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About The skanner. (Portland, Or.) 1975-2014 | View Entire Issue (Jan. 28, 2015)
WWW . THESKANNER . COM J ANUARY 28, 2015 P ORTLAND AND S EATTLE V OLUME XXXVII, N O . 17 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 Pepper Spray on King Day 25 ACHIEVEMENT Noted author and educator announces suit against Seattle O ne of the nation’s leading voices on school reform is suing the City of Seattle and the Seattle Police Department after being pepper sprayed in the face during the Martin Luther King Jr. march last week. The James Bible Law Group announced a tort claim is being filed Wednesday after- noon. A history teacher and advisor to the Black Student Union at Garfield High School, Jesse Hagopian says he had just finished a speech about nonviolent civil disobedience and was walking on the sidewalk while talk- ing on the phone with his mother when the unnamed officer sprayed him. (Read The Skanner News interview with Hagopian on his new book, “More than a Score: The New Uprising Against High- Stakes Testing,” on page 8 of this issue. Hagopian also blogs at “I Am an Educator”) Seattle Police spokesperson Sgt. Sean Whitcomb was not immediately available for comment. Bible, former president of the Seattle NAACP, in a statement cited the U.S. Department of Justice ruling against the Seattle Police in bringing the suit. “Recent police activities in Seattle serve as a reminder that there is a great deal of work that remains to be done in terms of police accountability,” Bible said. “We will be forwarding information that we gather about this incident and others to the Depart- ment of Justice.” Newspapers in Seattle reported about 8,000 participants at the Jan. 19 rallies. From the event’s main stage, Hagopian spoke out against injustice in the “racist sys- tem,” the national political blog The Daily Kos reported last week. “We know that Martin Luther King would have been out in the streets with the protest- PHOTO COURTESY OFFICE OF EQUITY AND HUMAN RIGHTS By Donovan M. Smith and Lisa Loving Special to The Skanner News The Urban League of Portland’s Ty Schwoeffermann announced the City of Portland’s selection as one of 11 municipalities participating in the National League of Cities’ Black Male Achievement Initiative to improve outcomes for Black men and boys. Members of the local BMA steering committee announced the new initiative at Self Enhancement Inc., on Monday. The program will be run out of the city’s Office of Equity and Human Rights. Homeland Security Simulator Concordia University makes history with new training center By Arashi Young Of The Skanner News A ferent training scenarios. This simulator serves as a teaching instrument for Homeland Secu- rity students at Concordia and is available for disaster training for other businesses and public agencies. The simulator features a 43 foot by 10 foot semi-circular display that provides a fully immersive experience as if the incident commander was actual- ly at the scene of an emergency. This involvement is key in learning to make decisions, according to Jason Nairn, the director of the Homeland Secu- rity Simulation Lab. “The simulator has a number of functions, but one of the things it does well is put leaders in the position to have to make critical thinking judgments and ethical decisions,” Nairn said. Attached to the large display are six video monitor stations which also interact within the simulation. These stations sup- port other active participants like emergency medical person- nel who treat injured people. In a nearby room there is the Emergency Operations Center that also shows the simulation. This room offers training for executives like the chief of police, the fire chief, or the mayor — people who wouldn’t be on the scene, but would still be responsible for decisions and resources. There is even a broadcast stu- dio on site for the instructors to create newscasts to deliver dis- aster information. The system is designed to See TEACHER on page 3 wind storm has knocked over an old oak tree on a desolate country road. Power lines are entangled with branches, trapping a small car with passengers. A fire breaks out in a nearby house – what do you do? This is the question being asked at the Homeland Security Simulator at Concordia Univer- sity, a state-of-the-art facility that can create thousands of dif- INDEX Ticket Bots Targeted in Washington News ..............1,3,8-10 Opinion .....................2 Calendars ..............4,5 A & E ......................6,7 Bids/Classifieds ........11 See SIMULATOR on page 3 Ferguson goes after scalper software used to drive up ticket prices A ttorney General Bob Ferguson is proposing legislation with biparti- san support to outlaw ‘ticket bot’ software used to inflate online ticket prices, often by four times or more their face value. Ticket bots — short for robots — are com- puter programs used by scalpers to buy large quantities of tickets online to popular concerts and sporting events. Bots often tar- get the most desirable seats. Scalpers then sell those same tickets on a re-sale website minutes later at inflated prices. This process allows scalpers to control the secondary market, denying people access to ticket sales, forcing them to pay far more than face value and ensuring a hefty profit for the scalpers. Ticket bots simulate the action of human beings buying tickets for events, avoiding website security measures and controls meant to limit the number of tickets any individual can purchase. “My office is dedicated to the principle that consumers deserve a fair deal,” said Ferguson. “Outlawing ticket bots will keep the hard-earned money of fans in their pock- ets, instead of fattening the wallets of See BOTS on page 3
