January 2014

Information provided by Seattle Sailing Club

This Saturday, experience a seminar unlike any Seattle Sailing Club has hosted before. Thanks to a great idea from SNW broker, Ben Braden, we are providing an opportunity to safely experience what it's like to be overboard in all your winter gear.

Instructed by a lifeguard instructor/ sailor/water safety guru (also Ben's mother), you will have a chance to experience trying to swim in all your foul weather gear, deploy your inflatable life jacket, and learn a ton.

Some of the topics:
• Leave your boots on, or kick them off?
• Swimming in your gear
• The problem with Velcro
• Pros-Cons of various Life Jacket styles
• How to help your crew get you back on board
• Alternative flotation measures

For most people that fall overboard, the combination of inexperience, cold, and lack of mobility result in one thing: PANIC. As with many things, learning a theory is good, but having personal experience is better. Join this seminar to learn more about what to expect if you ever find yourself in that very serious situation, and help reduce the PANIC response.

Information provided by Nordic Heritage Museum

This weekend watch films from all five Nordic countries during the Nordic Lights Film Festival on January 17 – 19, 2014, at SIFF Film Center on the Seattle Center campus.

Now in its fifth year, the Nordic Lights Film Festival features feature-length films, documentaries, and short films from Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, Sweden — and this year, Greenland — over three days.

The event will open at 6:00 p.m. on Friday, January 17 with a reception at SIFF hosted by SWEA (Swedish Women’s Educational Association), followed at 7:00 p.m. by the feature film Inuk filmed entirely in Greenland.

Directed by Mike Magidson — who will be in attendance at the opening — this coming-of-age story is strengthened by exceptional performances from non-professional Inuit actors against the striking backdrop of Greenland.

By Jeremy Martin

Things have been going pretty well this season for the West Seattle girls basketball team, and Wednesday night was no exception as the young Wildcats posted yet another win, steamrolling a short-handed Rainier Beach club 63-18.

The Vikings put up a fight, but this one was over quick as West Seattle jumped out to 26 point first quarter lead before taking a 38-6 advantage into the half.

“We know better than to take Rainer Beach lightly,” West Seattle head coach Sonya Elliott said. “We don’t take any team lightly. Their team was great; they kept playing hard, like I told the girls, that’s not an easy situation to be in.”

Forward Lexi Ioane had an efficient and commanding game for the Wildcats (9-3), racking up 20 points while center Lydia Giomi had a double double in the first half, ending with 15 points, 12 rebounds and four steals after 32 minutes of play.

Point guard Gabby Sarver had a game high 6 assists and also nabbed four steals.

Reserve forward Sarah Cooper had one of her best games putting up 8 points while also pulling down 7 rebounds.

by Tim Clifford

When discussing the crimes of violent sex offender Michael Stanley it may be easier to break them down by the locations where they were committed.

On Tuesday Stanley pleaded guilty to charges of harassment and resisting arrest during an incident in a West Seattle alleyway in October. Stanley had been held on $100,000 bail, an unusually high amount for these crimes so that the King County Prosecutor’s office could investigate a sexual assault that is alleged to have occurred at the same time as the charges Stanley plead guilty to. Stanley was sentenced to two months in prison.

Last fall Stanley re-entered the United States from Canada where he had tallied up an extensive record of sex crimes. Cutting off the electronic monitoring bracelet that had been placed on him he made his way across the border and into the west Seattle area. Previously convicted of first degree burglary and DUI in Washington State, Stanley found himself in trouble once again on Oct. 22 in alley behind a residence in West Seattle.

By Peggy Sturdivant

A longtime friend told me last summer to stop trying to keep up with my twenty-two year-old daughter. Is it because Emily seems so serious in my company that I have to play teenager? Or am I trying to prove that I am different from my mother, who was younger when I was born than when I had Emily. So while I am climbing onto the roof of a college building or in yoga I’m thinking, I’m different than my mother.

Could anything be more foolish?

When I started climbing at Stone Gardens was it love of the sport, desire to be un-like my mother or desire to be one of my daughter’s peers? My attempts to learn to ride a unicycle after virtually every elementary school student in Ballard made it look effortless? And then there was the “yoga retreat.”

