WWW . THESKANNER . COM
O CTOBER 16, 2013
S EATTLE , W ASHINGTON
V OLUME XXXVI, N O . S 2
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
SIGNING UP
Child
Found
Guilty
PHOTO BY SUSAN FRIED
Boy, 11, will be
sentenced in ‘murder
conspiracy’ case
Carol Allen with King County Public Health helps a man sign up for health insurance through the new insurance
website, called Washington Healthplanfinder, at an enrollment event Saturday, Oct. 12, at Third Place Commons. A
team of “ In-Person Assisters ” from Public Health-Seattle & King County set up shop to help navigate the new website.
Two similar large enrollment events are scheduled over the next few weeks: Eastside -- Saturday, Oct. 19, 10 am-3
pm, at Crossroads Bellevue Shopping Center 15600 NE 8th St.; and South King County -- Saturday, Nov. 9, 1-5 p.m.,
at Kent Memorial Park Building 850 N. Central Ave.
Voters to Decide ‘Initiative on Initiatives’
Eyman seeks the right to petition without property owners’ approval
By Rachel La Corte
The Associated Press
OLYMPIA, Wash. (AP) —
Washington state residents have
plenty of experience voting on
new law proposals, but next
month they’ll decide on an “ini-
tiative on initiatives’’ that would
make it easier to get such meas-
ures on the ballot.
The proposal, Initiative 517,
was sparked in part by a series
of legal battles over local meas-
ures seeking to block red light
cameras, including one case last
year that went to the state
Supreme Court.
By requiring that voters be
allowed to have their say on any
proposal that qualifies for the
ballot, even if a lawsuit has been
filed against it, the initiative
pushes back at cities that have
sued — some successfully — to
block local challenges to the
cameras.
“Initiative power is not sub-
ject to pre-election challenges,’’
said Mark Baerwaldt, a
spokesman for the campaign.
“It’s the way the will of the peo-
INDEX
News .....................2,3,6
Calendar ....................2
Opinion .......................4
A&E ..........................2,8
Bids/Classifieds............7
ple is expressed.’’
The initiative also would give
supporters a year, instead of the
current six months, to collect
signatures, and it would make it
a misdemeanor to interfere with
the signature-gathering process.
Business groups and others
have lined up in opposition, say-
ing the proposal will affect their
ability to deal with nuisances
outside of their stores.
Jan Gee, a spokeswoman for
the No on I-517 campaign, said
her group has a problem with
language that creates a 25-foot
protected area around initiative
supporters and details where
they can gather signatures.
The initiative gives signature
gatherers the right to work on
any sidewalk or walkway that
has pedestrian traffic, “includ-
ing those in front of the
entrances and exits of any store,
and inside or outside public
buildings such as public sports
stadiums, convention/exhibition
centers, and public fairs.’’
“The bottom line is, if a peti-
tioner comes onto the property
See INITIATIVE page 3
COLVILLE, Wash. (AP) — An 11-year-
old boy was convicted Friday of conspiracy
to commit first-degree murder in a fifth-
grade plot that targeted a female classmate.
Stevens County Superior Court Judge
Allen Nielsen said Friday that “simple
anger’’ fueled the plot the boy hatched ear-
lier this year with a 10-year-old classmate at
Fort Colville Elementary school in northeast
Washington.
School staff seized a handgun and knife
the boys brought to school Feb. 7.
The judge, who called the trial “the most
serious of my career,’’ rejected defense
efforts to portray the boy as unable to sepa-
rate fact from fiction, The Spokesman-
Review reported.
The 11-year-old was led from court in
tears. He’s due back in court Nov. 8 for a
sentencing hearing.
A defense lawyer told KHQ-TV an appeal
is planned.
“There is no joy in a conviction,’’ said
Stevens County Prosecutor Tim Rasmussen,
who added he was relieved by the verdict.
School counselor Debbie Rogers testified
Friday about her interview with the 11-year-
old the day the gun and knife were discov-
ered. The boy said he was planning to stab
the girl to death because she was “really
annoying’’ and the second boy was to point
the gun at anyone who tried to intervene,
Rogers said.
Rogers said she saw no evidence that the
older boy was experiencing delusions that
day.
The younger boy pleaded guilty earlier to
conspiracy to commit murder and related
charges. He was sentenced to three to five
years in a juvenile detention facility.
Authorities discovered the plan when a
fourth-grader saw one of the boys playing
with a knife aboard a school bus and told a
school employee what he’d seen. A search
of the 10-year-old’s backpack found a knife,
a .45-caliber semi-automatic pistol and a
full ammunition magazine, court records
See CHILD on page 3
Fish Consumption Warnings Too Weak
Groups sue EPA over failure to improve pollution standards
By Gene Johnson
The Associated Press
SEATTLE (AP) — A fight over how
much fish people eat in Washington — and
thus, how much toxic pollution they con-
sume — is now in federal court.
Conservation and commercial fishing
groups sued the U.S. Environmental Protec-
tion Agency on Friday, saying the agency
has for too long let state officials underesti-
mate fish consumption, resulting in weaker
anti-pollution standards than are needed to
protect the public.
The groups, including Puget Soundkeeper
Alliance, Columbia Riverkeeper and the
Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen’s
Associations, reason that if the estimates
were more realistic, the state would have to
more strictly regulate emmissions of mercu-
ry, lead, copper and other toxins — a
prospect that concerns industry groups and
that emerged as a sticking point in budget
talks in Olympia last spring.
Businesses must obtain permits before
they can discharge pollutants into the state’s
waters under the federal Clean Water Act,
and increasing the estimate of how much
See FISH on page 3