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M AY 15, 2013
S EATTLE , W ASHINGTON
V OLUME XXXV, N O . 32
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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
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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