month : 03/2014 336 results

Three reports in West Seattle Crime Watch today, starting with this just in from SPD Blotter – heard snippets on the scanner overnight but now the police have a full report:

On March 2nd at approximately 12:57 a.m. officers responded to the report of an armed robbery of a citizen near California Avenue SW and SW Dakota Street. Preliminary investigation indicates that a man and a woman were walking on California Avenue SW when two black male suspects in their 20′s approached them. One of the suspects brandished a handgun and robbed the victims of their cell phone, money, purse, wallet and ipad.

The suspects then fled the scene running northbound in the alley on the west side of California Avenue SW. A witness saw a black male get into the front passenger seat of a white Lexus sedan. The Lexus was last seen driving eastbound from SW Bradford Street and California Avenue SW. The suspect vehicle is further described as a white Lexus 4-door sedan with gold trim and Washington plates. There are no further suspect descriptions available at this time. The suspects and suspect vehicle remain at large.

Anyone with information about this incident or who may know the identities or whereabouts of the suspects or suspect vehicle is asked to call 911 or Seattle Police and refer to this incident. Anonymous tips are welcome.

Speaking of cars – for the second time in two weeks, someone has taken Trevor‘s car:

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West Seattle Crime Watch: More charges for Nicholas Broughton, now out; judge refuses to raise bail

| Crime | West Seattle news

By Tracy Record
West Seattle Blog editor

Two more charges have been filed against 32-year-old Nicholas Broughton (right), the repeat offender arrested one month ago after stealing an SUV in Tacoma, getting detected by LoJack here in West Seattle – drawing the Guardian One helicopter (whose crew published video of the incident) – crashing the SUV through a fence, and breaking into a relative’s home.

By the time the new charges were filed, Broughton had been out of jail a week and a half, and while prosecutors asked the court to reinstate a higher bail, a judge told them no.

We discovered all this while making a routine check of the case’s status, via online court files; here’s what we found:

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West Seattle Sunday: From the Farmers’ Market to an Oscars party…

March 2, 2014 6:43 am

| 6 COMMENTS

| West Seattle news | WS miscellaneous

Thanks to John Hinkey for the photo of beautiful mountains, sea, and boat taken in last Friday’s sunshine. How will today unfold? Here’s some of what’s on the calendar!

REMINDER – NO VIADUCT CLOSURE TODAY AFTER ALL … as reported here last night, the inspection is done and so there’s NO second all-day closure between the West Seattle Bridge and Battery Street Tunnel. But 99 is still closed from the BST north to Woodland Park Zoo through late morning for the Hot Chocolate 15/5K.

WEST SEATTLE SUNDAY SOCCER: 7:30 am at Delridge Playfield, join the weekly pickup games – explained on the WSSS Facebook page. (Delridge/Alaska)

TWEED RIDE TO BIKE EXPO: 10 am, join West Seattle Bike Connections on a ride to the Seattle Bike Expo. (Don’t miss the artistic-cycling champs while you’re there!) Details on the WSBC site. (Meet under the WS Bridge)

WEST SEATTLE FARMERS’ MARKET: 10 am-2 pm, with vendors including the recently debuted, West Seattle-based Sod House Bakery. (44th/Alaska)

GIRL SCOUT COOKIE SALES CONTINUE: Another local troop shares their cookie-selling photo today (send us yours!), the third day of this year’s cookie sale:

We are Daisy Girl Scout Troop #45172 out of Gatewood Elementary. We will be selling cookies at Westwood QFC 12-2 and WS Thriftway 4-6 Sunday. This is our first year selling cookies. We are taking donated cookies to some of the local nursing homes and also collecting cookie donations for Operation Cookie Drop to send to the troops. Come by, say hi, and buy some cookies to help support the Girl Scouts.

The online lookup to find all of West Seattle’s cookie-selling troops, and their times/locations, is here.

OSCARS VIEWING PARTY: The silver-screen awards are on the big screen at Feedback Lounge (WSB sponsor), 4 pm red carpet, 5 pm awards. (6451 California SW)

SEATTLE PRIDE ‘LAST CHANCE’ TRYOUTS: 15-17-year-old girls and boys have one last chance this evening to try out for the Seattle Pride basketball league. See our previous story for times and other info. Tryouts are at Seattle Lutheran High School. (40th/Genesee)

‘ROOTS MUSIC VARIETY SHOW’: That’s how tonight’s lineup at Kenyon Hall, “From West Seattle to the Bering Sea,” is described. 7:30 pm. (7904 35th SW)

SEE MORE for today, tonight, next week, and beyond, browsable here.

