December 2011

The men’s basketball team kicked off their season Thursday night with a non-conference game against Nathan Hale. They lost 67-57 to the Raiders.

Seth Berger led the Beavers with 17 points and 19 rebounds, and Stuart MacGeorge added 14 points.

The game was close at the half, with Ballard up 28-27. But after a 3rd quarter where the Beavers were outscored 27-12, including a 9-0 Hale run, the Beavers faced a 14-point deficit heading into the 4th.

A quick run at the start of the quarter brought the Beavers to within 8, but the Raiders held off to hand Ballard their first loss of the season. The Beavers next game is this Saturday at 2, where they will travel to Auburn Riverside to take on Rogers.

Gymnastics

The Beaver gymnastic team competed at Garfield Thursday, where they placed second on the day. With a score of 156.5, they beat Garfield but lost to Roosevelt by 1.5 points.

While the team played well as a whole, a couple of Beavers won their events. Freshman Lauren Lee had the high score on the bars with 7.7, while senior co-captain Maria Volk scored highest in the vault with an 8.7.

The temperatures are dropping, trees are standing bare, and snow is falling in the mountains. Winter season is here which means it’s time for winter ales.

Sample some of the best regional winter beers around at the annual Winter Beer Festival at Hale’s Ales this weekend.

Organized by the Washington Beer Commission, the Winter Beer Fest features seasonal beers from over 30 local breweries including specials from Seattle’s Big Al Brewing, Big Time Brewing Company, Elysian Brewing Company, Fremont Brewing Company, Hale’s Ales, Schooner EXACT, Pike’s Brewing Company, Rock Bottom Brewery, and Two Beers Brewing Company.

A sold out event every year, the Winter Beer Fest offers some of the most creative brews of the region and the season.

This year’s line-up includes dark malty stouts, robust winter warmers, barrel-aged gems and many more.

Lifetime memberships extended:

Lawyer Toby Marshall, who represents the lifetime member in the class action lawsuit filed earlier this month, informs us that management at the Olympic Athletic Club agreed to extend the December 31 termination deadline.

At the end of November lifetime members received a letter stating that the club had been sold and the new owner did not agree to service the lifetime memberships beyond December 31.

Earlier this month three members of Ballard's Olympic Athletic Club filed a class action lawsuit against the club owners for refusing to honor lifetime memberships that the club sold for thousands of dollars in the 1980s.

At the request of Marshall and his clients, the management OAC agreed to extend the deadline.

"Lifetime members may continue to use the club while the parties work on a possible resolution," Marshall said. "This means lifetime members will be provided continued access to OAC through March 31, 2011 regardless of whether they sign a new membership agreement."

The club informed lifetime members of this extension via mail and invited them to sign new memberships.

In October law enforcement and animal control officers raided a Burien home based on an anonymous video sent to Pasado’s Safe Haven, an animal rescue organization.

The video depicted deplorable conditions for a number of dogs in poor physical health being held in “extremely dirty dog crates,” as the King County Sheriff’s Office put it.

38 dogs of Chihuahua, Pomeranian and Chin breeds were recovered from the basement and taken to Burien’s CARE animal shelter. 14 of the dogs had to be euthanized, their health too dire to be saved. An additional 62 dogs linked to the owners were recovered from an Issaquah home shortly thereafter, although their living conditions and overall health were far better than those in Burien, KCSO said.

It is now being reported by ABC Nightline that an owner of the dogs is an American Kennel Club judge who could be facing 14 counts of animal cruelty, echoing the number of dogs that had to be euthanized.

King County Executive Dow Constantine announced today to award approximately $10.6 million to create housing for veterans, homeless families and others in need.

“This funding will boost to the local economy and create construction jobs, while providing safe and affordable housing that will help hundreds of people who have been hit hard by the recession,” said Executive Constantine, who also serves as co-chair of the Committee to End Homelessness in King County Governing Board.

The funding will create over 600 units of housing and more than 450 construction jobs.

Capital dollars of approximately $10.6 million were awarded to local housing projects to create and preserve approximately 607 units of affordable rental housing. Of these, about 412 new units of rental housing and up to 11 new affordable ownership opportunities will be created. Of the new rental units, about 220 will house people who are homeless, chronically homeless or at risk of homelessness, including about 45 units set aside for homeless veterans and their families.

