February 2013

April Davis has been named the 2013 West Seattle Hi-Yu Queen.

She's a Senior at Bishop Blanchet and an alumni of Holy Rosary School. She enjoys volleyball, dancing, singing and working with children.

You can be there to see April crowned at the West Seattle Hi-Yu Coronation and Auction Event, Friday, May 10 at Our Lady of Guadalupe.

The West Seattle Hi-Yu General Meeting is this coming Monday, March 4 at 6:30 pm, St John the Baptist Episcopal Church, 3050 California Avenue SW.

If you would like to volunteer and help with the parade float or the event, please come to the meeting or contact them at westseattlehiyu.com

A Western Family Shopping Spree sponsored by West Seattle Thriftway is set for this Saturday, April 20 to help celebrate the store's 25th Anniversary. All proceeds benefiting the West Seattle Food Bank. The store raised $2,200.

Rob Dent, a West Seattle resident, was the lucky winner of the shopping spree drawing and will get 4 minutes to get as much, up to $500 worth of Western Family merchandise. After the shop, a representative from the West Seattle Food bank will be presented with a "big check" for the amount raised.

Original Post Feb. 27
West Seattle Thriftway will celebrate it’s 25th year in business in March. To mark their Silver Anniversary the store is planning a fund raiser to benefit the West Seattle Food Bank.

The store will give away a shopping spree worth up to $500 of groceries courtesy of Western Family, their house brand. Raffle tickets will be available for purchase for $1 each from March 13th through the 27th with all proceeds benefiting the West Seattle Food Bank. The winner of the drawing will be given four minutes to gather as much Western Family merchandise as they can.

The stalled Burien Town Square saga continues as the Burien City Council voted unanimously Monday, Feb. 25, to direct Harbor Urban, owner of the still undeveloped parcels at Town Square, to sell those parcels to another real estate developer, Legacy Partners, as permitted under the city agreements with Harbor Urban.

Legacy wants to complete the multi-family housing-retail project in Burien’s city center and has submitted to the city a redevelopment proposal that calls for a mix of upper-scale multi-family housing and retail.

The remaining undeveloped Town Square property is just north of the current Town Square condominiums and Library/City Hall between Southwest 152nd and Southwest 150th streets.

In agreeing to the switch in developers, Councilmember Gerald Robison commented, “Harbor Urban hasn’t come up with anything.”

Councilmember Jack Block Jr. also agreed but urged Legacy Partners to “keep the city’s vision within current market conditions.”

The council and city staff originally envisioned the remaining parcels would be contain condominiums and retail space much like in the first phase.

Press release:

Experienced educational leader Jessica de Barros has been selected as the Project Director for the Road Map Consortium District Race to the Top grant. de Barros will start March 25 and report directly to the recently established Executive Committee.

As project director, de Barros and the Executive Committee will be responsible for the implementation of the four-year, $40 million federal grant for the Road Map region of Auburn, Federal Way, Highline, Kent, Renton, Seattle and Tukwila school districts.

De Barros returns to Pacific Northwest region after spending the last two years serving as the Director of Impact for the Partnership for Los Angeles Schools. In her role with the partnership, she designed and implemented a system to achieve aggressive goals across a turnaround network of 22 schools and 40 home office employees.

From 2008 -2011, de Barros served Seattle Public Schools as the Manager of Academic Planning & School Improvement as well as a project director.

Press release:

Highline High School Avid students are helping to raise awareness about the ongoing humanitarian crisis in Somalia and the Congo. After hearing a presentation about the crisis, they pledged to get involved in the One Million Bone Challenge.

AVID students will make 2,500 bones out of newspaper and masking tape. The bones, representing the commonality of all people and the strength of the human spirit, will be sent to Washington, D.C., where they will be part of a display on the National Mall in June.
AVID is a program to prepare students to be successful in college.
Highline High School AVID students participating in the project are: Jakeline Franco, Alex Rodriquez-Marquez, Citlaly Ramirez, David Villegas, Michael Devos, Veronica Gonzales, Mia Alvarez, Ivonne Aguiniga, and Jerry Lo. They have been assisted by Stephanie and Pauline from One-Million-Bones.

Press release:

Following up on the introductory genealogy classes it offered last year, the Highline Historical Society this spring will be offering an intermediate series of classes in genealogical research.

This three-class series will focus on census records, vital records, immigration records, and passenger lists. Instructors Winona Laird and David Liesse of the South King County Genealogical Society will present lectures on finding and researching these resources, and then will assist students who are pursuing their personal research projects.

