Ban Damage: WA More Ban Damage

Armed man gets 20 days for threatening pregnant smoker
August 9, 2013
By CALEB HUTTON
BELLINGHAM – A Sudden Valley man must serve 20 days of jail time for threatening a pregnant woman because she was smoking a cigarette.
Justin Dain Palmer, 25, pulled over his blue Dodge pickup truck to confront the smoking woman around noon Sept. 12, 2012, while she walked on the sidewalk in the 700 block of East Holly Street.
Through the open passenger window, Palmer yelled something to the effect of, “Who the heck smokes when they’re pregnant?”
“Obviously,” the woman replied, “I do.” She was eight months pregnant at the time.
In the heated exchange that followed, he called the woman a “white trash” prostitute, and told her she “better put the smoke out now,” according to charging documents filed in Whatcom County Superior Court.
She ignored him and kept walking. Then, the woman told police, Palmer pulled out a handgun and pointed it at her from a distance of about 10 feet. He drove off when the light turned green.
Minutes later officers pulled over the Dodge truck. They found two Glock semiautomatic .45-caliber handguns in the center console of the truck. Palmer admitted to a confrontation but denied pulling out a gun. He was arrested.
Prosecutors dropped a charge of second-degree assault with a deadly weapon in a plea bargain. Instead, Palmer pleaded guilty to felony harassment Thursday, Aug. 8.
At the sentencing hearing before Superior Court Judge Ira Uhrig, Palmer apologized for his conduct. He can serve his 20 days of time in alternative jail programs. Because the crime is a felony, he must surrender any guns he owns or else faces more charges.
The woman did not show up to the courtroom for his sentencing. She gave birth to the child, a boy, in October.

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Cigarette Smuggling Makes Nanny State Taxes Go Up in Smoke
Prohibition is creating a tobacco black market in Washington state.

July 20, 2013
Shelby Sebens

The state of Washington has a smuggling problem, exacerbated by a large tax gap with its neighbors.

The state’s tax on cigarettes is $3.02 a pack, compared to $1.18 in Oregon and 57 cents in Idaho. In the border cities of Washington, the ease of hopping the state line for cheaper smokes is just too tempting for some.

Washington’s Department of Revenue estimates the state lost about $376 million in tax revenue in 2012 to cigarette tax evasion. An estimated 35 percent of the cigarettes in Washington are contraband.

So who is doing it and how are they getting away with it?

Take Spokane, where officers of the Washington State Liquor Control Board recently busted two shops for selling cigarettes without the Washington tax stamp.

Lt. Rod Mittman of the liquor board’s enforcement division explained to Northwest Watchdog the process used by two stores that recently got caught selling smuggled cigarettes.

Step 1: Drive 20 miles to Idaho

Step 2: Buy 444 packs of cigarettes (the number of cigarette cartons confiscated by liquor control board officers)

Step 3: Remove Idaho state tax stamp

Step 4: Sell cigarettes tax free, in the open, as if nothing were amiss (“It was all out in the open,” Mittman said)

Step 5: This step depends on the luck of the store: you either get away with it or you don’t.
In the case of Bongs Grocery and Deli and the Super C Store, a citizen complained, leading to an investigation and criminal citation and confiscation of the smuggled cigarettes. Stores that smuggle cigarettes also risk losing their administrative license to sell tobacco, Mittman said.

Representatives from Bongs and Super C could not be reached for comment.

High cigarette taxes, intended to discourage the unhealthy habit and raise state revenue, have created a black market for cigarette sales across the country — from people sneaking cartons from states with lower taxes to a crime-plagued industry fueled by an influx of international cigarettes costing as little as 20 cents per pack.

A study by the Mackinac Center for Public Policy in January found cigarette taxes in some parts of the country are so high they create a “prohibition by price,” which has led to a spike in smuggling-related criminal activity. Mackinac found the black market grows as taxes rise.

New York had the highest number of smuggled cigarettes in 2011 — about 61 percent of the total market. New York also has the nation’s highest state cigarette tax at $4.35 per pack, plus another $1.50 levied in New York City.

