September 2008

The mayor has appointed Michael Mann as interim director of the Office of Sustainability and Environment

Since 2003 Mann has served as the deputy director of the Office of Policy and Management, leading the department's Transportation and Infrastructure Team.

"I have great confidence in Mike's leadership abilities and I know he has the passion to protect the climate and improve the environment," said Mayor Greg Nickels.

Mann joined the mayor's staff in 2002, serving as director of Council Relations.

The city of Burien has notified the county Boundary Review Board of that it is withdrawing its current request to annex the southern portion of the North Highline unincorporated area.

Burien officials plan to re-file an annexation request later this year after completion of a new round of negotiations with King County and the cities of SeaTac and Seattle regarding the proposed annexation boundary, said Mike Martin, Burien's city manager.

"We're withdrawing for procedural reasons, and we absolutely intend to pursue annexation," said Martin.

In May 2008, the Buri

While violent crime is down, some City Council members still get many complaints about graffiti, open-air drug markets and other crimes from citizens concerned about the safety of their neighborhoods.

So Seattle Council member Tim Burgess submitted the Safer Streets Initiative to the Public Safety, Human Services, and Education Committee for discussion.

The initiative is a series of 12 steps intended to cut down crime citywide through the coordination of the government and the private sector.

With city funds already tight, Burgess said the initiative should be

Parents in West Seattle hardly have to lift and finger to raise money for their schools through the national fundraising program Electronic Scrip Incorporated, better known as eScrip.

While fundraisers usually conjure up images of messy car washes or traveling door-to-door to solicit your neighbors, eScrip has given families an opportunity to raise money for their school or organization by simply doing what they do everyday - shopping.

With eScrip, families register a debit card, credit card, or store rewards card.

Spokane Street will be closed to eastbound traffic starting Monday, Sept. 8 - the first of a series of construction projects disrupting traffic from now until the Alaskan Way Viaduct is replaced starting in 2012.

Lower South Spokane Street, the surface road, will be closed between First Avenue South and Fifth.

That crash you might have heard just after midnight on Monday? That was the sound of a Volkswagen Beetle slamming into three cars as it rolled backwards down the steep hill at Genesee and Avalon. The driver, who had a suspended license, was passed out but later fought with officers and had to be tasered. He had meth and Ecstasy tablets in his pockets and meth, a scale, vials of an unknown liquid, and syringes in the car. Officers also found the man?s little black book of contact numbers.

Thanks to community efforts over the past spring and summer students at Pathfinder K-8 School are returning to improved facilities this week.

Pathfinder is an alternative school with a focus on Native American cultures and teaching methods that emphasize learning by doing.

Since Pathfinder began expanding from an elementary school to include grades 6, 7 and 8, facilities have been stretched thin and forced to teach the older grades in portables.

Jennifer Giomi, president of the Parent, Teacher and Student Association at Pathfinder says that the school has great

Meet Nia, a four year old Rhodesian Ridgeback, standing subserviently with her owners Sarah Hebert

and Enso Herbert Santos [age two]. We spotted them at Lincoln park picking blackberries. They were looking

for the best ones, except Nia was looking and sniffing, then nibbling.

This gentle dog of solid muscle eats only the choice berries. she will sniff and if it is not good enough, she will not eat it. Sarah says " Nia is very food driven, she would eat any human food but she doesn't like mushrooms". She is purebred the product of artificial insemination.

A cell phone curse

By Marc Calhoun

I am on the 560 bus, on the way from the airport to West Seattle. A woman in front of me is talking loudly into her cell phone. After sitting through 10 minutes of non-stop chit-chat I move back a few seats to find a quiet spot. At the next stop someone boards, phone plastered against their ear, and takes a seat behind me. There's no place to escape. I'm trapped in chitter-chatter purgatory. My kingdom for a cell phone jammer.

I am in the men's room at work.

The bike and the water buffalo

By Dave Kannas

How to proceed when ideas relating to bicycles, bicyclists and my place in the grand scheme of the world appear to be in temporary short supply? 'Guess I'll dig behind the boxes in the closet of my mind, boxes that contain worn and soiled jerseys, shorts of various materials that have seen better times and cobwebs covering memories of long gone days on the bike.

The memory I pulled out kicking and screaming today happened long, long ago in a land far, far away.