November 2010

Newfoundland owners from as far away as Canada held a vigil today for Rosie, the Newfoundland who was shot and killed by Des Moines police officers on Nov. 7. Our previous coverage is here.

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A group of a couple dozen Newfoundlands, escorted by their owners, carried flowers from Woodmont Elementary School in Des Moines to Lora Perry's home, where Rosie was shot.

Deirdre Wright and her husband Charles, were Rosie's owners and spoke briefly thanking those in attendance.

The police were called on Sunday, Nov. 7, to respond to a loose dog, who had gotten loose on 16th Ave. South. When they could not find it's owner they tried to capture Rosie with a catch pull. When they could not capture her with the catch pull they tased Rosie, which had no effect except to make her run away. Officers caught up with her and tased her again. Rosie ran away again and went into Lora Perry's yard.

After an undefeated season their first year in 4A the Mount Rainier Girls Swim Team swam hard to place fifth in the state championship meet on Saturday.

A slideshow and longer story will be updated here soon.

UPDATE: Grocery workers reach agreement; Vote still remains


Our original story is below:
Where West Seattle shoppers purchase their Thanksgiving turkeys may depend on the result of a series of negotiations between grocery store owners of QFC, Safeway and others, and unions representing their employees, UFCW 21, UFCW 81 and Teamsters 38. Employees from central Puget Sound met throughout Snohomish, King and Kitsap Counties the week of Nov. 8 to vote to reject their employers’ proposal which would cut pay, health benefits and the pension.   On Wednesday, Nov. 10 in Bellevue they voted 94-percent to reject their employers’ proposals and to authorize a strike. Negotiations between workers and these big chains have been dragging on since they began in mid-March.

On Friday, Nov. 12, both the union and the employers agreed to set bargaining dates for a round of negotiations, Thursday and Friday the 18th and 19th, a week before Thanksgiving.

The Sustainable West Seattle Tool Library began lending garden and woodworking tolls June 12 at their facility at the north end of the South Seattle Community College property, adjacent to the Chinese Garden at 6000 16th Avenue SW. The Tool Library has just reached two milestones, 100 members and 1,000 tools.

Patrick Dunn, the library's director and Sustainable West Seattle Boardmember joined the library's project manager, Micah Summers Nov. 10 in a presentation of the current success, and future expansion, of their lending operation. They were guest speakers at the West Seattle Garden Tour's monthly meeting, held at the Fauntleroy home of Windermere Realtor and Tour volunteer, Karen Lavallee, which decided on a record 10 home garden locations for their tour next summer. Locations are kept secret until June.

Velma Veloria and Alice Coil co-teach political empowerment classes at South Seattle Community College. During the final class for this fall semester, Saturday, November 13th held at the Neighborhood House Highpoint Center, they had four groups of students in teams of three each present projects explaining why they are taking a stand on an issue and how they are trying to get support from the public for their cause. 

Each group presented its project in a mock press conference format. While some students were fighting for their issue in the "real world" while others were simply playing the role as a proponent of their issue.

Two members of the press and one seasoned student were invited to participate as part of the audience, to listen to the presentations, ask questions to challenge the students' propositions, and to offer feedback to the following each presentation. They were Steve Shay, Reporter and Photographer for the West Seattle Herald, Sara Lerner, Announcer and Reporter for KUOW 94.9 FM Puget Sound Public Radio, and SSCC student Heidi Park.

Here's what is fresh and available at the area Farmers Markets for the week of November 15 - 21, 2010

Print out this list, circle what you are looking for and take it with you when you go.

Neighborhood Farmers Market Alliance Markets:
University District (UD) – Saturdays, 9 am – 2 pm, YEAR ROUND
West Seattle (WS) – Sundays, 10 am – 2 pm, YEAR ROUND
Broadway Sunday (BW) – Sundays, 11 am – 3 pm, 5/9/10 – 12/19/10
Columbia City, Lake City, Phinney, and Magnolia – Closed for the season

Locations, Hours, Vendor and Event Info: www.seattlefarmersmarkets.org

New this Week:

*****NEW ITEMS IN ITALICS*****

Cranberries – Fresh local cranberries – from Bloom Creek Cranberry Farm – Olympia – at UD

Autumn Raspberries – limited quantities from Alm Hill Gardens at all 3 markets.

Platypus Breads – Gluten-Free multigrain breads, croutons, scones, stuffing mix, hamburger buns. – at UD

Three Tree Farms – Nobel Firs and Spruce trees for the holidays. All sizes from Maple Valley. At UD and Broadway beginning the weekend after Thanksgiving.

Four Ballard High School football players received KingCo 4A Crown Division 2010 All League Honors for their play this past season.

Senior Drew Daley was named second-team offensive and defensive tackle.

Junior linebacker/tight end Blake Sechler, sophomore running back/linebacker Dominic King and sophomore quarterback Nate Rauda were named honorable mentions.

The Beavers ended their season with an 0-5 KingCo record and were 1-8 overall in 2010. Coach John Bowers resigned earlier this month after three seasons with the Beavers.

CoolMom.org held their Holiday Toy Swap’n'Sale Nov. 13 at Fauntleroy Church, 9140 California Ave. SW, corner of Barton and California.

Before the sale the parking lot was full, and people were lined up well in advance to take advantage of the bargains inside.

During the sale people learned ways to reduce waste during the holiday season, including how to create wrapping paper out of reusable and recycled materials.

CoolMom.org is an organization that began in 2007 by two moms who had young children and climate scientists in their families so it came about out of a concern about global warming. They had a showing of the movie An Inconvenient Truth and shortly after that, the organization was formed. Today they number over 900 members with more 200 in West Seattle. They have six neighborhood groups and have plans to expand nationally. The groups now are West Seattle, Bainbridge, Yakima, Wallingford, Greenwood/Ballard, Magnolia and Mercer Island.

The Vong family became part of the White Center community more than 10 years ago when they opened the White Center Market in what is called Asiana Square on 15th Ave. s.w.

It's truly a family business run by Khinh Vong, and his brothers.

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Now opening, as the next step for the family and the community at 9988 15th Avenue s.w. is the anchor store of the new White Center Square, the Hung Long Asian Market.

Sky Vong, Khinh's son is the General Manager and his own history is part of the fabric here too. " I've been here for a long time. When I was little I used to play at the Salvation Army," he said and spoke with pride about the new 15,000 square foot facility, "White Center's never really had a complex like this before."

White Center Square is an $11 million project that utilizes a $6.25 million federal loan.

It's expected to create 60 new jobs in White Center. At a time of high unemployment, low income areas like White Center are in greater need.

"Every day since we broke ground (May 29, 2009) we've had at least four people come and ask us about jobs," Vong said.

A packed house hoping to get a foot in the door in the green industry gathered at the YWCA Learning Center in White Center on Nov. 12 to hear about recruitment and training options presented by Got Green at their second annual Community Green Jobs Forum.

“Our mission is to make sure low income communities, particularly communities of color, will benefit from this new clean, green economy,” said Michael Woo, a founding member of Got Green, created in 2008 as project of the White Center Community Development Association.

“It (Got Green) grew out of the community asking questions, ‘Where are the jobs at?’ Everybody, particularly in the political arena, was talking about green jobs but the conversation stayed at the environmental level or the organized labor level, but it wasn’t being brought down to communities who need those jobs the most,” Woo said.

“A lot of people in low income areas didn’t have drivers licenses, they didn’t have four years of algebra and everything else so (we asked) how could we make a pathway for opportunity for them to be a part of (the green economy)?” said Khepra Ptah, another founding member of Got Green.