West Seattle High School‘s varsity football team is on the road tonight to play Ferndale at Bellingham’s Civic Stadium. Meantime, Chief Sealth High School played last night at Memorial Stadium downtown, in a game with multiple weather delays (lightning understandably clears the field) – read on for our game report:Read More
We published the West Seattle Weekend Lineup earlier than usual yesterday – so in case you missed it once all the other big news of the day started sweeping in, check it out here. A few highlights:
GREEN SEATTLE DAY: Volunteers will converge on greenspaces in West Seattle and elsewhere to do planting, restoration and pre-winter cleanup. Full list here.
DELRIDGE ADOPT-A-STREET: Join the North Delridge Neighborhood Council at Delridge Community Center, 9:45 am, for this quarterly cleanup – all gear/supplies provided.
GREEN UP YOUR OWN YARD WITH NATIVE PLANTS: The West Seattle Wildlife Habitat Project‘s selling native plants to continue raising money for the demonstration garden at Seacrest. 3223 47th SW (map), 10 am-4 pm.
DON’T LET IT SLIDE: Timely, to say the least. Lots of information on landslide prevention is available — and answers to your questions — at a city-sponsored meeting at South Seattle Community College (WSB sponsor) with engineers, geologists, arborists and more expertise, 10 am-noon at the Judge Warren & Nobie Chan Education Center near the Arboretum (park in the northeast lot).
SOUTHWEST LIBRARY ART AND ANNUAL MEETING: The annual community art show is under way at Southwest Branch Library (map) – today, meet the artists at an afternoon reception with refreshments, 2-3 pm, including a sculpture demonstration by Heidi Henry. Then you’re welcome to stay for the Friends of Southwest Library‘s annual meeting, 3-5 pm.
OPERATION CHANO: The Westenders Scooter Club folks are sending out one more reminder – tonight’s the pasta/movie/raffle fundraiser for the family of Cafe Revo‘s Chef Sean “Chano” Goff – full details at westenders.org.
Tomorrow afternoon, when West Seattle’s School Board rep Steve Sundquist hosts a community chat at High Point Library (1-2:30 pm), a group plans to bring that graphic to his attention. It’s a mashup of Seattle Public Schools‘ newly revised attendance-area maps for West Seattle with data from the U.S. Census and other sources. The group, Friends of West Seattle Public Schools, says it shows that the new maps would “(divide) West Seattle along economic lines (and) undermine educational progress in West Seattle.”
The thick black line is the group’s approximation of the new line between the attendance areas for West Seattle HS/Madison MS and Chief Sealth HS/Denny MS attendance; the deeper-colored areas of the map are higher-income areas; there is a further gauge of economic demographics in each area – the triangles mark elementary schools, the white-centered triangles for schools where fewer than half the students qualify for free/reduced-price lunches, the soild-colored triangles for schools where a majority of students qualify for that assistance. The group says, “The originally proposed Sealth boundaries, if applied also to Denny, would be a good place for the district to start. It had a greater socio-economic / racial mix, while meeting the objective of fostering family engagement.”
Here’s a link to a longer statement the group has made. They are urging anyone else who’s concerned to be sure to speak out during the comment period that’s under way now – by going to tomorrow’s meeting for starters (here’s a map to High Point Library), by e-mailing board members and district executives – here’s the list they provided:
Just confirmed with Lt. Ron Smith at the Southwest Precinct, per a tip we got earlier: Tervo’s Mini-Mart on Fauntleroy Way in The Triangle was robbed again tonight, for the second time in two weeks. Lt. Smith says the description was the same as the robbers who held up the store on October 22nd – “two Hispanic males, late teens to early 20s.” No arrests so far; nobody hurt during the stickup.
New information from King County tonight, after the county’s announcement this afternoon — saying two local drugstores would be offering H1N1 vaccine to some high-risk people — conflicted with what WSBers were told when they called those stores. We inquired immediately with the King County Public Health staffers who sent out the media release – and just received this update from James Apa with King County:
Wanted to get you the latest on the H1N1 vaccination clinics. Our website is updated now, and the two Walgreens in the West Seattle vicinity are hosting flu clinics on Tuesday, November 10th, from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. We have a great relationship with our pharmacy partners and they’re doing a public service in hosting these clinics. In some cases, there was a timing issue with information being communicated to their individual sites, but it’s resolved now. Thanks to everyone for their patience.
