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About The skanner. (Portland, Or.) 1975-2014 | View Entire Issue (July 10, 2013)
WWW . THESKANNER . COM J ULY 10, 2013 S EATTLE , W ASHINGTON V OLUME XXXV, N O . 40 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 WALLINGFORD PARADE Enough School Money? McCleary decision prompts second look at budget PHOTO BY SUSAN FRIED By Donna Gordon Blankenship The Associated Press The Electronettes, one of Seattle’s talented drill teams, joined drum squads, marching bands, local business and community groups in the 64th Annual Wallingford Family Parade. The parade (formally known as the Wallingford Kiddie Parade) is the longest running Seafair Parade and features children as major participants. Police Editorial Wins NNPA Award The Skanner News takes a first place prize in national competition Helen Silvis Of The Skanner News T he Skanner News has taken first place in the Best Editorial category at the National Newspaper Pub- lisher Association Awards, for “Don’t Play Politics With Our Lives.” The editorial urged action to change the system of police discipline. The National Newspaper Pub- lishers Association represents about 200 African American newspapers. The NNPA held its annual convention June 26-29 in Nashville, Tenn. The event celebrated 187 years of the Black Press, and recognized the best work of 2012 and brought together publishers, industry leaders and academics. The Black press has a circulation of 19.5 million readers. The NNPA presented the tradi- tional Merit awards for excel- lence in publishing. The St. Louis American won the top award for general excel- lence for the second consecutive year. The NNPA also presented excellence awards for two smaller categories. The Houston Defender won for the best mid- sized paper. And The Miami Times won for the best paper with a smaller circulation. “There were many exception- al entries this year,” said Karl B. Rodney, Merit Awards Chair- man and publisher of the Carib News. “We congratulate not only the winners, but other papers that exemplify excel- lence every week.” Speakers led discussions on everything from education, Hip- hop and Historically Black Col- leges and Universities to AIDs prevention, financial forecasting and the future of digital publish- ing. And participants shared their perspectives on the chal- lenges facing African American communities Among more than two dozen panelists were: rapper Kangol Kid, music producer Ralph McDaniels, Jineea Butler, founder of the Hip Hop Union; Osei Mevs, associate VP at Meharry Medical College; See NNPA on page 3 SEATTLE (AP) — The people who sued the state over money for schools are taking a closer look at Washington’ s new budget, but they doubt a $1 billion down payment will be enough to convince the Supreme Court that the Legislature is making good progress toward paying the whole cost of basic education. “Thanks for the down payment’’ is the pri- mary message from Nick Brossoit, superin- tendent of the Edmonds School District, speaking for the Network for Excellence in Washington Schools, which sued the state. But he is quick to add, ``the state is still far away from the levels of K-12 funding it promised and one million public school stu- dents deserve.’’ The Washington Supreme Court ruled in January 2012 in the case known as the McCleary decision that the state isn’t meet- ing its constitutional obligation to amply pay for basic public education. The court gave the Legislature a 2018 deadline to fully implement and pay for the education reforms it had already passed and to find a stable source of money for education. The justices required yearly progress reports from the Legislature. They rejected last year’s report. The next report is due soon. The attorney for the coalition that sued the state expects the Legislature will get anoth- er poor grade from the court this fall. “It does not appear that the state’s progress will be in line with the Supreme Court’s McCleary dictates,’’ Seattle attorney Thomas Ahearne said. The highest praise he would offer the Leg- islature was that it did not move backward this year in its efforts to pay the cost of edu- cating children. Superintendent of Public Instruction Randy Dorn also expressed concern that the Legislature wasn’t making enough progress to meet the requirements of the Supreme See EDUCATION on page 3 INDEX Urban Wilderness Project Gears Up News .....................2,3,6 BoUnce: Beloved open-mic storytelling competition is back Opinion .......................4 A&E ..........................2,8 Auto ............................7 Bids/Classifieds............7 The Staff Of The Skanner News C ontinuing in the tradition of mixing environmental consciousness with young people and art, Seattle’s Urban Wilderness Project returns this month with its beloved open-mic story- telling team competitions. BoUnce is a monthly series held on last Wednesdays at 6 p.m. This month it’s Wednesday, July 31, at Columbia City’s Royal Room, at 5000 Rainier Ave. BoUnce is the sport of storytelling, requir- ing skill and improvisation – not unlike bas- ketball, says poet and storyteller Jourdan Keith, who founded the organization and created the art form. Two teams of players face off to win cheers and prize money from the audience. “BoUnce integrates the arts across genres, racial and cultural lines through the team- style competitions that give LGBTQ, straight, People of Color and white writers and performers a time and place to tell their stories together,” Keith says. The evening begins with a free of charge flash-writing workshop at 6 p.m. Sign-ups See STORY on page 3
