March 2011

The West Seattle High School Pro Start culinary team took home a First Place ranking in the Entrée category in the 2011 Boyd Coffee ProStart Invitational held last weekend. The Washington Restaurant Association’s state culinary competition was at the Mirabeau Park Hotel in the Spokane Valley, March 19, 2011.

With only one hour and two butane burners—using no electric or battery operated equipment—the team's goal was to complete two identical starter, entrée, and dessert combination meals.

The winning WSHS team menu included: Starter, Sea Scallops with cucumber and cherry tomato with a gastrique of rice wine vinegar; Entrée, Almond crusted Petrale Sole with baby bok choy, rice pilaf, and mango salsa; Dessert, Molten Chocolate Cake with Chinese-five-spice and ginger-chantilly cream.

The Petrale Sole came out as the winning entree.

Latisha Evans, Kirby Davis and Johnny Le comprise the 2011 culinary team representing West Seattle this year. Their chef mentors are; Quinton Stewart, executive chef at Branzino in downtown Seattle, and Robin Leventhal of Stopsky’s Delicatessen on Mercer Island.

Gregory P. Hess, 65, changed his mind and plead guilty to first degree robbery charges after originally pleading not guilty on Feb. 24, according to King County Prosecutors.

His sentencing is scheduled for April 1 and Hess faces a sentence of anywhere from 51 to 68 months, according to prosecutors.

Hess allegedly used a BB gun intended to look like a real handgun in the robbery of the Shell gas station on Roxbury, near Safeway, on Feb. 5 that yielded him $200 and national attention as the “Polite Robber” in surveillance footage the Shell station owner released to the media.

The footage of his latest alleged robbery (linked here) quickly went viral on the Internet, showing a calm conversation between Hess and owner/clerk of the Shell station John Henry as the robbery took place. Hess apologetically (and allegedly) robbed Henry and promised he would bring the money back if he became more financially stable in the future.

Sheila is a mixed Australian Shepherd who is "probably about seven," said her owner Sue (last name withheld) who "got her from a rescue place in Snoqualmie."

Sheila is a slang term in Australia for 'girl.'

Sheila had a history there Sue said. "They had to trap her to get her out of the woods. She had, had puppies but she was very very afraid." Sheila is still extremely timid and wary of people.

Sue found Sheila online in a quest to find a companion for her other Australian Shepard Seamus. "He needed a buddy," she said.

"She's come a long way," said Sue, "she used to just pee all over herself when people would come near her. She's very timid but once she knows you she can't get enough of you."

Sheila is a good hiking dog Sue said though there's something about the way Sheila looks that she has to address. "I have to put a bandana on her because people think she's a wolf. When she sees people, sometimes on the trail if she's not sure about them she'll go down and walk through the woods and kind of look at them and they think she's a wolf, especially foreigners."

Sheila is good around the house, going through her dog door and keeps the raccoons out of the yard.

Early reports are that it's been a good turnout for the effort to benefit the victims of the disasters in Japan.

Event organizer Dave Montoure, owner of West 5 shared this morning, "Following up with all businesses today, should have an idea of what WS businesses raised by end of day, but won't have an idea what my corporate donations will look like as many of them are on 7 or 15 day invoice cycles.

By all accounts, looks like it was a huge success."

The list of businesses participating in a community fundraising effort to benefit victims of the Japanese earthquake, tsunami and nuclear disasters grew to 27 since it was first announced. A portion of proceeds from sales will be donated to Peace Winds Japan and Knk International.
The West Seattle Herald will post an update on the outcome of the event when that information becomes available but an anonymous donor has pledged to match all funds raised.

The two beneficiaries were selected to address three specific focus areas:
• first response to the disaster providing support to address immediate needs of food, medical attention and shelter;

Some of the airport procurement practices appear very strange to those familiar with aircraft purchasing and government purchasing.

As an example: Commission Agenda Item 6b Letter on the February 22, 2011 agenda.

