May 2015

Two detectives reacted quickly enough to save the life of a child rape and molestation suspect when they found him attempting to commit suicide on May 7.

The day before, May 6, Det. Fred Gendreau was assigned to handle a report of child rape and molestation out of SeaTac committed by 74-year-old Roy Lee Lesner on his granddaughter. Lesner’s daughter, in tears and visibly shaking while she spoke with detectives, reported that her 5-year-old daughter had told her about numerous sexual encounters she had been forced to engage in with her grandfather.

The child was interviewed by a Child Forensic Interview Specialist and confided to investigators that on numerous occasions since June of 2014 Lesner had performed oral sex on her and would often rub her private parts through her clothes. Lesner told the 5-year-old that these encounters were their “secret” and to never speak a word about them.

The next day Det. Gendreau and Det. Casey Emly went to Lesner’s home on the 20400 block of 7th Pl. S. in Des Moines to arrest him. Lesner did not answer the door the first time so detectives decided to try again an hour later.

For the past 75 years the Laurence Colman Pool in Lincoln Park has been tended by a member of the Sears family.

When the pool first opened in 1941 it was Norman Sears who was tapped by Mr. Colman himself to run the pool which had been built at Point Williams at a cost of $150,000. It replaced a swimming hole that had been there for years before. The Colman family later donated the pool to the City of Seattle.

Norman and his family lived on site, in the apartment above the office as he tended to the daily maintenance and seasonal ebbs and flows of the facility. Sears had a license to operate a steam boiler before, having worked at the Alki Bathhouse when it really was a bathhouse, renting out woolen bathing suits that were laundered there. Mr. Colman liked him, and out of field of 34, Sears got the job. He did it well for decades.

When the time came for Norman to retire in 1973, his son Mark was chosen to fill his shoes. And why not? He had already had years of on the job training. He learned how to deal with a cantankerous boiler, with leaky pipes,

Thursday, May 14

Fastpitch
Kennedy 21, Evergreen 0
Kennedy Catholic wrapped up an undefeated 14-0 Seamount League season with Thursday's win over an Evergreen team that is 6-8 and bound for the postseason as the league's No. 3 Class 2A team.
As the No. 1 3A team in the Seamount League, JFK will open the West Central District tournament with a 12 p.m. Friday, May 22 game against the Greater St. Helens No. 3 team at the Sprinker Recreation Center in Spanaway.
Evergreen will play at the same complex the same day, only at 10 a.m. against the South Puget Sound League's No. 3 Class 2A team.
Sammamish 25, Foster 0
Sammamish swamped the Bulldogs in a non-league game Thursday.

Boys soccer
Tyee 3, North Kitsap 0
Tyee will play for the West Central District's 2A title after Thursday's victory at North Kitsap.
The Totems meet Liberty for a 7 p.m. Saturday game at Franklin Pierce High School in Parkland.
Kennedy 5, Columbia River 2
Kennedy Catholic advance to the 3A West Central District final by outgunning Columbia River at the Kiggins Bowl in Vancouver on Thursday.

Courtesy article by Gerardo Bolong

PUYALLUP - Under gray skies and persistent rain showers, the Seattle Christian softball team added extra sunshine to its season by clinching the 2015 Nisqually 1A championship in a 16-0 walloping of Cascade Christian in five innings on Tues., May 12.

SC will open district action on May 23 in an 11 a.m. game at the Sprinker Recreation Center in Spanaway against the winner of Olympic #3 and Nisqually #2, but will stay active with non-league home games against Seamount League champion 3A Kennedy Catholic (May 14) and Seamount second place 2A Highline (May 19).

Seattle Christian (7-1 league) wielded heavy hitting hammers immediately against Cascade Christian.
Leadoff hitter Kelli Ronish bunted herself on base to open the proceedings. Lisa Kumasaka doubled deeply to center field, positioning runners on second and third bases, respectively. Up came Carlee Ronish, who reached base on an infield throwing error as two runs scored.

Washington state continued to be a pioneer in the fight to combat human trafficking today when Gov. Jay Inslee signed Senate Bill 5884, legislation creating a human trafficking information clearing house and activating the former Washington State Task Force on the Trafficking of Persons.

