March 2008

The owners of the Manning's/Denny's building, which was designated a Seattle landmark last month, have filed suit in King County Superior Court to officially challenge the action.

BCC Mikie Ballard LLC, a development entity of The Benaroya Company, which owns the old diner and surrounding property, argue that landmark status prohibits them from making any money off their property.

The Seattle Landmarks Preservation Board voted 6-3 on Feb. 20 to designate the exterior of the old diner at 5501 15th Ave. N.W.

South King County is struggling.

Poverty, poor health, high dropout rates, lack of options for transportation and parks and trails, and little opportunity for arts and culture have challenged our economic development and fractured our cities as they, often unsuccessfully, fight to compete for grants and regional funding.

If the following statistics come as a surprise, you are not alone.

Over the past several weeks, I have presented startling facts to city councils, chambers of commerce, Rotary Clubs and other groups, with responses ranging from shock to anger a

TACOMA--Foster made history last week.

Yes, the Bulldogs have survived longer in previous Class 2A state basketball appearances. But the 2008 Foster team that took two losses for a quick exit at state was probably the last to play at the 2A level, with a move up to 3A scheduled for next year.

The Bulldogs will switch to the 3A Seamount League starting in the fall, joining such geographic rivals as Evergreen, Highline, Tyee, Mount Rainier and Kennedy.

Vonchae Richardson led the way, in mind and spirit, making clutch free throws down the stretch as the defense pitched in greatly, too.

That came after a time out called by the coach that led the Mount Rainier Rams to, though not a state championship, still a very good place after beating the Columbia River Chieftains, 53-46, in a loser-out game of the 3A WIAA state basketball tournament at Key Arena Friday.

"Our top goal was making it to state," said Richardson. "Our next goal was to get to the semifinals."

Get to semifinals?

SEATTLE - Resounding whoops and hollers reverberating through the locker room at Hec Edmundson Pavilion late Friday night trumpeted the tale of triumph for a local girls basketball team.

Mere minutes earlier, the No. 3 John F.

Idioms are important parts of speech

By Georgie Bright Kunkel

When one has lived as long as I have, idioms begin to be a great part of everyday speech. I didn't realize how much a part they are until we hired health aides to care for my husband. I am sure that our aide from Nigeria needs an interpreter to figure out what I am saying much of the time. Even I don't know the exact meaning of some of my colorful speech or where it originated. So I decided to keep a log of these interesting ways to describe things.

One of my favorites is the term discombooberated.

The Washington Legislature has passed a worthy piece of legislation that will allow grocery stores to have wine and beer tastings in their stores, something outlawed now despite the large position this state has in producing world-class wines and trend-setting beers.

The bill, which has passed the Senate, will allow the Washington State Liquor Control Board to administer a pilot project to allow 30 grocery stores to hold up to six wine or beer tastings a year, and only one each month.

We think this is a good idea, and are glad the measure passed.

I worked with him way back in 1992, when I was at the West Seattle Herald for a reporting internship that stretched to, I believe, around nine months.

Tim was always ready with a resource for me to call, or to listen and help when I got stuck on something, or to provide other helpful guidance. Most of all, though, I loved Tim's sense of humor. Sometime after I left the Herald I called him about a strange noise I was hearing at night from my Manning Street apartment. It was a low rumble that was driving me nuts (I'm pretty noise sensitive).

I worked with Tim for over 10 years and whether we were debating politics, agreeing on politics (more often than not the past eight years) or just sharing stories about our daily newspaper grind I never had an uninteresting conversation with him.

When you met Tim it was easy to understand why he was such a great reporter and such a good friend. He was always interested. No matter what the subject he was interested.

Libby and I were so sorry to hear about the death of Tim St. Clair. While we know it was not unexpected, the loss hurts no less.

I recently sustained a leg injury which prevented us from attending the memorial service last night, even though it was very close to where we live, but we wanted you to know Libby and I hold all of you in our hearts and prayers during this time.

Since we only met Tim on a few occasions, I cannot say we knew him very well.