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About The skanner. (Portland, Or.) 1975-2014 | View Entire Issue (May 15, 2013)
WWW . THESKANNER . COM M AY 15, 2013 S EATTLE , W ASHINGTON V OLUME XXXV, N O . 32 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 LEGACY Courts Office Hacked The number of people affected remains unclear PHOTO BY SUSAN FRIED By Rachel La Corte The Associated Press Members of the Obo Addy Legacy Project performed traditional dance from Ghana at the Spirit of West Africa Festival Saturday May 11, at the Seattle Center Armory. The event featured an African Market Place, a fashion show and music and dance reflecting the influence of West African culture on the world. Gun Buyback: No Peace Plaques Mayor McGinn didn’t tell public weapons were made into rebar By Gene Johnson The Associated Press SEATTLE (AP) Seattle Mayor Mike McGinn apolo- gized Thursday for making a deliberate omission this week when he announced a plan to turn guns from a buyback pro- gram into plaques carrying mes- sages of peace. McGinn left the impression during a news conference on Tuesday that the 700-plus weapons collected at a highly publicized gun buyback in Janu- ary would be used to make the plaques. But, as first reported by KIRO-FM, the mayor knew those weapons had already been melted down into rebar. ``I apologize for not being more forthcoming at our press conference,’’ McGinn said in a statement emailed to The Asso- ciated Press. ``We will be using metal from guns acquired at our next gun buyback for our Weapons to Words youth out- reach effort.’’ McGinn said he learned the INDEX News .....................2,3,6 Calendar ....................2 Opinion .......................4 Bids/Classifieds............7 morning before the news con- ference that the guns had already been recycled. He said he didn’t explain that at the news conference because ``I didn’t want this piece of infor- mation to distract from the pro- gram or the incredible support’’ of the sponsors of the program, Schnitzer Steel and the studio of famed glass artist Dale Chihuly. Instead, the mayor said at the news conference: ``We were inspired by the idea that we could take these weapons that were recovered, 750 at the first gun buy back, and do something meaningful with them — some- thing of symbolic importance to our city, particularly after all the incidents of gun violence we have seen in this city over the years.’’ The mayor’s news release later Tuesday explained it this way: ``The plaques, made from upcycled steel that includes the weapons we recovered, will be placed in Seattle parks.’’ Sgt. Sean Whitcomb, a spokesman for Seattle police, See GUNS on page 3 OLYMPIA, Wash. (AP) The Washington state Administrative Office of the Courts was hacked sometime between last fall and February, and up to 160,000 Social Security numbers and 1 million driver’s license num- bers may have been accessed during the data breach of its public website, officials said Thursday. Court officials said they have only con- firmed that 94 Social Security numbers were obtained and they don’t believe the larger number was compromised, but they wanted to alert the public to the possibility as a precaution. The broader information ``just happened to be on a server in an area that was accessed,’’ said Veronica Diseth, director of the courts’ information services division. The breach happened due to vulnerability in an Adobe Systems Inc. software program, ColdFusion, that has since been patched, court officials said. The hack happened sometime after September but wasn’t caught until February, they said. In a written statement, Adobe spokes- woman Heather Edell noted that the issue has been resolved. ``Adobe recommends that users follow security best practices by updating software to the latest version available,’’ she wrote. Mike Keeling, the courts’ information technology operations and maintenance manager, said officials were alerted to the breach by a business on the East Coast that had a similar intrusion. ``They recognized our information in their breach log,’’ Keeling said, which led them to install the patch provided by Adobe and start an investigation. When court officials were first alerted to the breach, they believed all of the informa- tion accessed was public record, and didn’t think confidential information was taken, but following an investigation by the Multi- See BREACH on page 3 Real Estate Market Improving in State Sales of existing homes up, as are median home prices By Nicholas K. Geranios The Associated Press SPOKANE, Wash. (AP) The residential real estate market improved in the state for the third quarter in a row, according to a report released Thursday by the University of Washington. The report said sales of existing homes rose 14.7 percent in the first quarter of 2013, compared to the same period a year ago. Prices were also on the rise. The statewide median home price was $237,000 in the first quarter, up 14.1 percent from the same time last year. The report was prepared by the Runstad Center for Real Estate Studies at the univer- sity. ``Washington’s housing market is clearly recovering,’’ said Glenn Crellin, the center’s associate director for research. ``However, the pace of sales activity is being held back somewhat by the limited inventory of homes available for sale.’’ Crellin said the shortage of listings brings ``classic supply and demand pressure on prices.’’ Quarter-to-quarter home sales increased See HOMES on page 3
