March 2015

Information from SDOT

The Seattle Department of Transportation will begin work to install a new traffic signal, new crosswalks and upgraded curb ramps at the five-leg intersection of 47th Avenue SW and SW Admiral Way at SW Waite Street. Crews will work at this location for up to four months.

Residents, businesses and travelers can expect to see crews and equipment in the area beginning tomorrow, March 10. Construction will begin with survey work and site preparation. Crews will begin saw cutting at the northeast corner of 47th Avenue SW and SW Admiral Way as soon as Wednesday, March 11, with demolition of the northeast corner to follow on Thursday, March 12. “No park” signs will be placed around the work zones prior to the start of work. We will notify adjacent properties prior to the start of work at a given corner.

AAA Driver Improvement Program
West Seattle Christian Church
4400 42nd Ave. S.W.
Sat., March 21, 8:30-4 p.m. Now accepting reservations for the refresher course on defensive driving skills, which gives practical guidance for traffic accident prevention and enhances driver safety and confidence. Successful course completion qualifies drivers 55 years of age and over for automobile insurance premium discounts. $18 per person. Pre-registration is required, call 206-243-3564.

Volunteer Soccer Coaches Needed
High Point Community Center
206.684.7422
South Park Community Center
206.684.7451
Spring 2015, Mon. and/or Wed. afternoon / evenings. Both Centers are looking for volunteer soccer coaches to start up a new soccer league in their neighborhoods. Coaches will teach soccer skills to 5-7 & 8-10 year olds. Games will be on Friday nights. If interested contact: giovannina.souers@seattle.gov

Community Information Meeting for Charter School

By Tim Clifford

Woman punched after confronting burglars on Alki

A woman was punched in the face by one cowardly burglar after she came home and found him and his partner had broken into her apartment. The assault and break-in occurred on Feb. 28 just after 9 p.m. at a secured complex on the 2700 block of Alki Ave. S.W.

The victim had been getting ready for work and decided to take the trash out from her kitchen. She went outside to the trash area behind the building and returned to her apartment only minutes later.
Once she got back inside the victim found the suspects, two black male teenagers, going through her dresser drawers in the bedroom. When she began screaming at them to leave the first suspect ran out of the apartment as fast as he could.

By Cooper Inveen
WNPA Olympia News Bureau

OLYMPIA—The Senate’s new transportation package is being hailed for its bipartisan support, while some critics find aspects of it troubling.

The proposals were revealed on Feb. 12 after 22 months of negotiations, and would mostly fund various highway projects in the state’s more congested areas. The package would raise $15 billion over a 16-year period mostly through an 11.7 cents-per-gallon gas tax implemented over the next three years.

Washington’s current 35.7 cents-per-gallon gas tax would increase by five cents in July, 4.2 cents in July 2016 and another 2.5 cents in July 2017. That would bring Washington’s combined state and federal gas tax to 67.6 cents-per-gallon, second highest in the nation behind Pennsylvania.

The proposals’ prime sponsors, Republican Sens. Curtis King of Yakima and Joe Fain of Auburn, and Democratic Sens. Steve Hobbs of Lake Stevens and Marko Liias of Mukilteo, say they are confident that they can muster the votes needed for bipartisan approval in both houses. They also admit they see plenty of negotiating left to do.

 
 CHI Franciscan Health and Molina Healthcare announced that Molina will now cover the cost of Franciscan Virtual Urgent Care visits for all of its Medicaid members with a Franciscan Primary Care Provider. These Molina members are now able to receive free health care 24/7 via phone, webcam, smartphone, tablet or PC through Franciscan Virtual Urgent Care.
 
CHI Franciscan Health and Molina Healthcare estimate that more than 16,000 members will be covered for free Virtual Urgent Care visits. Molina Healthcare is the largest Medicaid health plan in Washington, with a reputation for providing its more than 500,000 members with access to high quality care.
 
