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A UGUST 21, 2013
S EATTLE , W ASHINGTON
V OLUME XXXV, N O . 46
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C HALLENGING P EOPLE TO S HAPE A B ETTER F UTURE N OW
Afghans
to Face
Bales
OTHELLO
FEST
Jury selected for
Afghanistan
massacre sentencing
By Gene Johnson
The Associated Press
PHOTO BY SUSAN FRIED
Jayden, 8, and his little sister Nasya, 3,
show off their identical airbrushed tattoos,
Aug. 18, at the Othello Park International
Music and Arts Festival. The annual event
included a line up of music and
performances highlighting the many styles
and cultures of Southeast Seattle. The
festival also had many activities for
children including Art Creation Stations
where the participants could make
something to take home from the event.
Living Wage Effort Builds Locally
Campaign launched to bump Seattle minimum wage to $15
By Donna Gordon
Blankinship
Associated Press
SEATTLE (AP) — Washing-
ton already has the nation’s
highest state minimum wage at
$9.19 an hour. Now, there’s a
push in Seattle, at least, to make
it $15.
That would mean fast food
workers, retail clerks, baristas
and other minimum wage work-
ers would get what protesters
demanded when they shut down
a handful of city restaurants in
May and others called for when
they demonstrated nationwide
in July.
So far, the City Council and
mayoral candidates have said
they’d consider it in the famous-
ly liberal city. One said, howev-
er, that it may not be soon.
Venture
capitalist
Nick
Hanauer said there’s no time to
waste. What the nation needs is
money in the hands of regular
consumers. ``A higher mini-
mum wage is a very simple and
elegant solution to the death spi-
ral of falling demand that is the
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signature feature of our econo-
my,’’ he said.
Some businesses advocates
say a higher minimum wage
will make it harder for compa-
nies in Seattle to survive. They
cite Wal-Mart, which has all but
refused to accept a Washington,
D.C., decision to raise the mini-
mum wage to $12.50 an hour in
big box stores.
A higher minimum wage
eliminates low wage jobs
because that’s how small busi-
nesses cut costs and that ends up
hurting the people it was sup-
posed to benefit, according to
the U.S. Chamber of Com-
merce.
Fast food and retail workers,
meanwhile, are calling for a
nationwide strike on Aug. 29 to
push for $15 an hour.
More than 15 million workers
earn the national minimum
wage, making about $15,080 a
year — $50 below the federal
poverty line for a family of two.
San Francisco currently has the
highest minimum wage for all
workers at $10.50 an hour.
See WAGE on page 3
Joint Base Lewis-Mcchord, Wash. (AP)
A jury of six soldiers was selected Tuesday
to determine whether the U.S. soldier who
killed 16 Afghan civilians during raids on
two villages last year will ever have a
chance at getting out of prison.
Staff Sgt. Robert Bales, 39, pleaded guilty
in June to avoid the death penalty for killing
the civilians, mostly women and children,
before dawn on March 11, 2012. The six
jurors are tasked with determining whether
the Ohio native and father of two from Lake
Tapps, Wash., receives life in prison with
the possibility of parole, or without it.
If he is sentenced to life with parole, Bales
would be eligible in 20 years, but there’s no
guarantee he would receive it.
The sentencing is expected to afford vic-
tims and their relatives a chance to confront
Bales face-to-face for the first time since he
stormed their compounds. The Army flew
nine villagers, all males, from Kandahar
Province. Among them are Haji Mohammad
Wazir, who lost 11 family members, includ-
ing his wife, mother and two brothers; Haji
Mohammad Naim, who was shot in the
neck; and a teenage boy named Rafiullah
who was shot in both legs.
Several have previously said they are out-
raged that Bales is escaping the death penal-
ty.
Some victims and witnesses testified by
video link from Afghanistan during a hear-
ing last year, including a young girl in a
bright headscarf who described hiding
behind her father as he was shot to death.
Boys told of begging the soldier to spare
them, yelling: “We are children! We are
children!’’ A thick-bearded man told of
being shot in the neck by a gunman at arm’s
length.
Bales, on his fourth combat deployment,
had been drinking and watching a movie
with other soldiers at his remote post at
See MASSACRE on page 3
Mobile Programs Offer Summer Meals
Youth hunger rates soar, officials find ways to feed kids during break
By Donna Gordon Blankinship
Associated Press
FEDERAL WAY, Wash. (AP) — Four
days a week this summer, lime green school
buses loaded with games, books and com-
puters rumbled through low-income neigh-
borhoods south of Seattle. Their aim wasn’t
just to entertain kids — but to feed them.
``It’s fun here,’’ said 10-year-old Mia Tolo
on a recent afternoon outside one such bus,
where she played Chutes and Ladders with
her friend Anita Velasco after they had
pizza, bananas and milk.
Department of Agriculture officials and
community leaders cite the rolling rec cen-
ters, covered in cartoon frogs, as a novel
approach in the federal government’s push
to get meals to millions more schoolchild-
ren when they need it most.
About 21 million U.S. students receive
free or reduced-price lunches during the
school year, but only a fraction of them, 3.5
million according to most recent statistics,
are fed regularly over the summer.
``That’s a drop in the bucket compared to
how many need it,’’ said Bill Ayres, execu-
tive director of Why Hunger, a nonprofit
See MEALS on page 3