January 2006

Indigo Fuhrman was born on December 30. As he came into this world, he brought with him a special present, 500 million stem cells to help fight the leukemia in his mother's body.

It has been a special Christmas for mother Roxanne Fuhrman with the birth of her third son. It has also been a trying time as she fights two cancers while caring for children who also have medical needs.

Doctors collected stem cells from Indigo's umbilical cord and are banking the cells for possible future use.

Crown Hill will not be sprayed with pesticide to kill gypsy moths in 2006, according to the Washington State Department of Agriculture, though the department's Plant Protection Division will propose aerial spraying for approximately 100 acres of the Madrona neighborhood.

Brad White, an Agriculture program manager, said the moths found in Crown Hill in the fall of 2005 were a cause for concern, but that another year of data would be collected before the state considered taking action.

"We're comfortable watching smaller infestations for a couple of years," White said about

In girls basketball, the Ballard Beavers went into an Arizona desert loaded with top California teams and came away with two wins out of three during the Christmas break.

They came back to town to face the cross-town rival Franklin Quakers in Rainier Valley on January 4 and suffered a 43 to 35 loss.

Ballard has a new coach in Karen Blair, who has brought with her a reputation for success at the highest levels of Washington prep basketball.

The Ballard girls are adjusting to Blair's system of basketball that earned her 255 victories, two state titles at Meadowda

I had another contretemps this week:

As we pulled into the driveway and I pushed the remote on my visor to open the garage door. I felt the car shake and on opening the door was met with a full on gale heading north toward Alki Point.

I got out and with the wind blasting me managed to grab the cluster of plastic bags full of groceries and stagger to the garage door. Yikes, the door had stopped at three feet open.

The rainy weather broke momentarily on New Years Day, and though it was breezy, Mrs. Anthony and I grabbed the dogs and went for a walk. The wind was still blowing hard, the tree tops doing aerobics and the detritrus of fallen tree branches on the trail could have been excess weight gladly shed by the big firs and alders along the way. Lest we became victimized by a hefty widowmaker, we stepped up our walk, eyes up and wary, the dogs half-trotting in appreciation.

Mark Stenberg died two days before his baby was born on New Years' Day.

Stenberg, a carpenter working at a construction site in Federal Way, was crushed by a falling wall around 9:30 a.m., on December 30, 2005.

He died at the scene despite repeated CPR attempts by his co-workers to revive him.

Stenberg, 39, lived in Kent and was employed by a sub-contractor, B & K Builders and Cranes Services of Stanwood, at the site of a new commercial building going up at 34711 11th Place South.

The city council career of Mike Park has become the closest thing to a political dynasty as ever existed in Federal Way's short history.

In a unanimous vote last Tuesday from the seven-member council, Park set a new first for the city with his second appointment to the municipal government's top position.

It's been a fun season for former enemies, now friends - Federal Way Eagles graduate Christine Kim and Decatur Gators grad Ashley Cavalieri. They are currently sophomores on the Highline Community College Thunderbirds roster this basketball season.

Has it been fun?

"Well, yeah," said Kim, the starting point guard on the team averaging more assists than anyone else and adding a high single-digit of points per game on average.