March 2010

The head of Highline's teachers union on March 10 ripped into the district's application for a federal grant that could bring up to $2 million a year to reform Chinook and Cascade Middle schools.

Highline Education Association President Stacie Hawkins termed the application "unbelievable" and "fundamentally flawed."

She charged the proposed plan was too heavily weighted toward administration and administrative support and not enough toward student needs.

She noted the application asks for $25,000 for an executive level coach and staff to manage the transformation but only $20,000 for student social and emotional support.

Hawkins also indicated the proposed reform plan puts too much of the onus on teachers to raise academic achievement.

"It just one tune to dance to-we just need to fix the teachers," Hawkins declared.

She cited generational poverty, racial tensions and gangs as among factors contributing to why Chinook and Cascade students struggle in school.

Hawkins said Highline administrators should "push back" on grant dictates from the state Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction.

Elizabeth Chen, of Federal Way, has been appointed by Gov. Chris Gregoire as the newest member of the Washington State Board for Community and Technical Colleges.

Chen has served on the Highline Community College (HCC) Board of Trustees since 1995. She was the HCC Board chair in 2001-2002 and 2006-2007.

"Elizabeth Chen's extensive experience and deep commitment to the community and technical college system will be extremely valuable to the State Board as we continue pursuing initiatives that will help more people reach higher levels of educational attainment in Washington," said Jim Bricker, SBCTC board chair.

Chen has been appointed to serve a four-year term as one of nine members of the Board, responsible for overall policy, leadership, and strategic direction of the community and technical college system. She replaces Lyle Quasim, who left the board in January.

"I have thoroughly enjoyed my many years serving Highline Community College," Chen said. "I am so grateful for this new opportunity to serve the entire community and technical college system at the statewide level."

Our state constitution guarantees to the people the right of referendum. And I-960 was enacted by the voters of Washington State to curb rampant "out-of-control spending." Like a runaway train without an engineer, our state is governing without leadership.

This is the reason so many more voters are showing up on the steps of the state Capitol Building in protest. Not only are the voters angry about spending, which has increased 31 percent since the 2003-05 budget, but also general state spending is up $7.2 billion, despite all the talk about a $9 billion shortfall.

The state is tethering on bankruptcy, and Moody's Investors Service is now listing Washington's credit rating as 'Negative' in the bond market, but Olympia cannot stop spending. And unknown to most voters is that Washington State ranks second highest in State General Tax Collections per capita (2007) as of the last U.S. Census, amounting to $1,691 per person-more than twice the national average.

Recently the city of Burien has contemplated the use of the Shoreline Management Policy in acquiring use of waterfront properties along Lake Burien and the Puget Sound in Burien.

This action is simply a variation of the increased flagrant use of eminent domain, local and nationally, recently exercised in Burien forcing Bartell's and Mealmakers removal for the Burien Town Square project, (In retrospect they could have remained since the project was never finished.)

Historically, eminent domain was just used when the developing nation needed access for a bridge or railroad, but now it has morphed into something more heinous where, if the state deems a property more valuable for i.e. more tax revenue. they in sense seize it thru eminent domain-- Kelo vs. New London.

This runs completely contrary to the once basic constitutional right of private property, where often the land sought for by the state has been owned and maintained well for generations. There hasn't been a ''blight," which is another excuse that cities use to confiscate personal property.

The SMP is entirely a property rights issue, and its enactment would have catastrophic implications.

A frank, sometimes disturbing, demonstration about kidney disease was presented in Linda Bothel’s health class at West Seattle High School Thursday, March 11, to coincide with Word Kidney Day. Dr. Eric Anderson and colleague Dr. Kim Muczynski with the UW Department of Medicine Division of Kidney Diseases and Hypertension showed the class a small dialysis machine that separated urine from blood. Muczynski dissected a pig's kidney.

Cow blood circulated and filtered through an organized bundle of narrow thread-thin tubes stuffed inside a clear glass cylinder that allowed urine to exit the machine while the detoxed blood continued to flow.

Students’ interest escalated when Anthony Pritchard was introduced. They seemed to relate to the easy-going 29 year-old in jeans. He spoke of his ordeal with kidney disease.

“I lost sight in one eye when I was 18,” said Pritchard, from Auburn, who works full time on cars. “I had no appetite and lost weight. I went to a smaller hospital for a blood test. My blood pressure was 195/155.” Normal is 120/80.

“I was rushed to Children’s Hospital.”