In Washington, the smuggling is running faster than enforcement officers can keep up.

“There’s more out there than we find,” Mittman said.

When asked if Washignton should lower its tax, Mittman said, “the disparity of the taxes adds to the problem.” But he added it would help if Oregon and Idaho raised their taxes because he doesn’t see Washington moving toward a decrease.

Oregon lawmakers considered legislation that would have raised the tax anywhere from 10 cents to $1 a pack but it failed as part of a larger revenue bill that Republicans andDemocrats couldn’t agree upon.

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Artists bid farewell to a seedy city landmark

September 15, 2007
By Haley Edwards, Seattle Times staff reporter

The Bridge Motel, that iconic, seedy little roadhouse off Aurora in Fremont — whose red-lettered sign, M-O-T-E-L, has stood sentinel over Seattle’s north end for 53 years — will be torn down next week to make way for a row of new townhouses.

Some can’t wait for the paint-blistered eyesore — home of drugs, murder and ladies of the night — to go the way of the Twin Tepees Restaurant, another Aurora pit stop torn down in 2001. The more nostalgic at heart lament the symbolic demise of “the Bridge.”

Tonight, a group of local artists will gather in the gutted motel to eulogize its checkered history and the five decades of guests — traveling salesman, transients and prostitutes — who’ve stayed in its rooms. Beginning at 5 p.m. and ending at midnight, the old motel will transform into a free-form gallery and performing-arts space.

Each of the empty bedrooms will feature murals, painting or sculpture, and a makeshift theater downstairs will host dance performances, music and a five-hour interpretive theater production by nearly 30 artists.

The artwork on display — everything from carpentry to ink drawings to “the cooking of weird food” — is inspired by a range of issues, said D.K. Pan, the last manager of the Bridge Motel and organizer of this event. Major themes? The “surreal and iconic” nature of the Bridge Motel, its changing role in Seattle and what its destruction suggests about the future of this city.

When the Bridge Motel opened in 1954, it served mostly as a way station for traveling salesman and a sentry for traffic entering Seattle from the north, Pan said. In recent decades, it has become a home to drug users and prostitutes, and the site of several murders.

Many artists worry that the extinction of these “funky, bizarre old spaces” portends the end of Seattle’s vital, soulful quality, said actor Ryan Mitchell, 25.

“Our performance will be fun, but it’ll also be wrought with sadness,” he said. “Seattle’s at the brink of destroying itself. It’s saying, ‘We love the art, but we hate the artists.’ All the empty space, all the affordable, accessible spaces are being turned into condos.”

Mitchell’s play will be an act of Surrealist-style protest. Expect fake blood, bags of live crickets and “intense nonsense.”

On the whole, though, neighbors of the Bridge Motel, who stand to watch their homes rise in value and their neighborhood become safer, will not mourn its destruction.

“I used to work the north end for 10 years, so I’m intimately familiar with the Bridge Motel,” said Mark Jamieson of the Seattle Police Department. “All kinds of illicit activities happened there, prostitution and drugs — it was bad.”

On a table in the motel’s old foyer, Pan has gathered a stack of historical photographs of the Bridge Motel. Underneath the rest, there’s one of a cute single-family home, built between 1910 and 1920.

“That was what was destroyed to make room for the motel,” Pan said, pointing. So it goes.

Haley Edwards: 206-464-2745 or hedwards@seattletimes.com

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Vancouver police look for ‘crash and grab’ thief

May 19, 2007
By Angelica Thornton and KATU Web Staff

VANCOUVER, Wash. – Police in Vancouver, Washington are looking for a suspect who rammed his vehicle into at least two businesses early Friday morning.

The driver then hopped out of the vehicle and with face covered, made off with cigarettes from a convenience store and laptop computers for another business.

Both businesses suffered extensive physical damage from the impacts.

The first business, an S & S convenience store, was hit about 5 a.m. The incident was caught by the store’s video security system.

The suspect could be seen stuffing cartons of cigarettes into a recycle bin and then tossing the bin into the back of his vehicle before driving away. No other items were taken.

