February 2011

Ballard Organics announced today that they're in trouble and need community support to stay open. In a message to the community, Ballard Organics thanked the community for helping them grow as a business and asked for continued support.

"Your support allowed us to update our Ballard Organics soap line to attract more customers; it allowed us to create Seattle Organics, an affordable certified organic brand that reaches a wider population; it has allowed us to give back to our community through donations to food banks, schools, environmental causes, and to various charities including the Urban Rest Stop. Despite these collective achievements, we find our business struggling for survival. We are now reaching out to you, our dedicated community, to help us save our company by buying our Common Stock, supporting our product line, and spreading the word."

In a phone interview, owner Ben Busby-Collins said that a few years ago, the economy was good and business booming for Ballard Organics. They got caught up in the excitement of growth potential and moved into a large warehouse.

PRESS RELEASE:

How do you raise $10,000 for a food bank? Get creative. Three years ago, White Center Food Bank Executive Director Rick Jump approached Avalon Glassworks owners Shannon and Jon Felix after noticing their work on a fundraising glass piece for the Moclips-By-The-Sea Historical Society. He asked whether the duo would be willing to create something special to use as a food bank fundraising piece that captured the essence of their mission. The result of their conversation became the Feed the Core apple series – brightly colored blown glass apples to symbolize a bountiful harvest. Each set appears in the fall just at apple harvest time – the first year's apple a ripe celadon, followed by a fire engine red Delicious and this year’s intense yellow Jonagold apple. Each apple sells for $80 of which $40 goes straight to the food bank allowing them to purchase up to 200 pounds of food. The remaining $40 covers all of Avalon’s production expenses.

The print deadline for calendar submissions is two weeks before the date of the event to be publicized. Email calendar@ballardnewstribune.com, or to get it posted online immediately, email anner@robinsonnews.com.

Ballard High School Mid-Winter-Break Soccer Camp
Ballard Soccer Fields 1418 N.W. 65thst
Feb 21-23 10:00 A.M.-1:00 P.M.

The Ballard High School Soccer Team will host a YOUTH CAMP for Boys and Girls ages 7-14, during the holiday break. Cost $47
Come out play and show up that day, demonstrate your talents.
Contact Gary: grhunter@seattleschools.org with questions.


"Secrets" Reading at Hugo House

Saturday, February 12, 7-9:00 pm.
Free and open to the public

David Schmader from The Stranger will host “Secrets” featuring ten local writers, four of whom live in Ballard: Corbin Lewars, Tanya Ruckstuhl-Valenti, Ann Teplick, Lisette Austin, Anastacia Tolbert, Jennifer Munro, Monica Lemoine, Larissa Min, Deborah Pursifull, and Bonnie Rough.


Fauntleroy-born Trevor Ras headed south, to Huntington Beach, Ca. to chase his dream, a musical career. That dream turned into a nightmare, but could have been worse. He dodged a bullet, well, his surfboard, on a tricky wave. Now he says his dreams are coming true back here in calmer West Seattle waters.

"I was going surfing off Huntington Beach Pier with a couple of friends," said Ras, short for Rasmussen, who is 35 and moved back here about four years ago. "I was messing around on this longboard I don't usually surf (on). A freak little wave came from behind and threw me off the board and I took a header right into the sand in shallow water.

"I waited a couple of days, then went to urgent care and they sent me to the emergency room as a precaution. As soon as I got there the neurosurgeon on call said, 'You are the luckiest man alive to be walking around. You could have severed your spinal cord.' Because I had broken my neck, I did feel very lucky.

"Over the last year I haven't had much pain and I exercise daily to regulate the pain. The accident itself was really devastating, but everything that happened after the accident was a godsend.

At 10 a.m. this morning the power went out in Tully's, Starbucks and Bartell Drugs and they weren't the only ones affected. The power outage affected nearly 5,400 homes and businesses.

The outage started about 10 a.m. when a wire fell during maintenance work near Ione Place and Tallman Avenue.

