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C HALLENGING P EOPLE TO S HAPE A B ETTER F UTURE N OW
Murray
Supports
Veteran
25
PEACE
Seattle mayor calls
off police in helping
veteran stay in home
Lisa Loving
Of The Skanner News
PHOTO BY HELEN SILVIS
S
eattle Mayor Ed Murray set a historic
precedent last week by instructing city
law enforcement to “stand down”
from evicting a stroke-ridden Vietnam vet-
eran from his underwater home.
The Occupy-related group Standing
Against Foreclosure and Eviction (SAFE)
and the Washington Community Action
Network had spent weeks of focused organ-
izing in support of the elderly homeowners,
Byron and Jean Barton.
Byron Barton, a Vietnam veteran, had suf-
fered a stroke that left him unable to walk
and with a severe speech disability; the cou-
ple’s property had fallen into the hands of a
mortgage trustee corporation – one that has
been repeatedly sued for wrongdoing — and
went into foreclosure.
The deed for the Bartons’ West Seattle
home had been snapped up at auction by
mortgage trustees Quality Loan Service,
who sold it to Triangle Property Develop-
ment, who foreclosed on the couple and
filed for the eviction.
The Bartons are currently suing Quality
Loan Service as well as JPMorgan Chase,
and had asked Triangle to suspend the fore-
closure while the case remains in court.
The Bartons say Triangle Property Devel-
opment responded to the lawsuit by
fast-tracking the eviction rather than waiting
to see the case’s outcome.
Chris Genese of Washington CAN says
activists supporting the Bartons have won a
battle against foreclosure but the war itself
continues.
“Washington CAN has been working as
part of a coalition in a campaign to get the
county to address underwater mortgages,”
he said Tuesday.
“Reports have been released, Council has
gone into deliberation but we have been
stalled out in getting anything meaningful
on the table.”
Artist Antwoine Thomas supervised volunteers of all ages who came together to paint the Big Bang of Peace street
painting at the intersection of North Killingsworth Court and North Borthwick streets in Portland. The street painting is
one of a series of projects from the STRYVE program which has trained and hired youth to support community
efforts to reduce violence.
Kids Count Report Hits Oregon
Washington was ranked 18th and Oregon 30th in national study
By Helen Silvis
Of The Skanner News
A
the report, that show Oregon is
now 40th among all the states
for family economic stability,”
she said. “That has a lot of long-
term impacts for kids.”
Lori Pfingst, research and pol-
icy director at the Washington
State Policy Center, said her
main concern is that children of
color have not seen the same
improvements.
“The biggest lesson in this
data is that declining economic
security among children and
families, and the opportunity
gap for kids of color are really
holding back Washington state
from making real progress from
recovering from the downturn
and setting ourselves up well for
the future.”
Hunt also pointed to dispari-
ties that hurt children of color.
High poverty rates in Oregon’s
communities of color are linked
to school dropout, she said. And
because educational success is
crucial to lifting families out of
poverty, Oregon needs make
sure more kids of color attend
pre-school and get support to
succeed all the way through col-
lege.
“ We need to do more there,”
she says. “There is no question
we need to do more. I think it’s
important that we look at high-
quality education throughout
the system from early child-
hood, early education, quality
pre-school, quality daycare set-
tings up through access to
higher education for youth leav-
ing high school.”
The Kids Count Data Book
2014 highlights national trends
See VETERAN on page 3
new report from the
Annie E. Casey founda-
tion ranked Washington
state at 18th in the nation on
measures of child well being,
while Oregon lags at 30th.
Tonia Hunt, executive director
of Children First for Oregon
said the state’s low ranking
doesn’t reflect the values of
people who live here. “Particu-
larly concerning are the family
economic stability indicators in
INDEX
King County Compromises on Buses
News ..............1,3,8-10
Opinion .....................2
Calendars ..............4,5
A & E ......................6,7
Bids/Classifieds ........11
See KIDS on page 3
Service reductions postponed a few months but still on the table
Of The Skanner News
The King County Council on Monday
opted to defuse outrage over Metro bus cuts
by postponing service reductions until Sep-
tember and vowing to “explore options
before implementation of future service
cuts.”
In a unanimous vote, Councilmembers
moved to keep up to 349,000 service hours
on the chopping block, scheduled to be cut
in September 2014 and February 2015.
More cuts in 2015 are to be worked out in
biennial budget process – all with the goal
of “keeping service in line with actual rev-
enues.”
The transportation funding crisis was
prompted by voters’ defeat of Proposition 1
in April, which would have created a county
transportation district to fund Metro and
roads with a sales tax and a hike on vehicle
registration costs.
Following the defeat of that measure, the
County Executive asked the Council to
approve legislation that would reduce Metro
bus service by 550,000 hours between Sep-
tember 2014 and September 2015.
Council Chair Larry Phillips, Council
See BUSES on page 3