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About The skanner. (Portland, Or.) 1975-2014 | View Entire Issue (Jan. 29, 2014)
WWW . THESKANNER . COM J ANUARY 29, 2014 S EATTLE , W ASHINGTON V OLUME XXXVI, N O . 17 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 BORN BY A RIVER School Funding In Court Lawmakers push back on court- mandated funding PHOTO BY SUSAN FRIED By Mike Baker The Associated Press Latoya Ruby Frazier, recipient of the 2013 Gwendolyn Knight and Jacob Lawrence Prize, talks about her work during a walk through of her solo show Latoya Ruby Frazier: Born by a River which runs until June 22 at the Seattle Art Museum. Frazier’s photography documents the deindustrialization of her hometown of Braddock, Penn. and its effect on her family and the town. Democrats Try Minority Voting Bill But political realities show session is headed towards bipartisan stall By Manuel Valdes The Associated Press SEATTLE (AP) — In anoth- er move to differentiate them- selves from the Republican-controlled Senate, House Democrats are pushing forward a measure that aims to enhance minority voting rights. The House is expected to vote next week on the measure called the Washington Voting Rights Act, which opens the possibility of court challenges to cities, counties and school districts to push them to switch from at- large to district elections in areas where large minority groups are present. The measure, like others in this short session, is expected to die in the Senate, a chamber controlled by a Republican- dominated coalition. This short legislative session is shaping into a bipartisan stall, where measures from opposite cham- bers aren’t going anywhere. At the heart of the measure is the history of elections in Cen- tral and Eastern Washington — INDEX News .....................2,3,6 Calendar ....................2 Opinion .......................4 A&E ..........................2,8 Bids/Classifieds............7 specifically Yakima County, where the American Civil Lib- erties Union filed a lawsuit last year against the city of Yakima. Forty-one percent of Yakima’s 91,000 residents are Latino, but the city has never elected a Lati- no member to its at-large city council. In 2011, council members refused to put an initiative on a special ballot requiring that each of the seven members rep- resent a specific district, and Yakima voters defeated an ini- tiative to change the system in last year’s primary. The ACLU filed a lawsuit in federal court under the federal Voting Rights Act, and the case is still pend- ing. The most recent example used by advocates is last fall’s race for a position in Yakima’s school board. A woman with a Latino name lost 60 percent to 40 percent to woman who was not campaigning and had dropped out of the race. “This bill makes a lot of sense to folks living in Central and See VOTE on page 3 OLYMPIA, Wash. (AP) — Washington state’s highest court has exercised an unusu- al amount of power on education funding, and it’s prompted some lawmakers to raise constitutional concerns. Before last year’s legislative session, the court ruled that the state wasn’t meeting its obligation to amply pay for basic education. In response, the Legislature added about $1 billion in school-related spending, and law- makers widely agree they’ll add more fund- ing in coming years. Earlier this month, the court went a step further, analyzing specific funding targets while telling lawmakers to come back with a new plan by the end of April. Those specific demands have irked budg- et writers in the Legislature. “They are way out of their lane,’’ said Republican Sen. Michael Baumgartner. Baumgartner expects lawmakers will con- tinue adding “substantially new resources’’ to the state education system, but he said the court’s position could erode the proper bal- ance of power in Olympia. Baumgartner hopes lawmakers will ignore the court’s lat- est demands, or he fears justices may exer- cise more power going forward. “Everyone has to see how this could be abused,’’ Baumgartner said. Baumgartner has proposed a bill that would shrink the court from nine justices to five, acknowledging that it was partially an attempt to push back against the decision. But he also said it the change would provide significant budget savings — money that could be redirected to education. Phil Talmadge, a lawyer who previously served in the Legislature and then the state Supreme Court, said the high court is acting in unprecedented ways on the education issue. And if there’s no amicable resolution between the two sides, an escalating battle between lawmakers and justices could lead See EDUCATION on page 3 New Standards Sought in DNA Evidence Currently, law enforcement can throw out material after conviction By Rachel La Corte The Associated Press OLYMPIA, Wash. (AP) — The destruc- tion of DNA evidence in some criminal cases has prompted the introduction of measures in the state House and Senate that would impose an 18-month moratorium on such actions. The bills, sponsored by Rep. Tina Orwall and Sen. Jeannie Darneille, also would cre- ate a work group to recommend permanent, statewide standards for preserving DNA material. The group would present its rec- ommendations to the Legislature and gover- nor by Dec. 1. Under current law, there is no requirement to preserve DNA evidence after a convic- tion, though defense attorneys can seek a court order to do so. The Innocence Project Northwest at the University of Washington’s Law School brought the idea to Orwall and Darneille after reviewing about 70 potential DNA cases between 2011 and 2013 and finding that in 25, including murder and rape prose- cutions, biological evidence was destroyed in eight cases and lost in one. See EVIDENCE on page 3
