Category: News

By Jerry Cornfield, The Herald

OLYMPIA — A controversial bill that would have required background checks on private gun sales appears doomed after its supporters failed Tuesday to round up enough votes to pass it in the state House.

An apparent deal seemed in place Tuesday morning after the author agreed to put the matter before voters this November.

While the move helped Rep. Jamie Pedersen, D-Seattle, pick up the votes of a couple of undecided Democrats, it reportedly cost him support of other Democrats who disliked placing it on the ballot as a referendum.

As a result, Pedersen and House Speaker Frank Chopp, D-Seattle, spent the afternoon and evening trying to pull together the 50 votes needed for passage in the chamber.

Shortly before 8:30 p.m. they gave up as the House adjourned, leaving Pedersen disappointed and sounding defeated.

“It was too big of a stretch for this year,” Pedersen said.

The bill could still be pushed to the floor today before a 5 p.m. deadline to act on House and Senate bills not tied to the budget.

Melinda McCrady, spokeswoman for the Democratic caucus, said it is not expected to come up “but I can’t say that it won’t happen.”

Backers of the bill huddled Tuesday to consider making another run at approving the bill today.

“I don’t know what happened. They couldn’t get the right combination but I am telling you it’s not over,” said Rep. Ruth Kagi, D-Seattle.

Supporters of gun control began the session confident they could toughen Washington laws with the slayings of Sandy Hook elementary students fresh in the mind of the public.

They ran into a wall of opposition from Republicans as only Rep. Mike Hope, R-Lake Stevens, committed to voting for this bill. The National Rifle Association organized a strong counterattack by arguing the proposed check wouldn’t stop gun violence.

Pedersen teamed with Hope to introduce House Bill 1588 to ensure background checks are conducted in the course of most gun sales in the state.

Gun buyers currently must undergo a background check when they purchase a weapon from a federally licensed firearms dealer. It is conducted through the National Instant Criminal Background Check System. House Bill 1588 would extend such checks to cover private gun transactions including those at gun shows.

Under the bill, exemptions are provided for people with proper law enforcement credentials or a valid concealed pistol license because they would already have the proof needed to complete a private gun purchase.

Those who don’t have such documentation could go to a licensed gun dealer or local law enforcement agency, pay a fee and get a background check. A certificate good for 30 days would be issued. A person would show the certificate when they acquire a weapon from a private seller.

Buyers of antique firearms — defined as weapons made and sold before 1899 — are would be exempt from undergoing the checks.

Pedersen radiated optimism before lunch after he agreed to add the referendum clause. He has said polls show the public backs universal background checks by a wide margin.

“I feel a pretty good amount of confidence that it works and that we can defend it at the ballot box,” he said.

Hope, a Seattle police officer, has said the bill won’t stop gun violence but may put a crimp in the ability of criminals to buy guns illegally through private transactions.

Long before the House adjourned, most lawmakers had made up their minds and were ready to vote.

“We have to do something. If this is all we can do then it is a start,” said Rep. Luis Moscoso, D-Mountlake Terrace.

Rep. Mike Sells, D-Everett, called it a “pretty modest proposal to try to keep guns out of the hands of felons.”

Focusing on background checks is too narrow an approach, said Rep. Dave Hayes, R-Clinton, who is a Snohomish County sheriff’s detective.

He said he wanted the state to do a better job at preventing people with mental problems from obtaining weapons. He also said laws governing when a person can be committed for care either voluntarily and involuntarily need revision.

“I want to take a step back and take a really thoughtful approach,” he said.

Debating gun control laws is personal for another opponent, Rep. Dan Kristiansen, R-Snohomish.

He said he had an uncle murdered in Minnesota years ago and nothing in the bill would have prevented that killer from obtaining a weapon.

However, he said the bill will make it tougher in Washington for an honest person to “have that equalizer” in such a situation.

Meanwhile, backers of stronger gun control laws are ready for a potential ballot battle.

They formed Washington Alliance for Gun Responsibility last month and put veteran political tactician Christian Sinderman at the helm.

