JANUARY 24, 2018
25
CENTS
Seattle, Washington Volume XL No. 17
News ................................ 3,6-7 A & E ........................................5
Opinion ...................................2 Big Tobacco .....................6
Calendars ...............................4 Bids/Classifieds ..................6-7
CHALLENGING PEOPLE TO SHAPE A BETTER FUTURE NOW
AP PHOTO/ELAINE THOMPSON
MISSING AND MURDERED
INDIGENOUS WOMEN HONORED
Amazon employee Krishna Lyer shows off an
Amazon Go app as he shops in the store, Monday,
Jan. 22, 2018, in Seattle.
By Manuel Valdes and Joseph Pisani
Associated Press
SEATTLE — No cashiers, no registers
and no cash — this is how Amazon sees
the future of store shopping.
The online retailer opened its Ama-
zon Go concept to the public Monday in
Seattle, which lets shoppers take milk,
potato chips or ready-to-eat salads off
its shelves and just walk out. Amazon’s
technology charges customers after
they leave.
“It’s such a weird experience, because
you feel like you’re stealing when you
go out the door,” said Lisa Doyle, who
visited the shop Monday.
Amazon employees have been test-
ing the store, at the bottom floor of the
company’s Seattle headquarters, for
about a year. Amazon.com Inc. said it
uses computer vision, machine learn-
ing algorithms and sensors to figure
out what people are grabbing off its
store shelves.
PHILLIP MORRIS VIA AP
See AMAZON on page 3
PHOTO BY SUSAN FRIED
Get Your
Stuff and
Go: Amazon
Opens Store
With No
Cashiers
Missing & Murdered Indigenous Women Washington held a ceremony honoring the families of missing and murdered indigenous women before leading
the Women’s March in Seattle from Cal Anderson Park on Capitol Hill to the Seattle Center Jan. 20.
34 Percent of Local Households Struggling
Analysis looked at 700 Oregon households across every county in Oregon
By The Skanner News
new report pub-
lished by Worksys-
tems reveals that a
higher percentage
of Oregon households are
struggling to make ends
meet.
Commissioned
every
three years, the study
“Self-Sufficiency Standard
for Oregon Counties” de-
termines how much fam-
ilies throughout the state
A
must earn to meet basic
needs without the aid of
public or private subsi-
dies.
It does this by looking
at the costs of everyday
amenities, including food,
child and health care,
transportation and other
expenses, as well as the
cost of taxes.
The analysis looked at
700 Oregon households, in
various sizes and combina-
tions, across every county
in the state.
The study’s general take-
away is sign of widening
inequality across Oregon,
as both urban and rural
families alike struggle to
stay afloat.
In all Oregon counties,
the income needed to meet
basic needs increased be-
tween 2008 and 2017. For
a family with two adults,
one preschooler, and one
school-age child, the stan-
dard climbed on average
by 23 percent, across the
state, while the median
wage increased only 10
percent.
Moreover,
a
parent
working full time and
earning any of the 2017 Or-
egon minimum wages will
fall short of meeting the
standard for a family with
a child.
Developed by Diana
Pearce, director of the Cen-
See STUDY on page 3
Portland-born comic to take the stage Jan. 29
The device heats tobacco sticks but stops short
of burning them, an approach that Philip Morris
says reduces exposure to tar and other toxic
byproducts of burning cigarettes.
Anti-Smoking
Plan
Plan puts the FDA at
the center of debate on
‘reduced-risk’ products
like e-cigarettes page 9
By Christen McCurdy
Of The Skanner News
athan Brannon is coming back
to Portland.
Brannon was born and raised
here, but moved away a year
ago, spending part of his time in Los
Angeles and on the road. He’ll be
at the Hollywood Theatre Jan. 29 to
headline Minority Retort, an ongo-
ing showcase for comedians of color
hosted and produced by local comics
Jason Lamb, Julia Ramos and Neeraj
Srinivasan.
Previously the showcase took place
in smaller clubs, like Curious Com-
edy on Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd.
N
and the Siren Theater in Old Town.
Host Jason Lamb also has a regular
segment, also called “Minority Re-
tort,” on XRAY FM’s “X-RAY in the
Morning” show, featuring inter-
views with Portland’s creatives of
color.
The goal of the standup showcase,
according to event organizers, is to
provide comedians of color – includ-
ing local as well as national guests --
with a platform to speak their minds
and share their unique perspectives,
as well as reach the diverse come-
dy audience that exists within the
so¬called “Whitest city in America.”
Opening for Brannon Monday will
be Northwest comics Thomas Lundy,
PHOTO COURTESY OF NATHAN BRANNON
Nathan Brannon Headlines Homecoming Show
Nathan Brannon
Mona Concepcion and Wilfred Pad-
ua. For more information about this
event, visit https://hollywoodthe-
atre.org/events/minority-retort-na-
than-brannon.
Brannon won the Seattle Interna-
tional Comedy Competition in 2014
See COMEDY on page 3