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Page 2 The Skanner Portland & Seattle July 3, 2024 Challenging People to Shape a Better Future Now Stop Dreaming About Replacing Biden--Get Moving to Defeat Trump Bernie Foster Founder/Publisher Bobbie Dore Foster Executive Editor Jerry Foster Advertising Manager T Patricia Irvin Product Manager Graphic Designer Saundra Sorenson Reporter Mary Reischmann Digital Content Monica J. Foster Seattle Office Coordinator Susan Fried Photographer The Skanner Newspaper, es- tablished in October 1975, is a weekly publication, published every Wednesday by IMM Publi- cations Inc. 415 N. Killingsworth St. P.O. Box 5455 Portland, OR 97228 Telephone (503) 285-5555 Fax: (503) 285-2900 info@theskanner.com www.TheSkanner.com The Skanner is a member of the National Newspaper Pub lishers Association and West Coast Black Pub lishers Association. All photos submitted become the property of The Skanner. We are not re spon sible for lost or damaged photos either solicited or unsolicited. ©2024 The Skanner. All rights re served. Reproduction in whole or in part without permission prohibited. Updated daily online. ebo m me • nts o k • learn • co in y o u r c o m m u n n F ac it Hear about it first. Sign up for Breaking News and Events at TheSkannerNews Michael Dover Guest Columnist paign staff, I’d recommend they cancel the next debate. There is no value in giving Trump any airtime that sug- gests his legitimacy when he has none. Instead, we need a full-on confrontation with Trump’s “ Court, and a sycophantic fol- lowing in Congress, nothing will be off the table. Is this really the time to think about replacing Biden on the Democratic ticket? If we understand this election as a referendum on our de- mocracy and our future, do we really want to shake up the pro-democracy side or do we do everything in our power to make sure Biden wins? Every so often, Democrats get the notion that the head of their ticket should step aside and let someone young- Who has the name recognition, the familiarity with the public, the trust that comes with those assets? criminality, his indifference to truth or justice, his di- sastrous term as president, and the catastrophe that will befall all of us if he wins an- other term. Let Biden sit for as many interviews as possi- ble and hammer away at the convicted felon he’s running against. Trump and his allies are making no secret of their plans to dismantle our democracy. The end of abortion rights, for which Trump happily takes credit, is only the first step in those plans. With a reaction- ary majority – thanks to his three appointments – now rul- ing the right-wing Supreme The cost of the american dream jumped 47 percent since 2020 LOCAL NEWS BRIEFS LOCAL EVENTS d ay ! • L i ke u s o he so-called debates are not debates, they are performances. They of- fer little about policies or facts, and less about why one should or shouldn’t vote for the performers. Thursday night showed one thing for certain: No one should invite Donald Trump to a “debate.” He follows no norms, lies as often as he breathes, evades or ignores questions, and spews garbage nonstop. The only effect of allowing him on a debate stage is to normalize the behavior of this danger- ous sociopathic narcissist. Joe Biden had a bad night. He said as much the next day. There are four months left until the election. One bad night is not a basis for replac- ing him. Even on a bad night, he didn’t compare with the spectacle of Trump’s lies and evasions. Where are the calls for Trump to be replaced? He’s a convicted felon, has been held liable for rape by one jury and for massive fraud by another. He’s been fined $500 million for tax fraud. He stole hundreds of government files when he left office, including many that were classified and top secret. And what about his rambling and incoherence at his own rallies? Where’s the panic among Republicans? If I were on Biden’s cam- er or more articulate or bet- ter-looking step in. Or there is breathless speculation about a “brokered convention.” The last time a convention was “brokered” was 1952. It’s not as easy as it used to be. Imagine that the “show Biden the door” contingent got their way. Who would take his place? Kamala Har- ris is the obvious choice, but there are some among the supposed kingmakers who worry that she’s not “liked”– who then? Who has the name recogni- tion, the familiarity with the public, the trust that comes with those assets? How much time would it take for the voters to learn who the sub- stitute is and what she or he stands for? For that matter, how much of the remaining four months would be taken up just choos- ing a successor? All of these complications would distract from the serious work of win- ning the election. Meanwhile, Trump and the MAGA