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About The skanner. (Portland, Or.) 1975-2014 | View Entire Issue (July 2, 2014)
WWW . THESKANNER . COM J ULY 2, 2014 P ORTLAND AND S EATTLE V OLUME XXXVI, N O . 39 For The Skanner website scan this QR code CENTS Pacific NW The Skanner News presents our new regional edition, featuring more news and local information. C HALLENGING P EOPLE TO S HAPE A B ETTER F UTURE N OW Skanner Wins at NNPA 25 SEATTLE PRIDE Website named one of nation’s best at festivities in Portland Of The Skanner News See NNPA on page 3 INDEX News....................1,3,7 Opinion .....................2 Calendars ..............4,5 A & E ....................9,10 Bids/Classifieds ........11 PHOTO BY SUSAN FRIED T he Skanner News on Thursday night took three national awards as part of the national newspaper publishers Association convention in Portland. Multimedia Editor Helen Silvis Took the top prize for best feature story, winning the Frank L. Stanley award for her article, “Inside Oregon’s Coffee Creek Prison Mothers and Children Bond Against the Odds.” In addition, The Skanner News’ website won second place in the A. Philip Randolph Messenger Award for Digital Excellence competition. The website, www.theskan- ner.com, was launched late last fall, with many expanded features and responsive design. And The Skanner News won third place in Community Service, for an investigative project by News Editor Lisa Loving that evaluated the effectiveness of Cover Oregon navigators. It was the second Com- munity Service honor won by The Skanner in the area of public health; the paper won first place in 2012 for building a Google map of healthy corner grocery stores throughout the Portland area. This year’s NNPA convention marks the first time the national gathering has been held in Portland. The Skanner News and the Portland Observer together hosted the event. “We had guests from all over the country– and everybody really loved Portland,” said The Skanner News publisher Bernie Foster. “But we really appreciated our local sup- port. “U.S. Sen. Jeff Merkley, Portland Devel- opment Commission CEO Patrick Quinton, Portland Mayor Charlie Hales, and a squad of volunteers all made our guests feel wel- come and we appreciate that.” Also at the convention, Foster announced that newly elected NNPA CEO Ben Chavis will be the keynote speaker at The Skanner Seattle Pride Parade Celebrity Grand Marshall George Takei waves at the crowd that lined 4th Avenue for the 40th Annual Seattle Pride Parade Sunday, June 29 in Downtown Seattle. A record crowd estimated at 150,000 attendees made the Emerald City ring out with cheers. Hope: Why Youth Jobs Matter Portland has almost 90 percent unemployment among Black youth By Helen Silvis Of The Skanner News L oretta Smith didn’t sleep the night before the launch of the Summer- Works youth job training program. Smith has championed SummerWorks since she was elected to her first term as Mult- nomah County Commissioner. “I do it because I care about the kids,” she said at the launch event, July 1. “I care about the future and as (former state Senator) Margaret Carter says, I want to get my social security check, and I need you all to work.” Smith says she is thrilled to see youth learning about the county’s work. But excitement was not what kept her awake Monday night. She simply could not stop thinking about Andrew L. Cog- gins, the young black man killed in a drive-by shooting in North Portland on Monday afternoon. Smith could not stop thinking about the pain his family is feel- ing. “For me it was very personal,” Smith said. “This was a 24- year-old man. I have a 24-year-old son. There’s a mother and a family who are crying today about their son.” Programs like SummerWorks, which employs youth from deprived backgrounds, are cru- cial to preventing violence and crime, Smith said. “We need to put down the guns, pick up the pens, the papers, the books and get sum- mer jobs like we do here in SummerWorks.” This year the program will employ 600 youth, 100 more than last year, but less than half the number funded in 2009, when federal economic recov- ery funds created the program. The jobs will offer a lifeline to the youth who are hired, open- ing up opportunities to learn, find mentors, network and be first in line for Future Connect college scholarships. But thousands more youth are out of school and facing a sum- mer of no jobs, no money, no transportation and no opportuni- ty to change their situation. Worksystems estimates that across Multnomah and Wash- ington counties 36,000 youth aged 16-19 are out of school and not in work. In Multnomah See JOBS on page 3 Rocky Launch for Retail Cannabis Problems with new law apparent before doors even open GENE JOHNSON Associated Press SEATTLE (AP) — Pete O’Neil saw Washington’s legalization of marijuana in 2012 as a path to retirement, or at least to his kids’ college tuition. He’s paid tens of thousands of dollars in rent on possible locations for a pot-shop chain, hired lawyers and picked out floor- ing. But now the nation’s second legal recreational marijuana industry is about to start without him. O’Neil struck out in Washington’s lottery for coveted pot-shop licenses. He has unsuccessfully tried to buy companies that scored a lucky number. In frustration, he’s turning what would have been his Seattle retail store into a medical mari- juana dispensary. “Our company is bleeding money, and I haven’t sold a single joint,” O’Neil says. As Washington plows toward the legaliza- tion of pot, it’s finding that getting the cannabis market off the ground has been even tougher than anyone imagined. Among the frustrated are growers who have been waiting months for permission to See CANNABIS on page 3