“We’d like to see something move forward,” Sinderman said as action stalled in the House. “For too long this debate has been too narrowly focused and dominated by a single special interest.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

By Nicole Winfield, Associated Press

VATICAN CITY — Jorge Bergoglio of Argentina was elected pope Wednesday and chose the name Francis, becoming the first pontiff from the Americas and the first from outside Europe in more than a millennium.

Looking stunned, Francis shyly waved to the crowd of tens of thousands of people who gathered in St. Peter’s Square, marveling that the cardinals needed to look to “the end of the earth” to find a bishop of Rome.

In choosing a 76-year-old pope, the cardinals clearly decided that they didn’t need a vigorous, young pope who would reign for decades but rather a seasoned, popular pastor who would draw followers to the faith. The cardinal electors overcame deep divisions to select the 266th pontiff in a remarkably fast, five-ballot conclave.

Francis asked for prayers for himself, and for retired Pope Benedict XVI, whose surprising resignation paved the way for the conclave that brought the first Jesuit to the papacy.

“Brothers and sisters, good evening,” Francis said to wild cheers in his first public remarks as pontiff. “You know that the work of the conclave is to give a bishop to Rome. It seems as if my brother cardinals went to find him from the end of the earth. Thank you for the welcome.”

Bergoglio had reportedly finished second in the 2005 conclave that produced Benedict — who last month became the first pope to resign in 600 years.

After announcing “Habemus Papam” — “We have a pope!” — a cardinal standing on the balcony of St. Peter’s Basilica on Wednesday revealed the identity of the new pontiff, using his Latin name.

The longtime archbishop of Buenos Aires has spent nearly his entire career at home in Argentina, overseeing churches and shoe-leather priests.

Like other Jesuit intellectuals, Bergoglio has focused on social outreach. Catholics are still buzzing over his speech last year accusing fellow church officials of hypocrisy for forgetting that Jesus Christ bathed lepers and ate with prostitutes.

Bergoglio has slowed a bit with age and is feeling the effects of having a lung removed due to infection when he was a teenager.

In a lifetime of teaching and leading priests in Latin America, which has the largest share of the world’s Catholics, Bergoglio has also shown a keen political sensibility as well as the kind of self-effacing humility that fellow cardinals value highly, according to his official biographer, Sergio Rubin.

He showed that humility on Wednesday, saying that before he blessed the crowd he wanted their prayers for him and bowed his head.

“Good night, and have a good rest,” he said before going back into the palace.

Tens of thousands of people who braved cold rain to watch the smokestack atop the Sistine Chapel jumped in joy when white smoke poured out a few minutes past 7 p.m., many shouting “Habemus Papam!” or “We have a pope!” — as the bells of St. Peter’s Basilica and churches across Rome pealed.

They cheered again when the doors to the loggia opened, and again when Bergoglio’s name was announced.

“I can’t explain how happy I am right now,” said Ben Canete, a 32-year-old Filipino, jumping up and down in excitement.

Elected on the fifth ballot, Francis was chosen in one of the fastest conclaves in years, remarkable given there was no clear front-runner going into the vote and that the church had been in turmoil following the upheaval unleashed by Pope Benedict XVI’s surprise resignation.

A winner must receive 77 votes, or two-thirds of the 115, to be named pope.

For comparison’s sake, Benedict was elected on the fourth ballot in 2005 — but he was the clear front-runner going into the vote. Pope John Paul II was elected on the eighth ballot in 1978 to become the first non-Italian pope in 455 years.

Patrizia Rizzo ran down the main boulevard to the piazza with her two children as soon as she heard the news on the car radio. “I parked the car … and dashed to the square, she said. “It’s so exciting, as Romans we had to come.”

The Vatican spokesman the Rev. Federico Lombardi said it was a “good hypothesis” that the pope would be installed next Tuesday, on the feast of St. Joseph, patron saint of the universal church.

Unlike the confusion that reigned during the 2005 conclave, the smoke this time around has been clear: black during the first two rounds of burned ballots, and then a clear white on Wednesday night — thanks to special smoke flares akin to those used in soccer matches or protests that were lit in the chapel ovens.

