September 2010

In an effort to better educate communities throughout the U.S. about smoke alarm recommendations, the nonprofit National Fire Protection Association (NFPA ) is promoting "Smoke Alarms: A Sound You Can Live With!" as the theme for this year's Fire Prevention Week campaign, October 3-9, which South King Fire & Rescue is supporting locally. NFPA has been the official sponsor of Fire Prevention Week for 88 years.

"Many homes in Des Moines and Federal Way may not have any smoke alarms, not enough smoke alarms, alarms that are too old, or alarms that are not working," says Fire Marshal Gordie Olson of South King Fire & Rescue. "We want residents to understand that working smoke alarms are needed in every home, on every level (including the basement), outside each sleeping area and inside each bedroom. And, if a smoke alarm is 10 years old or older, it needs to be replaced."

Two days after having sex, I announced to my then husband, “I’m pregnant, and it’s a girl.”

He laughed and said, “Yeah right. It took years to conceive our son.”

This is true, but nine months later our daughter was born.

I yearned for, yet simultaneously feared, having a daughter. Although I am a girl’s girl, meaning I receive most of my emotional, creative, intellectual and spiritual support from other women, I knew a relationship with a daughter would be much more complex than my relationship with my son. And, the complexity that plagued me most was around sex.

With my son, I knew my main message to him would be, “Be respectful of women and treat them kindly.” I was spared ever having to say this because he is the sweetest, gentlest, most generous boy who still, at almost 8 years of age, talks through his differences, has never used a stick or any object as a pretend gun, nor been aggressive with anyone.

Although this reassures me that he will always treat women kindly, it brings up concerns of how the women will treat him, but that is another article.

Coming into its Sept. 28 match with the Ballard High School girls soccer team, Issaquah High School was the winner of six matches in a row. Unfortunately for the Beavers, they would not be the ones to end that streak, falling 1-0.

Issaquah's Dayna Talley scored the match's only goal in the 36th minute, and keeper Brooke Miller made sure Ballard stayed off the scoreboard.

While Issaquah improved its record to 7-1-0, the loss dropped the Beavers to 0-3-0 in KingCo and 0-6-3 overall.

Ballard has a good shot at its first KingCo win when it takes on Garfield High School at 7:30 p.m. Sept. 30 at Memorial Stadium.

Garfield is 0-1-4 this season, and the Beavers beat the Bulldogs 1-0 in their meeting last year.

FBI agent Steve Moore, a Los Angeles resident, told the West Seattle Herald he was fired Tuesday after refusing to stop speaking out in support of Amanda Knox on national television and radio. He was deputy director of Public Safety at Pepperdine University in Malibu, California. His supervisors were concerned that he was endangering students in Pepperdine's Florence, Italy program.

Moore believes West Seattle UW student Amanda Knox was falsely accused and convicted of the murder of her college roommate Meredith Kercher Nov. 1, 2007 and feels his background in forensics and murder investigations backs up his claim.

The West Seattle Herald reported on Moore's recent trip to Seattle here:

http://www.westseattleherald.com/2010/09/10/news/former-fbi-agent-and-a…-

UPDATE:

By Richard Conlin, Seattle City Council

Seattle needs a new permanent tree protection ordinance that includes incentives for property owners to preserve existing trees and plant and maintain new ones. Most importantly, we must start thinking of trees as infrastructure that provides specific, tangible benefits in addition to being a critical part of our urban ecosystem.

Protecting existing trees and planting new ones is important but not sufficient to create the urban forest that the Emerald City should have.

In response to the Seattle City Council’s request for a comprehensive approach to protecting Seattle’s trees, the Department of Planning and Development has proposed draft tree regulations.

The council has just begun its review of these proposals, and we do not expect to receive formal legislation until 2011. When legislation is submitted, there will be a public hearing and opportunity to comment.

The Neighborhood Farmers Market Alliance is looking for public input to improve the Phinney Farmers Market, which ends its 2010 run Oct. 1.

The alliance surveyed more than 200 shoppers at the Phinney Farmers Market Sept. 24 to find out how they can improve the market shopping experience and create a healthier market.

The Neighborhood Farmers Market Alliance is hoping to reach more residents through an electronic survey. Click here to take the survey.

The Phinney Farmers Market is held in the lower parking lot of the Phinney Neighborhood Center, located at Northwest 67th Street and Phinney Avenue North. Its final day of operation in 2010 is from 3 p.m. to 7 p.m. Oct. 1. It will open again in the spring.

Over 20 captains of West Seattle blockwatches gathered at the Seattle Police Department Southwest precinct to discuss outreach efforts to revitalize and create new watches and welcome new precinct commander Cpt. Steve Paulsen back to the area.

Blockwatch Meeting Minutes for 9/28/10

“I think it’s wonderful that you are doing this. This is how you get the bad guys and take care of each other,” Cpt. Paulsen said to the watch captains in attendance, their experience as captain ranging from 19 years to just a month.

“You as citizens know your neighborhood better than anyone else, even better than the police,” he added.

Discussed first was the outreach that captains have done over the summer to encourage new block watches to organize and encourage people who live in neighborhoods where they already exist to get involved.

Karen Berge, co-chair of the captains’ network, talked about how their presence at nearly every West Seattle festival over the summer expanded their Facebook membership to 164.

The West Seattle High School Counseling and Career Center Staff are presenting an information night for Juniors, Seniors and their parents called "Navigating Post-High School Education Options", Thursday Oct. 7 from 6:15 to 8:30 p.m.

The event will feature guest speakers from 2 and 4 year institutions.

On the agenda will be:

• Entrance Exams: SAT & ACT
• Financial Aid and Scholarships
• 2 yr/4 yr College & Tech School Admissions Info
• Choosing the “Right” College For You!
• Writing personal essays

The Seattle International Ataxia Awareness Day Walk n' Roll is set to happen on Saturday Oct. 2 on Alki to bring attention to this little known by debilitating disease. It is presented by The Seattle Area Ataxia Support Group.

From the National Ataxia site:
People with ataxia have problems with coordination because parts of the nervous system that control movement and balance are affected. Ataxia may affect the fingers, hands, arms, legs, body, speech, and eye movements. The word ataxia is often used to describe a symptom of incoordination which can be associated with infections, injuries, other diseases, or degenerative changes in the central nervous system. Ataxia is also used to denote a group of specific degenerative diseases of the nervous system called the hereditary and sporadic ataxias which are the National Ataxia Foundation's primary emphases.

The event will take place from 9:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m.

Teams have formed and registration is still open. You can join a team, set a goal, and raise money in support of the National Ataxia Foundation which is a 501 (c) (3) tax ID #31-0832903

The $100,000-plus Tesla electric car featured in the West Seattle Herald’s Sept. 17 issue, “Battery-powered car sparks interest on Alki” also sparked sticker shock responses from our readership expressing interest in the green environmental aspect of electric cars, but disinterest in the amount of green it takes to purchase the exotic, super-sexy sports car. And while the Tesla may be worth every penny, it is certainly beyond the reach of the average Joe, or even the above-average Joe.

We spoke with West Seattle Herald resident Jim Johnson, founder of MC Electric Vehicles, 1200 South Dearborn St., who has a showroom filled with, shall we say, less spendy electric cars than the Tesla, as well as electric motorcycles, bicycles, vans, and small utility trucks like those that quietly drift by the tiger exhibit at Woodland Park Zoo.