August 2008

Masters times offered

The Federal Way Masters swimming team for ages 19 and over is now offering three workout session times at the Weyerhaeuser King County Aquatic Center located at 650 SW Campus Drive in Federal Way.

Monday through Friday a 5:30-6:45 a.m. and a 7-8 p.m.session are offered, with a 6:50-7:50 a.m. session taking place Tuesdays and Thursdays. A 10:15-11:15 a.m. session is offered Monday, Wednesday and Friday.

Saturdays an 8-9 a.m. session is held at the Kenneth Jones Pool (Federal Way High School).

Members are required to join U.S.

Boating

Coast Guard Auxiliary

Ongoing

U.S. Coast Guard Auxiliary Des Moines Flotilla No. 32 regularly offers Boating Safety and Seamanship courses in the Federal Way and Des Moines areas.

They cover the full range of boating safety subjects, including federal requirements, basic piloting, marlin spike, seamanship and boat handling.

The instruction is free, although there is a nominal fee for the student text and work books.

Summer Knights IV, hosted by the Federal Way Knights Baseball organization, crowned champions in its recently held 64-team baseball tournament played at Illahee Middle School, Saghalie Middle School, Todd Beamer High School, Federal Way High School, Decatur High School, the Federal Way National complex and Steel Lake Annex.

All age groups participated in pool play to determine eight teams with the best won-loss in each category.

All eyes on the Marine Hills Fish and The Tree senior boys and what did they do?

Win.

Capping off a great night of competition in the annual gala Seattle Summer Swim League All-City meet, where the Northern and Southern Division teams clash, ommy Cunningham, Kyle Christensen, Randy Hentges and Cameron Moak swam event 72 -- the 200 free relay -- fastest, helping Marine Hills stroke to a sixth place finish Tuesday, Aug. 5.

Trophy team! The top six teams, out of 16 SSSL teams from the Northern and Southern divisions combined, get trophies from All City.

Serious crime in Des Moines decreased by 37 percent during the last two years, Police Chief Roger Baker informed city council members in a report submitted late last month.

A 23 percent reduction in "Part I Crime" was recorded in 2007, following a 14 percent drop off the previous year.

Des Moines, the only Highline community with a downtown that borders Puget Sound, also harbors the only full-service marina between Shilshole in northwest Seattle and Point Defiance in Tacoma.

And Des Moines officials are hoping that a combination of additions, upgrades and renovations planned for the marina over the next 15 years will make it the crown jewel of the Waterland community.

Major work is expected to get underway in September with a $750,000 dredging project - the first step in implementing a revised Marina Master Plan.

Adopted earlier this yea

They walk through the crowds at Tukwila's Museum of Flight like celebrities, shaking the hands of adult fans, signing autographs and greeting children lining both sides of the walkway.

But fame, even aerial acrobatics, isn't the point of what they do. The U.S. Navy Blue Angels were in town earlier this month to the thrill of thousands of all ages.

"Our mission is twofold," Lt. Frank Weisser, Angel pilot No. 7, said, while standing in the museum's hall.

"First is recruiting," Weisser explained.

Federal Way United Soccer Association captured its first - and second - national soccer titles this past week, as two local girls' soccer teams triumphed at the US National Cup finals in Virginia Beach.

The Reign '93 Purple won the Under-14 Super Group championship while the Reign '94 Purple won the title in the Under-13 Super Group.

Based on their performances, GotSoccer.com, which ranks youth soccer teams, currently ranks the '93 Reign Purple as the second best U14 team in Washington and the 20th best in the country.

The web

Here at the homestead, when the thermometer breaks 80 outside we migrate our sleeping quarters to the basement.

It is easily 10 degrees cooler there.

Because this downstairs room only gets seasonal use, we hung on to our old king size waterbed, in charred pine, complete with the goofy mirrored headboard and padded rails.

We kid ourselves that the waterbed is good for back pain, but it's mostly just frugality that has kept me from propping it up against the fence with a for sale sign on it.

This week we began to make it up with fresh linens when I fel

Hillary Clinton's book of a few years ago, "It Takes a Village," and some recent events prompt me to suggest that Senator Clinton is at least right about what is happening to our society.

While I have not read the book, I have come to believe that the title's premise is becoming more true everyday.

Daniel Moynihan's "War on Poverty" 1965 report suggested that families, in this case minorities, were becoming more fragmented, and the results of this were a major factor in the increase in poverty in America.

Much of what he predicted in the early 60's has come to