June 2008

Former servers and dishwashers have returned to the Charlestown Street Cafe to scrub and organize the kitchen and dining room, and in one week will be ready to take your order.

Harkening back to a tradition of old, Seattle Police plan to enforce some July 4th traffic rules that will affect West Seattle residents and other celebrants who flock to the Alki and North Admiral areas hoping for a good view of fireworks.

"Increased vehicle traffic on the holiday has become a hazard for emergency resources," says Lt. Norm James of the Southwest Precinct. "Most spectators are well behaved, but the occasional large crowd disturbance does require a fast response."

So beginning at 6 p.m.

Customers are finding it more and more difficult and time consuming to wait through long lines at the post office just to buy a small book of stamps.

It's not just the holiday season that gets the rush and lines out the door anymore. But with mail and package drop-offs, mail pick-ups, package purchases and buying stamps all filtering through the same counter, the traffic at the post office can look like rush hour on I-5 on a rainy Friday afternoon.

To make life easier, Verne Valentine has run the North Admiral Post Office, 2237 California Ave.

The viaduct has stopped sinking.

Crews with the Washington State Department of Transportation found no additional settling in the structure during a quarterly inspection last week Tuesday.

Bents 93 and 94, the two pairs of columns and their cross braces between Columbia and Yesler streets, have not moved since measures taken in March, and since new foundations were completed in April.

"This is good news, but the viaduct is still vulnerable in an earthquake," said Ron Paananen, Washington State Department of Transportation Urban Corridors Office deputy director,

With a system already intact to help the people of Seattle get quick answers and services to their basic city needs such as water, power, parks, roads and public safety, the city is still finding their service not up to par to what individuals need and are looking for.

Over the years and after receiving over 10 million phone calls, thousands of e-mails, letters and visits from people looking for help in their neighborhoods and in the city, the city says it has noticed three problems customers are running into with the current service.

First, most individuals do not know w

In the popular film, "This is Spinal Tap," Michael McKean's character, David St. Hubbins considers two album cover images, one sexually tasteless, the other sexually "artistic." He then recites the now classic line, "It's such a fine line between stupid and clever."

There is also a fine line between strip tease and burlesque, and the Admiral Theater wants to take the high road with three summer performances by Burning Hearts Burlesque.

South Seattle Community College has announced the selection of Joseph Hauth as director of the Puget Sound Industrial Excellence Center at the college's Georgetown campus, located in the heart of the Duwamish manufacturing corridor in South Seattle.

In this new position, Hauth will work with partners in business, labor, government, community and education to develop new training and industry support programs, with a special focus on the Duwamish area manufacturing corridor.

The public will be asked to comment on a city proposal that would ban certain uses of "expanded" polystyrene and encourage people to use reusable shopping bags, says Seattle City Council President Richard Conlin.

The hearing will on Tuesday, July 8 at 7 p.m.

A woman regretted inviting a stranger to stay at her house after he picked up a kitchen knife and attacked a box of Fruit Loops, declaring he was a "cereal killer." She ran to the SW Precinct to report in the incident. An officer accompanied her back home and stood by while the man gathered his things and left the apartment.

A 911 caller reported hearing gunshots and then finding a dead crow.

Ballard businessman Brian Robinson grew up cheering for the Seattle Sonics and now he is fighting to keep the team from moving to Oklahoma.

Robinson started the organization Save Our Sonics the day after Clay Bennett and other Oklahoma investors purchased the team for $350 million in 2006.