February 2013

Samantha Torpey got her dog Totoro (who is a Pomeranian) from a breeder in Mukilteo. "He started out as my daughter's dog but you know she's young so the responsibility ended up being mine. But he's such a great little guy it's fun to take care of him." Totoro is now three years old.

The name comes from Japanese "anime" cartoons and, "it's kind of a joke because he's so tiny and Totoro is like this enormous kind of pet thing that is an imaginary friend of this little girl." She calls him "Totes" for short.

Totoro gets Dick Van Patten's Natural Balance dog food, mixed in with Trader Joe's lamb and rice. For treats he gets rawhides and natural bones from the pet store. "Plus he loves all people food," Torpey added.

The Technology Access Foundation (TAF)is putting White Center's Bethaday Community Learning Space to use on Valentine's Day (Feb. 14) as TAF Academy students take part in their First Annual Science Fair. For those with a passion for science and an interest in non-traditional sweetheart night activities, this might be the ticket.

Admission is free, and TAF encourages any and all to stop by to support the kids and their projects.

Here are the details from August Aldebot-Green with TAF:

Students at STEM Partner School to Showcase Projects at Science Fair
TAF Academy’s Fair to be held at New Community Space in White Center

WHAT: 9th and 10th graders from TAF Academy will showcase their science projects at the school’s first annual Science Fair. Project judges will include science, technology,engineering and math (STEM) professionals and researchers. Many of these projects are expected to move on to the Regional Science Fair in March and Washington State University's Imagine Tomorrow Energy Competition. Some might go to the state competition and ISEF (International Science and Engineering Fair).

Some 150 students and staff at Highline High School in Burien were tested for Tuberculosis (TB) after a student was diagnosed two weeks ago with an active case of the disease.

Public Health--Seattle and King County staffers supervised testing at the high school on Tuesday, Feb. 5. Those contacted by letter last week were given the option of being tested at the school or at the office of their health care provider.

By Friday, Feb. 8, test results for 79 people had been reported. One person tested positive for a Latent TB infection, according to Kathryn Ross, Public Health spokeswoman. She said no one tested positive for an active case of TB.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) website, “Persons with latent TB infection do not feel sick and do not have any symptoms. They are infected with M. tuberculosis, but do not have TB disease. The only sign of TB infection is a positive reaction to the tuberculin skin test or TB blood test. Persons with latent TB infection are not infectious and cannot spread TB infection to others.”

Tuesday, Feb. 5

KingCo Boys Basketball Playoffs: v. Inglemoor, at Inglemoor, 7:30pm

Wednesday, Feb. 6

KingCo Girls Basketball Playoffs: v. Inglemoor, at Inglemoor, 7:30pm

Friday, Feb. 8

KingCo Boys Basketball Playoffs: v TBD, @ Juanita HS, TBD (3pm, 4:45pm, 6:30pm, or 8:15pm)

District Swim Playoffs @ UW Pool

Saturday, Feb. 9

KingCo Girls Basketball Playoffs: v. TBD @ Juanita, time (3pm, 4:45pm, 6:30pm, or 8:15pm)

District Swim Playoffs, Final @ UW Pool, 3:45pm

Regional Wrestling @ Vancouver

District Gymnastics @ Sammamish, 12:30pm

Drive into and out of “Westside” along the West Seattle Bridge and you are bound to see Gotham-esque amounts of steam billowing from the Nucor steel plant on occasion. Behind the scenes, Nucor workers are melting masses of scrap metal down at extreme temperatures and turning them into rebar – a basic construction building block.

The work requires a lot of energy, making Nucor Steel Seattle City Light’s number one customer, and produces a lot of wasted heat in that evaporates into the atmosphere … until now.

City Light announced on Feb. 5 that Seattle’s City Council approved an ordinance “to allow Seattle City Light to enter into an innovative energy conservation contract with … Nucor Steel …” to harness that heat and turn it into energy.

