West Seattle, Washington
28 Thursday
2:17 AM: Almost a year and a half after former West Seattleite Amanda Knox‘s return home – an Italian court has just revived the case, by throwing out the verdict. Here’s the latest from the AP via our partners at The Seattle Times. This all comes a month before her book “Waiting to be Heard” is due out, and with it at least one network TV interview.
3:08 AM: Knox has issued a statement, the AP reports (added to the same link as above), in which she declares this development “painful.” (added) ITV has published her statement in full.
A Monday win for the West Seattle High School boys-varsity baseball team – 3-2, reports parent Greg Slader, who also shared the photos:
Sam Hellinger pitched a complete game with 7 strikeouts, one walk, and only three hits. Tim Adams supplied the Big Blast with a two-out, two-RBI single ripped down the right-field line.
West Seattle is now 2-0 in League play and heads to Ingraham on Wednesday for a 4 pm game.
Monday’s game was played at Steve Cox Memorial Park in White Center.
“The current situation raises serious concerns about Nickelsville’s ability to protect the health and safety of its residents.”
That was part of Mayor McGinn‘s response to WSB today, after we requested comment on the situation reported here on Sunday – centering on the encampment’s Central Committee declaring that it was having trouble “preventing the overrun of our community by meth dealers and barred, violent former campers,” blaming police for not supporting camp decisions to evict such people. Our story, meantime, included an incident one week ago in which the SPD report indeed quoted police saying that people on public land had no right to tell others to get off that public land – while also including a would-be evictee claiming they were getting booted for going to police about an alleged crime.
The mayor, meantime, says more police help is in order; the second and final sentence of his reply to us was, “The immediate next step is to increase our police presence through the use of directed patrols from the Southwest Precinct.” We hope to hear something about that when precinct commander Capt. Joe Kessler speaks to the West Seattle Block Watch Captains Network on Tuesday night (6:30 pm, SW Precinct, Delridge/Webster); then on Wednesday night, the Highland Park Action Committee, the neighborhood council closest to the encampment, plans a Nickelsville update during its regular monthly meeting (7 pm, HP Improvement Club, 12th/Holden).
It happened on Friday, but word is just now getting around: A federal ruling has in effect given the West Seattle-headquartered Duwamish Tribe another chance at federal recognition, something they have been seeking for more than 35 years. As reported today by Indianz.com, federal Judge John Coughenour has told the federal Bureau of Indian Affairs to re-evaluate the Duwamish petition. The tribe was on the brink of gaining recognition in the final days of the Clinton Administration in early 2001, but the incoming (George W.) Bush Administration reversed the decision. Our partners at The Seattle Times quote Duwamish Tribe chair Cecile Hansen as saying, “I’m in a delighted state of shock” about Friday’s decision. Case documents are linked here. (File photo of Cecile Hansen by Christopher Boffoli)
(Photo courtesy Coach Colin Slingsby)
It’s more than a sports camp – and it’s back for the 16th year. You can sign up now for the Sealth Basketball and Life Skills Camp, as announced by Chief Sealth International High School‘s Coach Colin Slingsby:
We are excited to host our 16th annual summer of Sealth Basketball and Life Skills camp at Chief Sealth International High School and Denny International Middle School this summer. Last year, we hosted more than 350 campers in our multiple sessions. The emphasis of our program is to teach the fundamentals of the game in part of a fun and competitive basketball experience, but also to emphasize the Life Skills necessary to be successful in school and life, both intellectually, and socially.
The camp is run by the coaching staff at Sealth with the help of many high school and college students who are put through a lengthy mentorship training in order to be prepared to work with our many campers. While we enjoy teaching the game of basketball and providing a positive week on the court, we pride ourselves on our Life Skills curriculum, which includes a classroom session daily, emphasizing the values of our program.
Camp runs from 9 am-4 pm each day, and each camper will receive a camp t-shirt and Camper Handbook which will include hand-outs and topics from our Life Skills classroom sessions. In addition, we are excited to offer an ‘Advanced Concepts’ session this year (August 19th-23rd). This session is geared toward campers 6th grade and up.
Brochure with further information and registration forms are available on the Chief Sealth International High School website link here. Contact Coach Colin Slingsby at caslingsby@seattleschools.org with any questions about the program.
That’s an award-winning photo titled “Withered Lotus,” the work of West Seattle High School photography student Hao Cheng. WSHS Art Department head Michelle Sloan shares the news that Hao received an Outstanding Achievement in Photography award at the Puget Sound Educational Service District’s Regional High School Art Show:
Hao accepted the award at a reception on Sunday. Congratulations!
P.S. You can see the entire art show online – photographs representing 96 entries – just go here.
Remember Alan Polevia, subject of an air and land manhunt centered in Shorewood on March 5th, resulting in school lockdowns, days after he escaped from custody while being taken to Harborview Medical Center – in handcuffs? He is back behind bars today, according to the King County Jail Register. Before his escape, he had been arrested on warrants related to theft allegations, and our research showed that in November 2006, he was found guilty of third-degree assault for a West Seattle incident involving him and his father getting kicked out of Poggie’s in The Junction, then going across the street and attacking a man outside Talarico’s with a beer bottle and a tire iron. Meantime, as for how he was caught this time around, Sgt. Cindi West from the King County Sheriff’s Office tells WSB this afternoon that last Friday night he was found “rummaging through a dumpster behind a building” in Burien. He at first told deputies his name was Alex Polevia; they used a photo and tattoo descriptions to identify him as Alan, at which time, deputies report, he “apologized for lying about his name.”
