West Seattle, Washington

18 Thursday

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day : 24/03/2013 11 results

Update: ‘Best Bagger’ Andrew Borracchini’s Letterman appearance
March 24, 2013 9:47 pm
|    Comments Off on Update: ‘Best Bagger’ Andrew Borracchini’s Letterman appearance
 |   West Seattle news | West Seattle people

SUNDAY NIGHT: Proud family, friends, and fans will have to wait one extra night to see national grocery-bagging champ Andrew Borracchini on “The Late Show with David Letterman” – there’s late word that the show schedule now has the Metropolitan Market (WSB sponsor) team member appearing Tuesday night (March 26th), *not* Monday as first announced. Still 11:35 pm, Channel 7.

MONDAY MORNING: The Metropolitan Market PR folks now say there’s word CBS made a mistake in that revised schedule and that Andrew will now be on TONIGHT, as previously announced.

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Trouble at ‘Nickelsville’ encampment: Central Committee says it’s ‘on the brink,’ ‘overrun,’ alleges police inaction
March 24, 2013 8:24 pm
|      82 COMMENTS
 |   Nickelsville encampment | West Seattle news | West Seattle police

By Tracy Record
West Seattle Blog editor

As the encampment that calls itself “Nickelsville” nears the second anniversary of its unauthorized yet unchallenged return to the southeastern West Seattle site where it began, its Central Committee says the camp is “overrun” with troublemakers.

This follows a bizarre situation that unfolded at the West Marginal Way/Highland Park Way Southwest site this weekend.

It was first detailed in the WSB Forums, where some members have long been encampment volunteers/donors (and one is a former resident), and then in an open letter signed by Nickelsville’s “Central Committee.”

The Forums post began with a report that the porta-potties at the encampment – their only toilet facilities, since the city has refused requests to hook up water or other utilities – had been removed on Friday, and that the order had come from the camp’s “staff person,” Scott Morrow, over an “internal management issue.”

To check out the situation, we went by Nickelsville Saturday morning and noted the porta-potties back, with the Honey Bucket truck still there; we took this cameraphone photo:

Participants in the Forums discussion who had ties to the camp confirmed the return. We weren’t sure it was a story until we were pointed to this open letter, posted Saturday on the open “official Nickelsville Facebook group” Nickelsville Works and also shared with us by a source who had received it via e-mail:

Yesterday afternoon, per the instruction of We, the Nickelsville Central Committee of 3/20/13, Porta Pottie Service was withdrawn at Nickelsville. IT WILL RETURN THIS AFTERNOON.

The reason for this decision was our inability at Nickelsville in preventing the overrun of our community by meth dealers and barred, violent former campers. Progress was made yesterday, but the situation is still teetering on the brink.

The basis for this problem with barred campers returning and raising havoc is the failure of the Seattle Police Department to treat our community like ANY of the other organized shelters and encampments in Seattle.

(The open letter continues after the jump, along with information we have researched about police/encampment interaction, including a report we have found about one recent specific incident.)
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West Seattle schools: Chinese-language competition @ Denny/Sealth
March 24, 2013 7:12 pm
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 |   West Seattle news | West Seattle schools | WS culture/arts

Big competition at the Denny/Sealth campus today, in an academic/cultural area in which both schools take great pride. Denny principal Jeff Clark shares the photos and this report:

Chief Sealth International High School and Denny International Middle School were proud to host today the 4th annual Chinese Exploration Scholastic Competition 2013 华盛顿州中文学艺竞赛.

This event, which was sponsored by the Confucius Institute of the State of Washington, was a venue for students from around the region to come together to share their knowledge of Chinese language. More than 110 schools with students in grades K-12 were represented today, competing in multiple events. Randy Dorn, State Superintendent of Public Instruction, congratulated all the student participants and thanked the 93 volunteers who helped to organize it all:

I would like to extend a special thank you and congratulations to Denny and Sealth Chinese teachers Ms. Lin, Ms. Wang, and Ms. Li, and the 83 scholars from Denny and Sealth who participated today!