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West Seattle food: Sod House Bakery joins Farmers’ Market lineup

March 1, 2014 9:46 pm

| 2 COMMENTS

| West Seattle Farmers' Market | West Seattle news

(Photo courtesy Sod House Bakery)
Thinking about going to the West Seattle Farmers’ Market tomorrow? If you do, look for a new vendor that is doubly local – not only is Sod House Bakery selling its wares in West Seattle, it’s also owned by West Seattleites. We asked them for a little info, after learning about their debut last week:

Sod House Bakery is Evan Radick and Nina Faccone’s small bakery project based out of West Seattle. Last fall we realized our dream of many years by starting our own bakery and are building it from the ground up. We just became a vendor at the West Seattle Farmers Market, and hope to be selling all around Seattle this summer season. We make fun, delicious pastries like pop tarts, cookies, hand pies, and mini cakes.

As always, the market is open 10 am-2 pm at 44th/Alaska.

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Happening now: Music, much more @ Youngstown’s ‘Thrive 8’ party

March 1, 2014 8:01 pm

| Comments Off on Happening now: Music, much more @ Youngstown’s ‘Thrive 8’ party

| Delridge | West Seattle news | WS culture/arts

Big fun for even the littlest ones at the Youngstown Cultural Arts Center “Thrive 8” celebration – especially the ones who got all wrapped up in balloon creations:

Over in the theater, DJ Manos was onstage, with more performers to come:

Youngstown is celebrating its 8th anniversary in the historic Cooper School at 4408 Delridge Way SW. Refreshments too. Admission $10 adults/$5 kids, benefiting Youngstown’s cultural/arts/youth programs – which you can find out more about at youngstownarts.org.

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West Seattle traffic alert: Viaduct will NOT close again Sunday, but …

March 1, 2014 7:22 pm

| 1 COMMENT

| Alaskan Way Viaduct | West Seattle news

Inspection work on Highway 99 between the West Seattle Bridge and the south end of the Battery Street Tunnel is done for the weekend, so that stretch will NOT close again on Sunday. We just confirmed that with WSDOT spokesperson Laura Newborn. However, until about noon Sunday, 99 will remain closed north of the tunnel – until 6 am, to Valley Street for construction work, and then for the rest of the morning, to the Woodland Park Zoo area for the Hot Chocolate 15/5K.

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Update: 20-year-old man arrested in connection with December murder of Nga Nguyen in High Point

March 1, 2014 4:12 pm

| 3 COMMENTS

| Crime | West Seattle news

(WSB photo from December 2013)
4:12 PM: Seattle Police have just announced an arrest in the murder of 46-year-old Nga Nguyen, found dead at her home in the 5900 block of High Point Drive in December, the cause of death later described by the King County Medical Examiner’s Office as strangulation and blunt-force head injury. The announcement this afternoon on SPD Blotter says a 20-year-old man was arrested today:

On March 1st, 2014 at approximately 11:00 a.m. Seattle Police Homicide detectives, following up on information developed during the course of their investigation, arrested the 20-year-old male suspect at his residence in the 10700 block of 18th Avenue SW in White Center.

Homicide detectives interviewed the suspect and subsequently booked him into the King County Jail for Investigation of Murder.
There are no additional suspects being sought in this case, which remains an active and on-going investigation.

Police had hinted an arrest was near – as reported here January 21st, Capt. Pierre Davis told the West Seattle Crime Prevention Council that detectives were “working on something – hopefully they can bring something to a close very quickly.” The police announcement has no information about a motive nor whether the man had any prior relationship with or knowledge of Ms. Nguyen; we’re researching further and will add anything more we find out.

5:41 PM UPDATE: So far we have found two court cases listed for the suspect – in one, he is listed as the respondent in a protection-order filing dated four days after Ms. Nguyen is killed. The online court-records system withholds details and documents in these types of cases so we don’t know who sought the order. Also, a summons was issued for him to appear in court later this month in connection with a year-old case listed as trafficking in stolen property; the document contains no further details, but we are continuing to research. The suspect will almost certainly have a bail hearing in the murder case on Monday, and we will find out more then, if not sooner.