Sessions will be held from 1-3 PM on the Saturdays of March 23, March 30, and April 13. Classes will take place in Burien.

Pre-paid registration is required. Requested donation for class is $40/person. Please mail your checks to the Highline Historical Society at PO Box 317, Seahurst, WA 98062.

Your registration in the class will be confirmed.

For more information, visit the Highline Historical Society at http://www.highlinehistory.org.

Four adults and one juvenile were arrested under suspicion of operating an ID theft ring on the morning of Feb. 27 at a home on the 7300 block of 16th Ave. S.W.

The main investigating agency was the Bellevue Police Department. Several victims of the ID theft ring were from Bellevue. Here are the details from BPD:

Police bust regional ID theft ring
Bellevue Police busted an identity theft ring in Seattle this morning, a SWAT team and detectives arresting four men and a 15-year-old girl. The police executed a search warrant at a house in West Seattle, on the 7300 block of 16th Ave. S.W.

Through a detailed investigation, detectives were led to the house, where SWAT assisted in a safe search and arrest. The five suspects were arrested without incident.

Several neighbors came up to the officers before they left the scene and thanked them for their good work. Many suggested that they were aware something was going on in the house for some time.

Detectives reported several bags of evidence were collected and will be sorted through for the next several weeks. Several items collected belong to victims from Bellevue and surrounding cities.

NASA and Lockheed Martin Space Systems representatives intrigued the audience of over 100 enthusiasts Tuesday night, Feb. 26, at the Museum of Flight's William M. Allen Theater for a public program about humans landing on the moon, asteroids, and Mars with the Orion spacecraft. As the Space Shuttle program has winded down, Orion seems poised to boldly go where no man has gone before, four astronauts at a time.

The trip to Mars would take 510 days each way. Discussed were habitat modules or dock settlements somewhat like the current International Space Station to relieve astronauts of their relatively tiny environment over the year and a half journey to the "Red Planet." A manned moon mission is scheduled for 2020. The capsule will re-enter Earth's atmosphere at over 20,000 mph and slow to a mere 18 mph for a gentile, three-parachute water landing evocative of the Apollo missions.

Speaking were Stuart McClung, Functional Area Manager for Landing/Recovery System hardware for the Orion Crew and Service Module Office at NASA Johnson Space Center, Houston, and Larry Price, Orion Deputy Program Manager with Lockheed Martin Space Systems Company.

NASA and Lockheed Martin Space Systems representatives intrigued the audience of over 100 enthusiasts Tuesday night, Feb. 26, at the Museum of Flight's William M. Allen Theater for a public program about humans landing on the moon, asteroids, and Mars with the Orion spacecraft. As the Space Shuttle program has winded down, Orion seems poised to boldly go where no man has gone before, four astronauts at a time.

The trip to Mars would take 510 days each way. Discussed were habitat modules or dock settlements somewhat like the current International Space Station to relieve astronauts of their relatively tiny environment over the year and a half journey to the "Red Planet." A manned moon mission is scheduled for 2020. The capsule will re-enter Earth's atmosphere at over 20,000 mph and slow to a mere 18 mph for a gentile, three-parachute water landing evocative of the Apollo missions.

Speaking were Stuart McClung, Functional Area Manager for Landing/Recovery System hardware for the Orion Crew and Service Module Office at NASA Johnson Space Center, Houston, and Larry Price, Orion Deputy Program Manager with Lockheed Martin Space Systems Company.

To supplement a cop’s intuition, the Seattle Police Department is using historical crime data in an attempt to predict where crimes will occur before the criminals even show up.

Seattle Mayor Mike McGinn announced “Predictive Policing” software has been deployed in two precincts, including the Southwest Precinct of West Seattle, as of Feb. 27, with the promise that “This technology will allow us to be proactive rather than reactive in responding to crime.”

The software, developed by UCLA and the LAPD in Los Angeles based on models that predict earthquakes, will attempt to forecast where crimes might occur based on data analysis of logged crimes since 2008, according to the Mayor’s office. Police will use that data to determine where they patrol, searching for burglars and thieves in our neighborhoods.

“The Predictive Policing software is estimated to be twice as effective as a human data analyst working from the same information” SPD Police Chief John Diaz said in a statement. “It’s all part of our effort to build an agile, flexible and innovative police department that provides the best service possible to the public.”