JANUARY 10, 2018
Portland and Seattle Volume XL No. 15
Opinion ..........................2
Calendars .................. 4-5
A & E ........................... 6-9
Bids/Classifieds ...........11
CHALLENGING PEOPLE TO SHAPE A BETTER FUTURE NOW
25
CENTS
INSIDE:
Martin Luther King, Jr.
SPECIAL EDITION
PHOTO BY MOTOYA NAKAMURA/MULTNOMAH CO.
SEATTLE TAP JAM
State of County, April 21, 2017
Commissioner Smith
kicks off campaign
for city council, while
county chair is asked
to resign by community
members
By Melanie Sevcenko
Of The Skanner News
PHOTO BY SUSAN FRIED
Tensions Rise
and Subside
in County
Politics
Tap dancers of all ages and abilities took to the stage Jan. 7 at the Royal Room in Columbia City for the Seattle Tap Jam. The event was hosted by Tap
dance instructor Jesse Sawyers.
M
AP PHOTO/SILVIA IZQUIERDO,FILE
See SMITH on page 3
In this Nov. 13, 2017 photo, a woman with the word
“Legalize” painted on her mouth marches against
a recent congressional committee vote to make
abortion illegal without exception nationwide, in
Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Abortion is currently allowed
in cases of rape, a pregnancy that threatens a
woman’s life or a fetus with anencephaly, but the
committee adopted a measure that would remove
those exceptions.
Women Speak On
Illegal Abortion
in Brazil page 10
Blank Panther
Movie Excitement
page 6
U.S. Black Unemployment Rate Lowest Ever
At 6.8 percent, rate is still nearly double its White counterpart
The Skanner News
he close of 2017
brought historically
positive news for un-
employment among
African Americans nation-
wide.
The annual average
unemployment rate for
Blacks fell to 7.5 percent
last year. And in Decem-
ber, Black unemployment
dropped to 6.8 percent —
the lowest ever recorded
by the US Labor Depart-
ment since it started track-
ing the rate back in 1972.
T
The Black unemploy-
ment rate is still almost
double its White counter-
part, however, which sits
at 3.7 percent.
Last year’s numbers re-
flect the sunnier times of
2000, when the annual av-
erage for Black unemploy-
ment was 7.6 percent and
the monthly low swooped
to seven percent in April of
that year, according to the
Bureau of Labor Statistics.
This week’s figures indi-
cate that recovery from the
Great Recession of 2008 is
starting to reach a wider
range of demographics,
which is good news com-
pared to the past decade.
In the fallout of the fi-
nancial crisis, unemploy-
ment for Black Americans
reached 16.8 percent in
2010. That means more
than one out of every six
African Americans was
without work.
In Oregon, unemploy-
ment figures based on race
are not tracked the same
way
“We have to use a differ-
ent source of data for the
Black unemployment rate,
so we can’t make a direct
comparison with the na-
tion,” said Nick Beleiciks,
state employment econo-
mist with the Oregon Em-
ployment
Department,
who added that numbers
for 2017 are not yet avail-
able.
Even so, what the depart-
ment can provide from pre-
vious years tells a bleaker
tale for Black Oregonians.
In 2016, the unemploy-
ment rate of African
See UNEMPLOYMENT
on page 3
What to Look for in Next Month’s Legislative Session
Health care, transportation, clean air
expected to take center stage in February
The Skanner News
he 2018 legislative session starts
Feb. 5. It’s a short session — the
state’s regular legislative ses-
sions meet for several months
in odd-numbered years, and for a
month in even-numbered years.
But a lot can happen in a month.
The Skanner News reached out to a
variety of legislators and advocacy
groups to ask what readers should
keep their eyes on in the weeks
ahead.
The final deadline to file bills is Jan.
T
16 and submitted bills
will not be assigned bill
numbers until later this
month.
PHOTO BY M.O. STEVENS VIA WIKIPEDIA
ultnomah County released a
statement Tuesday saying Com-
missioner Loretta Smith and
County Chair Deborah Kafoury
had their first sit-down meeting over
the weekend since a Dec. 21 incident
in which Kafoury addressed Smith
with an expletive at the end of a county
board meeting.
HEALTH CARE
Legislators are keeping
a close eye on the fate of
Measure 101, the state-
wide ballot measure to The Oregon State Legislature convenes for a special short
impose a temporary as- session Feb. 5.
sessment on some health
care organizations in order to fund the state’s budget. The bill was put
the state’s health care programs. The on the ballot by a group of legislators
election is Jan. 23 and its outcome who weren’t happy with sections of
could have critical implications for
See LEGISLATION on page 3