crowd would be busy cementing their victory in November. I believe there is only one choice – to stick with the most effective president in de- cades, who has overseen the most robust recovery from the pandemic of any of the major industrial nations in the world. I’m a climate voter, so I’m sticking with this pres- ident who has done more to mitigate climate change than any other world leader. Stick with a president who implemented a massive infra- structure program to repair our roads and bridges across the country. And a president, above all, who is committed to keeping our democracy safe from the same man who is still lying about the last election and won’t commit to accepting the results of the next one. If we don’t want this “de- bate” to define and under- mine Biden, we’d damn well better start working to make sure that doesn’t happen. There’s plenty to do, and only four months to do it. Let’s stop dreaming and get mov- ing. This is about the future of the country and the world – it’s time to re-elect President Biden. State of the Nation’s Housing 2024 Local News Pacific NW News World News Opinions Jobs, Bids Entertainment Community Calendar to y • Opinion R egardless of race, in- come, or geography, every family needs and deserves a place to call home. It’s a place not only for shelter from life’s many storms; but also, where fam- ilies come after school or work, celebrate birthdays or holidays – and all the ac- tivities that together turn a house into a home. But in re- cent years, the ability to have a home – as a renter or as a home owner – has been an in- creasing financial strain. In the worst circumstanc- es are those who no longer have a place to call home. In 2023, a record 653,100 people experienced homelessness on a single night in January, up 70,600 people in a single year, according to The State of the Nation’s Housing 2024, an annual report just published by Harvard’s Joint Center on Housing Studies (JCHS). This figure includes an additional 22,800 people living outside or staying in places not in- Charlene Crowell Guest Columnist tended for human habitation, pushing the unsheltered pop- ulation to an all-time high. The report also documents that of the 22.4 million rent- ers who pay over 30 percent of household income for housing, 12.1 million of these “ Rents have been rising faster than incomes for decades consumers pay more than half of their income on hous- ing and utilities. And nation- wide, renters with the lowest incomes have just $310 left over each month to cover all their non-housing needs. “Rents have been rising fast- er than incomes for decades,” says Alexander Hermann, a Senior Research Associ- ate at the Center. “However, the pandemic-era rent surge produced an unprecedented affordability crisis that con- tinues.” More than half of Black (57 percent), Latino (54 percent), and multiracial (50 percent) renter households remain cost-burdened since 2022. As a rule, affordable housing should cost no more than 30 percent of household income. Renters seeking to transi- tion to homeownership face daunting financial challenges as well. “Whether it’s the high downpayment or the monthly mortgage payments, the costs of buying a home have left homeownership out of reach to all but the most advantaged households,” says Daniel Mc- Cue, a JCHS Senior Research Associate. According to the report, a consumer purchasing a home with an affordable FHA loan that requires only a 3.5 per- cent down payment would incur a a monthly payment of $3096, and an annual income of at least $119,800, only one in seven (6.6 million) of the nation’s 45 million renters can qualify for that mortgage payment. “In the event a buyer could not qualify for a low-down- payment loan, the required cash would be $89,600 for a 20 percent downpayment and 3 percent closing costs on the same property. Assuming the buyer earns the national median household income of $74,800, they would need to save more than a full year’s salary to amass sufficient cash,” states the report. Beyond the nation’s 47 per- cent jump in housing costs since 2020, households of color now have additional hurdles to overcome before achieving their own Ameri- can Dream. For example, increasing costs and numbers of climate disasters have led to corre- sponding increases in home insurance costs. In 2023, the number of billion-dollar di- sasters reached a record 28, affecting 60.5 million housing units. In reaction, and according to Forbes, the average annual cost for insurance on a house valued at $350,000 is $1,678. However, insurance costs in Alabama, Florida, Kansas, and Mississippi average more than $2,000 per year. Resi- dents in Arkansas, Louisiana, and Oklahoma pay more than $3,000 yearly. Read the rest of this commentary at TheSkanner.com nt • lo c a l n e w s • eve
