WWW . THESKANNER . COM
J ANUARY 29, 2014
S EATTLE , W ASHINGTON
V OLUME XXXVI, N O . 17
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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