Just got this note from Steph. There could be a tiny chance it’s legit, but more likely just a particularly callous scam to try to wrangle your credit-card info:
I got a call a few minutes ago from a guy asking for a donation to the Seattle Officers group that will help police families. Not really sure the exact name. He asked if I could donate any amount of money using a credit card. I was going to but thought this might be one of those scam calls to get my card info. I asked him to send me info and I will donate then. I don’t know if that was a good idea. I feel bad if this was legit but it feels a little weird that they would be asking for money when one of their officers had just died but I don’t think they would do that. Anyways, I thought I would let you know to see if anyone else gets the call.
As published here and elsewhere, the only official way to donate to the Brenton Family Assistance Fund is by making a donation to it through any Bank of America branch. Time and time again, the warning is always “don’t give your credit card number to ANYONE over the phone.”
Amid all the other major news … we’ve had so many rounds of hail/sleet it’s been hard to keep track. WSB contributing photojournalist Christopher Boffoli got that photo a few hours ago – and before we could publish it, the Tukwila and vote-count stories pushed it to the back burner (freezer?). Now we’ve just had another round – splattering against the front door – and we have a weather report from co-publisher Patrick at the Chief Sealth-Mercer Island varsity football game at Memorial Stadium downtown: The game’s in its second weather delay – flashes of lightning put it on hold early on, then play resumed, and now more lightning and thunder has cleared the field. It was a 5 pm scheduled start, but because of delays, they’ve only made it through one quarter (MI 14, CSHS 0) as of 6:25 pm. We checked the newest forecast – showers, wind, and occasional hail/sleet are forecast at least through tomorrow. P.S. To check in on the game – and the weather! – follow @wsblive on Twitter. ADDED 6:57 PM: The game did resume. Also, it’s not West Seattle and has no WS link but can’t resist sharing a photo tweeted from Enumclaw – where what looked like one whale of a funnel cloud was spotted:
Unfolding on multiple citywide-media outlets right now – what KING5 calls a “massive response” at a complex in Tukwila where a shooting happened and may be related to some kind of a break in the Officer Tim Brenton murder – less than two hours after his memorial ended. We’ll link some of the various coverage sources here momentarily. 4:19 PM: KING5 says Tukwila police tell them a man shot at that apartment complex “is the suspect” in the murder, and reporter Jim Forman points out that the ambulance into which that man was taken “has not moved.” 4:21 PM:The Seattle Times also reports the man who was shot is believed to be a suspect in the case. KING5 is saying that the suspect was shot possibly while exchanging gunfire with police, and that he is in his 30s. The station also corrected its report about the ambulance – saying the suspect has just arrived at Harborview Medical Center. The Times, meantime, says the suspect is 41. Tukwila Police are telling KING right now (live) that they are questioning other people but they are not describing them as other “suspects” at this point. 4:49 PM: The Times says the suspect is reported to have pulled a gun on police but it may not have fired before they shot him. 4:53 PM: A police spokesperson is live on TV now saying that they want to refer to the man who was shot as “a person of interest,” not necessarily a suspect yet. They confirm a vehicle similar to the one that was sought – Datsun 210 – is there, but they need a warrant to go through it and to look inside the “person of interest’s” apartment. The spokesperson says this all started with a citizen tip. 6:11 PM: The “person of interest” remains at the hospital; seattlepi.comhas a neighbor’s description of him. Police are expected to have a media briefing soon. 7:34 PM: No new briefing yet but seattlepi.com quotes sources as identifying the man. We won’t publish the name till we hear it from police — too many chances this early on that information can change — but you can click through to read the seattlepi.com account. 8:48 PM: SPD has released a statement of sorts, but it says very little – read it here.
