September 2016

By Sarah Cecil

October is Financial Planning Month. And now that you know it’s Financial Planning Month (just in case you didn’t know before), why not take the opportunity to determine if you’re on the right path toward meeting your financial goals? 
Consider taking these steps: 
• Identify your goals. To know if you’re making progress toward your goals, you first have to identify them. Of course, you’ll have a variety of goals in life, such as helping pay for your children’s college educations. More than likely, though, your most important long-term financial goal is to build enough resources to enjoy the retirement lifestyle you’ve envisioned. But we all have different ideas for how we want to spend our retirement years. Some of us may want to stay close to home, volunteering and pursuing our hobbies, while others want to visit the vineyards of Bordeaux or explore the pyramids of Egypt. So, name your goals and, as much as possible, put a price tag on them. Once you know about how much your retirement is going to cost, you can create an investment strategy that may ultimately provide you with the income you will need.  


The National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences has announced nominees for the National Student Production Awards. These nominees were selected from winners at regional Emmy Awards ceremonies across the country. Four productions by students in Ballard High School’s Digital Filmmaking Program won top prizes in the five-state Northwest Region last June. Three of these have now been nominated at the national level.

Nominated for best Short Form Fiction is The Dragon’s Lair by PJ Hase, Jonny Cechony & Ellie Clarrissimeaux. Today by Coleman Andersen, PJ Hase and Bergen Johnson is nominated for best Music Video, and Miles Andersen, Emily Black, Sophie DeGreen, Jesse Romero & Sho Schrock are nominated for best Editor for their work on Hologram. All these productions can be viewed on the Digital Filmmaking Program’s vimeo page at www.vimeo.com/bhsfilmprogram .

West Seattle Hi-Yu, a non-profit organization, established in 1934 by West Seattle's service clubs to produce a summer festival to promote the West Seattle Community and whose royalty and volunteers have served the community for those 82 years may be dissolved. Perhaps the victim of changing times, the organizations history of talent shows, Spring Tea's, queens and princesses as part of Seattle's Seafair celebration has seen diminishing support and declining membership. Hi-Yu President Jay Murray and wife Joanne Murray shared a public announcement on the future status of the organization:

"The newly elected West Seattle Hi-Yu, Inc. officers on the board have decided to not have the Hi-Yu float go to the Issaquah Salmon Days parade on Oct. 1st and discontinue attending the Fauntleroy Fall festival and Alaska Junction Fall festival and not have any of the Jr. Court, Teen Ambassador or Sr. court scholarship programs this upcoming year.

information from the City of Seattle

The City of Seattle has appointed seven members and re-appointed the eight existing members to the Seattle Youth Commission. The appointments occurred at a special City Council Committee meeting held at 4:00 p.m. to accommodate the schedules of the students.

Appointed by the Mayor and Seattle City Council, the 15 youth commissioners work with elected officials, city staff, community leaders, and young people citywide to make positive changes in their communities through policy, organizing, and events. In addition to representing youth across the city, commissioners receive hands-on experience in the public sector and learn how to cultivate the youth voice in city policy.

Youth Commissioners serve a two-year term and meet on the 1st and 3rd Wednesdays from 4:00—6:00 pm in Seattle City Hall. Members represent each of the seven Council Districts, and there are eight at-large positions.

The Youth Commissioners for 2016-17 are:

By Lindsay Peyton

Before a new master plan for the King County International Airport can prepare for take off, staff members are seeking public input.

The first of a number of community meetings was held tonight at the airport, also known as Boeing Field, located at 7277 Perimeter Rd S.

Gary Molyneaux, airport planner, said that the time is right for taking a thorough look at the facility, which is one of the busiest primary non-hub airports in the nation, averaging around 200,000 takeoffs and landings each year.

“Our last master plan was adopted in 2004,” Molyneaux said. “We just need to bring the project back online. We have changed so much in the past 12 years.”

He explained that corporate use of the airport has increased over the years. “The recreational flying is down,” he said. “That’s been going on for quite a while. It was hit hard in the 2008 recession – and it’s been a long time in recovery.”

Still, the 74 hangars at the airport are 100 percent leased – and Molyneaux wants the facility to be prepared for future growth.

By Lindsay Peyton

As the sun started to set on Delridge Way SW this evening, a few last plumes of smoke arose from the Lam Bow Apartment complex. Exhausted firefighters loaded back into their engines, and police officers continued to guide traffic around the blocked off street.

Parked in the middle of the thoroughfare was a Metro bus – surrounded by Red Cross volunteers.

Families with suitcases were loading up inside. A few others waited nearby, planning their next moves.

The rooftops from the apartment building were missing in places, where earlier in the afternoon flames had licked their ways up and left destruction in their path.

Seattle Fire Department public information officer Lieutenant Harold Webb said calls started coming in around 2:30 p.m. today reporting the three-alarm fire.

Webb said that in total, 122 firefighters were on the scene. “It started on the back side of the building and climbed up to the attic space,” he said. “There was significant damage.”

He estimated that 22 to 25 units were affected. A fire watch crew will stay on the property overnight – and investigators will resume their search tomorrow.

A major apartment fire damaging as many as 25 units in the Lam Bow apartment complex at 6955 Delridge Way SW displaced residents and did extensive damage but no one was hurt according to the Seattle Fire Department. Seattle Police ran into the building and quickly evacuated people, likely sparing them injury or worse according to the Seattle Fire Department.

Buliding B on the west side of the complex was the one involved.

Firefighters got the call around 2:36pm of flames and smoke coming from the building.

Seattle Fire public information officer Harold Webb said, "First in units reported heavy smoke. They made a rapid attack on the inside and realized the fire had gotten ahead of them, immediately called for a 211 response. The fact that we needed rehab people and others meant it went to a 311. 15 engine companies and 7 truck companies on scene with roughly 122 firefighters."

Webb, responding to a question why the extension ladder mounted hoses were not being used said,

Attempted assault with paintball gun on a child

By Amanda Knox

Last week Chris and I threw a housewarming party. It used to be that a couple didn’t move in together until they were married and ready to start a family. In the 1950s, my Oma lived in an all-female dormitory, and only came into contact with men her age at specially organized dances, like the one where she met my Opa. Social norms loosened up significantly by the 1980s, but my mom was still living with her sister prior to getting married and moving in with my dad.

Back then, a housewarming party was like a baby shower. It was expected that the new couple needed furnishings and housewares. Furthermore, it used to be much more common that couples settled into their new homes for the long run. Even if they couldn’t afford to buy their house yet, they were investing themselves in a community. They could expect that their future kids would be riding bikes and building forts with the other kids on the block.

By Pat Cashman

Merriam-Webster defines water as “The clear liquid that has no color, taste or smell that falls from clouds as rain that forms streams, lakes and seas, and that is used for drinking, washing, etc.”

In college, our dorm defined it as “A substance found in beer.”
Water is a pretty big deal, it seems---whether expectorated, perspired, peed or cried out.
And we gotta have it. Often.
After all, some people have been known to survive two weeks or more without food. For example, I can go a very long time without kale, lutefisk or pig’s feet.

Perhaps only a handful of men can last three weeks without a TV remote---except during the Seahawks season when some have perished in the middle of long commercial breaks.

But next to air---which all but pearl divers, cattle auctioneers and infomercial spokespeople need frequently---most people can’t go much beyond 3 or 4 days without guzzling some H2o.