This page on the Confucius Institute website shows the categories in which the students competed.

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West Seattle native’s poem ‘Time Machine’: Just watch it
March 24, 2013 4:56 pm
|      10 COMMENTS
 |   West Seattle news | West Seattle people | WS culture/arts

WSB reader Marcia sent us the link to that poem video recently, with no explanation other than saying poet Austin Mansell‘s parents are friends of hers from West Seattle and she thought it was a “wonderful poem” worth sharing with WSB-land. After watching it, we knew she was right. There’s a twist, so we’re not including “spoilers”; after watching it, if you are interested in finding out more about the author/reader and why he wrote it, click here to read what he told us when we contacted him to find out more. (Turns out he too is a West Seattle native.)

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West Seattle Crime Watch: Cars hit; cars prowled; more
March 24, 2013 1:29 pm
|      33 COMMENTS
 |   Crime | West Seattle news

Three West Seattle Crime Watch reports this afternoon, starting with an early-morning crash that left a trail of damage, reports a resident who didn’t want to be identified. It happened around 3 am in the 3800 block of California:

Police responded last night. 5 parked cars damaged, here [photo above] is the worst. … I am told by resident the perp could not drive away and was arrested.

Blocks to the north, from someone else who did not want to be identified (though they have reported this to police):

Just wanted to let you know that last night two young adults, possibly teenagers, were going through cars and stealing items last night around 10 pm on the 3000 block of 45th Ave SW. They were wearing black with hooded sweatshirts and backpacks. They escaped on foot and police searched the neighborhood. They were not able to find them.

We had a few items taken from our car. This morning I also noticed items from other cars on 45th in the street. This is the second time this month we have had our car ransacked.

One more report ahead, with a photo – a car whose driver is reported to have followed a young woman for blocks on Friday:

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West Seattle schools: World Water Week’s finale at Sealth
March 24, 2013 12:49 pm
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 |   Environment | West Seattle news | West Seattle schools

(First 3 photos by WSB co-publisher Patrick Sand)
This past Friday was World Water Day, all around the planet. And at Chief Sealth International High School, it wasn’t just WWD, but also the finale of the third annual World Water Week “ideas festival,” a weeklong focus on water issues global and local. One of many workshops presented to, and with, students on Friday is the subject of our first three photos. West Seattleite Tiffany Silver-Brace had e-mailed to let us know that her company, Seattle BioMed, would be making presentations to students about “aquatic insects (mainly mosquitoes) and the diseases that they carry. We will be focusing on the malaria burden worldwide and how to keep mosquito breeding sites (i.e. stagnant water) under control.” They brought mosquito specimens as well as microscopes to show the students “real malaria parasites.” Tiffany is at right in the photo below, with Jen Hume, who led the Sealth presentations:

Tiffany also told us that Seattle BioMed’s BioQuest program “hosts local high schools and conducts lab tours, global education and hands-on science…including mosquito dissections! It’s an amazing program run by amazing people for a great cause: global health and getting high school-ers excited about science.” At Sealth, they brought along free insect-swatters:

Before the day full of special events on Friday, Wednesday and Thursday included sanitation education for Sealth’s 1300-plus students, both local and global:

That’s Casey Plank from King County Wastewater Treatment Division, which basically is responsible for what happens after you flush; social-studies teacher Noah Zeichner, WWW organizer, shared the photo. And these are just the tip of the (frozen water) iceberg of what happened at the school all week long, and in preparation. They have a donation campaign going too, to help ensure ongoing education of the issues that affect billions of people worldwide – you can chip in here. Some of the other Sealth WWW coverage included:
*WSB report on keynote speaker Jack Sim from the World Toilet Organization, who spoke at the school Tuesday
*Seattle Globalist‘s report about World Water Week @ Sealth
*WSB coverage of Sealth students’ challenge to actor and water-issues advocate Matt Damon

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More champions! Congratulations to Delridge’s 11-year-olds
March 24, 2013 12:24 pm
|      1 COMMENT
 |   West Seattle news | WS & Sports

Thanks to Paul Hamaker for sharing the photo; after seeing this mention of the 11-year-old girls’ all-Hiawatha citywide basketball championship game, he sent a note to report “that the boys 11-year-old team from Delridge also won their championship game yesterday, beating Jefferson 28-25 at Rainier CC.” Congratulations to them too!

