The Columbian from Vancouver, Washington • 18

C2 THE COLUMBIAN Saturday February 21 2004 S'msiKjMsrffrgia parents we have a responsibility to protect our children and keep them safe from harm This is another way we can do Jiff Moot who founded advocacy group aftar a neighbort jrormg daughter was roped State looking at complaints from Hanford view of site procedures Erik Olds with the Energy Office of River Protection said Friday Davis also noted that Gregoire Gov Gary Locke and members of the congressional delegation have endorsed the federal efforts to speed the cleanup of decades of radioactive waste accumulated during the production of plutonium for nuclear weapons The cleanup which costs about $2 billion a year involves some 11000 workers at the site near Richland Last September a Hanford watchdog group issued a report that contended scores of Hanford workers have been exposed to toxic vapors in the past two years as the government pushes for faster and cheaper cleanup of wastes The Government Accountability Project alleges that 67 workers between January 2002 and August 2003 were exposed to toxic vapors escaping from underground tanks that hold radioactive wastes That prompted the letter from Gregoire asking for the investigation and for the Energy Department to ensure that compensation claims from Hanford employees are handled fairly Gregoire has decided to work with other Washington state agencies including Ecology and Health to determine if die GAP allegations are true There is no deadline for completing the renew Larson said Workers say speed of cleanup is risky By NICHOLAS GERANIOS Associated Pros writer SPOKANE The state attorney general is investigating worker complaints that the speedup of cleanup at the Hanford nuclear reservation is endangering their health Attorney General Christine Gregoire launched the probe after a letter she sent to the US Department of Energy last year was not answered spokesman Gary Larson said Friday The issues are serious enough that they need to be addressed by Larson said The Department of Energy which owns the sprawling Hanford site did not receive the letter until recently and rejects the notion that worker safety is being compromised spokesman Joe Davis said will not put any worker at risk for the sake of accelerating Davis said from Washington DC safety comes first and we take all reporting by workers of a safety issue very Davis said the Energy Department is in the process of answering the letter Also at the Energy request the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health has agreed to come in March and investigate worker concerns and provide an independent re LOUIE BAUIKOFFThe Associated Prasa Helen Harlow left the founder of the Tennis Shoe Brigade speaks Friday at a press conference In OtympU surrounded by supporters and Rep Lois McMahan ROIalla right sponsor of the ChU Protection Act of 2004 Advocates are caUng on the House Appropriations Committee to act on the measure that would Impose mandatory minimuai sentences against those who commit sex crimes against chidren Tennis Shoe (Brigade returns Tracking legislative bills LEGISIVTUREl Hanford celebrates plutonium cleanup Group pushes tougher laws for child sex offenders By SARAH LINN Aaociated Press writer OLYMPIA Supporters of a crackdown on child rapists have revived the Tennis Shoe Brigade 15 years after the scrappy group piled thousands of tennis shoes on the Capitol steps to promote tougher sex offender laws The shoes represent the innocence and vulnerability of children activists say On Friday members of the original Brigade returned to the Capitol to tout legislation to add three to 10 years to the prison terms of convicted first-time child rapists and molesters House Bill 2400 sponsored by Rep Lois McMahan R-Olal-la was recently revived after a public outcry led by talk-radio shows Backers rallied Friday to continue the pressure parents we have a responsibility to protect our children and keep them safe from harm This is another way we can do said Jeff Hines who founded an advocacy group after a young daughter was raped "Crimes against young children are often bargained away or not even said Brigade founder Helen Harlow whose young son was mutilated by an attacker touching off a crackdown on sex predators in the late 1980s is the The House measure would impose mandatory minimum Dick Van Wagenen criminal justice policy adviser for the governor If HB 2400 becomes law it could crowd prisons with 500 additional inmates by 2009 about 4900 more inmates by 2014 the equivalent of two Walla Walla state penitentiaries Van Wagenen said Legislative analysis shows the bill would cost $492 million for the 2003-2005 biennium Locke has already requested $456 million for the design and ate development of his proposed Coyote Ridge prison expansion project near Connell McMahan said not daunted by her measure's potentially hefty price tag This is good policy and our job to promote good policy" she said don't think anything too much to It wouldn't be the first hurdle bill has had to jump HB 2400 supposedly died after failing to meet a committee deadline But after receiving hundreds of phone calls and e-mails generated by House conservatives and "hot talk" radio Democrats relented and allowed a special Feb 13 hearing in the House Criminal Justice Committee Now the measure sits before the House Appropriations Committee A scaled-down version is expected to reach the House floor soon In the meantime the Tennis Shoe Brigade plans to collect tennis shoes at Western Washington SafewiQr stores and present them to House Speaker Frank Chopp D-Seattle put