March 2016

By Tim Clinton
SPORTS EDITOR

High schools
Baseball
Tyee hosts Highline for a 3:30 p.m. game Wednesday as Foster goes to Hazen, Evergreen to Lindbergh and West Seattle to Eastside Catholic.
At 4 p.m. Wednesday Chief Sealth will host Blanchet and Mount Rainier will entertain Federal Way, then at 6:30 p.m. Seattle Lutheran plays Muckleshoot Tribal at the Southwest Athletic Complex.
Federal Way turns around to host Mount Rainier at 4 p.m. Thursday and Seattle Lutheran travels to Mount Rainier Lutheran at 3:30 p.m.
Foster plays a 3:30 p.m. home game against Evergreen on Friday as Highline hosts Hazen, Tyee travels to Renton and Chief Sealth goes to Nathan Hale.
West Seattle visits Ballard at 3:45 p.m.
Evergreen entertains Forks for an 11 a.m. double-header Saturday and Monday's schedule has Kennedy at Tyee, Highline at Evergreen and Foster at Lindbergh at 3:30 p.m. and O'Dea at Chief Sealth at 4 p.m.
The schedule for 3:30 p.m. Tuesday has Highline at Foster, Lindbergh at Tyee, Hazen at Kennedy and Evergreen at Renton.
Mount Rainier hosts Decatur at 4 p.m. that day.

After 30 years in Ballard, Anthony’s Homeport Shilshole Bay at 6135 Seaview Ave. N.W. closed on Easter Sunday, March 27.

Loved by many fishermen and local patrons, the scenic spot has been operating for the last 30 years.

A good crowd gathered in the restaurant Easter night. Many patrons and employees expressed sadness for the closure. Some diners reported that they had been coming to the restaurant since the late 80s.

Bill and Maureen McMurray have been coming to Anthony’s Homeport Shilshole Bay for the last 30 years. They were married 32 years ago and have continued to celebrate special occasions at Anthony’s. The Ballard News-Tribune caught them having one last cocktail on the patio overlooking Puget Sound as rain clouds moved across the sky at sunset.

Anthony’s staff took food and drink orders until about 9 p.m. The restaurant closed early for a final staff goodbye party.

Anthony’s had a 30-year lease when they opened so many years ago and that location was their fifth in the region. According to Lane Hoss, Vice President of Marketing for Anthony’s Home Port, the move will allow the company to refocus their efforts on their other locations.

By Gwen Davis

Note: Previous coverage of this story was reported by Q13 Fox News.

Nick Cummings, West Seattle resident, has been missing for 14 years. His family and police are hoping that the greater community has clues as to his whereabouts.

Nick went missing on May 14, 2002.

His sister, Emily Cummings, described Nick as someone who had a great sense of humor, made everyone laugh and “lived life to the fullest” according to previous Q13 coverage.

Nick was the youngest of three Cummings children.

Nick was reported missing after telling his girlfriend, Jana Freda, that’d he’d be back in 15 minutes, according to Q13.

“He left and never returned,” said Seattle Police Det. Michael Ciesynski.

Det. Ciesynski took over the investigation three years ago.

Police recovered Nick's vehicle, but there wasn’t much evidence for police to use. His cell phone and pager didn’t come up with many leads or answers.

To the Editor:
I liked Pat Robinson’s article in the March 18, 2016 Westside Weekly on “Make up your own mind.” I would like to expand on the idea. “We are drowning in data yet starving for information” as many different people have said. How do we cut through all the chatter, newscasts, newspapers, emails, and so on, such that we can make sense of anything, let all of it? The Foundation of Critical Thinking (http://www.creativethinking.org) offers an approach called Universal Intellectual Standards and some questions that we can use to think about them.
Clarity: is the message clear? Do I understand it? Would an example help me to understand? Would anything help me understand it?

Accuracy: is the message true? How might it be supported, justified, confirmed, or falsified?
Precision: Is the message precise or specific, or it is more of an abstract generality with little meaning?
Depth: does the message cover the topic in sufficient depth or does it just provide a high-level perspective that while interesting may be essentially meaningless?

Breadth: does the message cover the topic in sufficient breadth or does it just provide a narrow perspective?