(P.S. – Thank you to EVERYONE who shares youth-sports photos/reports/tips [as well as the many other types of news reported on WSB] – there’s so much going on in youth sports, that updates from parents and coaches are the best way to let us know what’s up so we can share the news with tens of thousands of your neighbors! E-mail editor@westseattleblog.com any time.)

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5 calendar highlights for the rest of your West Seattle Sunday
March 24, 2013 10:06 am
|      5 COMMENTS
 |   West Seattle news | WS miscellaneous

(Spring = animal babies! WSB photo from Saturday’s Merrill Gardens-Admiral Heights [sponsor] pop-up petting zoo)
Quick highlight roundup before the morning gets too much farther along (but please remember that the WSB West Seattle Event Calendar is there for you 24/7 source any time you want to browse what’s up for the current day or days/weeks/months ahead):

AIKIDO ANNIVERSARY: Aikido of West Seattle celebrates its 25th anniversary today with refreshments and musical performances, 12:30-4 pm. Details and map here.

‘SHIFT CHANGE’: Free showing of the new locally produced documentary, 2:30 pm at the West Seattle (Admiral) Library (2306 42nd SW) – more info in this WSB Forums post.

NEW DAY/TIME FOR WEST SEATTLE COOKING CLUB: The club for people who love preparing and sharing recipes – with a theme for each meeting – has moved to Sunday afternoons, twice monthly, as we reported earlier this week. At 3 pm today, you can join them at Beveridge Place Pub, with a recipe featuring breakfast cereal.

ARTISTS’ TRUNK SHOW: Edie’s Shoes in The Junction is hosting two artists, handmade toddler apparel and jewelry, 5-8 pm, with refreshments – details here.

CLASSICAL ENSEMBLE AT KENYON HALL: Trio Pardalote performs tonight at 7:30 pm – details here.

Remember the eastbound bridge’s ramps to northbound I-5 and Beacon Hill are still closed. Have a great Sunday!

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Washington State Ferries now sailing on the spring schedule
March 24, 2013 4:00 am
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 |   Seen at sea | Transportation | West Seattle news

As of today, weekends will include three-boat service for eight hours each day on the Fauntleroy-Vashon-Southworth route of Washington State Ferries. That’s part of the spring schedule that has just taken effect as of this morning. Here’s the overview of changes on other routes; find the spring-schedule links here.

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West Seattle sports: Congratulations, U-11 girls basketball top 2!
March 24, 2013 1:44 am
|      1 COMMENT
 |   West Seattle news | West Seattle parks | WS & Sports

Thanks to Mike Jensen for sharing that photo and the story behind it:

It was all West Seattle (Saturday) afternoon in the Seattle Parks & Recreation U11 Girls basketball championship game. Hiawatha (green) won a close game over Hiawatha (white). Great season by all the girls!

The Parks/Rec Citywide Athletics programs span a variety of sports/age groups – find out more here.

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West Seattle High School takes the (Safeco) Field
March 24, 2013 1:30 am
|      1 COMMENT
 |   West Seattle news | West Seattle schools | WS & Sports

West Seattle High School‘s varsity baseball team spent sunny Saturday afternoon at The Safe, in the opening weekend of the High School Baseball Classic. Team parent Greg Slader shares the photo and this report:

Perfect day for a game at Safeco Field. The West Seattle baseball team got to enjoy fantastic weather and playing on their Field of Dreams. Unfortunately, the mighty Kentridge 4A proved to be too much, as West Seattle lost 5-11.

Next game is Monday 3:30 at Steve Cox Field in White Center, against Seattle Prep.

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