more pressure on an already overcrowded underfunded prison system The state corrections system is equipped to handle fewer that 15000 prison inmates but houses 16300 in its eight institutions Gov Gary Locke has asked lawmakers to approve a $81 million Department of Corrections budget increase to ease overcrowding like this add to the fiscal and economic cost particularly over the long said By SHANNON DININNY Associated Pres writer RICHLAND State and federal officials and workers at the Hanford nuclear reservation on Friday celebrated the completion of a project to stabilize and package 44 tons of plutonium from the nuclear weapons arse-naL The project was one of three critical cleanup problems at Hanford along with underground tanks containing highly radioactive waste and corroding spent fuel rods from the nuclear reactors we mark today is a real turning point in history and the cleanup said Keith Klein manager of the Energy Departments Richland office Officials from the federal Energy Department and Environmental Protection Agency Washington Department of Ecology state of Ore Davis 50 is a political science professor at Seattle Pacific University making his first bid for public office He was King County party chairman for eight years but lost a re-election bid to Pat Herbold and was trounced in a bid for stale GOP chairman Tm not going to criticize a follow Vance says I will say is that the party is united behind George campaign is low-budget low-tech as well lining up colkge students and others to canvass precincts for him believing shoe leather trumps direct mail He estimates he lias spent $30000 on the campaign ro far utterly swamped by $14 million A recent independent poll by Stuart Elway showed Davis gon and Indian tribes joined hundreds of workers at the Plutonium Finishing Plait for the celebration Beginning in 1949 the Plutonium Finishing Plant was tire last step in converting plutonium nitrate solutions into pure plutonium about the size of hockey pucks which were sent to other Energy Department sites to make nuclear weapons The final project to stabilize and package the remaining plutonium involved several tons of solid plutonium materials including small phrtoni-um-iiyected cubes used in lab tests and plutonium-laced powders The remaining material that has higher concentrations of plutonium is being stored in nearly 2250 50-pound containers until it can be turned into glass for long term storage to find with a scant 5 percent compared with 49 percent for Mur ray 27 percent fix' Nethercutt and 19 percent undecided Elway polled 405 voters by telephone Jan 27-29 margin of error is plus or minus 5 percentage points main complaint about Nethercutt is that he is part of a Congress that has allowed the deficit to balloon want my Republican Revolution he says referring to the lessguvernment lower-taxes crowd who took over Congress in 1994 including Nethercutt want spending under control" David Ammons is the APs state political writer and has covered the stutehouse since 1971 He may be reached at FO Bos 607 Olympia WA 98507 or at dammoHsOaborf Republicans have a race for Senate but hard sentences on all first-time child-sex offenders Currently a range of possible sentences For instance a first-time offender who commits first-degree child rape currently faces 7 to 10ty years in prison Under bill that convicted offender would serve at least 10 years said John Sattgast a House Republican spokesman Critics worry that increasing sex offenders' sentences would David Ammons On Politics much better shut at Murray they believe TlicyVe used the same strategy to coalesce around a single candidate for governor informally cktariiig the way for Dino Rossi to run his general ekrlion campaign while Democrat have a pitched three-way primary season fur months to come "We're not going to beat Pari ty Murray unless we unite behind one candidate early and not going to elect our first Republican governor in 20 years unless we can behind one person early says GOP state Chairman Chris Vance Party strategy Vance and the Republicans decided early on that they were tired of losing the marquee races and would try to find a single to run for governor and Senate Vance recruited every GOP luminary he could think of including some out-of-th e-box ideas like business millionaires I le got numerous rejections but eventually got two candidates he could be enthused about Rossi for governor and Nethercutt for Senate Officially Washington Republicans won't choose a challenger to take on Democratic Sen Murray until the primary in mid-September Unofficially though the GOP already has anointed Congressman George Nethercutt the who knocked off I louse Speaker Tom Foley 10 years ago That has Reed Davis chafing He is you see operating under the charming belief that voters not the party poohbahs decide such things But tire unapologctk party elders say the early informal endorsement was a crucial element of their slrat-tgy Ncthcrcull will surely blow past the litticknown Davis in September and by getting an early start he has a But left in the dust were Senate candidate Davis an eight-year chairman of the largest county organization and gubernatorial candidate Dr Federico Cruz the Tacoma-Fierce County health director and a trailblazer for Hispanic Republicans Cruz complained about the and said The party exists to support candidates not disenfranchise The party didn't flinch Eventually Cruz dropped out Davis (fives in Not Reed Davis Although becoming an official nonperson clearly galls him he also seems to get a kick out of running an campaign a sort of David-and-Golialh go into politics ft 1 I.