JANUARY 2, 2019
Portland and Seattle Volume XLI No. 14
25
CENTS
News ................................... 3,6 A & E ........................................5
Opinion ...................................2 Netflix Criticized .............5
Calendars ...............................4 Bids/Classifieds .....................7
CHALLENGING PEOPLE TO SHAPE A BETTER FUTURE NOW
PHOTO COURTESY OF LARRY GOSSETT VIA FB
HARDESTY SWORN IN
King County Councilmember Larry Gossett
The Skanner News
K
ing County Councilor Larry Gos-
sett will be the keynote speaker
for The Skanner Foundation’s
33rd annual Martin Luther King,
Jr. Breakfast, which will take place
from 8:30 a.m. to 10:30 a.m. Jan. 21 at the
Red Lion at Jantzen Beach.
Gossett, who was was first elected to
the King County Council in 1993, rep-
resents District 2 (portions of Seattle,
Washington, including Capitol Hill,
AP PHOTO/BEN MARGOT
See GOSSETT on page 3
In this Dec. 19, 2018, photo, Earlonne Woods shows
recording equipment similar to what he used in
San Quentin State Prison to produce his podcasts,
during an interview in Oakland, Calif.
Podcasts
From Prison
page 6
Netflix Pulls Comedian’s
‘Patriot Act’ from Saudi
page 5
Portland City Commissioner Jo Ann Hardesty (right) was sworn in the morning of Jan. 2 by Oregon State Supreme Court Justice Adrienne Nelson (left).
TriMet GM Talks Agency’s Future
Doug Kelsey, relatively new in his role, wants to continue improving bus
service and accessibility for all passengers
The Skanner News Staff
T
riMet’s general man-
ager is still getting
to know the Portland
area.
TriMet’s board hired
Kelsey in February to re-
place Neil MacFarlane,
who retired at the begin-
ning of this year after lead-
ing the transit agency since
2010. Kelsey comes to Port-
land from Vancouver, B.C.
where he led Translink,
the Vancouver-area transit
agency. Kelsey also helped
pitch Vancouver as a 2010
host for the Olympics
and led transportation
planning for the event.
Kelsey’s resume includes
private-sector experience
in planning and strate-
gy with Shell Canada and
Starbucks.
Kelsey stopped by The
Skanner’s offices earli-
er in December to talk
about transit accessibility,
TriMet’s successes and the
future of transportation in
the Portland metropolitan
area. This interview has
been edited for space and
clarity.
The Skanner News:
What are some of the ways
TriMet has improved since
you stepped into your role?
Doug Kelsey: When I
took over we were about
81 percent on-time perfor-
mance for the buses and
ran on a public road sys-
tem. But there were still a
lot of things we needed to
do. For example, we never
measured when the buses
left the barn. Well, showing
up to work is an important
thing to do. If you show up
to work, you’re going to,
probably, have a good day.
So we need to leave on time
for our customers. So now
we measure that, and now
the team’s doing an amaz-
ing job. High 90s. When
I first started measuring
this, we were in the 60s.
And they’ve taken over
See TRIMET on page 3
New Program Qualifies Foreign Nurses to Work in Oregon
Partners say they are committed to recruiting diverse, multi-lingual
graduates from the program
By Melanie Sevcenko
For The Skanner News
T
his month, 16 foreign-trained
nurses graduated from the Im-
migrant Nurse Credentialing
Program — a landmark project
of nonprofit Worksystems and the
Immigrant and Refugee Community
Organization (IRCO).
The re-entry program allows nurs-
es with credentials outside of the
United States to gain their licenses
and return to nursing professions in
Oregon.
Foreign-trained nurses are often
working in industries that are not
their own – and well below
their skill level.
“This phenomenon, known
as ‘brain waste’ is rampant is
America and not exclusive
to the health care industry,”
said Nick Knudsen, business
services manager at Worksys-
tems, in a Twitter post follow-
ing the program’s graduation.
December saw inaugural First cohort of graduates from the Immigrant Nurse
graduates coming from coun- Credentialing Program, Dec. 8, 2018.
tries such as Ethiopia, Cuba,
it’s totally the opposite,” said Leisl
Ukraine and Japan.
“They had been told in the past that Wehmueller, workforce develop-
their degree doesn’t matter and that ment department manager at IRCO.
their profession is obsolete. And
See NURSES on page 3
COURTESY OF NICK KNUDSEN, WORKSYSTEMS
Event takes place Jan.
21 at the Red Lion at
Jantzen Beach
PHOTO BY BERNIE FOSTER
Larry
Gossett to
Keynote
MLK
Breakfast