April 2011

The police reports that last night at approximately 12:30 a.m., a woman called 911 stating that she had been assaulted by an armed male at a house on 100th block of N.W. 105th.

The suspect assaulted her at gunpoint before assaulting his 80-year-old mother who was also inside the house.

Officers responded and set up containment on the house. Officers made contact with the suspect via telephone and persuaded the suspect to surrender. The suspect was taken into custody without incident.

Officers recovered a handgun inside the house and the suspect’s 80-year-old mother was found with bruising on her body and was treated on scene by Seattle Fire Department.

The suspect will be booked into King County Jail for Investigation of Assault.

The eastbound, right lane on Fauntleroy Way Southwest and on the high-level West Seattle Bridge will be closed today (April 5) from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.

The closure will start at 35th SW and extend across the bridge to First Avenue South. During this time drains will be cleaned.

A $10 ticket will get theater-goers into two brand-new, award-winning plays about a 16th-century female pirate, politics, cloning and more in the 2011 Bill & Peggy Hunt Playwrights Festival.

From April 8 to May 1, Burien Little Theatre's festival offers 4 weekends of new works as staged performances and staged readings. Each staged performance includes two plays -- a one-act followed by a full-length -- all for the price of $10. Each staged reading features a full-length play for free.

From April 8 through 17, each staged performance includes the one-act "Two," by Suzanne Bailie, and the full-length "Super Tuesday," by Jesse Putnam. "Two" is a futuristic tale that asks: what if you could get a "do-over"? "Super Tuesday" is a drama about race, capital punishment and political ethics. The free staged reading is the full-length "Action! Commercials! Subtext!," by Sean Walbeck, a comedy about historic preservation and a vision quest.

Now that the city of Seattle has punted on annexing the remainder of North Highline, will Burien grab the ball and quickly attempt to add White Center to the city?

Burien City Manager Mike Martin says there will be "no sudden moves" by the city on annexing the remaining unincorporated area.

He said Burien has been focused on other things besides annexation, including blending the newly incorporated southern portion of the old North Highline into Burien. The city has not even done a financial analysis on what it would cost Burien to incorporate the White Center area, according to Martin.

On March 28, the Seattle City Council voted to delay making a decision on annexation until February 2012. The resolution said Seattle "is faced with significant financial challenges and it is difficult for the City to commit to providing the appropriate level of services for the North Highline Annexation Area if the City proceeds with annexation at this time."

Seattle lawmakers called for the mayor's office to verify its financial projections and issue an updated financial report by Dec. 31.

We'll skip over Native Americans harvesting clams at Three Tree Point, Mike Kelly trudging up from the Duwamish Valley to find a "sunny dale" or Gottlieb Von Boorian settling by his namesake lake.
We'll start our tale from when we got here. By we, I mean the Highline Times... and me.

Act I

Those really were the days, my friend.

We're talking about Burien back in the 1950s and '60s. Think "Happy Days." Think Beaver Cleaver meets Ozzie and Harriet.

The memories came flooding back for this old Burien boy with Times/News remembrances marking the passing of former Highline Times publisher Al Sneed. In addition, Sharon Hofstra Haugen, (Highline High, Class of 1960) wrote about her dad, Don Hofstra of the Hi-Line Police Patrol, who guarded the night streets of Burien with his faithful German Shepard, Cap.

Back then as I strolled by the old Highline Times office on 152nd, I never imagined that that one day I would be proofing Reid Hale's copy as the Times editor. Hale was the editor during my boyhood. He stayed for about 18 years. After 11 years, I'm in hot pursuit of Hale's longevity record.

It is very disappointing news to see that Dr. Jim Rice has been barred from his many volunteer activities with Highline High School. Jim has been volunteering for about 30 years with the football team as a team doctor and also helping with the wrestling team.

What system would reject such wonderful, high quality volunteer help at a time when such help is very hard to find?

I was an assistant football coach for two years at Highline, and I can tell you that Dr Rice brought a unique blend of medical knowledge and football injury knowledge to the job. The kids greatly appreciated him, as did the coaches.

This decision reeks of bureaucracy, politics, and small mindedness on the part of those responsible. Jim Rice is a pillar of the community as well as an exceptional doctor and family man. How is it possible to turn away such talent and skill because of some obtuse technicality?

I can only hope the Highline District reverses the decision as soon as possible. I stand ready to testify on Jim's behalf at any time and place where I can help and would be needed.

Horace Parker
Burien

Hip, hip. Hooray! Thank you for recognizing one of the greatest, sweetest women I know. Marie Doughty is so pleasant and caring that you want to smile when she is around.

As a resident of Wesley Homes I am very pleased to see Marie nearly every day. She makes the day shine and your heart lighten just because she cares and lets us know she cares.

Again, thank you for recognizing this special woman. This is very deserved. Thank you so much for the wonderful article about Marie.

Jo Brown
Des Moines

With calm and sunny Florida skies and all systems go, space shuttle Discovery took off Thursday, Feb. 24, on an 11-day mission and landed Friday, March 11.

This was its 39th and final flight. It's first was back on Aug. 30, 1984. It arrived at the International Space Station two days later.

With its return, NASA will retire the Discovery to the Smithsonian Institution's National Air and Space Museum to replace the Enterprise currently on display there. The Enterprise will then join the Atlantis and Endeavour in the hotly-contested bid by Tukwila's Museum of Flight and 20-something other museums to land a shuttle at their facility, that is, after the April 19 Endeavour's last launch, and possibly an Atlantis flight in June.

NASA Administrator Charles Bolden has reported that a decision will be announced by April 12.
NASA astronaut, Dr. Bonnie Dunbar stepped down as CEO last June at the Tukwila museum and became executive director of "Wings Over Washington."

Minivan crashes into espresso stand
One person was slightly injured when a minivan crashed into a bikini espresso stand near S. 262nd St. and Pacific Highway. Police at the scene say that the minivan went off the highway and crashed head-on into the drive-thru window at Sweet Cheeks Espresso. The driver was slightly hurt in the crash. According to crews at the scene, the barista who would have been standing at the window was unhurt, as she was actually touching up her make-up in another room when the minivan hit.

Burien man charged with murder

The papers have been full of stories lately about bullies in schools and it might make you think that big guys picking on little guys is something new. It is not, never has been. Little people have been low hanging fruit since Goliath.

I know because even though I weighed 10 pounds at birth it seemed like I got smaller as I got older.

That was not all bad. Of course it made me eligible to wear hand-me-downs till I was 14,and I was the perfect size to crawl through a 10-inch size hole in the wall in the handball sport court at the Peninsula Park swim pool. Whenever an errant shot escaped into the hole they hunted me up and coerced me to wiggle through the tiny spider web ridden gap to get their ball under penalty of dangling me by the heels in the deep end until I hollered "unclezzzzzzzzzz" glub glub.

Sometimes they said thanks.

And though I looked like a refugee I was able to entertain my sister's boyfriends by putting my legs behind my head, roll my eyes and walk on my hands across the front room linoleum. I made a starving orphan even though my shorts were black velvet scraps from Mom's sewing basket.

I often garnered some polite applause and a nickel.