“In order to stop the scourge of human trafficking in our state, we need a coordinated and unified response,” said Sen. Jeanne Kohl-Welles, D-Seattle, prime sponsor of the legislation. “There are many groups working hard to combat human trafficking. With this legislation, it is my hope that they can all put their heads together, share resources and work together as a team to end this despicable practice.”

SB 5884 establishes a single point of contact within the State Office of Crime Victims Advocacy in the Department of Commerce for advocacy groups and service providers. The clearing house serves as a pool of information so trafficking survivors and citizens can access the most comprehensive and current information regarding statewide efforts to curb trafficking.

By Kyra-lin Hom

In my graduate degree program, I've been studying topics like national, domestic and homeland security – you know, light reading. So far the only truth that holds across all of these fields is that the nuances are complex, opaque and so convoluted that the extent of my learning at this point is basically grasping just how much I don't know. And that's only one specific area of government.

I'm, arguably, an adult. I file my own taxes. I started a company with a group of friends. I moved away from home, am getting married this summer, and even officially now have my own health insurance (let me tell you how much fun getting Obamacare was not). Yet, embroiled as I am in the cogs of my own life, I don't know the names of my mayor or governor off the top of my head. I don't know the identity of my congressman/woman. I can't even name with full confidence the positions of the President's cabinet.

By Amanda Knox

West Seattlite Wonder Russell's new short film See You On the Other Side is about a depressed, reclusive, recently-widowed young woman who attempts to bring her dead husband back to this side of life by any means necessary.

Russell wrote the script in response to observing her mother after the death of her father. "It was world ending," says Russell. "It was like living in an alternate reality that you don't want so hard that you don't want to be alive."

Russell built a story featuring retreat, recreation, and redemption. The young widow retreats from the reality of life without her husband by altering that reality using living elements immediately around her. But at what expense? And are there better, more life-affirming alternatives to the young widow's desperate and supernatural attempt to reshape life itself? These are the questions that the film promises to tackle.

Sad news arrived in the form of “permanently closed” signs adorning the windows of Zoopa Organics in Tukwila earlier this week. The restaurant, located at 393 Strander Blvd. across from the Westfield Southcenter Mall, was one of the first, and still one of the few, all-you-can-eat buffets to offer mostly organic ingredients.

“In the 18 months since we took over Zoopa we have made significant progress and learned more than we knew we needed to. But, the landlord has other plans. Restaurants are a risk for landlords and one they are not willing to shoulder given the looming threat of forced wage increases which render restaurants unprofitable,” wrote the owners on their website, eatzoopa.com, of the closing.

According to the owners the closing was unexpected and the decision by the landlord came last weekend.

Zoopa was previously operated by a California company called Fresh Choice which shut down the franchise in 2012. Local entrepreneur Jerrod Sessler, a former NASCAR driver in the Northwest Series and a Stage IV Melanoma cancer survivor, bought the franchise and reopened it in January of 2014 as Zoopa Organics.

BURIEN, WASH. – The City of Burien has hired Soojin Kim to serve as its next City Attorney. She will replace the services provided by Kenyon Disend, PLLC, a municipal law firm which assisted the City on an interim basis after Craig Knutson’s retirement on October 15th. Kim comes from a professional background that includes a depth of public sector experience as well as private practice at the law firm of Graham & Dunn. She began her legal career at the Washington State Attorney General’s Office as Assistant Attorney General. She has been Assistant City Attorney at the City of Everett and for the past seven years, Senior Port Counsel at the Port of Seattle.

At the Port, Kim advised on the Northeast Redevelopment Area (NERA) – a significant public works, economic development, and environmental project for which Burien partnered with the Port.

Burien, WA– All schools in Highline Public Schools will be closed on May 21 due to a teacher walkout.

The Highline Education Association (HEA)—the teachers’ union—has voted to participate in a one-day walkout on May 21. Highline does not have enough substitute teachers to cover all classes that day, so school is cancelled on May 21.

Highline will make up the school day on May 26, the district’s scheduled snow make-up day.

HEA wrote in communication with its members, “The target of HEA’s May 21 Day of Action Walkout is the WA State Legislature, not the Highline School District.”