Bizarre arrest early this morning inside Yen Wor Village in The Admiral District, according to an SPD Blotter story by Jonah Spangenthal-Lee that you just have to read to believe – you can do that here.
(Monday morning submarine sighting with the Olympic Mountains as a backdrop, by Don Brubeck)
Relatively quiet day on the calendar. A few notes:
PASSOVER BEGINS: Tonight is the first night of the Jewish festival of freedom, Passover, which concludes April 2nd.
LEARN/PRACTICE SPANISH: Drop-in conversation class at the Senior Center of West Seattle (California/Oregon), 1 pm. Details here.
FAMILY STORY TIME: 7 pm at High Point Library (35th/Raymond). (Watch our calendar for other library story times around West Seattle throughout the week.)
TRIVIA/QUIZ: Three West Seattle venues offer it tonight – all listed on the calendar (mouse over and click the “plus” sign on the right side of any calendar line to see more information and the link to the full listing).
‘BANKERS CARE’ FOOD DRIVE: Through April 5th, drop off nonperishable food donations at Washington Federal, Dakota/California north of The Junction or California/Fauntleroy in Morgan Junction, which is part of the Bankers Care food drive for Northwest Harvest, which supplies local food banks.
ADDED: ANDREW’S LETTERMAN SPOTLIGHT *TONIGHT*: Update from the Metropolitan Market (WSB sponsor) PR team – CBS made a mistake when they announced over the weekend that national bagging champ Andrew Borracchini‘s appearance on The Late Show with David Letterman had been moved, so it’s now back to TONIGHT (Monday).
With the Seattle School Board approving the architect contract for the new Arbor Heights Elementary earlier this month, and opening set for fall 2016, it’s time for a community Design Advisory Team to be formed – and the call for applications has just gone out on the school website. The open letter from principal Christy Collins says in part:
The Design Advisory Team will be composed of current Arbor Heights staff and families as well as neighborhood residents. Our goal is to form a working team of 10-12 individuals who can commit to six formal meetings over the course of April and May and two additional future meetings.
The meeting schedule is part of her letter; the application is here, and needs to be in by April 2nd.
Since its new school is being built on the same site as the deteriorating old one, Arbor Heights is expected to move to the Boren building on Delridge starting in fall 2014, SPS spokesperson Tom Redman tells WSB, remaining there for the two school years prior to the opening of the new building. The new K-5 STEM school is there now, with no timeline for a decision on its permanent home, but the Boren campus has room for hundreds more students, and improvements are planned this summer. The school board’s Executive Committee was briefed on those improvements last week; Redman says they would include:
1) seismic strengthening in the form of shear walls and roof-to-wall braces;
2) completion of the upgrades to finishes in the north wing;
3) selective demolition and “tenant improvements” for two child care rooms and Arbor Heights;
4) replacement of all exterior doors and hardware
P.S. If you’d like to know more about how a school Design Team is supposed to work – its part of the in-depth district manual.
Just announced by the Sanislo Elementary PTA:
Our Principal, Ernie Seevers, will be retiring at the end of this year, and the school community has begun a transition process for transitioning to new leadership. There are hiring committees meeting in the next few weeks to recommend a candidate to Superintendent Banda for hiring. Carmela Dellino, our West Seattle executive director for schools, has met with our staff to hear their ideas about the skills and strengths that they believe the new leader at Sanislo will need, and she would like to do the same with families. She has scheduled a meeting at Sanislo Tuesday (TOMORROW) at 3:40 to talk with you. Please make a point to come in and meet with other families and share in a conversation with Ms Dellino. Your thoughts are important and valuable in this process. Children are, of course very welcome to attend with you, and we’ll also have supervised play for the children that don’t like meetings.
For your traffic-alert radar (we’ll link this atop the BIG STORIES list in our sidebar, too, as we always do with major traffic/weather alerts) – WSDOT is reminding everyone this morning of northbound I-5 lane closures between South Spokane St. and Albro Place the next two weekends – at least two lanes closed at a time for expansion-joint work, which means you’ll want to avoid that stretch of the freeway if you can. Details are here.
(Live view from the east-facing WS Bridge camera; see other cameras on the WSB Traffic page)
6:33 AM: Nothing out of the ordinary reported on the roads right now, but if you use Washington State Ferries out of Fauntleroy, some early-morning runs were canceled because of what WSF described via e-mail alerts as “staffing issues.” WSF says everything will be back on schedule – the spring schedule that took effect yesterday – as of the 6:40 am run.
6:59 AM: Paul reports a RapidRide bus stalled on northbound California just north of Fauntleroy, sharing the photo you see above (thanks!).
7:09 AM: Bus has moved along, per commenter SeaChanty51 (thanks for the update!).
(WSB video of Mudhoney at WS Summer Fest, July 2009)
Were you at Mudhoney‘s legendary West Seattle Summer Fest performance in 2009? The band is coming back to the West Seattle Junction for an in-store performance at Easy Street Records on April 1st, according to an announcement on the Easy Street website, dated Saturday and shared late last night by the Junction Association via Facebook. Almost looked like an April Fool’s joke if you check the ESR Twitter stream – but it’s also on the Mudhoney website, scheduled at 8 pm one week from tonight. (And the poster’s on Mudhoney’s Twitter feed.) We hope to find out more from ESR today.
8:28 AM UPDATE: Easy Street’s Rod Moody tells WSB it really is true – and they’ll have even more information on their social-media channels today (Facebook here, Twitter here).
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.
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.)
Read More
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.
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.)
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:
(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
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.)
(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!
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.
| 18 COMMENTS