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J ANUARY 23, 2013
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V OLUME XXXV, N O .16
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C HALLENGING P EOPLE TO S HAPE A B ETTER F UTURE N OW
MARCH FOR JUSTICE
Gun Bill
Killed by
Threats
Lawmaker withdraws
legislation after wave
of violent messages
PHOTO BY SUSAN FRIED
By Jonathan Kaminsky
The Associated Press
King County Councilman and the Martin Luther King Jr. Celebration Committee Chair Larry Gossett, and committee
member Tony Orange lead thousands of people on the 31st Annual March to celebrate the life of Martin Luther King.
The march is part of a daylong event which begins with social justice workshops followed by a rally and culminating
in the march to the Federal Building from Garfield High School. It is the longest running and one of the largest
celebrations of the life of King in the country.
Report Digs into Minority Youth, Courts
Kids of color 85 percent more likely to be arrested than white youth
By Manuel Valdes
The Associated Press
SEATTLE (AP) — Minority
youth are arrested and in the
Washington state’s court system
more often than their white
counterparts, a recent study
commissioned by the state
Supreme Court shows. But
researchers said counties aren’t
keeping complete data on eth-
nicity and the gap between
minority and while youth is
larger.
Between 2007 and 2011,
African-American youth were
nearly 250 percent more likely
to be referred to juvenile court
for prosecution than their white
counterparts. Their ratio is fol-
lowed by Native American
youth, which are 80 percent
more likely more likely to be
deferred. Overall, minority
youth are 22 percent more like-
ly to be deferred.
To determine the ratio,
researchers calculated the num-
ber of minority youth in a par-
ticular aspect of juvenile law
and the overall population of
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each county.
In arrests, minority youth
were nearly 85 percent more
likely to be arrested than white
youth statewide, the study
found. But researchers said that
number is likely much higher
because counties count Latinos
as white in their record keeping.
Latino is an ethnicity, not a race.
Sarah Veele, one of the
researchers from the Washing-
ton State Center for Court
Research, said there isn’t a fed-
eral or state requirement for
local agencies to track ethnicity
in their juvenile arrest data, so
Latinos are put in the ``white’’
category.
Researchers looked at eight
categories, ranging from arrests
to diversion program enroll-
ments. Still, about 40 percent of
all cases were missing data on
whether the youth was Latino
and 5 percent of cases had no
indicator of race or ethnicity.
``Increasing the quality of
data collected by courts is key to
fully understanding how and
where racial and ethnic inequal-
See COURT on page 3
OLYMPIA, Wash. (AP) — A Washing-
ton state lawmaker last week withdrew a bill
to limit self-defense rights after saying she
received threats by telephone and email that
have made her fear for her life.
Rep. Sherry Appleton, D-Poulsbo, said
House Bill 1012, filed last month, was
spurred by the Trayvon Martin shooting last
February, in which a neighborhood watch
volunteer in Florida shot dead the unarmed
Martin, 17, after confronting him on the
street.
The shooter, George Zimmerman, was not
immediately arrested after the incident, with
local law enforcement citing Florida’s
``stand your ground’’ law as justification for
his actions. Zimmerman was subsequently
arrested and charged with second-degree
murder last April. His case is pending.
Appleton’s bill would have required a per-
son to retreat from a dangerous confronta-
tion if he or she ``knows or should know’’
that doing so would afford him ``complete
safety.’’
``I was so appalled by the Trayvon Martin
shooting,’’ Appleton said. ``I did the bill
because we have no verbiage on `duty to
retreat’ in Washington.’’
Washington is one of at least 29 states
with no explicit duty to retreat. Some other
states employ a ``castle doctrine,’’ exempt-
ing a person in his home from the duty to
retreat.
Appleton said her bill was written last
September and she lamented that it was
caught up in the reignited national debate
over guns in the aftermath of the Sandy
Hook Elementary School shooting massacre
in Newtown, Conn., in which 26 people,
including 20 children, were killed.
``It’s unfortunate, because Newtown hap-
pened, and that riled up so many people,’’
Appleton said. ``I think it would have gone
unnoticed if it hadn’t been for Newtown.’’
See THREAT on page 3
‘Legalized’ Pot Farming Still Uncertain
Will Justice Department block states from new marijuana laws?
By Shannon Dininny
Associated Press
YAKIMA, Wash. (AP) — Irrigation
canals line Washington’s Yakima Valley east
of the Cascade Range, transforming a desert
landscape into one of the most productive
agricultural regions in the world — includ-
ing crops for some of America’s biggest
vices.
Thousands of acres of wine grapes dot the
landscape, contributing to Washington’s No.
2 rank for premium wine production behind
California. Farmers grow more than two-
thirds of U.S. hops for big beer companies
and craft brewers alike, and a large tobacco
field is flourishing on a valley Indian reser-
vation.
Now that Washington voters have legal-
ized marijuana, will a region long recog-
nized as one of the country’s leading fruit
bowls, best celebrated for Washington
apples, become known as the vice belt? Not
necessarily.
Too many unanswered questions remain
about the new law, from how the state will
regulate it to whether entrepreneurs or large
corporations should lead the way. And the
See FARM on page 3