Just 20 minutes later, the thief struck again at a computer store a mile away from the first location.

The owner says 18 laptop computers were stolen, worth about $4,500 in all. He says the damage to his business will probably cost even more to repair.

“I’ll have to go into my savings, use credit cards to replace it that I hadn’t planned on using, so it makes it harder for me to replace it,” computer store owner Ken Huckaby says. “The insurance company is not going to reimburse me for everything.”

The thief was again caught on security video at the computer store.

Vancouver police were able to get a license plate from the vehicle and they’re following several leads, but still want people with information to call them.

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Nightclub bouncers glassed by smoking patrons
February 6, 2007

Bouncers at a Northbridge nightclub were glassed by patrons at the weekend, with one of the victims needing surgery to remove a 3cm piece of glass from his neck.

Police are calling for witnesses to the incident at the Church Nightclub about 5am on Sunday.

This morning Det-Sgt Greg Balfour said three crowd controllers and a lighting technician were wounded after a group of patrons were told not to smoke in the nightclub.

“It was a mob situation and I can only describe the attack as gutless and violent,” Det-Sgt Balfour said.

Police are calling for witnesses to the attack, saying they want to talk to four men of interest who were captured leaving the nightclub on security cameras.

Video: Have you seen these men? Click here

Security guard Mathew Gordon said he was set upon by between four and 10 men when he asked a nightclub patron to stop smoking.

Mr Gordon said he was punched in the face and slashed with glass in the back of the head and face, just missing his left eye.

“I was just doing my job, I was just doing what I was employed to do,” he said.

Mr Gordon said there were not enough crowd controllers at the venue and called for harsher penalties for people who assault bouncers, similar to those that apply for assaults on police officers.

Mr Gordon received seven stitches to a large gash above his left eye and 10 stitches to two large wounds in the back of his head.

He vowed to never work in the nightclub industry again.

His brother Glenn Gordon, who also worked at the club, said he was shocked by the ferocity of the attack.

When he went to help his brother he was punched and glassed in the back of the head and neck, with a 3cm piece of glass narrowly missing a main artery in his neck.

“It was savage and all over a simple cigarette,” he said.

“I got bottled in the head and neck and I got severely punched in the face. I had to have an operation to remove three pieces of glass from my neck that were near my main artery.

“It was cowardly that people would turn around and do this just because you asked them to leave a venue.”

Police are looking for four men who they allege were involved in the incident.

CCTV surveillance footage of the men leaving the premises has been released and police are asking for the public’s help to identify the men.

Anyone with information should call Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000.

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Smoking ban has some businesses doing a slow burn

January 03, 2007
KIMBERLY JACOBSON

Anchor Inn Tavern owner Jim Dunlap has been losing about $2,000 a month because people aren’t coming to his bar.

Customers used to be able to come in and have a smoke and a beer. But after smoking was banned in virtually all public and work places last year, Dunlap hasn’t seen as many customers.

“They don’t like it and want it reversed,” he said.

Adding a roof and heaters in the outside beer garden hasn’t helped either.

“If they can’t smoke inside they don’t come in,” he said. “It’s so discouraging now that I’m ready to sell out.”

A year ago last month, Washington voters passed Initiative 901, banning smoking in businesses, bars, restaurants, bowling alleys, non-tribal casinos, private clubs, reception areas and 75 percent of hotel rooms.

Smoking is also restricted 25 feet from all doorways, windows and air intakes.

Voters reacted to the effects of second-hand smoke on employees and customers and banned smoking to protect the health and welfare of all citizens.

There were some complaints early on here, but all establishments are now in compliance with the ban.

Some establishments have been hurt by the ban, losing customers and money to places that still allow smoking. Other businesses are seeing an increase in customers and positive feedback.

For Dunlap, the ban has hurt.

“All they’re doing is driving everybody right to the tribal casinos,” he said.

Dunlap said he’s losing money because people don’t come to the now non-smoking bar but also because when they do, they often don’t spend as much time as they used to.

“Not only do I lose money from them not coming, I lose money on them sitting there not playing pool,” he said.

