October 2007

King County Council members voted to re-establish a permanent gang suppression unit in the King County Sheriff's Office.

The original gang suppression unit was disbanded in 1996.

Council budget committee members also urged priority funding in the 2008 county budget for the gang suppression unit.

"Every community in King County has felt the impact of increasing gang violence, but for the White Center and North Highline neighborhoods, the reformation of the gang suppression unit has special meaning," said Councilman Dow Constantine, of West Seattle.

Co

A reminder for everyone who signed up for the national Do Not Call Registry back in 2003 when it was created: It's time to renew your spot on the list if you want to continue to stay off of telemarketers' phone lists.

Numbers are flushed after five years. About half of the 148 million numbers on the nationwide registry are due to fall off the list starting in June.

While you're renewing your phone listing, you might also want to remove your address from junk mail lists.

Mayor Greg Nickels has announced the appointment of Christopher Williams, current Seattle Parks and Recreation acting deputy superintendent, as the interim superintendent.

Williams will serve as interim superintendent until the mayor's nominee, Timothy Gallagher, is confirmed by the city council.

Betty Jean "B.J." Brooks, who has been acting superintendent since February, announced her resignation.

Williams is a 14-year veteran of Seattle Parks and Recreation. He became interim-deputy superintendent in February after the retirement of Ken Bounds.

Muralist Glenn Case restores a mural on California Avenue, just north of Edmunds Street. The mural depicts California Avenue in 1918, where streetcars of the West Seattle line branched north and the Fauntleroy line headed south along California Avenue, arriving from downtown Seattle via the Spokane Street trestle. Photo by Steve Shay.

An intoxicated father of three was apparently miffed that he had to make dinner. He went to the bedroom to complain to his wife, who was nursing their 4-month-old child. When she reiterated that she would not be making dinner that evening, dad marched back to the kitchen, picked up a package of frozen pork chops, returned to the bedroom and hurled them at his wife's head, striking her in the eye. She started to dial 911, so he jumped on top of her and held her down for several minutes. When he released her she called for help and he fled the scene.

Never mind the presence of perennial powerhouse Bishop Blanchet, nor of an unexpectedly strong O'Dea team. As far as West Seattle High School runners were concerned, it was a dual meet, and the duel was with Ingraham. Motivated to re-assert the 2006 team's Metro League Championship meet victory over the Rams, the 2007 team did just that. Wednesday's meet score shows the results: Blanchet 30, O'Dea 32, West Seattle 79, Ingraham 112.

All seven West Seattle varsity runners contributed to the outcome.

The Mariners and the Boeing Co. presented a $100,000 check to West Seattle Little League at Safeco Field last week. The money is to fix up the Bar-S Playfield on Admiral Way. Left to right are Chuck Armstrong, Mariners president and CEO; Doug Kight, a Boeing vice president; Dean McColgan, Boeing; Neelima Shah, Boeing; Rick Markbury, West Seattle Little League president; Edie Pfaff, grant writer and Little League board member; and Sofia Bauer, 8, and Aidan Kormanik, 7, West Seattle Little League players. Photo by Steve Shay.

For 25 years, West Seattle native Daniel Lilleness navigated thousands of 16-year-olds through his commercial driving school in Federal Way.

A scoreless tie on the scoreboard may look boring, but not Thursday's Federal Way vs. Decatur battle at Federal Way Memorial.

Both teams played well in the passing department and both played a physical, aggressive game.

Decatur put the pressure on at the end to try for a late winning shot, but came up empty.

"We're starting to do good things," said new Decatur head coach Christy Gross.

I was still reflecting on the lost weekend of a previous Psychic Fair when we arrived at the new Psychic Fair.

This was a place I'd been to before, having dropped Mrs. A off for some sort of herbal reason.

We walked in to see the usual assortment of interestingly dressed individuals. Barefeet, long dresses, guys with shirts open to the navel and odd looking jewelry adorning everyone.

Incense is a pre-requisite as a mood setter and, lucky for me, there was also cake and cookies.

The Mrs.