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West Seattle weekend scene: First full day of Girl Scout Cookie sales; complete local list of who’s where, when

March 1, 2014 3:01 pm

| 7 COMMENTS

| How to help | West Seattle news

Thanks to Carey for the photo of Troop 45120 launching Girl Scout Cookie sales at Admiral Safeway. This is the first morning-to-night day of the 17-day sale; we mentioned the online cookie-locator lookup in our West Seattle Friday preview yesterday. Using that, with a 5-mile radius around the 98116 zip code, we believe this is the complete West Seattle list from now through the end of cookie sales two weeks from tomorrow, troop by troop, generally in 2-hour increments. (Troop 45120 will be back at it tomorrow, 10 am-noon, at PCC Natural Markets-West Seattle [WSB sponsor]; if you check the linked list, you can find cookies somewhere all the way up until 8 pm.)

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Video: See what champion ‘artistic cyclists’ did on 2 wheels during Roxhill Elementary visit before Bike Expo shows

March 1, 2014 12:37 pm

| 2 COMMENTS

| West Seattle news | West Seattle schools | WS culture/arts

Corrina Hein, Stefan Musu and Lukas Matla – world-champion artistic cyclists from Germany – are performing at the Seattle Bike Expo this weekend, and warmed up by performing at local schools, including West Seattle’s Roxhill Elementary on Friday afternoon, where we of course had to capture them on video:

If you’re going to the Bike Expo, their remaining performances are today at 1:20 pm, 3 pm, and 5 pm, and tomorrow at 11:15 am, 1:15 pm, and 3 pm. The expo is at Smith Cove Cruise Terminal in Magnolia.

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Update: Electrical problem sparks fire call at Emeritus on 35th

March 1, 2014 10:58 am

| 6 COMMENTS

| West Seattle fires | West Seattle news | WS breaking news

(Photo by Christopher Boffoli for WSB)
10:58 AM: Big fire callout to 4611 35th SW, which is the Emeritus Senior Living facility. Arriving units did not find any obvious sign of fire – sounds like they might have found a bit of smoke in a sixth-floor laundry room – possibly an electrical problem. We’re en route to check.

11:05 AM UPDATE: Most of the fire units have been dismissed (we’re heading north on 35th and have already passed Engines 11 and 37 heading back to their stations). We’re now arriving in the area just north of Alaska on 35th and two units are still visible outside the building. No traffic effects.

12:07 PM: Tim Clemans was at the open house at Station 32 nearby when they got the call for this – here’s what Tim recorded via Google Glass:

Since it initially went out as a “fire in building” call, that meant a huge response just in case – not just from the nearest station (this one) but from others in West Seattle as well as specialized equipment from across the bridge. Meantime, SFD wrapped up after clearing the smoke generated by the laundry-room problem

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Live near Fire Station 32 or 29? Design open houses today

March 1, 2014 9:33 am

| 9 COMMENTS

| West Seattle news | WS miscellaneous

9:33 AM: Thanks to commenter Young for mentioning having received a postcard about this – otherwise, it was unannounced, so we didn’t know until now: There are design open houses today for the upcoming projects at Fire Station 32 (rebuild) at 38th/Alaska in The Junction and Fire Station 29 (upgrade) at 2139 Ferry SW in North Admiral. The Station 32 open house is 10 am-noon, Station 29 is 1-3 pm. Assuming these are the same format as open houses at other stations, you’ll be able to stop by, take a look at design renderings, and ask questions.

11:24 AM: Added above, one of the renderings from the Fire Station 32 open house. We stopped by for photos and info and will have a followup later. The same team will be presiding at the Station 29 open house at 1, so if you have questions about 32 but didn’t get there in time, you can ask them there.

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West Seattle Saturday: Art, music, movies, literature, nature, dance party…

March 1, 2014 8:50 am

| 11 COMMENTS

| West Seattle news | WS miscellaneous

(Photographed this week in North Admiral by Michael Oxman)
The snow chance has vanished from the forecast again, so you aren’t likely to have to worry about weather woes this weekend – get out and enjoy what your community and neighbors are offering, all this and more:

HIGHWAY 99 CLOSURE REMINDER: This is the complicated one we’ve been discussing for a while – details here.

‘CLIMATE AMBASSADOR’ TRAINING FOR KIDS: 9 am-5:30 pm, Plant For The Planet is helping 18 children learn “how to become climate justice ambassadors” – and, says Michael Foster, they’ll be learning from their peers. Neighborhood House’s High Point Center. (6400 Sylvan Way SW)

(added) FIRE STATION PROJECT DESIGN OPEN HOUSES: Sorry to have not known about this until commenter Young mentioned memories of a postal-mail card – turns out that Station 32, which will be a total rebuild, has a design open house 10 am-noon, and Station 29, up for upgrades, has a design open house 1-3 pm. In both cases, you should be able to stop by, see renderings, ask questions. (More here.)