For many businesses the outage lasted for only 20 minutes but as of 11:30 a.m, Swedish Medical Center and the block south of Market Street between 20th and 14th Avenue are still out of power. Some locations in Sunset Hill are affected as well.

At 12:50 p.m. crews were still working on getting power back to the 157 customers around Swedish Medical Center's campus. Crews estimated the power to be restored by 1:17 p.m.

The city of SeaTac may be poised to turn the page on a sometimes-rancorous relationship between city planners and developers.
Interim planning director Cindy Baker has been selected as the first director of a newly formed Department of Community and Economic Development.
The new department consolidates five departments or divisions into one. They are economic development, planning, engineering development review, building services and permit center.
The position was created to streamline the SeaTac’s permitting process and help speed up new building and economic development projects.
Former planning director Steve Butler often clashed with builders seeking development agreements. Butler left SeaTac in August for a position in Mill Creek after the consolidation was approved.
Baker was hired as interim planning director in October. Deputy Mayor Gene Fisher and the council’s two newest members, Rick Forschler and Pam Fernald, opposed her hiring.
The three argued that the city could save around $60,000 in four months by not filling the interim position.
However, the council’s four other members argued the temporary position was needed.

West Seattle band Brent Amaker & The Rodeo is featured Feb. 25 at The Crocodile, 2200 2nd Ave. This will be their last Seattle show before heading to Austin, Texas SXSW and then their Europe tour. SXSW is the South by Southwest Music + Film Interactive.

Check out: http://www.brentamaker.com/

Also The Crocodile: http://thecrocodile.com/index.html?page=calendar&event=5858285

You might have heard that Thanksgiving is the biggest day of eating in the United States. But what day follows closely behind? Super Bowl Sunday! This year, treat your family and friends to some healthy foods instead of the typical high-sodium ones.

Put a Crock-Pot of chili on in the morning and it will be ready by game time. By using dried beans instead of canned, you’ll save about 500 milligrams of sodium. Serve the chili with a green salad and, for a special dessert, pass around homemade popcorn balls. You can relax and watch the game, knowing you have given your family and friends a healthy start to the new year!

Crock-Pot White Chicken Chili

1 cup dried great northern beans
1 cup dried black eyed peas
1 cup dried lima beans
1/2 cup dried small lima beans
8 cups water
2 pounds chicken breasts, cut in 1/2-inch cubes
2 medium onions, diced
3 tablespoons garlic
1-2 jalapeno chili peppers, minced or diced
1 chopped green bell pepper
2 tablespoons oil
2 cups frozen corn
2 teaspoons cumin
2 teaspoons oregano
1 teaspoon pepper
1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
2 cups light sour cream

Remapping Debate, an online domestic public policy journal, recently released a mapping tool which shows racial diversity.

Using data from the American Community Survey collected between 2005 and 2009 and released in December of last year, Remapping Debate and Social Explorer created a map that shows racial diversity within Census Block Groups. One can zoom in to one's own neighborhood or any other U.S. neighborhood of interest.

The Census Blocks Groups represent smaller geographic areas than do Census Tracts and Remapping Debate has found that segregation is still an issue. 75 percent of African-Americans live in only 16 percent of the Census Block Groups, while 30 percent of African-Americans live in Census Block Groups that are 75 percent African-American.

Their mapping reveals high levels of segregation that are cloaked at larger geographic levels. Ballard is one of those areas.

The following is an excerpt from the autobiography of our Publisher, Jerry Robinson called "Listen to Your Father". At age 90 he is still actively writing and contributing to the newspapers. In this excerpt he recalls where his family lived in Portland, Oregon where he grew up.

I was a short, skinny, little guy with hand-me-down clothes and crooked teeth.
But I didn't care; I was having a good time. I loved our life on Russet Street. The house, circa 1905, was rundown when we moved in. We didn't run it up. It was a two story, four bedroom, one bathroom frame house. It had a large front porch and kitchen, with a pantry leading down to a dank basement; a wood burning, central-heating furnace with one big register; and sliding doors in the wall between the living and dining rooms.