According to City Light, the project will produce enough energy to heat an estimated 540 Seattle homes a year, turning wasted heat into 5,000 megawatt-hours of energy. Scott Thomsen, spokesman for City Light, further explained that Nucor will actually return most of that energy right back into their operation, and in doing so they reduce the electrical demands City Light needs to meet.

The Ballard gymnastics team keeps going up and up. Five individuals have qualified for the District 2/4 meet at Sammamish High School this coming Saturday, Feb. 9: sophomore Lauren Lee, freshman Clara Yardley, sophomore Laila Lee qualified to the district in vault, bars, beam and all around. Junior Jaemi Salazar and sophomore Victoria O'Laughlin will compete on beam.

At the district meet, they'll be battling out for State against a lot of heavy competitors.

At the KingCo 4A meet on Feb. 2, Lee finished 8th on vault, 7th on bars, 9th on beam and 6th all around. Her fellow standout gymnast, Yardley, finished fourth on floor. Their scores got them into the district meet described above.

Overall the team score was 157.575, finishing 5th behind Woodinville (174.175), Newport (166.85), Bothell (163.4) and Inglemoor (162.075). Ballard's score was not enough for the whole team to be placed in districts, so the qualifying individuals will have to battle it out themselves and show their Beaver pride.

Update for Feb. 19
A 49-year-old man suspected in six gas station robberies in early 2013 is behind bars.

Seattle Police and the King County Sheriff's Office launched a joint investigation into the six convenience store robberies that stretched from the southern border of West Seattle into White Center and Burien where the suspect entered with face coverage and demanded cash while brandishing a black handgun.

The suspect was arrested at his home on Feb. 14 by King County deputies after a robbery in West Seattle.

Det. Mark Jamieson with the Seattle Police Department explains:

"Beginning in January, a suspect described as a black male wearing various coats and a bandana covering his face and armed with a handgun, robbed four businesses in the White Center area (two in Burien technically) and two near the Roxbury line in Seattle.

This letter was originally sent to Garfield High School staff and PTSA on Feb. 5. It has been shared by Seattle Public Schools with the media. Below is the letter in full.

Dear Garfield staff and families:

I want to thank you for sharing your concerns about MAP assessments. After careful consideration of what is in the best interest of all of our students across the district, I have asked schools to proceed with administering the MAP assessment as scheduled.

I have met with Garfield High School staff on two separate occasions to listen to their concerns and the important issues they raise regarding the limitations of the MAP assessment. While I feel the teachers at Garfield are sincere in their efforts to postpone the administration of the MAP, I also have a strong obligation to the students and parents of this school district to ensure we are measuring student progress in a consistent manner across all schools.

Coming up on two years, West Seattle business Avalon Glassworks' has been crafting glass apples to help raise funds for the White Center Food Bank. Ann Kendall with WCFB has an update on an impressive milestone for the "Feed the Core" program:

In May 2011, Avalon Glassworks’ Feed the Core apple series hit the $10,000 donation mark for White Center Food Bank– an achievement and goal that many artists might never be able to accomplish. Now, less than two years later they hit the $15,000 mark with apple #375 just last week. Luckily, photographer Lena Eivy was on hand to snap a shot as she was already at Avalon in the middle of another event benefitting the food bank, Headshots at the Hot Shop.

By Sabina Dinkakos

Victor Okinczyc is originally from Poland and was the 2nd of two sons to parents Anthony and Sabina. Typically referred to as “Papa” and to some more recently as “Vittorio”, he is a grandfather to two grandchildren, Nik and Sabina, father to Ann and let’s not forget a friend to anybody that will listen.

Papa is known to never refuse a good glass of cognac or a political discussion. As a prior prisoner of war during the second world war-he is the word survivor personified.

He also survived the Great Depression intact and managed to see nearly all of the world-living in places including Italy, Argentina and more recently the United States where he found his permanent home.

A resourceful individual, Papa purchased renovated and managed various properties as a rental business for some cash on the side all while maintaining a “day job” at the Fisher Flour Mills.

Our Papa is a man with a tremendous work ethic and incredible moral character.

He has by all means faced many challenges but still managed to show remarkable loyalty and fidelity to his family.