By Pat Cashman

Many years ago, my pop decided to take my brothers and me to a big, organized Easter egg hunt. Colored eggs had been hidden all over a city park in our small town---including one gold egg. The kid that found it was to receive a fabulous prize---perhaps candy for life. Plus a gift certificate for unlimited orthodontia.
The huge throng of kids, including my brothers and me, were lined up on various starting lines. Everyone was staggered several feet apart so that the littlest kids would get a head start over bigger ones. That meant the youngest kids---say, under a foot high---were placed in front, while the older kids---say, those with beards and tattoos---were placed in the back.

But when the starting whistle was blown, the big kids ferociously bounded past the tiny ones---like sharks elbowing their way through a school of minnows. (If sharks had elbows, the preceding simile would have been brilliant.)
The scene was straight out of “Lord of the Flies.” Kids were crying, rolling, screaming, kicking, wailing and punching---in perfect imitation of their parents.

Before winning the Washington State Democratic Party caucus last Saturday, Bernie Sanders drummed up support across the state, and at least two Seattle maritime unions backed Bernie.

Inlandboatmen's Union (IBU) of the Pacific and International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) held a conference on Thursday March 24 at the ILWU Local 19 hiring hall, and union representatives confirmed their endorsement for the Vermont senator. Both unions have been early supporters of Sanders.

ILWU represents close to 50,000 people who work in Alaska, California Hawaii, Oregon and Washington. IBU represents 4,000 merchant mariner and shoreside workers in the maritime industry from Alaska to Hawaii in towing and freight.

Many Ballardites know that the IBU national office is at Fishermen’s Terminal. IBU representative, Terri Mast, said when it came down to supporting Sanders, he was the obvious choice over former Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton.

Information provided by the City of Seattle

Thanks to voter approval of Transit Proposition 1, today Mayor Murray and transit supporters celebrated the first day of expanded weekday Metro bus service in neighborhoods across Seattle. In just nine months, since the first round of Proposition 1 funded investments hit the street last summer, Seattle has seen the largest increase in transit service in more than 40 years.

“Thanks to the voters, today more than 70 percent of Seattle residents live within a short walk of frequent bus service,” said Mayor Ed Murray. “Taking the bus has never been more reliable and convenient. Improved RapidRide service to Ballard and West Seattle, as well as bus only lanes through South Lake Union, are transforming the commute for thousands of workers.”

By Amanda Knox

A memory can be visceral. It can feel heavy, like the lead capes dentists drape over you when they’re taking X-rays. It can make your tongue feel thick and pasty, like you could choke on it. It can make your neck feel constricted, like you’re drowning. It can feel like a thunderstorm in your brain—sluggish and angry cumulonimbus dragging through each other, lightning striking.

That’s how I feel. On the first anniversary of my definitive acquittal, what first comes to mind isn’t the moment of watching the tiny live-streaming window on my laptop and hearing the incredulous correspondent report the good news from immediately outside the Italian Supreme Court. It isn’t the way my family and friends cried out in relief and surprise and joy for the end of persecution, the end of pain.
What comes to mind, instead, is the memory of one of my cellmates, we’ll call her Bernadette, sitting on her bunk across from me, tearing out page after page of my journal and shredding them, until there was nothing left.

So as you’d have it, I recently turned 30.

Of course, with such a development, there were consequences: the all-night carousing has less appeal, the eyes have narrowed slightly, lines are appearing stubbornly in the my brow, my body is sore for days when I fall… I fart more, etcetera.

These things weigh heavily on a man’s heart. The Door’s Jim Morrison once told a crowd to meditate on their eventual end before a famous performance of the “The End.” I guess that’s the crux of it: a finish to this life. Meditate on it. Think about it.

If you think long enough certain questions arise between heart palpitations and flashes of white light, vast nothingness and being born again: Am I happy? Is what I’m doing worth it? Is there a value to how I’m occupying my time during this short visit to Earth? Do I like this bearded longhaired man in the mirror staring stark naked back at me at 6:31 a.m. on a Thursday morning?

“Keep doing what you’re doing, and the money will come. Follow your passion,” my woman-friend says to me.