March 2012

By Kyle Howard

Evergreen boy’s soccer team visited Tyee Tuesday, March 20 for both teams' first Seamount League matchup. It was a cold, rainy, windy, miserable night. Tyee showed great offensive execution as they beat Evergreen, 5-1, for their first win of the season.

Tyee found themselves down 0-1 early in the game when a Tyee defender accidently headed the ball into the Totems' own goal. Tyee was able to come out strong in the second half. Junior Freddi Altamarino opened the flood gates by scoring the Totems' first goal. From then on the Totems found their stride, scoring three more quickly after that and with one near the end beat the Wolverines 5-1.

Tyee head coach John Yellam said after the game, “We had a great start for the first 20 minutes, then I felt like we stuttered a little bit for the rest of the half, and allowed them to control the game. But the whole second half we picked up our game.”

The Totems' next league game will be against Renton at home on Tuesday March 27. The Wolverines will play on the road against Foster on Friday, March 30.

Ballard's Great Harvest will be making hundreds of warm, sweet, adorable Honey Bunnies looking for a home for Easter.

The kneaders and bakers of Great Harvest create the bunnies using five simple ingredients – freshly ground whole wheat flour, honey, yeast, water, and salt.

“This is a Great Harvest tradition we are looking forward to this spring,” said owner Mark Winkler in a press release. “The expressions on children’s faces are priceless, and it’s fun to hear about all the ways our customers use the Honey Bunnies as table centerpieces, as veggie dip bowls, or as a creative addition to an Easter basket. To us, this product signifies spring and fun family gatherings.”

According to Winkler, no two bunnies are quite the same. The artisans at Great Harvest handcraft each bunny. Like all Great Harvest products, these bunnies are so fresh there’s no need for additives, preservatives or dough conditioners. This month, the bakery anticipates creating hundreds of Honey Bunnies.

SLIDESHOW. CLICK ON ABOVE PHOTO FOR MORE

If you entered the Mission Latin Bar and Restaurant in West Seattle yesterday you would have passed through a long black cloth draped over the entrance, there to obscure daylight from entering the popular North Admiral destination as it was transformed into a film set. The bar's Spanish, folksy ambience was utilized, and a stage was set up in the far righthand corner of the main floor for a live performance.

Jay Schrimmer got his dog Samson, an Akita who came with that name. "I got him when he was two years old," said Schrimmer," He was a rescue and he was raised by a family with two little kids but they got a little uncomfortable with him." Samson's original home was Wiconsin but he was brought to Wenatchee in Eastern Washington. Schrimmer spotted an ad for Samson online through an Akita rescue group and adopted him.

He was given up no doubt because Samson is a large bodied, thick legged canine and as Akita's go is even more sturdy looking than the breed usually is at 110 lbs. bordering on being intimidating. Previously, he was even larger at 130 lbs. On walks this winter both owner and dog lost a lot weight.

Samson is a striking dog and, "I think it's kind of funny that when I walk him around, people come out to look at him," Schrimmer said, "and he likes all the women. He makes sure he goes up to any woman, any girl. That's what he likes. Men, he's not so sure about."

Samson knows all the dogs in the neighborhood and has made friends, often running back and forth along the fence with a particular border collie.

SLIDESHOW. CLICK ON ABOVE PHOTO FOR MORE

If you entered the Mission Latin Bar and Restaurant yesterday you would have passed through a long black cloth draped over the entrance, there to obscure daylight from entering the popular North Admiral destination as it was transformed into a film set. The bar's Spanish, folksy ambience was utilized, and a stage was set up in the far righthand corner of the main floor for a live performance.

South King Fire & Rescue, encompassing Des Moines, Federal Way and parts of South King County has consistently offered higher quality fire and emergency services at a lower cost to taxpayers than most surrounding communities. However, those services are being threatened. In order to maintain our service, please VOTE YES for SKF&R’s maintenance and operations levy.

The district has lost over 22 percent of its annual revenue since 2009 as property values have declined. This reduction has necessitated major cutbacks in service levels and personnel, longer emergency response times and 23 departmental vacancies including front line firefighters. Those who remain have taken voluntary cuts in pay and benefits in order to maintain services.

To help the district maintain the level of safety that we have all come to expect, they have put Prop One on the ballot for the April 17, 2012 election. This four (4) year excess levy will allow the district to bridge the gap between current funding and the actual cost of operating at an efficient level for our community and our firefighters.

The headline “Should city sweep private streets” was misleading implying Huntington Park was asking for something for nothing. It should have been “Should city collect surface water management fees and not sweep streets, even though private?”

As a community, we pay nearly $57000 annually for SWM fees including utility tax thereon and feel we should at least get $6000 worth of street sweeping for that money.

The rest of the article was fair, just the headline questionable.

K. Harold Hummel
Des Moines

Open Letter to the Burien City Council:

I wanted to reiterate the fact that if the council truly wants to encourage the maximum number of people to vote on the annexation of Area Y, then the vote should be held in November, NOT August.

Holding it in August guarantees a small turnout and minimum voter participation.

Holding it a couple of months later in November guarantees much larger voter participation.

The danger of holding it in August is that minimal voter participation can enable special interest and small vocal minorities to hi-jack democracy in the name of whatever reasons can be drudged up to justify holding an election guaranteed to have a small turnout.

Apparently ALL or MOST of those minority special interests were present at the council meeting on Monday voicing their opposition to larger voter participation and pushing for an August vote.

It is obvious that these special interests are concerned that the election will go against them if the election is held in November, because they cannot be guaranteed as much control since the voter pool would be much larger.

A recent letter to the editor references a misleading report that claims I supported bills that spend over $10 billion in state revenues. This claim is loaded with logical fallacies.

The report, issued by a far-right-wing think tank, is flawed. When adding up the numbers, it only counts a bill’s potential increase in spending. Many bills the report references as “spending increases” contain provisions that also decrease spending elsewhere, often times resulting in a net loss of revenue to the state.

The Freedom Foundation conveniently leaves this side of the ledger out of their report. It is also important to note that many of the bills referenced are only proposed and many contain duplicative ideas, counting the same "new revenue" more than once.

In addition, one of the biggest “spending increases” it alleges is legislation, HB 2762, which adds accountability and transparency to the hundreds of tax loopholes currently in our tax code. I strongly support this bill, which adds an expiration date to every tax loophole, so the Legislature is forced to periodically review whether the loophole is serving a valuable purpose.

By Rep. Zack Hudgins and Rep. Barbara Bailey

Most cars sit idle 23 hours a day. But there’s a new business model that lets people rent cars and trucks from private citizens.

Peer-to-peer car sharing is one of those solid policies that Democrats and Republicans alike can agree on. This innovative way of bringing new business into our state will reduce pressure on our transportation system and put more money back into your own pocket.

Many neighbors and family members borrow things from each other. You’ve probably borrowed your neighbor’s lawnmower or your uncle’s pickup when you need to make a trip to IKEA, Goodwill, or the dump.

Today, the Internet makes it possible to formalize this groundbreaking idea here in Washington, and businesses down in Oregon and California have shown that this can be a win-win situation.

This idea is quite convenient for people who need to rent an inexpensive ride for just a few hours. And it’s great for people who have an extra car or pickup that they would like to turn into an extra income stream.