....................4
A & E ......................5,8
Food..........................6
Bids/Classifieds ..........7
joint report released Wednesday
by Washington DC-based think
tanks, the Economic Policy
Institute and the Center on
Budget and Policy Priorities.
“Gains from growth have
gone mainly to the top leaving
the middle and the bottom earn-
ers at the side of the road,” says
Doug Hall, director of econom-
ic analysis and research at EPI.
“That’s clearly not a recipe for
shared prosperity.”
Over the last decade, house-
holds in the bottom 20 percent
income bracket have seen their
incomes fall by 5.8 percent,
even as incomes have risen 8.6
percent for the richest 20 per-
cent, the report says. For the top
5 percent those gains are even
higher at 13.9 percent.
The report, titled “Pulling
Apart,” looks at the national
picture, but also breaks down
the numbers state by state.
Nationally, over 30 years, it’s
not just low-income households
that have lost ground. Middle-
class households too have fallen
behind.
And because the report does
not include income from capital
gains, which benefits the richest
groups far more than the poor-
est, it actually underestimates
income inequality. For example,
a separate analysis by the Ore-
gon Center for Public Policy,
found that in 2010, the top 1
percent of Oregon families col-
lected about 70 percent of all
capital gains income in the state.
Oregon and Washington are
not among the states with the
largest gaps between the top and
bottom income groups. In
See UNEQUAL on page 3
Reps: DOJ Should Respect Pot Votes
Taxes could bring the states tens or hundreds of millions of dollars
Gene Johnson
The Associated Press
SEATTLE (AP) — A group of lawmakers
on Friday urged the Justice Department to
respect recent votes in Colorado and Wash-
ington state allowing the recreational use of
marijuana, and some introduced a bill to
ensure that happens.
Democratic U.S. Rep. Diana DeGette of
Colorado said her bill would bar the federal
government from blocking state marijuana
laws. Several other lawmakers have signed
on, including Republican Rep. Mike Coff-
man of Colorado.
``I voted against Amendment 64 and I
strongly oppose the legalization of marijua-
na, but I also have an obligation to respect
the will of the voters,’’ Coffman said in a
statement. ``I feel obligated to support this
legislation.’’
Voters this month made Washington and
Colorado the first states to allow adults over
21 to possess up to an ounce of marijuana,
and to set up state licensing schemes for pot
growers, processors and retail stores. Taxes
could bring the states tens or hundreds of
millions of dollars a year, financial analysts
See MARIJUANA on page 3