WWW . THESKANNER . COM
J ULY 2, 2014
P ORTLAND
AND
S EATTLE
V OLUME XXXVI, N O . 39
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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