(Photo by Cliff DesPeaux/THE SEATTLE TIMES)
The emotional, inspiring, and at times humorous memorial service for Seattle Police Officer Tim Brenton has just ended at KeyArena. We have photos from inside courtesy of The Seattle Times, this time not because of our partnership with them but because SPD designated them as part of the “pool” to take and share photos with other news organizations. At top, the crowd as Mayor Greg Nickels spoke; he referred to Officer Brenton’s years here, saying, “I’m proud that he grew up in my neighborhood, West Seattle. He graduated from West Seattle High School. If my numbers are correct, we moved into his neighborhood when he was a junior.” Governor Gregoire paid tribute too. But the event was truly about the solemn and dangerous work of serving and protecting, as Officer Brenton – also a U.S. Army veteran – had done for most of his adult life. For SPD, Deputy Chief Clark Kimerer opened the memorial and introduced each speaker:
(Photo by Alan Berner/THE SEATTLE TIMES)
It was of course noted during the memorial that Officer Brenton’s killer has not yet been caught. Mayor Nickels called the murder “a despicable and evil act”; regarding the quest to catch the killer/s, Acting Chief John Diaz said, “in that mission we will not fail.” We expect a few more photos later this afternoon and will add them here; our story with photos and video from this morning’s procession of law-enforcement vehicles is here. 6:03 PM: A few more pool photos from this afternoon’s memorial:
8:36 PM NOTE: Just received an update from the county – published here – superseding all the earlier stuff here.
3:10 PM NOTE: As pointed out in comments — also in an e-mail and also in a school mailing list we’re on — there appears to be a discrepancy between what the county has sent out – and what the pharmacies are telling callers. King County Public Health spokesperson Matias Valenzuela tells WSB, “We’re looking into it.” So stand by for an update. Meantime, as commenters suggest, DON’T CALL YET – until this is straightened out by the county. Another spokesperson tells us they are “reconnecting with participating pharmacies” to find out what the discrepancy is about.
ORIGINAL 2:27 PM REPORT: An update from King County Public Health today – certain pharmacies around the county are now getting more H1N1 vaccine to make available to “people prioritized to receive” it. The list includes the two Walgreens (6330 35th SW and 9456 16th SW) stores in West Seattle – both by appointment, for ages 9 and up. Read on for the full countywide announcement:Read More
If you commute by bus, you know how frustrating things were during last year’s snow woes – from stuck buses, to buses that never came at all, to a shortage of route-specific, time-specific information directly from Metro – which led to bus riders sharing firsthand information here and elsewhere to help each other out. Metro says it’s got a plan to make sure that doesn’t happen again. Exactly one month after SDOT came out with its snow plan (WSB coverage here), which includes procedures for coordinating with the county-run transit service, Metro unveiled its own snow plan today, including plans for new emergency routes, a color-coded map to show when they’ve kicked in, a trial run for new snow/mud tires, and a new alert service you can start signing up for (promising route-specific information). Here’s the Metro announcement with links to the new features.
(Photo by Christopher Boffoli)
The Seattle Times (WSB partner) has a map with a timeline pointing to multimedia coverage of the procession that’s been under way for more than an hour; see it here. Meantime, we are adding photos taken for WSB by Christopher Boffoli along the procession route.
12:03 PM UPDATE: SPD has shared the program that is being distributed at this afternoon’s memorial. Mayor Nickels, Governor Gregoire and former Seattle Police Chief Gil Kerlikowske are among those who are speaking. You can see the program (2-page PDF) here. And here’s Christopher’s video of scenes from the procession:
More coverage from fellow independent community-collaborative news sites Capitol Hill Seattle, here, and Central District News (whose editor Scott is at KeyArena and updating what he’s seeing), here. Live video coverage is being streamed right now by KING5 – keep in mind the memorial itself begins at 1. ADDED 1:06 PM:The Times reports that St. James Cathedral is holding a prayer service at 6:30 tonight, all welcome, on behalf of Officer Brenton, the Fort Hood victims, and all those lost to violence.
So far we’ve gotten texts about a couple of “huge puddles” that are causing some commute trouble, including one at West Marginal Way/Highland Park Way, and also where Delridge meets The Bridge – given the overnight downpour, certainly there are others, so give yourself extra time when you head out.