WHITE CENTER COMMUNITY SUMMIT: 10 am-2 pm, workshops, a resource fair, and a chance to meet WC neighbors. More details on our partner site White Center Now.

FAMILY NATURE WALK: Join naturalist Stewart Wechsler on a walk exploring nature at Camp Long, 10:30 am; more info here. (5200 35th SW)

LOG HOUSE MUSEUM VOLUNTEERING INFO SESSION: Volunteer power runs the home of local history, and you can be part of it starting now. 11 am-1 pm, it’s the next volunteering-info session at the museum. (61st/Stevens)

wHAT THE CROWS TALK ABOUT: Noon-4 pm, see artist/author/photographer Judy Lane‘s pop-up art show at the Duwamish Longhouse, including a talk 1-2 pm – free! (4705 W. Marginal Way SW)

HELP WEST SEATTLE ARTIST DESIGN SEATTLE CENTER PLAYGROUND: Help West Seattle artist Judith Caldwell and the rest of the team designing a new playground for all of Seattle’s kids, 1-4 pm at Seattle Center – details in our recent story. (305 Harrison)

CHORAL FESTIVAL FUNDRAISER: The annual Puget Sound Unitarian Universalist Choirs Festival fills the Westside Unitarian Universalist Congregation headquarters with choral music starting at 3 pm; free, with donations accepted for Lifelong AIDS Alliance. (7141 California SW)

AUTHOR EVENT IN THE JUNCTION: Jay Palmer reads from and signs his trilogy “The Vikings!” at Merryweather Books in The Junction, 5-8 pm – details here. (4537 California SW)

YOUNGSTOWN ‘THRIVE’ PARTY: Celebrate the 8th anniversary of the transformation of the historic Cooper School into the Youngstown Cultural Arts Center. Party details are in our preview story from last month. All ages 6-9 pm, then a 21+ dance party until 1 am. (4408 Delridge Way SW)

WEST SEATTLE MEANINGFUL MOVIES: Tonight, the next West Seattle Meaningful Movies screening features “Cracking the Codes: The System of Racial Inequity,” 7 pm. Free, though donations are gratefully accepted. Discussion as well as film viewing. Neighborhood House’s High Point Center. (6400 Sylvan Way SW)

RADIO SHARK: The band’s style is described as “aggressive rock” – see for yourself (no cover!) at WSB sponsor Feedback Lounge, 9:30 pm. (6451 California SW)

‘ROCKY HORROR PICTURE SHOW’: The monthly midnight movie rolls on, at the historic Admiral Theater. (2343 California SW)

THAT’S NOT ALL! Much more happening today, tonight, tomorrow, beyond – give our frequently updated calendar a quick browse to see.

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Reminder: Highway 99/Alaskan Way Viaduct closures under way

March 1, 2014 7:57 am

| 1 COMMENT

| Alaskan Way Viaduct | West Seattle news | West Seattle traffic alerts

(More cams, and other info, on the WSB Traffic Cameras page)
The orange sign in that “live” view of the eastbound West Seattle Bridge is a reminder that until 6 pm, Highway 99 is closed both ways from here to Valley Street. At 6 pm, the stretch between the bridge and the south end of the Battery Street Tunnel reopens, but the closure zone north of that continues; at 6 am tomorrow, the bridge-to-Battery-St. section closes again until 6 pm Sunday, and in the middle of that, the Sunday morning closure extends to Woodland Park Zoo because of the Hot Chocolate 5K. Got all that? It’s all explained here. Metro reroutes can be found here. During all this, the viaduct gets its twice-yearly inspection, and the results will be out later in the week.

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West Seattle weekend scene: WSHS Big Band Dinner Dance

March 1, 2014 5:04 am

| Comments Off on West Seattle weekend scene: WSHS Big Band Dinner Dance

| West Seattle news | West Seattle schools | WS culture/arts

A big boost for the band at West Seattle High School, which entertained during Friday night’s Big Band Dinner Dance fundraiser – thanks to Anne Weglin for the top photo. Guest-starring to support the student musicians was the West Seattle Big Band, whose Jim Edwards shared the next view of the party:

Supporting student musicians is the WSBB’s mission, so you’ll see them at events like this several times a year. The WSHS event on Friday was planned as a fundraiser for competition and travel in the months ahead.

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