March 2012

By Coach Rob Mathison

The Seattle Swag hoped to close their season with a win against Green Lake this past Saturday as a win would give the 13-year-old Loyal Heights boys basketball team their third victory of the season, and put a stamp on the improvement they’ve shown since an 0-3 start.

In a back and forth game played in front of a standing-room-only crowd at Loyal Heights, the Swag battled valiantly. Tim Malone rejected a Green Lake lay-up. Michael Johnson and Robert Mathison played stingy defense and grabbed offensive rebounds. Antonio Diaz-Mitchell had strong drives while Josh Malone and Michael Scherrer put on a shooting clinic.

In spite of their efforts, the Swag fell 28-24.

It was a breathtaking second half. The Swag trailed 14-12 when Brown’s pair of three pointers sandwiched a Malone steal to give the Swag a comfortable 18-14 lead.

But Green Lake responded with a long jumper by Gus Norton and a three-pointer by Aaron Kim to re-take the lead. The teams traded three-pointers until a nifty play by Norton sparked momentum for Green Lake.

UPDATE March 15, 3:40 PM

According to CBS News, "Raffaele Sollecito will be the first to tell about the Italian murder case that made them famous worldwide. He has a deal with Simon & Schuster's Gallery Books for a book scheduled to come out this fall. Knox's memoir is due next year.

"Presumed Guilty: My Journey to Hell and Back with Amanda Knox" would cover his relationship with the U.S. exchange student, their arrests and imprisonment in Italy over the death of Knox's roommate and their eventual release last fall after the convictions were overturned, the publisher announced Thursday."

Simon & Schuster is a division of CBS.

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Raffaele Sollecito, the former Italian boyfriend of West Seattle-raised Amanda Knox, is expected to interview with an Eastside tech company, possibly Microsoft, this Friday, and to visit about a half-dozen supporters at a residence near Bellevue.

He has been spotted this week in the Los Angeles area.

Ballardite Jenna Hardman, a sixth grader at St. Joseph School, has been named the winner of the Washington Poison Center's annual Poison Prevention Week poster contest.

Hardman's winning poster titled "Everyone Needs Mr. Yuk," depicts the face of Mr. Yuk – the well-known icon used on poison warning labels – surrounded by Washingtonians from across the state.

A constituent of Sen. Jeanne Kohl-Welles, D-Seattle, Jenna, along with her family members, joined Mr. Yuk at the state capitol in Olympia to raise awareness about the 50th anniversary of National Poison Prevention Week.

Ay Chihuahuas, a new food truck located on the corner of 15th Avenue NW and NW Market Street, will be handing out free lunch on Tuesday.

Starting at 11 a.m. Ay Chihuahuas will be celebrating their opening with free steak hot dogs until 6 p.m. or until they run out. Yes, hot dogs made from steak!

Steak hot dogs isn't the only new thing Ay Chihuahuas are doing. Their whole philosophy is based on doing "something different, that no one else was doing".

According to their press release, Ay Chihuahuas is a family-run restaurant who use ingredients that are mostly natural and mostly sourced locally.

All their sauces like their tasty garlic or naughty chipotle are homemade and "bring a whole new meaning to the experience of eating a hot dog".

Ay Chihuahuas partners with Link Lab Artisan Meats in Wallingford and they'll soon offer a Fremont Beer Bratworst made with Fremont Brewing Company's India Pale Ale.

Go check them out at the Shell station on the corner of 15th Avenue NW and NW Market Street in the parking lot of the Shell Station for a free hot dog on Tuesday from 11 a.m. till 6 p.m.

UPDATE Thursday afternoon

According to CBS News, "Raffaele Sollecito will be the first to tell about the Italian murder case that made them famous worldwide. He has a deal with Simon & Schuster's Gallery Books for a book scheduled to come out this fall. Knox's memoir is due next year.

"Presumed Guilty: My Journey to Hell and Back with Amanda Knox" would cover his relationship with the U.S. exchange student, their arrests and imprisonment in Italy over the death of Knox's roommate and their eventual release last fall after the convictions were overturned, the publisher announced Thursday."

Simon & Schuster is a division of CBS.

