January 2013

The tragic shootings that have dominated headlines and led to a renewed national debate over gun control have prompted the first area gun buy back program in 20 years. In a partnership effort between the City of Seattle and King County an event, set for January 26 in downtown Seattle will pay for handguns and assault weapons in hope of reducing gun violence.

Mayor Mike McGinn, King County Executive Dow Constantine, Seattle Police Deputy Chief Nick Metz, Dr. David Fleming of Public Health – Seattle & King County, Renee Hopkins of the Seattle Police Foundation, and Reverend Aaron Williams of Seattle’s Mount Zion Baptist Church made the announcement of the Gun Safety Initiative, which includes the gun buyback program. Former Seattle mayors Greg Nickels, Norm Rice, Charles Royer and Wes Uhlman are serving as co-chairs of the program.

The gun buyback will be held on Saturday, January 26, 2013, from 9:00 am to 3:00 pm, in downtown Seattle in the parking lot underneath Interstate 5 between Cherry and James Streets.

The National Weather Service issued a "Wind Advisory" this morning regarding potential gusts up to 50 mph tonight, effective until midnight. You might see some power outages or downed trees in our area.

Here's the advisory:

.A VIGOROUS FRONTAL SYSTEM WILL BRING WINDY CONDITIONS TO THE LOWLANDS OF WESTERN WASHINGTON THIS AFTERNOON THROUGH THIS EVENING. LOCAL SUSTAINED WINDS OF 30 TO 35 MPH AND GUSTS OF 45 TO 50 MPH ARE LIKELY.

...WIND ADVISORY REMAINS IN EFFECT UNTIL MIDNIGHT PST TONIGHT...

* SOME AFFECTED LOCATIONS...SEATTLE...BREMERTON...BELLEVUE...
TACOMA...OLYMPIA...AND THE LAKE LAWRENCE AREA IN THURSTON
COUNTY.

* TIMING...WINDS WILL SWITCH TO SOUTHERLY BY MIDDAY AND REACH
THEIR PEAK THIS AFTERNOON AND EVENING.

* WIND...LOCAL SUSTAINED WINDS OF 30 TO 35 MPH AND GUSTS OF 45
TO 50 MPH ARE LIKELY.

* IMPACTS...WHILE WINDS OF THIS STRENGTH SHOULD NOT CAUSE
WIDESPREAD DAMAGE...THEY CAN BRING DOWN SMALL TREES AND

Seattle Public Schools is seeking advertisers to help pay for their 2013-2014 wall calendar and family guide, the first time they have been forced to find outside funding due to budget constraints.

Here are the details from SPS:

Due to budget cuts, advertising required to fully fund calendar

Seattle Public Schools is seeking sponsorship support to cover production costs for its annual wall calendar, an essential district resource that reaches an audience of 55,000 families, staff and community members.

This will be the second year the district has offered sponsorship opportunities for the calendar, with one important difference: Last year, sponsorship dollars covered a portion of the costs. This year, because of budget cuts, sponsorships are needed to fund all of the calendar’s production expenses.

The tragic shootings that have dominated headlines and led to a renewed national debate over gun control have prompted the first area gun buy back program in 20 years. In a partnership effort between the City of Seattle and King County an event, set for January 26 in downtown Seattle will pay for handguns and assault weapons in hope of reducing gun violence.

Mayor Mike McGinn, King County Executive Dow Constantine, Seattle Police Deputy Chief Nick Metz, Dr. David Fleming of Public Health – Seattle & King County, Renee Hopkins of the Seattle Police Foundation, and Reverend Aaron Williams of Seattle’s Mount Zion Baptist Church made the announcement of the Gun Safety Initiative, which includes the gun buyback program. Former Seattle mayors Greg Nickels, Norm Rice, Charles Royer and Wes Uhlman are serving as co-chairs of the program.

The gun buyback will be held on Saturday, January 26, 2013, from 9:00 am to 3:00 pm, in downtown Seattle in the parking lot underneath Interstate 5 between Cherry and James Streets.

Update for Jan. 10
The City of Seattle and King County "Great Gun Buyback" event on Jan. 26 will provide $100 to $200 Amazon gift cards to those who anonymously turn in firearms, and police have now detailed what will happen with all those guns:

Sentenced to melt over a 3100 degree Fahrenheit cauldron of fire.

Seattle Police said they will take all guns collected during the event and take them to the Nucor steel plant in West Seattle.