Dunlap said he met with Rep. Dave Quall to discuss the initiative. He said Quall listened but there’s not much the representative can do.

“I don’t feel the people really had the right to tell me how to run by business,” he said.

Elks secretary Roger Buck said the Anacortes club’s gambling tab is down about 25 percent and sales for alcohol are down as well.

“It hurt us,” he said.

Some people no longer come in because they can’t smoke and others have mentioned not paying their dues because of the ban.

“The majority of people wished that we would change, that the law was changed back to the way it was,” Buck said.

So far, the club hasn’t been making up for the lost revenue.

“We don’t have any way to make it up. If people don’t want to come in they won’t come in,” Buck said. “Hopefully we can find another way, but we haven’t so far, to get the money back we’re losing.”

All the Elks lodges in the state are now non-smoking and he said about 80 percent of them have seen a dip in business.

“Right now we’re just trying to do the best we can with what we got to work with. I know business is down quite a bit,” he said.

Buck said a couple members have come in and said it is nice to not smell the smoke. But he said they usually only come for one drink and leave.

“They’re happy but they don’t spend any money,” he said.

Other businesses haven’t seen a change since the ban went into effect.

“It hasn’t affected us a lot, if anything we’ve been a bit busier,” said Dave Yoder, Brown Lantern Ale House co-owner. “It’s really been nothing but positive.”

Smokers still frequent the business. They just go outside now.

Non-smoking customers have commented they can listen to bands and hang out without having to endure a cloud of smoke, Yoder said. Plus, employees are happy not to go home smelling like smoke anymore.

“It’s created a new customer base,” he said.

If, as a business, they decided to go non-smoking, Yoder said they would have probably met a lot of resistance. Having the ban state-wide makes it easier.

“We’re all in this boat together,” he said.

Before the ban the Brown Lantern allowed smoking after 9 p.m. in the bar area and there was a smoking area in the back during the day.

Yoder said he was cautiously optimistic about the ban.

“I initially had my reservations. I thought it’s a bar at nighttime and it’s tradition to have smoking in a bar at nighttime,” he said.

After the ban went into effect they added umbrellas and outdoor patio heaters to the beer garden to make the area more comfortable for smokers.

“We’re not torturing them that badly,” Yoder said.

There have been a few issues with summer tourists lighting up because they don’t know about the ban, but otherwise, he said, it’s been a positive change.

Since the ban went into effect, several businesses in Anacortes have received complaints. Tobacco Prevention County Coordinator Carol Hawk said all establishments are now in compliance.

The majority of the complaints were in the first part of the year, just after the ban went into effect.

Heatherwood Apartments received two complaints for smoking within 25 feet; Rockfish Grill received two complaints for patrons smoking; Island Adventures received two complaints, one for patrons smoking and the other for smoking within 25 feet; San Juan Lanes received two complaints for smoking within 25 feet; Randy’s Pier 61 received four complaints, two for smoking within 25 feet and two for patrons smoking; the Corner Bar and Grill received one complaint of patrons smoking; the Brown Lantern received two complaints of patrons smoking; the Anchor Inn Tavern received six complaints, four for patrons smoking and two for employees smoking; the Elks Club received two complaints for patrons smoking; and the Eagles Club received 11 complaints, all for patrons smoking.

Washington was the 10th state in the nation to implement a more comprehensive smoking law when it passed the ban In November 2005.

The intent of the initiative was to recognize that exposure to second-hand smoke is known to cause diseases such as cancer, asthma and heart disease; citizens are often exposed to second-hand smoke in the workplace and can develop diseases as a result of such exposure; and to protect the health and welfare of all citizens in public places and work places.

The Skagit County Tobacco Control Program is continuing to enforce the law by providing a complaint line that takes reports on violations and answers inquiries.

For the first violation, the business is called about the complaint and receives educational materials. For the second violation, the business is visited and inspected for violations. After a third violation, the business receives a fine from the health department for being out of compliance with the law.

For more information or to report a violation, call (360) 856-7384 or visit www.secondhandsmokesyou.com.