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Raffaele Sollecito, the former Italian boyfriend of West Seattle-raised Amanda Knox, is expected to interview with an Eastside tech company, possibly Microsoft, this Friday, and to visit about a half-dozen supporters at a residence near Bellevue.

He has been spotted this week in the Los Angeles area.

Deadline for receiving items for Community Calendar is 5 p.m. Wednesday for the following week’s Times/News. Events are published based on timeliness and space availability. Email submissions to: hteditor@robinsonnews.com Items can be accepted from nonprofit groups and government agencies only. Others may call Dona Ozier at 206-708-1378 for inclusion in our “Out & About” advertising section.

Classes

The Hi-Liners -- Registration closes the first week of April for Spring DownStage Center Classes: Imagination Station, Improvisation, and Glee. A full production experience, complete with costumes, lighting, and a stage performance at the June Recital, but class is still only once a week. Classes began Feb. 28th at the Burien Annex, 425 S.W. 144th St. For complete descriptions, schedules, and registration please visit www.hi-liners.org

Music

Two injured in shootout
A 32-year -old bail bondsman and a 42 year old Burien man were both shot when gunfire was exchanged in the 12600 block of Occidental Ave S. The bail bondsman told police he had information that a woman he was looking for was associated with the house. He had been watching the house when there was a confrontation between him and the residents of the house. Witnesses said that someone in the house brought a shotgun outside and after a brief struggle over the shotgun shots were fired.

The bondsman, who was wearing a bullet proof vest, was struck in the chest with birdshot. A resident of the house was struck in the leg by a bullet presumably fired by the bondsman. The woman the bondsman was looking for was not in the house and police do not believe she is actually associated with the house.

Okay, enough is enough-- we’re ready for spring! Enough of these gray skies loaded with buckets of rain, knee-buckling winds and snowflakes.

No discredit intended to the messengers of weather news. Heaven knows we love to hear from our television meteorologists.

Still, do you ever wonder why they keep smiling while pointing to a map of an oncoming dark weather front traveling faster than a speeding bullet from Alaska’s Aleutian Islands - aimed right at us?

Any soul faced with a seven-day forecast in living color of dark clouds, sheets of blue drenching rain powered by high winds with nary a peek of sunshine is surely bound to frown.

“There is no accounting for taste: spring is a divine season to the poet, and nothing but sleet and rain to the weatherman.”(Author unknown)
Still, hope is eternal knowing the first day of spring arrives, March 20 Tuesday. Just when we think we’ll never survive another cold winter’s day, daffodil’s yellow buds poke up through soggy dirt and make our world like new again.

The new option for elementary education in West Seattle, K-5 STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) at Boren, had its design team announced by Seattle Public Schools on Monday, March 12.

The design team will help develop school curriculum, mission/vision, program features and more.

Also, a reminder that STEM's principal, Dr. Shannon McKinney, will be at Madison Middle School on Tuesday, March 13 from 6:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. for a meet-and-greet with the community.

To read more about the STEM program, please check out the Herald's previous coverage.

Here are the details from Seattle Public Schools:
Press release
Fifteen Design Team members named to K-5 STEM at Boren

Members of the Design Team for the new K-5 STEM at Boren were announced Monday, March 12. The 15 members, chosen from 62 total applicants, include six parents, three community members and six Seattle School District staff members.

Candidates, listed below, were scored on the following criteria:

(Editor’s Note: Scott Anthony Robinson substitutes for Jerry Robinson's Jerry's View this week.)

I’m not certain what his motivations were, but back in 1970 or so, when Dad remarried and brought three new kids into the family, he decided that we all needed to go skiing.

I was fourteen, Linda was too, little Mike was about ten I guess and one afternoon Dad came home from the thrift center with a car trunk full of old skis, poles and boots.

He summoned a few us out to see his prizes, ‘Look at the great stuff I got at St. Vinny’s!’ He hoisted a pair of beat up old skis from the hatch and balanced them on end. ‘Two bucks!’ he crowed, and he handed them to me.

I distinctly recall the metal edges with zillions of tiny screws holding them on to the ski. A few screws were missing, and the old cable bindings had rust on them.

The boots were lace up style that were so heavy and clunky as to make Frankenstein jealous.