September 2009

Seattle Public Schools Superintendent Maria Goodloe-Johnson will host five upcoming community coffee hours chats this month.

The informal meetings are to provide families and community members with an opportunity to discuss the issues that matter to them and their family.

The meetings are as follows:

Monday, Sept 21, 6:30 to 7:30 p.m. at Eckstein Middle School (3003 N.E. 75th St.). Interpretation services will be provided.

Wednesday, Sept. 23, 8:05 to 9:05 a.m. at Washington Middle School (2101 S. Jackson St.).

Monday, Sept. 28, 4 to 5 p.m. at Hamilton Middle School (4400 Interlake Ave. N.). Interpretation services will be provided.

Tuesday, Sept. 29, noon to 1 p.m. at Aki Kurose Middle School (3928 S. Graham St.).

Tuesday, Sept. 29, 6:50 to 8 p.m. at High Point Community Center (6920 34th Ave. S.W.) nterpretation services will be provided.

Fatima Boorman found Libby, her family's spaniel pointer mix, at the Seattle Animal Shelter between Ballard and Magnola.

Her former family became "disenfranchsed" and Animal Control found Libby living out of a car.

"We walked in and she was the only dog that was not barking," said Boorman. "She was sitting right at the front of the cage and she just stole my heart away."

Libby loves seafood, especially mussels and salmon, said Boorman. She weighs about 35 pounds.

"She is the best squirrel chaser around, she can sniff them out like a mile away," Boorman explained. "She is super protective of women, she is buddy's with the kids."

She is a really good natured dog, "With sweet sad eyes...when you look at her you just have to love her, " said Ish Manji, Boorman's sister.

When they first took Libby home she had a medical issue with ingrown eyelashes. The family took care of it and Libby really seemed to come into her own and enjoy her life after that, said her owners.

Some media outlets and Seattle voters have spread the rumor that if Mike McGinn is elected mayor, he will only use his bicycle for daily transportation. He said that's not true and wanted to set the record straight.

“Let’s put this story to rest,” said McGinn sporting a bicycle helmet with his two-wheeler at the ready with another day ahead filled with campaigning around the city.

“Even during my campaign I drive places,” said McGinn, a Greenwood resident. “Some places are too far to bike. But I do plan to bike when it makes sense. Short trips are often times faster by bike than by car. I started mainly for exercise. I discovered I really liked it, and saved money because I didn’t have to pay for parking and it's about as fast as the bus.

“But, yes, if elected, I do hope to bike as often as I can. You can just roll your bike on at a light rail stop, and also use those racks on buses. Of course there are some times you have to drive. That’s the way the city’s designed.”

McGinn also rides an electric pedal-assist bike.

A North Admiral resident was trespassed from a local tanning business after engaging the female clerk in some suspicious conversation regarding massages. He then asked if he should tan in the nude, undressed with changing-room door open, and stepped into a public hallway (only 20 feet from the windows onto California Avenue) completely naked. The concerned (yet savvy) clerk stepped outside where she could keep an eye on the cash register and called 911. The customer waited around for a few minutes, but decided to get dressed and leave before officers arrived. But they found him nearby and, after he was positively identified, told him that he was to stay away from the business.

What appeared to a routine shopping trip for one light-fingered woman turned out to be a pretty expensive one. Detained for shoplifting items worth about $80 from the Junction Bartell's, she was also found to be carrying about $130 worth of items from the nearby Safeway. But arresting officers hit the jackpot when a records check showed that she was also wanted on a $20,000 theft warrant as well as two others for $10,000 each. She quickly earned a ride downtown to the King County Jail.

On Sept. 12, SHARE removed a Level III sex offender from the Calvary Lutheran Shelter. The offender had been a member of the shelter since late August.

According to a SHARE representative, the individual was admitted to the shelter Aug. 20 after a screening process with another member of the shelter.

SHARE was made aware of the individual's status as a sex offender last Saturday, and individual and his belongings were removed the same day, according to the representative.

He said the Calvary Lutheran Shelter is working to improve their screening protocols.

SHARE does not conduct background criminal or sex offender checks on residents of its indoor shelters. Instead, members of the shelter screen prospective members.

Despite numerous requests from neighbors before the Calvary Lutheran Shelter moved into the vacant Calvary Lutheran Church building at 7002 23rd Ave. N.W., SHARE refused to conduct criminal and sex offender checks on its residents.

