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About The skanner. (Portland, Or.) 1975-2014 | View Entire Issue (Feb. 20, 2013)
WWW . THESKANNER . COM F EBRUARY 20, 2013 S EATTLE , W ASHINGTON V OLUME XXXV, N O . 20 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 RESOURCES Court Violence Penalties Legislature considers more charges for courthouse assaults PHOTO BY SUSAN FRIED By Gene Johnson The Associated Press Tone’ Armstrong tries her hand at assembling an airplane part at the Boeing table during a Youth Education, Career & Resource Fair on Feb. 15, at the Rainier Community Center. Dozens of employers, colleges and other resources were represented at the event. New Home in the Central District Ernestine Anderson Place offers a new lease on life for the houseless By Elliot Suhr Special To The Skanner News F or homeless veterans and senior citizens looking for a second chance, Seattle’s Ernestine Anderson Place offers a new lease on life and a place to call their own. The facility, which opened its doors Feb. 8, is a newly built low-income housing develop- ment in Seattle’s Central Dis- trict. It will provide permanent housing for 60 homeless indi- viduals, age 55 and older, who have some type of mental dis- ability or substance abuse issue. Residents will have their own bed, bathroom and kitchen. The building, located at 2010 S. Jackson St., is dedicated to Ernestine Anderson, a jazz icon who grew up in the Central Dis- trict. “She was not only a great musician, but she also opened up her home to hundreds of peo- ple that were homeless, that needed a place to stay,” says Zena Dodson, area manager for the Low Income Housing Insti- INDEX News ........................3,6 Calendar ....................2 Opinion .......................4 A&E .......................2,5,8 Bids/Classifieds............7 tute, a Seattle nonprofit that was instrumental in developing the facility. As of now the building is still vacant, but Dodson hopes to fill it by the end of April. For the chronically homeless — who have spent years or even decades on the street — Ernes- tine Anderson Place will be a dramatic change from the makeshift, temporary arrange- ments they’ve dealt with to sur- vive. “It’s going to be such a great honor to see them when they come in and they see that they have a bed and it’s not a cot. It’s a twin-sized bed. With covers,” says Dodson. Homelessness in King County is on the rise. However, many day centers for homeless people in the area are facing funding cuts. Without crucial resources, some of the most vulnerable members of the homeless popu- lations—the elderly—could be affected. The Low Income Housing Institute hopes to slow the upward trend by offering SEATTLE (AP) — It’s already a felony to attack judges, court employees and coun- ty clerks doing their jobs in Washington State. Now lawmakers want to make it a felony to assault anyone else at a courthouse, too. Recognizing that many people who visit courthouses are stressed out or scared, Republicans and Democrats in Olympia have introduced bills in the House and Sen- ate that would automatically elevate charges of fourth-degree assault — a gross misde- meanor, punishable by up to a year in jail — to third-degree assault, a felony punishable by up to 5 years in prison, when an attack happens at a courthouse. The measures would also give judges the option of imposing extra time behind bars for more serious assaults. ``Courthouses by their very nature are dangerous places,’’ Attorney General Bob Ferguson testified during a hearing in the House last week. ``We believe all citizens should have equal protection as they access our courts — victims, witnesses, jurors and family members.’’ Two cases in Washington state in the past year highlight how volatile people can be when they’re in the courthouse, Ferguson said. Last March, a man shot a Grays Har- bor County sheriff’s deputy with her own weapon at the courthouse in Montesano, then stabbed a judge who tried to save her. And last month, a man assaulted a plain- clothes police detective at a courthouse in Kent after the detective asked him to stop intimidating witnesses. Posting signs warning people that they could face enhanced penalties for an assault could help deter courthouse violence, Fer- guson argued. Though courthouse attacks remain rare, he referenced a report by a Minnesota-based company that provides court security con- See HOME on page 3 See COURT on page 3 Rappers Launch New Photo Show Geo named Artist-in-Residence for Town Hall Seattle By Simon Thwaits Special To The Skanner News Y ou may have heard Geo’s music as half of the Seattle-based hip-hop group Blue Scholars, but now he’s also working in photography for the “Rap- pers W/ Cameras” project and is the artist- in-residence at Town Hall Seattle. Geo is short for Geologic and his full name, George Quibuyen, but he is also known as Prometheus Brown. Another local rapper, Thig Nat (real name Gathigi Gishuru), of The Physics, founded the project with Quibuyen, which includes both a photoblog at rapperswithcameras. tumblr.com and the publication of photo zines with the same title. “It goes back to when The Physics had a studio in the old OK Hotel,” Quibuyen told me over the phone, talking about when Blue Scholars were working on some songs with The Physics. “During that process Thig and I would always bring cameras around.” They also took in the First Thursday Seat- tle Art Walk in Pioneer Square and took inspiration from how music and visual art were happening at the same time. Eventual- See GEO on page 3