While less expensive than the typical trip to the doctor’s office, urgent care or emergency room, Virtual Urgent Care has not previously been covered by health plans or insurance companies.
 

Burien – On Friday, May 8th, Seahurst Elementary School will be hosting its 2015 Elementary Math Bonanza, a math contest for students in grades four through eight.  This will be their sixth year hosting the event, in which local elementary school students (4th-6th grades) are exposed to problems and topics that go beyond their standard curriculum and share their enjoyment of extracurricular mathematics with like-minded students.  

Proceeds from the contest raise money for the Seahurst PTA, to help pay for educational assemblies, field trips, and other projects around the school.  

Competitors will participate in a variety of tests in different formats: an individual test in which students will attempt to solve thirty problems in thirty minutes, a mental math test in which individuals will try to solve problems in their heads, and two team tests (Algebra & Probability and Geometry & Potpourri) in which teams of four students will attempt to solve twenty topic-focused problems in fifteen minutes.

By Tim Clifford

Last Black Friday, Nov. 28, 2014 at 12:45 p.m. Cees Berlage was running drills and sprints for the Seattle Christian basketball team when he fell over unconscious. The 16-year-old had gone into sudden cardiac arrest.

“He was unresponsive and his eyes were really big, so I ran and got the other coaches, said “call 911” and started CPR,” described coach Braque Hildreth.

He had no pulse and was no longer breathing.

At first the coaching staff believed that Cees was having a seizure of some sort, possibly epileptic. They had no way of knowing the true cause of his collapse lay in a heart prolapse defect, a coronary anomaly, which had gone undiscovered in Cees even during physicals at doctor’s offices and with cardiologists.

For assistant coach Patrick Donovan, a marine who had returned to the area in October and begun coaching in November, his prior experience clued him in as to what was actually happening.

“I know from training and then seeing it live a few times as well,” he explained.

By Cooper Inveen, Reporter
WNPA Olympia News Bureau

With all the complications that local bans have caused for Washington’s recreational pot market,
two state-licensed businessmen have decided to take matters into their own hands.

Tedd Wetherbee and Mike Henery own the Gallery, a pot shop-art gallery mashup that
celebrated its grand opening in Parkland, Pierce County, on March 1. Media attention hasn’t
focused on the thousands of dollars in artwork that adorns the Soho-style space, but rather the
business’s dubious legality.

The Gallery is the first state-licensed recreational marijuana outlet to open in a county that
outlaws recreational marijuana. The two owners say their actions are not a jab at the county, but
rather a response to something larger.

“This is two licensed businessmen exerting their right to operate,” Wetherbee said. “We got a
license from the state. The state went through our backgrounds with a microscope and said, ‘You
guys qualify, go do this.’ And so we’re doing this.”

One day after opening, Pierce County code enforcement descended upon the Gallery with a

Seattle police responded to reports of an elderly man being beaten and robbed by juveniles near Westwood Village Monday afternoon around 4 PM.

According to police the suspects got on board a Metro bus and headed toward California and Morgan. Police tracked the bus and set up containment in the area. Two male suspects were apprehended. Police believe the suspects may be involved in other recent crimes in the area.

By Kyra-lin Hom

There are internet memes and then there are downright phenomenons. And for whatever reason, over the last two weeks a single photo of a dress, a color optical illusion has taken over the internet. You are very likely familiar with this story. If not, I can sum it up really quickly for you: is it white with gold lace or is blue with black lace? Let the fighting begin.

To catch a glimpse of this 'controversial' photo just google search for “white and gold or blue and black.” What you'll find is an awkward photo of an ambiguously colored dress. What you can see of the background is blurry and mostly distorted with glare.

This meme – “a humorous image, video, piece of text, etc. that is copied (often with slight variations) and spread rapidly by Internet users” – is beautiful in its simplicity: white and gold or blue and black, pick a side, defend with fervor. Yes, it's kind of dumb, silly and altogether unimportant, but that's why it has flourished so well. It's fun and easy, the kind of debate people enjoy taking way too seriously.