ArtsWest presents Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Tell Me on a Sunday, opening April 28 and running through May 23. This rarely-produced musical from Andrew Lloyd Webber (Phantom of the Opera, Evita, Jesus Christ Superstar) is a one-woman musical tour-de-force, with lyrics by Academy Award winner Don Black and Tony winner Richard Maltby, Jr.

Tell Me on a Sunday compiles the best songs of Lloyd Webber in a musical story about a young designer named Emma (played by Danielle Barnum), and her search for love. By turns wry, sly, and very funny, dozens of Lloyd Webber’s hit songs take us through Emma’s romantic misadventures as they lead her from New York to Beverly Hills and back again. She starts out hopeful, innocent, and dependent, but as her journey unfolds she learns that power emanates not from the counsel of others, but from her own instincts. Co-Director Christopher Zinovitch (Bat Boy: the Musical, History Boys, I Am My Own Wife) emphasizes that “This show is one of Lloyd Webber’s gems. Tell Me on a Sunday really focuses on this woman’s journey and the complex emotions she experiences. Emma’s self-awakening in the end is a beautiful thing to watch.”

The West Seattle Chamber of Commerce is pleased to announce the winners for Business of the Year, Community Hero and Westsider of the Year awards.

Each year, the Chamber recognizes one business which best exemplifies West Seattle's high standards of excellence. Five finalists rose to the top, and the award for the 2009 West Seattle Business of the Year goes to the West Seattle Blog. Runners up included the West Seattle Farmers Market, Visiting Angels, Ventana Construction, and Alki Kayak Tours. The West Seattle Blog receives this honor for their commitment to covering West Seattle news in an innovative way, 24-hours-a-day, seven-days-a-week. The West Seattle Blog connects our community and is recognized as an industry leader in both journalism and blogging. They'll keep good company with past winners Elliott Bay Brewery & Pub (2008), Tom's Automotive Service (2007), and Avalon Glassworks (2006).

Elephant management staff at Woodland Park Zoo and a visiting veterinarian performed an artificial insemination procedure on Chai, the zoo’s 31-year-old Asian elephant, this week.

The procedure was carried out at the recommendation of the Elephant Taxon Advisory Group of the Association of Zoos & Aquariums with the assistance of Dr. Dennis Schmitt, an expert in elephant medical and reproductive management and the reproductive advisor for that group.

“This insemination comes at the recommendation of the world’s leading experts on elephant health and breeding and is a continuation of Woodland Park Zoo’s longstanding commitment to preserving this endangered species,” Dr. Nancy Hawkes, the zoo’s general curator, said in a Woodland Park Zoo press release.

The semen donor was a 12-year-old bull at Albuquerque Biological Park.

“We’re very excited about the prospect of Chai becoming a mom again and hopeful that she has conceived," Hawkes said in the press release. "The sperm in the semen sample were healthy and robust, and we know the timing couldn’t have been better."

In a move that could result in a more business-friendly permitting process, SeaTac lawmakers directed Interim City Manager Todd Cutts on March 9 to develop options to combine the planning, public works and economic development departments as well as the facilities division.

Council members are also set to rescind March 23 a moratorium on permits in the city center planning area across from the airport light-rail station.

The moratorium would have been repealed on March 9, but ex-Mayor Ralph Shape asked that the decision be postponed. He said SeaTac's planning commission and zoning ad hoc zoning committee should study it first.

Deputy Mayor Gene Fisher indicated that the council members discussed the changes at a weekend retreat.

Fisher said the city needs to change its image by streamlining permit customer service for businesses.

The council ran into a torrent of criticism from business people after condemning a surface parking lot across from the light rail station.

The action was later rescinded.

Crown Hill's Small Faces Child Development Center and the Phinney Neighborhood Center could receive tax relief if a bill passed by the Washington State Senate March 10 becomes law.

Senate Bill 6855 provides a property tax exemption to neighborhood community centers that are housed in a building that was determined to be no longer needed by school districts and is now owned by nonprofit organizations and used to deliver coordinated services for community members, according to a Senate Democrats press release.

The measure also applies the leasehold excise tax to the rental property within these community centers, making the measure revenue positive, according to the press release.

Sen. Jeanne Kohl-Welles from the 36th District is the bill's cosponsor. The bill will help organizations that provide vital services and relief to communities with only positive results on the state's budget, she said in the press release.

“Our focus this session has been on plugging our budget hole in a way that least harms our communities and our families," Kohl-Welles said in the press release.