May 2010

Linfield College senior and Ballard High School graduate Lily Niland has been selected for a Fulbright scholarship to conduct original linguistics research in Peru.

“I want to see how Japanese residents in Peru use Spanish and how the two languages intersect,” Niland, who majored in intercultural communication and minored in Spanish and Japanese, said in a press release.

She wants to blend her passion for both languages in her research and looked for a site where people speak both languages. Peru’s large population of ethnically Japanese residents makes it ideal.

The Ballard native hopes to get a better understanding of attitudes about the use of Japanese and to examine how the language mixture of Japanese residents compares to that of earlier generations.

Niland’s love of language began when she tutored ESL students at Ballard High School.

“I taught them how to do algebra in English, and they taught me how to dance in Spanish,” she said.

Niland said she now lives with varying degrees of “Spanglanese."

Woodland Park Zoo euthanized a 4-year-old, female ostrich last week.

The ostrich’s leg was critically injured during a diagnostic medical procedure to treat a chronic fungal infection. The bird was medically treated for pain with anti-inflammatory medications and monitored closely for an observation period of 24 hours. Necropsy findings confirmed a pelvic bone fracture.

Additionally, contributing causes for this bird’s overall poor condition included life-threatening complications associated with a systemic infection of the reproductive tract. The concurrent infection had compromised this bird’s overall state of health at the time of the leg injury.

The ostrich could no longer stand or care for herself without pain.

“She would not have been able to live a quality life with one functional leg, so we made the humane decision to euthanize her,” a Woodland Park Zoo employee said in a press release.

The skeleton of the ostrich has been donated to The Burke Museum for educational purposes through a research collaboration between Woodland Park Zoo and the University of Washington.

The West Seattle Herald has received updated confirmation from Amanda Knox's father, Curt, and step-father, Chris Mellas, who each told us that reports are untrue from the British newspaper, the Telegraph, as well as announcements made by major Seattle TV stations, that Amanda Knox and her family have been "shopping around" for a lucrative TV interview deal.

Knox is the West Seattle, UW foreign exchange student currently serving a 26-year prison term in Italy for the murder of her college roommate there in Perugia, Meredith Kercher.

The West Seattle Herald reported May 16 that, according to Mellas, the Nick Pisa article that appeared in a British newspaper about the TV interview was not accurate. Since our report, two or more major news outlets in Seattle have a also reported that Amanda Knox was to give a paid TV interview. Because this story persisted, we checked back with Mellas, and Amanda's father, Curt Knox.

Curt Knox's statement to the West Seattle Herald is consistent with Mellas, who confirmed our May 16 report that the interview story was untrue.

Seamount League co-champion Mount Rainier tuned up for Class 3A West Central District play with a 5-2 nonleague girls softball win at Fife on Tuesday, May 11.

Mount Rainier split a home and home series with John F.Kennedy to finish in a 15-1 tie with the Lancers in league play and improved to 16-4 overall with the win against the Trojans.

It was an important game for staying sharp before district action.

"We definitely needed the seven innings," said Ram head coach Javid Shoemaker. "There are little things to improve on. We'll try some different things while we wait for the district seedings."

Mount Rainier struck early with single run innings for an early lead. in the first inning, a two-out infield error placed a runner on base for the Rams. Amanda Hopkins followed with a long single to put Mount Rainier on top, 1-0.

With one out in the second inning, Sunny Dorhofer singled to right field before stealing second base. Tristan Yong's one-baser then chased the second run home.

Basic elements provided the proper chemistry in a Thomas Jefferson 8-1 defeat of Emerald Ridge in opening game play of the SPSL 4A girls fastpitch tournament on Thursday, May 13.

"This was a great game for us," said Raider head coach Chad Fahnlander. "Their pitcher was good until she lost a little of her stuff. Our good defense, pitching and timely hitting stacked up well."

Defense was embodied by the play of fleet center fielder Lexi Goranson. In the fourth inning, Goranson completed a fine, running catch of a deeply hit ball that first appeared to be on its way over her head.

Pitching came in the form of freshman Katie Jackson's mound mastery most of the way. Jackson gave up only three hits with four strikeouts and two walks. The Jaguars got their only run in the fifth inning on a walk, sacrifice bunt, wild pitch and sacrifice fly sequence.

