News
Massacre
King Celebration
Camp Belambay in Kandahar Province
when he slipped away before dawn. Bales
said he had also been taking steroids and
snorting Valium.
Armed with a 9 mm pistol and an M-4
rifle, he attacked a village of mud-walled
compounds called Alkozai then returned
and woke up a fellow soldier to tell him
about it. The soldier didn’t believe Bales
and went back to sleep. Bales left again to
attack a second village known as Najiban.
‘Our general theme is
that Sgt. Bales
snapped’
Prosecutors questioned the potential
jurors in hopes of discovering any underly-
ing biases that might affect their ability to
serve on the panel. Lt. Col. Rob Stelle asked
whether they were serving in Afghanistan at
the time of the attacks, whether the attacks
hindered their ability to do their jobs, and
whether they believe soldiers with post-
traumatic stress disorder are more likely to
commit violent crimes.
Defense attorney John Henry Browne
asked whether any potential jurors dis-
agreed with the concept of parole. None did.
Four were dismissed, for reasons ranging
from the personal experiences one had with
post-traumatic stress disorder to the fact that
another helped transport Bales around Joint
Base Lewis-McChord while he was in cus-
tody.
The massacre prompted such angry
protests that the U.S. temporarily halted
combat operations in Afghanistan, and it
was three weeks before Army investigators
could reach the crime scene.
Bales, who told the judge at his plea hear-
ing that he couldn’t explain why he com-
mitted the killings, has not issued an
apology, but his lawyers hinted that one
might come at sentencing.
Prosecutors question whether he’s
remorseful. They asked a judge Monday for
permission to play jurors a recording of a
phone call of Bales laughing with his wife
as they review the charges against him.
``It certainly goes to evidence in aggrava-
tion, the attitude of lack of remorse,’’ Stelle
told the judge.
Bales’ attorneys have said they plan to
present evidence that could warrant lenien-
cy, including his previous deployments and
what they describe as his history of post-
traumatic stress disorder and traumatic
brain injury.
“Our general theme is that Sgt. Bales
snapped,’’ Browne told The Associated
Press earlier. “That’s kind of our mantra,
and we say that because of all the things we
know: the number of deployments, the head
injuries, the PTSD, the drugs, the alcohol.’’
PHOTO BY SUSAN FRIED
continued from page 1
Kevin Allen speaks Saturday, Aug. 17, at the Coalition of Black Trade
Unionists’ march for jobs, equality and freedom in commemoration of Dr.
Martin Luther King Jr.’s March on Washington 50 years ago. The event,
sponsored by the Puget Sound and Pierce County Chapters at Martin
Luther King Jr. Memorial Park, drew a large crowd, including Eliga Sacks
and Loretta Gutierrez, who were married before the assembled
community.
Wage
continued from page 1
Economist Chris Benner of the University
of California at Davis does not agree that a
higher minimum wage would lead to job
losses.
``There may be some job impact in those
small businesses themselves,’’ he said. But
in the entire economy, when you increase
income to low-wage workers, it creates jobs
because those workers are likely to spend
their additional income and that increases
demand for goods and services.
Benner also doubts a higher minimum
wage would affect prices enough to scare
away consumers. His research has shown
that even a large increase in wages, like the
proposal in Seattle, has only a 4 to 5 percent
effect on prices.
One of those affected by a potential wage
she was fired by another chain shortly after
participating in the minimum wage strike.
``I have co-workers who are single moms.
I honestly don’t know how they make it,’’
said Durocher, who sleeps on her father’s
couch.
City Council member Nick Licata doesn’t
expect the issue
to get any offi-
cial
traction
soon. One of
the council’s
most
liberal
members, he
said there are
— Nick Hanauer other issues the
council should
tackle to help
low-wage workers, including wage theft
and affordable housing.
Pushing it forward before it can actually
pass would kill he idea, he said.
One Seattle City council candidate has
made the topic the centerpiece of her cam-
paign.
Economist Kshama Sawant is basing her
campaign on similar efforts in New York
City and Washington, D.C. While saying
her chances of getting elected are not great,
she is pushing the rise in the minimum wage
and said she is hearing about it on the cam-
paign trail.
An alternative, yet politically mighty,
weekly newspaper, the Stranger, has
endorsed her idea.
``We’re getting a huge echo for the idea,’’
she said.
Another 400 were fed from the trio of
FRED buses — for fun, read, eat, dream —
roaming the city from Monday to Thursday
each week.
Among other programs, the USDA is
experimenting with debit cards that give
kids up to $60 a month to buy food at gro-
cery stores over the summer. Officials also
access by helping parents find summer food
programs through a new text-messaging
service and a toll-free number.
The Federal Way School District believes
its approach — combining activities, tech-
nology and food — is something that can
become a model for wider use.
``The parents are drawn to the food,’’ said
Chrissy Hart, 20, a United Way intern who
grew up in Washington state, ``and the kids
are drawn to the activities.’’
As Mia and Anita, the rising fifth-graders,
played their board game, others gathered at
a table to color and read. Some kids, mean-
while, kicked around a soccer ball as others
played on laptop computers with Internet
access inside the bus.
Jeanette Borchers, who brings her two
children to the bus for lunch and stays to
help, said the summer program fills essen-
tial needs.
``I think it’s fantastic,’’ she said. ``It real-
ly is a good community thing.’’
increase is Caroline Durocher, 21, who has
been working low-wage jobs since high
school. She has been working at a Seattle
Subway restaurant for about a month, since
‘A higher minimum wage is a very
simple and elegant solution to the
death spiral of falling demand that is
the signature feature of our economy’
Meals
continued from page 1
that works to expand food programs.
In recent years, the federal government
has been pushing its spending toward
mobile food programs, feeding hungry kids
in parks, recreation centers and even their
homes. There are now 42,000 sites that pro-
vide summer meals, and the 3,000 locations
added this year represent the largest
increase the program has seen, said Under-
secretary Kevin Concannon, with the food
and nutrition division of the USDA.
That growth came as Agriculture Secre-
tary Tom Vilsack announced in June a goal
of serving 5 million more meals to eligible
youngsters this summer. Government offi-
cials said an assessment of that goal won’t
be available until at least next year, but offi-
cials pointed to the thousands of new sites
as reasons for optimism.
In Federal Way, Wash., where more than
half of the school district’s 22,000 children
receive free or reduced-price lunches, about
900 students receive meals at summer
school programs and community centers.
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
The program, hailed for its approach, was
paid for by about $40,000 in donations and
a $34,000 grant from the federal govern-
ment. Child welfare activists say it will take
more such creativity to help additional stu-
dents.
``We need to innovate,’’ said Bill Shore,
who leads Share our Strength, another non-
profit working with the USDA.
are encouraging more churches, camps and
community groups to start their own meal
programs, with federal money paying for
setup costs and food.
``The challenge is across the United
States, the time of year an American child is
most likely to go hungry is the summer-
time,’’ said Concannon, of the USDA.
The USDA also has worked to improve
August 21, 2013 The Seattle Skanner Page 3