November 2007

People around here probably want to forget about what happened to Kennedy in a 21-14 playoff loss to Nathan Hale at Seattle Memorial Field Friday.

But head coach Bob Bourgette had nothing but praise for his players that simply were not a top caliber program on this playoff night to try and advance to the round of the top 16 3A teams in the state. The Lancers were trying to continue their quest of a state title that just eluded them as runner-ups last year to Bellevue, 14-7, in overtime. But this team was just not that team.

Pro instruction offered

Local tennis professional Steve Walters again offers area tennis lessons at outdoor locations this summer. Walters, certified Pro 1 by the United States Professional Tennis Association since 1986, has coached at some of the world's top tennis resorts and academies in Florida, California, Texas and Canada. Also he traveled on the men's professional tour, including the 1988 U.S. Open, as a traveling coach for world-ranked pros and nationally-ranked juniors.

As a player, Walters has been ranked No.

Ken Burns' documentary "The War" has sparked renewed interest in the so-called Good War, World War II. It brought me back to those years when The Saturday Evening Post covers were created by Norman Rockwell, the people's artist. One cover, reminding us of the women who replaced the men who were drafted, was that of Rosie the Riveter. Rockwell showed her in caricature mode with her short sleeves displaying brawny muscles and her rivet gun across her lap.

A Guide to Travel Guides Exchange rates, airfares, gasoline prices - everything involved in the cost of travel keeps going up.

It gets harder to find time off, and now we're also becoming aware of the environmental cost of travel. All of this makes planning your trip well more important than ever. The Internet has become an indispensable in travel planning, but travel guides still have a lot to offer, especially if you don't want to go with the herd. Your public library is a great resource for travel books, since you won't usually want to keep them.

The rain was dumping in buckets as I walked north along Beach Drive. I must have looked quite a sight in my soaked raincoat, for as I neared a couple sitting in a parked car at Mee Kwa Mooks, the woman took one look at me and locked the doors. It was an action that saddened me. Did I look that menacing?

The rain lightened, along with my mood, as I walked on. The sight and smell of the Sound is always invigorating. And to get a closer look at it I popped down to the Andover Place pocket beach; the tiniest bit of public shoreline in West Seattle.

Camp Long is a member of the Environmental Education Association of Washington (EEAW), an affiliate of the North American Association of Environmental Education. This week, EEAW is holding a conference called Reinventing Green: Environmental Education in a Changing World.

Parents and community members said the Denny Middle School and Chief Sealth High School construction project should include improvements to crosswalks on busy streets around the school campus.

About 20 people came to a recent meeting at Sealth with Seattle School District staff and Bassetti Architects, the firm hired to design the new shared $125 million campus.

Sharon Nelson moves from her job as a legislative assistant and chief of staff to King County Councilman Dow Constantine to the vacant 34th District seat in the Washington House of Representatives.

Nelson's domino is the last to fall this autumn after the resignation of Sen. Erik Poulsen from the district that represents West Seattle, White Center, Burien and Vashon and Maury Islands in the Legislature.

When Poulsen quit to become a lobbyist for rural public utilities, Rep.

"Basically, it was an unfortunate accident."

Rob Purser, director of fisheries for the Suquamish Tribe, explains the aftermath of when an Indian commercial fisher pulled a seal pup, caught in a gillnet, into his boat, on Saturday morning, Oct. 20, off Duwamish Head.

Witnesses on shore - including a photographer who staked out the net for two days - say he roughly untangled it, hit it on the boat's gunwale, and dumped it back into Elliott Bay.

The fisher "did nothing wrong, technically," Purser says. "We looked at that right away.

Ibrahim Adam, a survivor of Darfur genocide, carries a symbolic torch on the last leg of a procession that ended next to the Alki Bathhouse Sunday.