Everett Daily Herald, June 15, 2014 by Sound Publishing

The Daily Herald

Sunday, 06.15.2014 B3

Groups want to open 12 new charters in state By Donna Gordon Blankinship Associated Press

SEATTLE — Eleven groups announced this week they plan to apply to open 12 charter schools in Washington state. The Washington State Charter School Commission says the non-profit groups include both new and returning applicants

that want to open schools across the state. The majority of the applicants are in Western Washington, although there are school proposals expected from Sunnyside and Yakima. Most of the notices say the groups want to open schools in fall 2015, although some are looking ahead to fall 2016. The ideas range across the spectrum, from college

prep, science and math to a dual language elementary school in Yakima and a military academy in Grays Harbor. In January, the statewide charter commission and the Spokane school district approved the applications for Washington’s first eight charter schools. One is scheduled to open this fall; the others are scheduled to open in fall 2015.

Although the charter law approved in November 2012 says up to eight of the independent schools can be opened in any one year, because only one school has been approved for 2014, more schools could be approved for opening in 2015, said Joshua Halsey, executive director of the commission. The commission was happy with the variety of

organizations and programs represented in the notices, Halsey said. “We have potential applicants across the state. It is great to see these non-profit organizations demonstrate their interest in responding to student needs across many of Washington’s communities,” he said. This is the second year for the new charter application process in Washington

state. The notices due this past week are the first step in the application process. The next deadline in the process will be July 15, when formal applications to open a charter school are due. After public forums, interviews and other evaluations, The Charter School Commission plans to vote in October on which schools will be given tentative approval to open.

Higher education could Liquid meth pours into Northwest, across country be tapped for state budget By Scott Smith Associated Press

FRESNO, Calif. — In methamphetamine’s seedy underworld, traffickers are disguising the drug as a liquid to smuggle it into the United States from Mexico. Dissolved in a solution, it’s sealed in tequila bottles or plastic detergent containers to fool border agents and traffic officers. Once deep in California’s Central Valley, a national distribution hub, meth cooks convert it into crystals — the most soughtafter form on the street. Tough policing has driven the highly toxic super-labs south of the border where meth is manufactured outside the sight of U.S. law enforcement, but the smaller conversion labs are popping up domestically in neighborhoods, such as one in Fresno where a house exploded two years ago. People inside the home had sealed it tightly so the tale-tell fumes didn’t give them away. “These guys, they don’t have Ph.D.s in chemistry,” said Sgt. Matt Alexander of the Fresno County Sheriff’s Office. “They’re focused on not getting caught.” Investigators say it’s impossible to know how much liquid meth crosses the border, but agents in Central California say they have been seeing more of it in the past few years. A California Highway Patrol officer in late 2012 pulled over a 20-year-old man on I-5 who said he was headed to Oregon from Southern California and seemed nervous. The officer found 15 bottles in the trunk full of dissolved meth but labeled as Mexican tequila. The man pleaded guilty to drug trafficking and received a federal prison sentence of 46 months. Three men were indicted in late 2013 and await

trial after a drug task force found 12 gallons of liquid meth in a Fresno house along with 42 pounds of the drug ready for sale, four guns and 5,000 rounds of ammunition. Officers raided a Madera home earlier this year, finding a lab used to convert liquid meth into 176 pounds of crystals with a street value over $1 million. Nobody was arrested, but agents said the bust dealt a blow to the organization behind the lab. Mike Prado, resident agent in charge of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security Investigation’s Fresno office, said law enforcement agencies are always on the lookout for creative ways cartels smuggle meth. “We’ve become better at detecting certain things,” Prado said. “When they catch on to that, they modify their methods.” The super-labs driven south to Mexico are notoriously toxic to people and the environment, but Prado said the small conversion labs in the Central Valley are more dangerous. His agents have found them in densely populated apartment buildings and foreclosed homes in quiet neighborhoods where children play on the street. In the conversion process, cooks evaporate off the liquid and use highly combustible chemicals such as acetone to make crystals. The fumes are trapped inside. “A spark can turn this into a fireball,” Prado said. That’s what happened in 2012, when a home in a middle-class area of Fresno was blown off its foundation. The blast shot the air conditioner into a neighbor’s yard; another neighbor had to replace a roof rippled by the concussion. Two men ran from the home, and investigators said a third was seriously injured.

Central California’s interstates and proximity to Mexico make it an attractive distribution hub for cartels, officials say. John Donnelly, until recently in charge of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration’s Fresno office, said agents all over the country have tracked meth to California’s Central Valley. “We’re the source point for Seattle, Portland, Alaska and as far east as the Carolinas,” Donnelly said. Not all the meth travelling north makes its way to Central California. Two men were arrested last month in San Bernardino when investigators found a conversion lab, 206 pounds of crystal meth and 250 gallons of the liquid capable of producing 1,250 pounds of crystals. The seized drugs, which investigators suspect came from Mexico, were valued at $7.2 million. Not all liquid meth makes it across the border. Last year, a 16-year-old from Mexico was stopped at the crossing near San Diego. He volunteered to take “a big sip” to convince inspectors the liquid he had was only apple juice, not meth. The teenager began screaming in pain and died within hours. Eric L. Olson, a Latin America researcher at the Woodrow Wilson International Center in Washington, D.C., said he witnessed agents seize liquid meth disguised in soda bottles during a 2012 tour of the border crossing at Laredo, Texas. Liquid meth is just the latest innovation for transporting drugs for profit, he said. Smugglers have used tunnels, submarines, drones and once, Olson said, a 90-year-old farmer was used as a decoy. “There’s no end to the creativity to getting the drug to market when there’s demand,” he said of the turn to liquid meth.

Associated Press KENNEWICK — Community college and university officials have been told to plan for more budget cuts to balance the state’s 2015-17 budget. The Office of Financial Management is expecting the state to need at least another $1 billion in revenue to meet its needs for the next biennium. Before Gov. Jay Inslee develops his budget proposal, colleges as well as other state agency have been told to make requests that include up to 15 percent reductions, The Tri-City Herald reported. “We can’t (make cuts) based on efficiencies anymore,” said Marty Brown, executive director for the Washington State Board of Community and Technical Colleges. Asking for more cuts right after the Legislature started increasing college and university budgets is disheartening for higher education leaders. Last year, the state provided an additional $3.1 billion to the public

Taking money from the higher education system just weakens the economy. — Rick Cummins Columbia Basin College president

universities and community college system, a 12 percent increase compared with the previous biennium. “The Legislature really moved mountains to invest in higher education and we need to continue down that path,” said Chris Mulick, Washington State University’s director of state relations. College and university officials say cutting into higher education has the potential to “starve the pipeline of workers,” said Columbia Basin College President Rick Cummins. The college likely would look at cutting out programs or courses as there are few places to cut that won’t directly affect students.

“Taking money from the higher education system just weakens the economy,” he said. Officials say Washington has one of the best job growth rates in the country, but that hasn’t significantly boosted consumption, so income tax revenue isn’t keeping up. The colleges and universities, along with the other affected agencies, will be meeting with budget officials in the coming weeks to work out their budget requests. Next week the state’s next revenue forecast is due to be released. That and another one in the fall will guide the governor in his budget recommendation to the Legislature.

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