Local News
Roads
urban Gardeners
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The state is working to develop
incentives that will attract
drivers, such as the ability to
take your vehicle emissions test
remotely
Whitty says. “If you’re above it the mileage charge will
exceed the gas tax refund.”
Why would anyone volunteer when they probably will
have to pay a little more? Whitty says the state is working
with private companies to develop incentives that will
attract drivers, such as the ability to take your vehicle emis-
sions test remotely.
“ They won’t have to go to DEQ for emissions testing,”
Whitty says. “They will be able to just report the health of
the vehicle right from the car. So with those kinds of bene-
fits, people might see a reason to sign up.”
The volunteer program is designed to test the system so
transportation officials can make sure it works properly.
After that the Legislature will decide whether or not to
make the road user charge mandatory for all users.
Washington is looking at Several Alternatives
Washington is still researching the costs and benefits of
different charging systems. Under consideration are three
basic ways to charge drivers for using state roads and high-
ways.
“We’re doing the foundational work that needs to be done
to make sure that this is the right approach to take,” Griffith
said. “The report will inform decision making, so they (state
legislators) are thinking of all the implications as they are
making the decisions.”
PHOTO CREDIT SUSAN FRIED
Oregon proposal would charge drivers 1.8 cents a mile for
all miles they drive inside the state. The charge is calculated
based on data from a GPS monitor in your car. And yes, it
will be able to distinguish between in-state and out-of-state
mileage. Many cars already have the technology installed,
but if they don’t it can easily be installed.
“The gas tax is currently 30 cents a mile so if you have a
vehicle that is below 20 mpg, you will get a benefit because
your gas tax refund will exceed your mileage charge,”
Michael Twiggs, Charlie James, Juanita Twiggs and Rees Clark stand by some of the equipment
which will be used by the Central Area urban Gardeners indoor urban gardening project located
in the Central Area of Seattle. The produce grown in the year round garden will be given away to
local food banks, feeding programs, churches and local residents. Find out more about their work
at www.goefarming.com.
The first option is a flat fee that would cover drivers for a
specific time period.
“It’s basically like an all-you-can-eat deal that doesn’t
require any tracking of mileage,” Griffith said. “So this
would be something that people would do who don’t want
any technology in their car that would use their location to
document actual miles driven. They don’t want to be
tracked.
“The drawback is that it doesn’t allow us to differentiate,
for example, out of state drivers from in-state. So we’re try-
ing to wrestle with what we are going to do with people
from out of state. Would they have to buy a temporary per-
mit or maybe we keep the gas tax for those drivers? “
The second option would be based on odometer readings.
Drivers would estimate the number of miles they will travel
in the state and pay in advance.
Option two could be fairer because it looks at actual miles
driven, Griffith said. But it does not distinguish between in-
state and out-of-state miles, and would not solve the prob-
lem of how to tax out-of-state drivers. So if Washington
drivers drove out of state, they would still pay for those
miles.
Also, Griffith says, if future congestion fees ever become
a consideration for urban areas, this approach would not
provide the location information needed to do so.
Option three is a GPS-based mileage charge, similar to
Oregon’s plan.
“It would be location based and would allow for the most
precise tracking of your mileage,” Griffith said. “It also
would take care of the in-state-out-of-state issue, for exam-
ple, Washingtonians who drive into Oregon or British
Columbia wouldn’t be charged for out-of-state miles.”
Read the rest of this story online
at www.theskanner.com
Ross
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the retail chain; meanwhile, Burns left the
store and called the Portland Police Bureau
on its non-emergency number and described
the situation.
Worried her identity had been stolen,
Burns called a friend to take her toddler and
waited an hour and a half for an officer to
arrive.
When Portland Police Officer Carlos Ibar-
ra ran Burns’ name through the police
reporting system, he confirmed Burns had
no arrests, citations or convictions for
shoplifting.
Then they both went back into the store to
determine whether a crime had taken place.
“Carlos Ibarra, the Portland police officer,
was very, very helpful,” Burns says. “He
said, let’s go in the store and get to the bot-
tom of this.” She says the officer asked the
store manager if it was a case of mistaken
identity.
Officer Ibarra’s police report says that the
store manager not only accused Burns of
theft and said she would be banned from all
Ross stores nationwide, but that he had
“videos and pictures to prove it.”
According to the police report, Ibarra
asked three times for any evidence that
Burns had shoplifted, but the store manager
refused to provide it.
Ibarra wrote that Burns was clearly upset
and crying after the scene, upset that even
her toddler daughter was “treated like a
‘criminal’ in public.”
Afterwards Burns called the district offi-
cial’s number provided by the store
manager and heard back two days later.
“She told me she was going to do an
investigation,” Burns said. “Mind you, she
never actually asked me my name, she
never asked me my birthday. She never
asked me my last name to make sure I was-
n’t on whatever list this was.”
Burns says she called and texted the man-
ager for 10 days in a row, then finally got a
call back saying she was not on the theft list
and that she could shop in any Ross she
liked, and that the manager was sorry for
her inconvenience.
“I said what, if anything, can you tell me
is going to happen to the store manager?
She said I can’t tell you that but what I can
tell you is that there will be more training,”
Burns said.
“I was just mortified, because never, ever
have I ever been a shoplifter.”
Connie Wong, the director of investor and
media relations for Ross Stores, declined to
answer questions about the Burns case or
the Ross retail theft database.
Civil rights attorneys Greg and Jason
Kafoury handle false theft accusations fre-
quently, they say.
“We get a lot of false arrest cases involv-
ing security at Ross Dress for Less,” Jason
Kafoury says. “A lot of them are quite egre-
gious and quite aggressive.
“This one was unique though, in my per-
spective, because they are claiming she’s in
some national database of thieves, and then
when pressed on it they cannot provide any
evidence of it,” he said.
A quick web search shows a handful of
retail theft databases nationwide, each oper-
ated by the corporate sector to benefit its
member companies. They are not affiliated
with government or the courts.
Contact
them
at
www.kafourymcdougal.com.
Scam
continued from page 1
woman filed a letter from the caffeine asso-
ciation last year certifying she’d done 100
hours of community service, Assistant Dis-
trict Attorney Tracy Conn said. She said
prosecutors found the letter was fraudulent,
and a judge resentenced the woman to addi-
tional community-service time.
“A community service sentence is a pub-
lic and personal responsibility,” Vance said
in a statement. “Faking it — or helping oth-
ers fake proof of completion — can lead to
criminal consequences.”
The caffeine group’s website advertised
‘A community service sentence is a public and
personal responsibility. Faking it — or helping
others fake proof of completion — can lead to
criminal consequences.’
that it could provide letters certifying com-
munity service completion, charging fees
based on the number of hours required,
Conn said. The group’s home page and a
“fast community service” site that prosecu-
tors say Kushner also ran were down Mon-
day. Washington and Oregon news reports
from 2012 and 2013 said prices ranged from
$20 to $300, for up to 250 hours of “com-
munity service.”
Customers were told to buy e-books that
warn against consuming too much caffeine,
study the texts at their own pace and then
take a 40-question, multiple-choice test, the
reports said.
An online payment-processing account
associated with the websites received over
$200,000 over a period of several years,
Conn said.
Kushner, 47, has written various anti-caf-
feine e-books, book-selling sites show. She
was arrested in Delray Beach, Florida, after
authorities searched for her for months.
July 30, 2014 The Portland and Seattle Skanner Page 3