December 2010

Amanda Knox will soon spend her fourth Christmas in prison. She is serving 26 years for the murder of Meredith Kercher, her college roommate in Perugia, Italy, killed three years ago. Knox, who was raised in West Seattle, appeared in court Saturday, Dec. 11, for the second time in her appeal process.

On Saturday, Dec. 18, the prosecution will tell the jury why they believe Knox's prison term should extend to life behind bars. Also Dec. 18, civil suits brought by Ms. Kercher's family and Patrick Lumumba will be heard. Lumumba was Knox's boss at his bar, Le Chic, at the time of the murder. According to statements made during her interrogation, she implicated him in Meredith's murder. Her defense maintains she was coerced. She had no official translator or lawyer provided.

At the conclusion of the Dec. 18 hearing the judge will retire briefly and decide whether to reopen the entire investigation, or, as many observers believe, portions of it. That would bring in third-party forensics experts to reexamine evidence that helped find Knox and Rafaele Sollecito, Knox's boyfriend at the time , guilty of murder last year on Dec. 4.

The parking lot at All Star Fitness, just east of s.w. Yancy St. and 28th Ave s.w. was blocked off in anticipation of Longfellow Creek breaching its banks on Dec. 12; a result of intense rainfall.

Good move because their parking lot became Longfellow Pond.

The creek flowed over most walking bridges and continued to swell.

One house, just east of Longfellow Creek on s.w. Yancy St, had water in the yard and Daniel Williams, an employee of Nucor (metal manufacturing) said he talked to the owner and they reported about four feet of water in their basement.

Five workers from Nucor, just north of All Star Fitness’s parking lot, kept a close eye on the flood to determine whether or not it would breach s.w. Andover St.

If it did cross the road, according to Williams, they would shut down all operations and initiate an evacuation plan.

Nucor said they saw some water coming up through the drains in their facility.

Williams recalled a flood in 2007 where the water did breach Andover St and flooded Nucor.

“Everybody’s got a good memory of 2007,” Williams said.

NB I-5 right two lanes and West Seattle Bridge off-ramp are now OPEN. They were closed this morning due to water over the roadway.

A combination of equipment failure and a downed tree from the stormy weather has knocked out power for 214 residents of Normandy Park.

166 customers of City Light are in the dark due to an equipment failure and 48 are without power from a tree falling. The return of service is pending.

You can monitor the status of power outages at this page on the web: http://www.seattle.gov/light/sysstat/

New this week at area Farmers Markets around Seattle for the week of Dec. 12 including the West Seattle Farmers Market open every Sunday year round behind the Junction from 10:00 am to 2:00 pm.

The Neighborhood Farmers Market Alliance is a community-based, non-profit (501 (c) 3) organization dedicated to supporting and preserving Washington’s small family farms. The NFMA's mission is to provide effective direct sales sites for our region’s small farms, and to educate consumers about local farm products and the importance of directly supporting local farmers. The NFMA Farmers Markets are nationally recognized and include: University District, West Seattle, Columbia City, Broadway Sunday, Magnolia, Phinney, and Lake City.

Neighborhood Farmers Market Alliance Markets:
University District (UD) – Saturdays, 9 am – 2 pm, YEAR ROUND
West Seattle (WS) – Sundays, 10 am – 2 pm, YEAR ROUND
Broadway Sunday (BW) – Sundays, 11 am – 3 pm, 5/9/10 – 12/19/10

Locations, Hours, Vendor and Event Info: www.seattlefarmersmarkets.org

New this Week, new Items in italics:

Hope Lutheran Church music team serenade with community as the Christmas ships appear Dec. 11. This is their 15th year the church has supplied a band for the event.

This is the 8th year that Hope Lutheran Church featured its "Roaming Nativity Scene", this time outside the Alki Bathhouse Saturday night, Dec. 11.

The Argosy Christmas Ship™ festival is a holiday celebration that has been a Northwest tradition for 61 years. Choirs onboard sing 20-minute performances to these communities, all broadcast via state-of-the-art speaker system. Each night, through December 23rd, the Argosy Christmas Ship™ sails to different Puget Sound waterfront communities, over 45 in total. On Dec. 11 at about 9:40 p.m. they arrived in front of Alki Beach off shore from the Alki Bathhouse. Over two hundred people, many drenched, some huddled under umbrellas, lined the shore to enjoy the sights and sounds of the musical boats.

Technically, winter is still more than a week away but it feels like it settled in a while ago.  I’ve turned on the heat, the lights are on longer, and the only energy I’m conserving is my own – in part because I hate to be cold and the lack of light zaps my enthusiasm.

Thankfully, several of our most celebrated holidays fall during the darkest days of the year.  The lights, festivity, and added time with family and friends, from Thanksgiving to the New Year, make the short days pass more quickly.  It’s the time of year we think more about doing for others, and reflect on those things that matter most.

Perhaps at this time of year more than any other, little things can make a big difference.  Holiday lights make me happy.  Inflatable Santa’s and their conspicuous use of plastic do not.  Lending a hand to those who have less is rewarding.  Over-indulging isn’t.  Homemade treats and well-thought gifts warm me up from the inside out.  Mall shopping leaves me cold. 

Shop Locally

8 p.m. on Dec 6. 400 block of N 36TH ST

On 10:30 p.m an officer responded to a robbery call in Fremont at a medicinal marijuana dispensary. The surveillance cameras and the on-duty clerk revealed that the robbery occurred nearly two hours prior to the officer’s arrival and the suspects had left the scene.
The clerk said that two male suspects had entered the dispensary and asked to see some product. The clerk showed the suspects several different types of marijuana. They expressed interest and said they would be back after visiting an ATM for cash. The dispensary was very busy with several customers in the waiting area.
At 8 p.m. the men returned but this time they were the only people in the waiting room. Again, they asked if they could buy some marijuana. After viewing several products over several minutes, the clerk turned to the store room to retrieve marijuana for the