A Terrible Beauty Irish Pub, has a new store. Not a whole new restaurant but something unique in West Seattle since it is a store within a store. The Irish Market, open now (but still waiting for a few finishing touches) features a wide range of Irish merchandise, all actually from the emerald isle. T-shirts, hoodies, rugby shirts, and baseball caps some featuring the Guinness name and others branded for the restaurant are available.

Croaker, and Landsdowne brands are in store too and both men's and women's styles are here.

But it is a restaurant after all, so a range of food items is in the somewhat tiny space as well. Items like black and white pudding, cheeses, bangers and rashers, Irish butter, soda bread and rye bread, home made baked fresh daily sausage rolls, cornish posties, chicken curry pies plus irish beverages from tea to soda pop. Also in store are unique Irish snack items like Tayto Roasted Chicken flavor potato chips.

CLICK THE PHOTO ABOVE TO SEE MORE

Owner, Jenna Shannon Garvey-O'Brien said, "I was raised on this stuff so I just want to come in and eat it all."

Nothing gets you in the holiday spirit better than some good music and the Ballard High School Music Department is here to help you with that.

On Wednesday, Dec 14, Ballard High School Music will present "A Holiday Music Concert", featuring the celebrated Treble Choir, Symphonic Band, Percussion Ensemble, Vocal Jazz, Jazz I, Jazz II.

There will also be a guest performance by the McClure Middle School Glee Club.

The following evening, Dec 15, the Ballard High School Music Department will present selections from Carl Orff’s iconic large work Carmina Burana, under the direction of Michael T. James and Courtney H. Rowley.

This epic piece will feature the combined forces of the award-winning Concert Choir, Orchestra, Wind Ensemble, and Percussion. Joining the 140 students on stage will be local soloists Roland Ken Salbaza and Hayley Baudrau Gaarde.

Also featured on the concert will be the Women’s Chamber Choir, Men’s Ensemble, and Chamber Orchestra.

Reserved seating for both evenings are available by donation ($25, $50 or $100) at http://www.showtix4u.com . Open seating will also be available at the door for a suggested $5 donation.

By Cassandra Baker, Intern

9:56 p.m. on November 28th. 24th block of NW 64th St

A man called police after hearing a man yell that someone had gone into his house and tried to rob him. The responding officers talked to the victim, who indicated a nearby female as the robber. The victim said that the suspect, an acquaintance, knocked on the door and the victim let her in. A male suspect who was with the female suspect then punched the victim while the female suspect took the victim’s TV. The suspects then left the house.

The female suspect said that she had met the victim and driven around with him. She said that the victim took her to his house, where he held her down by her shoulders. She ran out of the house and met the male suspect and told him what had happened. The male suspect then said that he would go to the victim’s house and beat him up.

Ben Schiendelman, a cofounder of the nearly five year old Seattle Transit Blog, discussed with the West Seattle Herald the vision he and his colleagues share about Seattle's future underground transit system.

Friday update: Both he and Martin Duke, Editor-in-Chief of the Seattle Transit Blog, have clarified that the Seattle Subway is a new and separate organization from the blog. Please refer to the comments below. We apologize for the error.

While Sound Transit's Link Light Rail will soon connect Husky Stadium with the existing West Lake Union stop and points south, the transit blog's Seattle Subway Plan routes commuters downtown to and from Northgate, Ballard, and White Center north through West Seattle, at half the time of a bus ride.

The White Center and Boulevard Park libraries once again received a reprieve from closure after King County Library System trustees voted Nov. 29 to postpone action on a staff recommendation to consolidate the two libraries into one facility near Southwest 128th Street in Burien.

The consolidation appeared to be a “done deal,” as some previous speakers characterized it, after two of the five trustees spoke in favor of the recommendation. Trustee Lucy Krakowiak, also a Burien city councilwoman, recuses herself from library system decisions affecting Burien because of her dual role.

However, trustee Rob Spitzner noted that officials from the King County Executive’s office, the county council and the city of Burien had requested the library board delay its decision until the possible annexation of White Center becomes clarified.

Spitzner moved that the decision be postponed until after the state Boundary Review Board rules on Burien’s request to annex the unincorporated North Highline area.