July 2013

A man who lives in Des Moines was accused of raping a developmentally disabled woman at a Ballard warehouse, according to King County Superior Court records.

On April 24, 2013, a coworker witnessed James Neligan standing behind the victim, pulling her pants down as she was bent over and touching her genitals. The victim is a 33-year-old who is classified as having mild mental retardation -- below 3-4 grade expectancy level in academic areas.

Neligan told the coworker to "mind her own business" and stated that the victim "would not know the difference."

The victim had then started to cry. Reportedly, Neligan just looked at his coworker as if nothing had happened, zipped up his pants, shook his head and walked off.

When asked, the coworker did not know of any past incidences, but said that the victim had often said to her "I wish James wouldn't do that." At the time, because the victim was special needs, the coworker thought nothing of it.

According to the victim, Neligan said "be good and do it." He ignored her pleas to "stop" and "knock it off." Neligan went on to say "don't tell nobody" and that she would get in trouble if she told somebody.

The voices of 605 students pledging to work hard, believe in themselves and graduate from high school filled Alaska Airlines' hangar Wednesday afternoon and briefly masked the sound of airplanes taking off outside at Sea-Tac Airport.

The event, dubbed "Pledge It. Prove It. Take Flight.,"was co-hosted by Seahawks quarterback Russell Wilson and Alaska Airlines' Black Employee Resource Group (BERG).

The event attracted students from 21 high schools and educational programs from across Washington and was designed to encourage urban youths to finish school and accomplish their goals.

Among the guests were students from Mt. Rainier High, Highline High and the Tyee High campus.

Mt. Rainier sophomore Joshua Gibbs said he was excited to hear Wilson. Like Wilson, who has played professional football and basketball, Gibbs is a multi-sport athlete. Gibbs participates in football, wrestling and baseball.

Gibbs said he admired Wilson for the way Wilson made the transition from pro baseball to pro football.

Bobbie Egan
206-392-5134

Editor's note: High resolution photos of Wilson and students are available for download from Alaska Airlines online image gallery at
http://splash.alaskasworld.com/newsroom/ASNews/photos.asp.

Alaska Airlines and Seahawks QB Russell Wilson Team Up to Inspire 605 Area Youths

'Pledge It. Prove It. Take Flight.' Event encourages students to achieve their educational goals

7/10/2013 6:13:23 PM

SEATTLE – The voices of 605 students pledging to work hard, believe in
themselves and graduate from high school filled Alaska Airlines' hangar today and briefly masked the sound of airplanes taking off outside at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport. The event, dubbed "Pledge It. Prove It. Take Flight.,"was co-hosted by Seahawks quarterback Russell Wilson and Alaska Airlines' Black Employee Resource Group (BERG).

The event attracted students from 21 high schools and educational programs from across Washington and was designed to encourage urban youths to finish school and accomplish their goals.

By Charlie Ganong

I can't believe it's been 40 years since high school—or the Stone Age, as it is often called. Just yesterday we were sporting shag haircuts (girls and boys) and bellbottoms, grooving to KJR and Colorful KOL, hanging out at Herfy's or cruising Alki. A summer for the ages, it was a brief, shimmering season, one last chance to kick up the magical sands of adolescence before diving into the daunting, uncharted waters of the adult world.

Soon enough, we would scatter to the four winds, beyond the familiar turf of White Center and Burien, boldly venturing to the very edge of the earth itself—to an alluring, mysterious and exotic place known as Southcenter.

But our snug, placid world was about to get crazy in a hurry. Although the Vietnam War was being handed off to the Vietnamese (sound familiar?), the Watergate scandal would soon explode, jailing or exiling our political leaders and forever tarnishing our faith in government. Meanwhile, crisis in the Mideast (sound familiar?) sent gas to the unheard-of-price of 45 cents a gallon—bringing chaos to the pump, and three new words overnight into our vocabulary: Datsun, Honda and Toyota.

Life is hard for a Ballardite during SeafoodFest. So much is asked of us and we have so little time to do it all. From drinking beer and eating barbecued salmon to seeing music and taking part in the annual lutefisk eating competition (we'll sit out this round), SeafoodFest has something for everyone, of any age and of any Scandinavian flavor.