The staff appears to have very little respect for the intelligence and time available to the elected commissioners. The wording of the letter is cumbersome and filled with a high degree of fuzzy wording almost as if it was intended to be left unread by the commissioners.

These are some questionable issues:

Why is $14,850,000 million in taxpayer earnings being spent by the Port on only 15 aircraft passenger loading ramps?

Where is the profit to taxpayer earnings as a result of this apparent gift?

Liability falls heavily on the Port and Commission for any errors under this kind of ownership agreement!
General practice is that the airlines pay for this kind of equipment. The airline must build to Port minimum standards and sell the completed ramp to the Port for $1.00.

Why is the Port buying back the old ramps at taxpayer expense? Cost of those old ramps is part of the airline business risk.

Every journey begins with one step. For those participating in the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society's (LLS) annual Big Climb event, the beginning of something better is taking 1,311 steps.

On March 20, LLS hosted the 25th annual Big Climb. A determined 6,000 participants climbed 69 flights of stairs to the top of Seattle's Columbia Tower in an effort to raise money to cure blood-related cancers.
For a family with Highline roots and a four-year old son fighting cancer, each step is one in the right direction.

The "Climbing for Caleb" team was formed in 2008 after Caleb Thorsteinson, 11 months old at the time, was diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL). Caleb was being treated for an ear infection when his parents realized something more was wrong.

After a trip to the emergency room and a few blood tests, Caleb was receiving chemotherapy treatment the very next day. Former residents of Normandy Park, they now live in Spanaway closer to Mary Bridge Children's Hospital.

Subject: Highline Times Feb. 25, 2011 article "Bill would cut DOL wait times," featuring Rep. Dave Upthegrove

No reflection on Rep. Upthegrove but legislating the current problems at the DOL by offloading the work to other non-governmental entities does nothing to solve the problem of issuing licenses to the wave of people who should not be entitled to drive in our state, namely illegal immigrants.

This phenomenon, according to an article via The Everett Clinic, Aug. 13, 2010, entitled "More immigrants getting driver's licenses in Washington," by Tim Korte and Manuel Valdes of the Associated Press, did not point to legal immigrants, but rather illegal immigrants, primarily those seeking sanctuary from Arizona's new laws to curb illegal immigrants to get driver's licenses, because those states do not require proof of citizenship, only residency. And according to an Associated Press analysis, they found that those states have seen a surge in immigrants seeking ID's in recent months for the same reason, i.e., exiting Arizona.

The best purchase Laura Hall recently made was buying a vowel -- five vowels to be exact.

Hall, a Des Moines resident, was a contestant on "Wheel of Fortune's" "Greatest American Cities" episode, which aired March 2.

"I bought a lot of vowels!" laughs Hall. It was a way to buy time to think."

Her strategy paid off because she walked away with $4,250 in winnings.

Hall is a health and physical education teacher at Federal Way High School and a lifelong fan of "Wheel of Fortune. "I've been watching for as long as I can remember being able to read," she says.

After years of successfully solving the word puzzles from home, she wanted to try her luck as a contestant.

"I've been applying to be on the show since I turned 18 years old -- almost 10 years!" says Hall. When the 39-foot long, bright yellow Wheelmobile rolled into town last year looking for potential contestants, Hall was ready for her audition.

"I told them that I would have a lot of energy," says Hall who clapped all day while filming and reminded herself to constantly smile. Her enthusiasm paid off and she was notified within two weeks that she was selected.

I just want to thank you for listing our rummage sale in the Community Events calendar.

Our sale was a success, and when I asked buyers how they found out about it, just as many people replied "The Highline Times" as "Craig's List."

I find this very encouraging in this digital age as I feel you have a great newspaper, and I always enjoy reading about our local news in print.

Tina Giesbers
Burien
The Hi-Liners

Bikram Subba, far right, from Highline High School and Highline Community College, poses with tennis champion Venus Williams at Sun Life Stadium in Miami. Subba was in Florida for an educational summit after earning a Rising Stars scholarship last fall. The other students are Raphael Diallo, left, Lakeside School, and Sabas Rousseau, Chief Sealth High School.