Otherwise, Jackson's variety of pitches, including a challenging changeup, held Emerald Ridge off the scoreboard.

"I felt good and was on my game," Jackson related. "It was nice to have good weather because it helps our spirits. My defense, especially Lexi, did a good job, and we hit the ball."

Thomas Jefferson showed its positive preparedness for the West Central District tournament by blitzing its two foes in similar five inning blowouts for the No. 4 seed out of the SPSL 4A tournament on Friday, May 14.

After losing four consecutive games to end the regular season, Jefferson needed to regroup and regain its focus.

"We had a heart to heart talk on Wednesday (before the tournament)," related Raider head coach Chad Fahnlander. "We talked about getting back to doing things the right way and about tradition and they took it to heart. We talked about being altruistic and and not selfish."

Jefferson then proceeded to win three out of four games after the Friday tournament sweep.

Although the temperature was high in dry and sunny conditions at the Kent Service Club Ballfields, it paled in the face of the heat generated by the Raiders' almost machinelike destruction of Kentwood and Kentridge.

Kentwood was the first to feel the Raider wrath on Friday following a 1-1 Jefferson day on Thursday.

The winners in prize drawing for the new Grocery Outlet in SODO have been chosen. The drawing took place during the first week of the grand opening of the store.

Prizes were awarded this past Saturday at 1:30 PM at the Grocery Outlet store, 1702 4th Ave. S.
The winners from left to right are as follows:

Wendy Rugwell, West Seattle Resident, Bill Grosso, Pattie Kerrigan, Masud Popal, Manager, William Brown, and Marcia Rainey.
The prizes included 40' Flat Screen TV, (two) $50 per month awards for groceries at Grocery Outlet (one year), two bikes, and a Wii System.

The much loved and somewhat quirky Trader Joe's grocery store is coming to West Seattle. The new location will be in the former Huling Brothers (briefly Gee Automotive) Buick location at 4545 Fauntleroy Way S.W. according to the Seattle Department of Planning and Development website showing permit status. You can see the construction permit here http://web1.seattle.gov/DPD/permitstatus/Project.aspx?id=6231775

The permit states "Interior remodel and some minor exterior improvements to existing commercial building for new Trade Joe's grocery store."

While no official comment from the company has been offered, when the West Seattle Herald spoke to a team member at the Burien location
we were told, "It's all done. The papers have been signed and they will start working on it as soon as they can."

The chain is a specialty grocery store and currently has 340 stores. It is privately held. They are headquartered in Monrovia California. Roughly half of its stores are in California, with the largest number in Southern California. Trader Joes can also be found in 24 other states and Washington, D.C.

30 years ago Stephanie Trinneer and her family lived on the Toutle River in 1980 when the eruption of Mt. St. Helen's happened.
Their home was destroyed by the lahar (a cascade of mud and ash) that came down the river after the eruption. No one was hurt, but it was a life-changing event. As a young girl she was a talented cartoonist and chose to document her experience in the form of a "comic book" fully written and lllustrated by her. She shares that document with WestSeattleHerald.com readers in her composition called
Rumblings- A Kids Eye View of the Mt. St. Helens Eruption.

Note: The file is 5.4 megabytes and may take time to download on slower connections.

The volcano's May 18, 1980, eruption took the lives of 57 people. The force of the blast flattened buildings and vegetation over 230 square miles, and launched mud and ash flows that choked the Toutle and other rivers and streams with an estimated one-third of a cubic mile of uncompacted ash.

Saturday evening, officers investigated a disturbance at Alki, in which two intoxicated males were trying to pick fights with beach goers. The two suspects were found sitting on a log and were surrounded by opened beer cans and other unopened alcoholic beverages. A records check showed that one of the men, a SeaTac resident, was wanted on a $10,000 misdemeanor warrant for theft. He was arrested and booked into King County Jail.

A patron drank six servings of spiced rum at a Junction establishment on Saturday afternoon, mumbled that he didn't have any money with him but that he had a million dollars in the bank. Officers took him—along with the 57 cents in his pocket—to King County Jail.

Though they didn't bother to take anything, unknown persons slashed the fabric on the front seats of a car parked in the 4400 block of 45th overnight Friday.