(photo substituted 7:32 am, this one’s by Christopher Boffoli)
We’re on our way to the “fire in single-family residence” call in the 4400 block of 45th SW (map). 7:05 AM: Per the scanner, the fire’s been “knocked down,” and firefighters are checking to make sure it didn’t spread. 7:10 AM: Firefighters have confirmed the fire’s tapped. Some of the units are pulling out. No report of injuries. 7:38 AM: Fire investigators haven’t arrived yet so we don’t have specifics on what burned or how it started, but the incident commander confirmed that no one was hurt and that damage was light enough that the home’s residents should be allowed back in later today. 8:11 AM: We’ll update here when that info comes in later. Meantime, here’s a bit of video from the scene.
10:14 AM UPDATE: According to Dana Vander Houwen from SFD, the fire was accidental, caused by faulty wiring in the attic. Damage is estimated at $40,000.
To start the day, here’s a quick update to recap and collect the information about today’s events paying tribute to Officer Tim Brenton, six days after the 39-year-old former West Seattleite lost his life in the first deadly attack on Seattle Police in 15 years:
-More than 1,000 vehicles are expected in the memorial procession from the U-District to KeyArena, through Capitol Hill, with the expected time frame 9 am-noon. Here’s a map created by SDOT.
-The memorial ceremony/service is open to the public, scheduled to start at KeyArena at 1 pm, with doors opening at 11 am.
We will have coverage through the day, but these are the toplines for now. Also, thanks to Shelley for pointing out that SPDBlotter has published Officer Brenton’s biography, including the mention of his West Seattle High School years in the ’80s (as reported here and remembered here). The attack on Officer Brenton and in-training partner Officer Britt Sweeney, who survived, has not yet been solved, but significant new clues were made public yesterday – see them here. We’ll add links, images and more, as today’s events begin to unfold. One more note – remember the fund for Officer Brenton’s family; contribution information is here.
If you like live theater, your cup runneth over in West Seattle this weekend – and that’s why we call it theatrically thrilling. At right is a photo from “The Diviners,” which Twelfth Night Productions (WSB sponsor) is opening tonight at Youngstown Arts Center and describes as “the story of a disturbed young man named Buddy who holds the ability to divine water in a town where water and faith are in short supply. When a charismatic preacher who has lost his faith comes to town, the two outcasts find a common bond and help each other divine for truth, faith and hope.” Then, of course, the story takes a turn – you’ll just have to see for yourself. Also playing tonight (and tomorrow): “Invasion From Mars” at West Seattle High School, two final shows re-creating the classic radio drama, 7:30 both nights – and the theatrical trifecta is rounded out by ArtsWest with “Measure for Pleasure,” continuing this weekend. Also in store, great benefit dinner/auction events for Arbor Heights Elementary and Admiral Church … artists’ reception for the Community Art Show at Southwest Branch Library … the closing-weekend sale (and cat adoptions!) at All the Best Pet Care on Alki … More than 50 events/activities in all, brought to you by Skylark Cafe and Club:Read More
The architects working on the Admiral Safeway redevelopment project have made one big change since the project’s most recent Southwest Design Review Board session two weeks ago – one that answers repeatedly voiced criticism from citizen commenters as well as board members: They’ve added an entrance along the store’s west side on California SW. That was the big headline from Thursday afternoon’s presentation to the Seattle Design Commission, which has to sign off on Safeway’s request for an “alley vacation” – asking the city to give up an L-shaped path that you probably don’t even think of as an alley.
The commission usually makes its decision in two sessions – reviewing the project’s “urban design” first time around, and the “public benefits” offered in compensation, the second time. Read on for details of the meeting:Read More
Tonight’s ferocious weather offers another chance for everyone to button up all that readiness in case of winter stormtastrophes — and gives us an excuse to remind you of the city’s Landslide Information Meeting this Saturday morning in West Seattle – 10 am at South Seattle Community College (WSB sponsor) — full details here. If slides are even remotely a risk in your neighborhood – be there. ADDED 5:36 AM: One more way to get ready – today and tomorrow, 8 am-4 pm, free filled sandbags are available at Delridge Community Center, up to 25 for homeowners/business owners in floodprone areas – just drop by.
