September 2008

Living with Seattle's economic downturn, with housing values and sale prices dropping significantly, rents skyrocketing, wages stagnant, jobs hard to find, consumers straining with household budgets, purchasing power down and the Consumer Price Index is more than double its predicted increase, I applaud the citizens of Seattle and their support groups for collecting petition signatures, 14,000 needed and 22,000 submitted on time, and putting this ordinance to a vote of the people.

A 20 cent charge (fee or tax) for forgetting to bring your own reusable grocery bag to the grocery, con

What a silly column on "going green" by suggesting we would just have to buy plastic bags to line our garbage containers instead of getting them for "free" from the stores. The idea of going green is to get off our plastic addiction (i.e. cover everything in plastic). How about rinsing out your garbage can every so often instead of buying or re-using plastic bags to line it? Nowadays, all of the food waste goes into our compost or the "yard waste" container. So the garbage containers are kept relatively clean and no need for a plastic liner.

for Barack Obama

As electrifying as his acceptance speech was and as personable as he seems, Barack Obama will not be the presidential candidate I will vote for.

My reason is Mr. Obama's answer to a foundational question posed by Pastor Rick Warren at the forum sponsored by Saddleback Church in California earlier this month. After prefacing his question with the fact that there have been 40 million abortions since Roe vs.

an insult

Embarking westbound over the West Seattle Bridge, traffic congestion slows the journey and provides an up-close, rolling view of the neglect and grossly negative image that the city's landscape maintenance department provides along Fauntleroy Way.

Seeing the "Welcome to West Seattle Chamber of Commerce" sign barely visible, shrouded in high grass and weeds is terrible.

Based on some media coverage of the Democratic National Convention two weeks ago, some people might have had the impression the most important story was the "angry" Clinton supporters who were not planning to back Obama. But we know from first-hand experience that these reports were blown way out of proportion.

We both attended the convention, one of us as an Obama delegate, and one of us as a Clinton delegate. We both experienced the convention and a party committed to winning this election and being united in changing our country.

Sen.

Like most cities, Seattle is made up of streets, cars, buildings, and other built structures. Yet we have made up our minds through levy voting to try to preserve some of the green spaces and waterways as open space where perhaps some wildlife and natural habitat can exist among us. Except sometimes that same wildlife can be inconvenient.

What kinds of animals survive best our open spaces and waterways? Coyotes, raccoons, crows, opossum, beavers, squirrels, and so forth. Some of the animals we?d like to preserve are herons, owls, hawks, salamanders, chorus frogs, and salmon.

In the early 1940's in Morocco women and girls were segregated in the harem and a gatekeeper kept them from going out in the world without their father or an older brother accompanying them.

Life for the females was restricted to activities such as cooking, needlework and story telling and playacting these stories in the evenings when the women were alone in their compound.

Next week the Seattle City Council will vote on new legislation that would pave the way for more sidewalk cafes in the city by simplifying the application process for businesses looking to construct outdoor seating, which, some worry, could reduce the opportunity for public input.

The sidewalk caf

Governor Christine Gregoire addressed a packed Twin Lakes Country Club during the Federal Way Chamber of Commerce's monthly membership luncheon last Wednesday, September 3. The governor took a few jabs at her opponent's attack ads, while reassuring the large group of Federal Way's business community that Washington's economy remains strong. After the governor's speech, the Chamber held a debate among the candidates for state representative positions.

A campaign to attract new businesses to Federal Way, whether by relocation, expansion or establishment of satellite offices in the city, launched September.