The Vatican on Wednesday divulged the secret recipe used: potassium perchlorate, anthracene, which is a derivative of coal tar, and sulfur for the black smoke; potassium chlorate, lactose and a pine resin for the white smoke.

The chemicals are contained in five units of a cartridge that is placed inside the stove of the Sistine Chapel. When activated, the five blocks ignite one after another for about a minute apiece, creating the steady stream of smoke that accompanies the natural smoke from the burned ballot papers.

Despite the great plumes of smoke that poured out of the chimney, neither the Sistine frescoes nor the cardinals inside the chapel suffered any smoke damage, Lombardi said.

Michael Boysen’s grandparents picked him up from prison Friday, took him to his probation officer, helped him get his identification card and held a welcome-home party for him. He paid them back, according to the King County Sheriff’s Office, by killing them.

By Christine Clarridge, Seattle Times

It was Michael Boysen’s grandparents who picked him up from prison when he was released Friday.

The elderly couple had prepared a bedroom for him in their Renton-area home. They spent most of that day driving their 26-year-old grandson around town, taking him to meet his probation officer and getting him an identification card from the Department of Licensing, according to King County Sheriff John Urquhart.

That night, they held a welcome-home party for him. They were “getting him set up to go back into society,” after he had served time for a 2012 conviction for attempted residential burglary, the sheriff said.

Boysen paid them back, Urquhart said Monday, by killing them and stealing their car.

A multistate manhunt is under way for Boysen, who is named in a warrant and who Urquhart’s investigators believe is seeking weapons and poses a significant threat to law enforcement and the community at large.

Deputies are searching for the dead couple’s vehicle, which Boysen is believed to have stolen. Urquhart said his office is working with gun dealers in hopes of keeping him from getting weapons.

Detectives learned that Boysen was conducting online searches of gun shows across the Pacific Northwest and Nevada just before or after his grandparents were slain, Urquhart said.

The bodies of Boysen’s grandparents, 82 and 80, were discovered in their home by Boysen’s mother Saturday evening, according to the sheriff’s office. Boysen is believed to have killed them sometime after the party, Urquhart said.

The King County Medical Examiner’s Office has not released their identities or the cause of death, but KING 5 reported their names as Robert and Norma Taylor.

Urquhart said they did not die by gunshot.

The sheriff said investigators learned after the slayings that Boysen — who also goes by Chad or Chadd — had discussed a plan to obtain a gun and kill family members and authority figures, potentially including law-enforcement officers and corrections officers.

Urquhart would not elaborate on how investigators learned about the threats Boysen is reported to have made, but said it was not until after the slayings that citizen sources came forward with information.

The “extreme risk” Boysen poses to the public cannot be overstated, he said.

“We need to catch this guy. We need the help of the public ’cause we have no idea where he is,” Urquhart said.

Boysen had served nine months of a 16-month sentence at the Monroe Correctional Complex after the 2012 conviction for attempted residential burglary.

Chad Lewis, a spokesman for the state Department of Corrections (DOC), said Boysen was not a problem inmate and that he had earned a minimum custody level through his compliance.

All the same, DOC considered him a high risk to reoffend nonviolently.

“We take threats very, very seriously,” Lewis said. “There was no indication that he had plans to do anything like this.”

Boysen had previously served five years at the Clallam Bay Corrections Center after he pleaded guilty to two counts of second-degree robbery, two counts of first-degree robbery and possession of stolen property.

Court documents indicate he was arrested in 2006 after his mother called police after she found prescription bottles and a robbery demand note in his room. Boysen’s sister told her mother that Boysen had confided that he and friend had robbed a pharmacy, according to the court papers.

After his arrest, Boysen told police he was addicted to OxyContin, a narcotic painkiller, court documents show.

Boysen is white, 5 feet 10 and 170 pounds. The missing car is a red 2001 Chrysler 300 with license plate 046-XXU.

Detectives are urging anyone with information about the vehicle or Boysen to call 911 immediately.