Senior night for Seattle Lutheran High School‘s football team, with players and parents introduced just before kickoff Thursday night at West Seattle Stadium. Though the weather calmed as the game progressed, that didn’t help Evergreen Lutheran, beaten by the Saints, 42-14. Seattle Lutheran’s Fred Lisko turned in the big play of the night. In the second quarter, Evergreen moved the ball steadily down the field, only to fumble on the five-yard line. Lisko recovered that fumble and ran straight down the sideline to score. The play pretty much reflected Evergreen’s night. Each time the Eagles made some progress, the Saints managed to wrangle the ball back. During the first half, the Saints managed to successfully hang onto the ball, despite the wind and rain. Here’s Alex Reese scoring the first touchdown of the night.
The win advances the Saints into the 2B playoffs, where they’ll meet Adna next week, details TBA. (For more play-by-play notes from Thursday night’s game, check out @wsblive, where we tweeted it as it happened.)
Both reminders, but the clock’s ticking and you can make a difference:
WEST SEATTLE VOLUNTEER RECOGNITION: November 13 is the deadline to nominate someone to get big kudos for the important work they do – it’s the second round of West Seattle Volunteer Recognition, presented by the Southwest and Delridge Neighborhoods District Councils and WSB. Here are the basics of who’ll be honored (excerpted from our original late October announcement):
*2 individual volunteers from community/neighborhood-related group efforts
*2 individual volunteers from youth-related efforts
*2 individual volunteers from environment-related efforts
*1 group award
“Volunteer” means unpaid work, done for a nonprofit-type organization, facility, campaign (etc.), primarily serving West Seattle. And when you send your nomination – please remember that what you write is all the judges have to go on, so don’t hold back on describing the great work your nominee has done! The plan is to honor the recipients at the West Seattle Community Tree Lighting December 5, always well-attended, to make sure they get a hearty round of applause from the community that benefits from their hard work. So how do you nominate someone? You’re just a click away – here’s the online form.
Friday, Nov. 13, is the deadline – the form’s fairly short – suggest somebody now! Thanks. Meantime, another reminder:
2 DAYS TILL “OPERATION CHANO”: He’s taken some great photos you’ve seen here, and 2 of Christopher Boffoli‘s images from Italy – including the one above – are among the items up for grabs in the raffle for the Westenders Scooter Club-organized “Operation Chano” this Saturday, to help the family of Cafe Revo (WSB sponsor) co-founder Chef Sean “Chano” Goff (photo right). The ticket gets you pasta, music, and the featurette “Mondo Scooterama“, with the raffle featuring a variety of prizes — full details at westenders.org. 5 pm Saturday, Rainier Yacht Club.
Hotwire Coffee (WSB sponsor) proprietor Lora Lewis just sent that photo of a tree blown down by her shop in The Junction – she says it “just missed the parked car.” It’s going to be windy until at least midnight, according to the newest forecast – but still breezy after that, for the next few days. 11:40 PM: Serious sleet, and thunder in the distance, just now. The sleet itself came down for a moment or two here with a roar. Click to listen.
We asked this morning for information on the process to fill the County Council seat – representing West Seattle, White Center, Vashon Island and other areas – once Dow Constantine is sworn in as King County Executive on Nov. 24th. The info just came in – according to the process that’s being proposed, they’d be taking applications shortly for an appointed councilmember to serve until next year’s fall elections – read on for the details:Read More
Just confirmed with Lt. Ron Smith at the 
to a shortage of route-specific, time-specific information directly from Metro – which led to bus riders sharing firsthand information here and elsewhere to help each other out. Metro says it’s got a plan to make sure that doesn’t happen again. Exactly one month after SDOT came out with its snow plan (
To start the day, here’s a quick update to recap and collect the information about today’s events paying tribute to Officer Tim Brenton, six days after the 39-year-old former West Seattleite lost his life in the first deadly attack on 
If you like live theater, your cup runneth over in West Seattle this weekend – and that’s why we call it theatrically thrilling. At right is a photo from “The Diviners,” which 
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