The 2013-13 Bittner Flute has been awarded to Kia Hang, a senior at the Arts & Academics Academy in Highline Public Schools and the daughter of Ah Cha and Sou Hang of White Center. The award recognizes exceptional talent in a young flute player and was presented Wednesday at the Rotary Club of Des Moines.

The Bittner Flute is a sterling silver Gemeinhardt instrument donated to the Highline Music4Life™ program by Nancy Bittner of Seattle’s University Sunrise Rotary Club. The recipient is selected annually by secondary school music teachers in Highline Public Schools on the basis of talent and long-term interest in studying music.

Kia is a four-year arts student with a 4.0 GPA and sits first chair in the band’s flute section. She also participates in choir. She will have use of the Bittner Flute for the 20132-14 school year. It will be re-acquired by Highline Music4Life next spring for any repairs and other maintenance that are needed over the summer. Highline music teachers will select the next year’s recipient next fall.

By Gwen Davis

“What does it say about us, the Democratic Party, when we elect a socialist? What does it say when a union gives up a hard-fought fight to a corporation, even when we have Democrat elected officials? What does it say about us?”

The 34th District Democrats meeting on Wednesday was impactful, turning out around 80 participants, hosted in The Hall at Fauntleroy. While the meeting was mostly upbeat, chair Marcee Stone-Vekich’s early remarks about the Democrat’s recent underachievements, including the Boeing vs. union issue, set a tone.

“I am going to challenge you to get your [self] going,” she said. “We need to put effort into this.”

However, the meeting displayed many moments of smiles. Early on in the evening, participants were warned that there were three committees that needed another volunteer each. Time had run out, and these positions had not been filled.

“Is there anyone right now that can volunteer for these positions?” the facilitator asked.

After a tense few seconds, Doreen Bomar shot up her hand to be on the rules committee. The room burst into applause.

By Eric Mathison

After four new lawmakers were sworn in at the Burien City Council’s first meeting of 2014, 10-year Councilmember Lucy Krakowiak was unanimously selected Monday, Jan. 6 to be Burien’s new mayor.

Councilmember Bob Edgar was picked unanimously as deputy mayor.

Krakowiak was nominated by Edgar who praised her decade of service on the council.

Councilmember Gerald Robison nominated new Councilmember Nancy Tosta,
Robison said Burien voters had spoken very clearly about their desire for council change by voting out the three incumbents who ran for re-election. Former Mayor Brian Bennett declined to run again. Robison said Tosta would represent a “fresh leaf over old divisions.”

However, when it came to vote, both Robison and Tosta, who joked it was difficult to vote against herself, made it unanimous for Krakowiak.

Krakowiak’s election as mayor represents a kind of political resurrection for her. Just three years ago, she often found herself outvoted 6-1 on many council issues.

By Kyra-lin Hom

By age 12, we all know Hollywood is fake. We’ve learned about wires, prosthetics, and special effects. If you’re like me, you’ve converted hours of behind the scenes footage into hours of messing about with friends and a handheld camera. Ironically, it is our sheer confidence in being ‘intelligent’ viewers that blinds us to how ridiculous the media we consume really is.

Because it isn’t our ready consumption of computer graphics, convenient plot twists, overdone emotional angst, or scientific nonsense that is Hollywood’s crowning achievement in makebelieve. That award goes to something much subtler: the total subversion of our understanding of reality.

Burien, WA– Enrollment opens January 21 for students who will start kindergarten next fall. To help prepare more students for success on Day One of kindergarten, Highline is offering a new kindergarten readiness program partially funded by a Race to the Top grant.

Geared for students who haven’t had access to preschool, Highline will offer the programs from March-June in several low-income neighborhoods. Fewer than half of all incoming Highline kindergarten students have access to high-quality preschool programs.

To secure a seat in the kindergarten readiness program, families should register for kindergarten as soon as possible. Only qualified students who enroll early will have access to the programs.

“Highline Public Schools recognizes the importance of early learning in the success of our students,” said Early Learning, P-3 Director Anne Arnold. “We are recommending that families register their incoming kindergarten students as close to January 21 as possible to be admitted to this kindergarten readiness program, and others, which will prepare children for school success."