Mayor Greg Nickels has presented scholar awards to outstanding middle school students for service to their schools and their communities.
Each student received $500 that can be used for education or donated to a charity. Criteria for selection include overcoming obstacles or meeting challenges, giving back to the community, and maintaining good academic standing.
The $500,000 development of White Center Heights Park will kick off this week as volunteers take up shovels and hammers for a seven day transformation of the undeveloped land.
Hundreds of employees from Starbucks, a major donor of financial support for this project, will join hundreds of community volunteers in creating the new park.
Volunteers and King County Parks employees will gather Friday at 8:30 a.m. to begin the makeover behind a draped fence.
The City Council voted to spend/provide $ 8.1 million for a proposal for a "no build" alternative for the Alaskan Way viaduct. This plan does not commit the city to endorse such a plan.
Because the viaduct is a state highway, state officials will have considerable and final option as to how to replace the highway.
For anyone who doesn't already know by means of a winged-heart-riding, four-armed and goggled pilot logo, we are in the time of SIFF (Seattle International Film Festival).
I know. You have heard enough about in-laws and bossy parents from Dear Abby who has exhausted the subject. The other day I heard a woman tell an in-law story that was excruciating. She had come into her husband's life-to-face a mother-in-law who was certain that in-law relationships could never work. No matter how much she tried to show her appreciation it was never accepted. There must be some way to smooth such family relationships.
There still seems to be more concern over mothers-in-law than fathers-in-law.
Are you an organ donor? I am.
Thanks to a recent King County court case; however, I'm rethinking some aspects of organ donation. My own Directive to Physicians (Living Will) allows organ donations to living persons, but does not allow organ donations for research purposes.
That's the part I have to rethink. Wouldn't medical research on "recently used" organs help all of us in the future?
As the discussions at West Seattle High School over the four period school day drag on, it appears the problem is the teachers and a large number of parents are on opposite sides of the issue.
Teachers and staff appear to be solidly on retaining the 13-year-old class schedule. More and more parents are coming forth to say the schedule should end because it is not a good one for their children. (See Rebekah Schilperoort's article on Page One.)
The reason we have local school districts in this country is so that parents may have a say on how their offspring are educated.
Incoming families to West Seattle High School are told that the four-period day allows for a greater choice of classes and greater personalization. Here is what they are not told:
The reason West Seattle High School students can take eight classes instead of six in a school year is because they are getting a shortened class. Instead of having 150 -165 hours in class, as a year-long course in a six-period day would have, West Seattle High School students get between 112 and 117 hours.
Weather warm, the beach becomes a magnet for people eager to escape the indoors. Amber Trillo photo.
When Seattle decided to brace and prepare for becoming a much larger city, it decided that more of us needed to live more closely in proximity with each other. Urban villages were to be created where mid-rise apartments and condominiums would be permited to facilitate this human density. It was a good plan then, and it is a good plan now.
But, like all plans, there needs to be some fine tuning.
