February 2009

Seattle Police were looking for three suspects in a shooting outside Talarico's Pizzeria and Lounge restaurant on Sunday, Feb. 1, just before midnight.

Renee Witt, spokeswoman for the Seattle Police Department, reported that a 26-year-old man was crossing the street at the 4700 block of California Avenue Southwest when two males opened fire and shot him twice. Witnesses have reported that the suspects then fled the scene in a white Sudan.

The victim managed to make his way into Talarico’s restaurant before collapsing.

After months of community meetings and several different proposals from the Seattle School District, the debate over school closures across the city has finally been decided and many West Seattle students will be effected by the outcome.

On Jan. 29 the Seattle School Board has passed Superintendent Maria Goodloe-Johnson's final recommendation on school closures, effectively closing Cooper Elementary school and splitting the Accelerated Progress Program (APP) at Lowell Elementary school.

Two board members, Harium Martin-Morris and Mary Bass, voted against the recommendation.

"I wanted to vote for the proposal, I truly did, because I knew we needed to do it, but in the case of Cooper I just couldn't do it," explained Harium. "It had nothing to do with race, it had everything to do with treating that community fairly."

Once members of the board had voted the audience became outraged, yelling their objections at the directors and superintendent and chanting outside the meeting room, "Hey, School Board, let's face it, these closures are racist!"

"It was a tough meeting," said School Board president Michael DeBell.

Lon Chaney may have been the man of a thousand faces, but West Seattle's Jim Cissell may be the guy with a thousand voices. The award-winning "VoiceGuy" as he calls himself can be heard narrating Disney trailers, promoting Levi's jeans, California avocados, and asks, "Did somebody say 'McDonald's?'"

Cissell, who has been working in Seattle since 1986, may be the city's least recognizable big-time celebrity, working for more than half the Fortune 500, as his voice and not his face is familiar to many. That said, he has appeared in front of the camera on some Boeing and other commercials, more so in the past.

"Less since these ears got bigger over the years," said the modest but successful, youthful 61 year-old as he practiced reading a script for a snowmobile ad in his basement home studio on the water in Fauntleroy.

"Let's see. This asks for a man, age 30, slightly aggressive, and manly," he said, scrutinizing the script. "OK. Here we go." He punched at the dialog like a boxer and flailed his arms as if speaking to a large audience at a recreational vehicle convention.