Officers were called to 52nd Avenue Northwest recently when citizens found a drunk man lying in their tomato patch. The combative fellow couldn't stand up or take care of himself. He was transported to Harborview.

On a recent Saturday morning, a citizen reports that he had gone to a at a gas station in the 4000 block of 3rd Avenue Northwest to wire money, when a stranger walked up and began kicking him in the legs and torso. The clerk was in the back of the store at the time and did not witness the incident.

Ever since traveling in Brazil several years ago, a local woman has been dealing with unwanted contacts (phone/mail/email) from a woman she met during the journey. Though the victim told the woman she wanted no further contact (and changed her and her husband's phone numbers) the contact continued. Earlier this year, the woman moved to Seattle, showed up at the victim's doorstep, and had to be escorted from the premises by officers when she refused to leave. The victim called 911 to report that the suspect has been in the neighborhood again.

To the Editor:

Like a lot of others I so enjoyed your article on the Coyotes.

Would you print an article on local Raccoons. I have searched the Internet but was disappointed because they didn't give the information I was searching for.

I am interested in their mating, do they mate for life, how many liters do they have and how long are the cubs in the den before they're on their own. Also, are they vicious or friendly. I know what their diet consists of. What else can you tell me?

I've befriended a nursing mother Raccoon near where I live and feed her several times a day. She's very gentle towards me and she comes right up to me to sniff my pants and shoes. I know enough not to make any sudden moves in her presence but most of all I would like to know her temperament and am I making a mistake in letting her get close to me?

I'd appreciate an answer to my questions and any other information you can give me.

Sharon Stubblefield
Federal Way

My office chair had failed me, the back support had become wobbly and finally just broke off one day. It fell to the floor with a “thwump” loud enough to scare the dog.

Frugal sort that I am, though I could not fix it, I just used the seat without the back hoping that anyone who saw it would figure that it was supposed to be that way.

Eventually the springs under the foam began to make themselves known and I had to make a move.

A friend of mine stopped by, we’ll call him Dirt.

Dirt said, “Hey…that’s not much of chair you’ve got there, pal. I know somebody who has a storage unit full of ‘em…you can take your pick…twenty bucks.”

Dirt had my attention, so I made arrangements to meet Dirt’s friend. We’ll call her Mud.

Mud rolled up the door of the storage unit and instead of a unit full of office chairs, there was a unit full of regular old household items.

Mud said, “It’s in there somewhere…maybe under the Persian rugs.”

This summer I had my first opportunity to visit Ireland.

Ireland has had a remarkable “revolution” in its society in the past 15 years as it has changed from a rather poor country without a lot of resources to a pretty prosperous member of the developed world.

Sheep raising in the past had to have been the principal activity and this hasn’t made people rich in a few centuries.

The Potato Famine caused massive starvation and outward migration in the 1850’s.

The transformation of Ireland has been due to, you guessed it, having the best educated English speaking workforce in the Common Market, if not in the World.

As a member of the Common Market, “European Union,” it has attracted many US firms that wished to sell in the EU.

In the Program for International Assessment (PISA) which is a measurement of the academic skills of 15 year olds Ireland ranked 14th.

The news for America isn’t quite so good. America has lower than the average score than 31 education systems (23 OECD countries and 8 non-OECD education systems).

Centerstage is up to something big, really big, billions-and-billions-of-stars BIG. On September 25, Centerstage Theatre premiered its new musical, Carl Sagan’s CONTACT.

This new show is overflowing with “star stuff” and is sure to launch the theater’s stellar 2009-2010 Season into the stratosphere.

Centerstage’s Managing Artistic Director Alan Bryce explains his passion and enthusiasm for this new project, “Centerstage is dedicated to bringing high quality entertainment at an affordable price to South Puget Sound, and I am determined to push the artistic limits of this fantastic theatre by creating new work for our own community and the greater theatre community at large. Carl Sagan’s mind-bending brilliance and drama will translate well to the stage, and I am thrilled that our theatre is the first to explore the theatrical potential of this new work.”

The book was adapted by Alan Bryce who will also serve as the show’s director.

Amy Engelhardt, ASCAP award-winner and member of The Bobs, is the lyricist and European Composer of the Year Peter Sipos, wrote the music.

LA-based Roni Blak will choreograph the show.