By Rick Kearns, Indian Country Today Media Network

For some indigenous people of Venezuela, President Hugo Chavez was someone they could count on and love and many indigenous Latin Americans expressed those same feelings last week.

Indigenous people in Venezuela and throughout Latin America were among the millions of people mourning the death of President Chavez of Venezuela, a man who helped change the nation’s constitution to protect indigenous rights and who returned more than 4 million acres of land to many tribes among other accomplishments.

Messages of solidarity and condolences came quickly after the news of Chavez death on Wednesday, March 5, after a two-year battle with cancer.

On that same day, the most famous indigenous leader in this hemisphere, his friend and ally, President Evo Morales of Bolivia stated, “It hurts us. We are devastated.”

“My brother in solidarity,” Morales continued in a government press release, “a revolutionary Latin American compatriot who fought for his country, for the big country of Simon Bolivar, a comrade who gave his life for the liberation of the Venezuelan people, of the people of Latin America.”

Indigenous leaders from other countries such as Ecuador and Brazil sent condolences through traditional and social media.

“I feel enormous sadness,” stated Humberto Cholango, President of the Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities of Ecuador (CONAIE in Spanish), the largest indigenous coalition in that country.

“He will live on as an example of the struggle against imperialism,” Cholango added.

Another indigenous Ecuadorean leader, Delia Caguana, President of the Indigenous Movement of Chimborazo, issued a strongly worded press release through Facebook.

“Our deepest feeling of solidarity for his family and the Venezuelan people,” Caguana stated, “for the loss of a valiant leader such as the Comandante Hugo Chavez Frias…his vocation to seek a change for the most vulnerable people of his beloved country, his clear and firm ideas of revolution deeply touched the hearts of Venezuelans, Latin Americans and even the whole world for his confrontations with and questioning of the groups in power that sought their own profits with no concern for the destruction of Pachamama (Mother Earth).”

Marcos Terena, an internationally known indigenous activist from Brazil also posted on Facebook that, “From our hearts, respect and solidarity to the people of Venezuela and the Indigenous Peoples on the death of Chavez.”

While these messages of solidarity and condolence came from various Indigenous Peoples, there were also articles and essays published by indigenous Venezuelans, also through traditional and social media.

Jayariyú Farías Montiel, editor of the award winning indigenous newspaper Wayuunaiki, published a column entitled The Indigenous People Weep for Chavez on Thursday, March 6th, recounting the history of Chavez advocacy for indigenous people starting in 1998.

“During the presidential campaign of 1998, diverse indigenous leaders exposed the situation to him, of the exclusion of the Indigenous Peoples from power, he was very moved by this,” Montiel wrote, “and he was clear in his ideals for justice and promised to change that reality.”

Montiel noted that upon reaching the presidency in 1999, Chavez named an indigenous woman, Atala Uriana, as his Minister of the Environment, “…putting her into his cabinet leaving the entire continent perplexed by this.”

His first act as president was one of inclusion, she continued, but his second act would leave a strong imprint on the country: the creation of a constituent assembly that would go on to create a new Constitution. It was in this new document that indigenous rights were protected. Article 119 of the new constitution for instance, recognizes the social, political, and economic organization of indigenous communities, as well as their cultures, languages, rights, and lands. Specifically, land rights were defined as collective, inalienable, and non-transferable.

Montiel also pointed out that “The political participation was solidified in an immediate way following the new Constitutional precepts and three indigenous representatives…initiated, along with the president a legislative path that opened the way for other laws.”

The new laws also allowed for the granting of land titles, over 12 years, of 4,472,589 acres of land to indigenous communities throughout Venezuela.

But for Kenami Padron, a Jivi member of the National Assembly, Chavez accomplishments had an emotional impact. On Facebook, Padron published a photo of her then 5-year-old cousin being held by Chavez who was wearing indigenous necklaces and smiling (at an event in the Amazonian town of Alto Orinoco in 2003).

When asked for permission to use the photo, Padron said, “yes, but I hope it will be used in a way that shows the work of love that Chavez did for the indigenous people. We will never forget the loyalty of the comandante of the Indigenous Peoples, Father of the country.”