With police present, Nucor workers will take the guns, load them into a large metal scoop, and melt them over the cauldron.

From there, the steel is used to fabricate rebar, a basic building material.

SPD has been working with Nucor for years to destroy firearms recovered by police but no longer needed for investigations or as evidence in court proceedings.

SPD also released details on how to distinguish between a regular gun and an assault weapon (regular guns get $100, assault weapons get $200):

"While the state doesn’t have anything on the books defining “assault weapons”, here’s what our in-house gun experts came up with for the purposes of the gun buyback:

Get your Ballard fix this Wednesday, Jan. 9 at this month's Ballard District Council.

Bringing in the new year will be proposed Neighborhood Street Fund projects; an introduction of our newest representative in the 36th District, Gael Tarleton; and the Ballard transit survey, regarding the most recent round of changes.

As always, Ballard News-Tribune's reporter will be there, so say hi.

---

7:00 Introductions & Short Announcements - please hold announcements to not more than one min.

7:15 2013 Neighborhood Streets Fund

Take Winter By Storm – a campaign to help citizens get prepared before bad weather strikes – and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) have joined forces to launch the annual preparedness campaign and urge citizens to take action.

“Citizens need to be weather ready, and can find the tools and tips they need at TakeWinterByStorm.org,” said Ted Buehner, warning coordination meteorologist with NOAA’s National Weather Service Seattle.

In past years that featured similar conditions, such as 2006 and 2009, the dry weather changed dramatically, bringing heavy rain, flooding, windstorms and snow. “The bottom line,” says Buehner, “citizens need to be ready in advance, and watch, listen and monitor weather forecasts. Don’t wait until the storm strikes to prepare – that’s too late!”

The Take Winter By Storm website, TakeWinterByStorm.org, is a one-stop emergency preparedness information hub that includes safety tips and regional resources related to high winds, heavy rain, snow, freezing conditions, power outages, flooding and more.

In the ‘50s urban legend had it that a deep, dark hole existed at the bottom of Hicks Lake that drained out to Puget Sound to the west. When someone drowned and the authorities could not find the body, we just assumed it got sucked down that hole and out to the Sound.

Hey, we were kids! 

As kids, we often played in the woods below our house near Salmon Creek. The creek runs under Ambaum Boulevard at Southwest 120th getting most of its surge from water run-off and from that sleepy drainage out of Hicks Lake about a mile north and adjacent to Cascade Middle School. 



We know that even the idea of a body getting sucked down a hole in a
 lake is preposterous. It's not like a body-sized tunnel is waiting to
 capture anything floating down from the surface...is there?

There is a trail/access road running parallel to the creek all the way from just below Schick Shadel Hospital to the sewer treatment plant at the hairpin turn on Marine View Drive Southwest. We know this because it was our usual haunt for most of those years.

Truck Chase
Police pursued a driver in a stolen truck in an hour-long chase early Saturday, Dec. 29, that ended in Burien.
According to police, the chase started in Des Moines when an officer spotted a stolen truck. The officer was driving past the truck, which didn’t have license plates, and attempted to pull the driver over. When the driver didn’t stop, he continued and a pursuit began. The driver led Washington State Patrol, King County deputies and three local agencies through West Seattle and then south to Burien. Washington State Department of Transportation cameras captured the chase when it was on northbound Interstate 5.
The chase ended near Three Tree Point in Burien when the truck was stopped after running over spikes police set out. Police said the truck was likely used for crimes and was going to be dumped when the Des Moines officer noticed it.

Sea Tac house fire
Firefighters from SeaTac, Tukwila and Kent responded to a house fire at about 2:40 a.m. on Jan. 1 in the 16800 block of 37th Ave. South in SeaTac.

West Seattle pizza shop robbed last night
From the Seattle Police Blotter - Written by Detective Mark Jamieson

An unknown suspect broke out a window, entered the store and assaulted the employee before taking some cash and fleeing in a strange incident last night in West Seattle.

At around 11:30 last night, Southwest Precinct officers responded to a report of a robbery at the Papa John’s Pizza located in the 5200 Block of California Avenue SW. The call indicated that the store was closed, and there was one employee inside finishing up paperwork. The victim told officers that he was in the back office when he heard a loud crashing sound coming from the front of the store. He went to investigate and saw a man wearing all black standing inside the store. The suspect then walked around the counter and punched the victim in the face, knocking him to the ground. The suspect then took some cash and ran out the back door.