SeafoodFest takes place in the downtown core of Ballard, along Market St and Ballard Ave. To help you out, we put together a guide

For more info, visit seafoodfest.org

Saturday, July 13

Ballard Ave MainStage

12 noon -- School Of Rock link
1:30 p.m. -- Smokey Brights link
3:00 p.m. -- Horde and The Harem link
4:30 p.m. -- Kithkin link
6:00 p.m. -- Sweet Water "acoustic" link
7:30 p.m. -- Ayron Jones & The Way link

Bergen PlaceLive

11 a.m. -- Ballard Health Club Yoga
1 p.m. -- Lutefisk Eating Contest
2 p.m. -- Pike Place Fish Toss
3 p.m. -- Oyster Shucking
3:45 p.m. -- Best of the Fest Food Vendor Announcement
4 p.m. -- Oyster Eating Contest

Ballard Commons FamilyStage

12 noon -- Solana Booth, Native Stories and Hoop Dancing

By Simone Alicea

A group of students from West Seattle High School are took their project about child obesity and whole grain bread to the national stage this week at the Students Taking Actions with Recognition events in Nashville, where they won a gold medal, the highest honor, in the advocacy category.

Tin Vo, Megan Duong, Renee McMinn and Annalisa Ursino are part of West Seattle High School’s Family Career and Community Leaders of America club, a leadership club with programs across the country.

Every year, the FCCLA holds regional and national competitions for students in a variety of categories from Fashion Construction to Leadership to Advocacy. West Seattle’s group is competing at nationals in Nashville in the Advocacy category with the goal of educating others about the benefits of whole grain wheat bread and the problems with child obesity.

Original post on July 11 (updated report found below)
A mixed use project (including a Whole Foods grocery store and apartments) proposed to take over nearly two blocks at the corner of Fauntleroy and Alaska passed a design review on July 11.

The Southwest Design Review Board gave the project a split blessing of 3-1, with local residential representative T. Frick McNamara disagreeing with the minority. This was the fourth design review meeting, with the first early design meeting occurring in September of 2012.

Several conditions from the board accompanied the decision (more on that in an updated report tomorrow), which city planners will work with developers to satisfy.

The board’s recommendation moves the project closer to a master use permit from the city to start building the six-story building with 370 apartments, 570 stalls of underground parking, a Whole Foods and several retail storefronts along Fauntleroy.

A man, spotted by neighbors on the roof of the former King Buffet restaurant at 149 SW 160 St Thursday night, July 11, was surrounded by Burien Police and the Guardian One helicopter while still on the roof.

He ignored commands to come down.

Finally deputies got the Fire Department involved and used Burien/Normandy Park Fire equipment to climb onto the roof and detain the suspect without problem.

The suspect, a 34 year old male, was arrested for outstanding warrants and Criminal Trespass.

Information from Sustainable West Seattle

Special Dance Presentation by The Illuminato Project: Slavery of the System

Three performances at Sustainable West Seattle's Greenlife area at Summerfest: 2 and 4 p.m. on Friday, 4 p.m. on Sunday.

Slavery of the System is the first installment of the Illuminatio trilogy, a collaboration based on the work, Illuminatio: Yo Soy, written by Spanish playwright Antonio Delgado at the beginning of Spain’s economic crisis in 2008. From the Latin word meaning ‘illumination,’ Illuminatio was written to lift up man’s spirit to a higher state of consciousness and light a way forward to transformation through a highly symbolic collaborative work of art. Amanda Goodwin, a close friend of Delgado’s from the years she lived in Spain, collaborated with the dancers, actors, and acting director, Josh Williamson, to bring Antonio’s vision to life.

Characters: (dancers names underlined)

Press release:

USO Northwest and Port of Seattle announce the signing of a long-term lease for a new $1.27 million, 7,000-square-foot USO center opening at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport the summer of 2014. The new center will be more than double the size of the current USO Sea-Tac Center, enabling better service to increasing numbers of local and traveling military personnel, their families and veterans.

With the additional space, the new USO Sea-Tac center will provide greater access to shower facilities, beds, hot meals and snacks, computers and Internet access, a family room, theater room and much more.

“Today’s announcement represents a major milestone and commitment for USO Northwest. We invite local corporations, civic organizations and private donors to show their support for our military and be a part of this historic endeavor,” said Donald Leingang, Executive Director of USO Northwest and retired Commander, U.S. Navy.