March 2006

Scott Ritter, the former United Nations weapons inspector, told a West Seattle audience federal officials knew there were no weapons of mass destruction in Iraq but went to war anyway over domestic politics.

"Our policy was never disarmament," Ritter said. "It was regime change."

With a new book he's written, Ritter spoke Friday evening to a crowd of about 80 at Barnes & Noble Booksellers in Westwood Village.

Before becoming a weapons inspector, Ritter was a U.S. Marine Corps intelligence officer and served as ballistic missile advisor to Gen.

On Thursday, Feb. 23, West Seattle lost a loved one and a special friend to thousands of people. Dorothy M. Poplawski, better known in the community as "Mrs. Dorothy," passed away from natural causes at Harborview Medical Center. She was 81.

For her memorial service Feb. 27, an estimated 70 people had filled the Hiawatha Community Center by 2 p.m. to pay their final respects to a woman who spent her entire life in West Seattle as a student, teacher and volunteer. By 3:30 p.m.

During the recent Catholic Schools Week, Holy Rosary School honored five distinguished graduates from among the nearly 5,000 grade and high school alumni.

Those chosen because of their continued involvement with the school and parish, and their exemplary life styles of faith and family were:

- Larry and Carol Corner Jergens who graduated in the early 1950's from Holy Rosary School. They were married in 1956 in Holy Rosary Church. They have been active members in the parish and West Seattle until they moved to Mercer Island in 1966.

Medical malpractice. By a vote of 82 to 15 on Feb. 28, the House approved HB 2292. The bill takes a number of approaches to the medical malpractice issue. A medical provider's apology or statement of fault will not be admissible as evidence. A civil action for injury from health care must be commenced within three years of the act causing injury or within one year of the time that the patient discovered the injury. This cannot be more than eight years after the original act causing the injury.

Don't feel like preparing a meal after work? Buy quick prep stuff during the week and try cooking one new recipe a week, like on Sunday. Trader Jo's and QFC have pre-made meatloaf you can microwave for a few minutes. Isn't that better than grazing your way through the night on crackers, cheese, and cereal?

There are some great new organic soups available. Serve with iced tea, cheese, and blue corn chips or sprouted grain bread.

Pre-cut salads and veggies also decrease prep time. Buy organic, free range turkey burgers, add a little cheese and have a salad on the side.

Chief Sealth's girls basketball team won the state semifinal on Friday, defeating Anacortes 73-66, then went on to another victory, overcoming Issaquah 44-43. That gives Chief Sealth its second consecutive Class 3A state championship.

A surveillance video shows a violent attack against a female patron at an Alaska junction bar last week. After she rebuffed a man, he belted her in the jaw, knocking her unconscious. Another woman was also bruised in the attack as she fell to the floor. The suspect, a Kent resident, grabbed his coat and left the scene. He remains at large.

Around 11:30 on Friday, an estimated 150 West Seattle High School students stood in an Admiral-area parking lot and cheered on a fellow student and a former student in a fight.

The Sonics did not get what they wanted from Olympia this year but the backroom maneuvering will continue because there seems to be an everlasting desire of our political leaders to build stadiums for multimillionaires even when the people oppose the idea.

We find little support for extending the taxpayer's pocket to replace or upgrade a facility that was upgraded a mere decade and a year ago.

When the Seattle School District says it needs more money, we hear legislators mumble about the district getting its act together, even though the state constitution requires educa

Good news from the silver screen: the big monkey is back and better than ever.

Thanks to Peter Jackson, who seems bent on plying the dangerous waters of adapting beloved classics to his own cinematic vision (and getting away with it), "King Kong is more than a rehash, it's a treat.

When movie audiences were first introduced to the tale of a Hollywood film crew stumbling upon the giant ape in 1933 it was a happy meeting of a great pulp story and a dazzling new animation technology.

Recently I called the producers of the Oprah Show to let them know that after reading my winning essay on the 1989 Valentine Day Oprah Show, the essay including my husband Norman's World War II service, we had now prepared this story for publication and would like to present Oprah with a copy of "WWII Liberator's Life: AFS Ambulance Driver Chooses Peace."

No, I wasn't fishing for this book to be Oprah's choice for her next book selection - just for her to read the whole story.

Oprah's most recent book club selection is "Night" by Elie Wiesel.