March 2015

by Bob Sims

Brittany McPhee has come back home again.

The former Mount Rainier High basketball star, a Stanford Cardinal now, is in town with her team for the Pac-12 Conference women's basketball tournament.

The 19th-ranked Cardinal (21-9, 13-5 Pac-12) square off against UCLA (13-17, 8-10) in a quarterfinal game Friday at 2 p.m. at Key Arena. Stanford, which has won 10 of 13 conference championships, needs to advance to the title game at 6 p.m on Sunday to be seriously considered as a host site for the opening games of the NCAA tournament.

McPhee, a 6-foot freshman guard, is getting more and more playing time for Stanford after overcoming a preseason foot injury. She has averaged 12 points and 5.7 rebounds in her past four games, starting for the first time a couple of weeks ago.

McPhee, of Normandy Park, was named Pac-12 Freshman of the Week on Feb. 23 after coming off the bench to score a career-high 24 points against California on Feb. 22. It was the most points a freshman has scored since Nnemkadi Ogwumike exploded for 27 against San Diego State in the 2009 NCAA tournament.

Information is still being gathered after a short chase between King County Sheriff’s deputies and a motorcyclist ended in a fatal collision in White Center.
Yesterday evening at 6 p.m. a deputy with the sheriff’s department spotted a wanted felon entering a home on 112 St. in White Center. The deputy stood by and called for backup. As additional officers arrived the felon spotted them, jumped on a motorcycle and sped off.
The chase was short but the man did manage to reach speeds of over 100 mph. At the corner of 112th St. and 1 Ave. S. the fleeing motorcyclist collided with the back end of a pickup truck.
“Fatal collision at 112/1 S. Truck v. Motorcycle. That’s all I know so far,” tweeted Media Officer BJ Myers on the King County Sheriff’s twitter page at 6:54 p.m.
None of the occupants in the truck were injured.
What is known at this time is that the motorcyclist was 39-years-old and had multiple outstanding warrants. It is not known what those warrants were regarding or to what extent his legal troubles would have been if he had been arrested.
Updates to come as more information becomes available.

By Tim Clinton
SPORTS EDITOR

Shorewood Christian of White Center will be joining nearby Seattle Lutheran of West Seattle in the Class 1B state boys basketball semifinals after posting a 75-61 win over Curlew on Thursday.

The win advanced the Shorewood Christian crew into the 9 p.m. Friday semifinal against Neah Bay at the Spokane Coliseum.

Seattle Lutheran is playing Lummi Nation in the 7:15 p.m. semifinal Friday.
Shorewood Christian also played in the 9 p.m. game Thursday to open.

By Anastasia Stepankowsky

West Seattle got a taste of the thievery it had inflicted on opponents all season. The Wildcats couldn’t recover from a first half littered with turnovers and fell to the Lynnwood Royals 60-36 Thursday afternoon in girls state tournament action at the Tacoma Dome.

With point guard Gabby Sarver out with an injury, the Wildcats could not get the ball down the court. The Royals forced 17 turnovers before intermission, and West Seattle only attempted 13 shots before the half. Lynnwood led 29-17 at the break.

West Seattle head coach Sonya Elliott said the Wildcats couldn't handle the Royals’ pressure with Sarver out.

“They’re an aggressive, trapping defense. We knew exactly what they were going to do, and we practiced against it. We had guys come in and do the same defense. And so I think there is a time as a coach where you show them what they’re going to be up against and you practice it and then sometimes it doesn’t always come through in the game,” Elliott said.

Seattle Lutheran started its stay off right at the Class 1B boys basketball tournament in Spokane on Thursday afternoon.

The Saint clobbered Cusick, 68-38, at the Spokane Arena, advancing them into a 7:15 p.m. Friday state semifinal against the winner of a later Thursday game between Entiat and Lummi Nation.

More details later.

The next presenter in the Southwest Seattle Historical Society monthly “Words, Writers & West Seattle” series is Barbara Haines Howett, Ladies of the Borobudur (Outskirts Press, 2007, genre: adult fiction).

On Friday, March. 6, 2015, at Barnes & Noble Westwood Village Barbara Haines Howett talks of her novel ‘Ladies of the Borobudur’

Her FREE talk will run from 5 to 7 p.m.

Any purchases made by those attending the talk that afternoon and for the next five days will result in a contribution of 10 percent of proceeds to the Southwest Seattle Historical Society under the Barnes & Noble Bookfair program.

Hello,

I am writing about the crosswalk from the Rapid Ride terminal site at Westwood Village in West Seattle. At some point overnight or today, a car plowed through the crosswalk and demolished it, while leaving debris all over.

We have asked repeatedly for nearly two years for assistance and budgetary relief to fund proper, full, and safe mitigation for pedestrians crossing here in the form of a controlled crosswalk if possible, and failing that at minimum a user-activated flashing visual beacon. As of yet we have only heard several variations on how this is not feasible, beyond current budget realities, or 'not proper’ or appropriate for this location due to the nearby streetlights at Barton and 26th for the Westwood Village entrance.

There is a user-controlled full crosswalk one block south on Roxbury adjacent to the intersection of Roxbury and 26th, by the Safeway supermarket. Why is that location appropriate for these controls to service that Rapid Ride C stop, while the full end-of-line terminal a block away on another arterial is not? It’s a miracle that no one was in the crosswalk when this happened.

Burien, WA– The Highline Public Schools Board of Directors is currently soliciting candidates to fill the position of Director District 3.  The position is now vacant after the retirement of long-time School Board member Susan Goding.
 
Anyone who lives in District 3 and is a registered voter in Washington State is eligible. The School Board will appoint a director to serve until December 1, 2015. A new director will be elected in November 2015 to step into the position on December 1 and serve the remaining two years of Goding’s term. 
 
Those interested in the position are asked to submit an application and a current resume to district.3@highlineschools.org by March 20, 2015. Applications will be reviewed by the School Board and the Board will announce finalists at the April 1 School Board meeting.
 
Click the following links for additional information about the vacant board member position.
• Timeline
• Director District Boundaries
• Application
• Duties of the Board
• Highline Public Schools Strategic Plan
 
Goding retired from her position on the School Board after a decade of service. She plans to pursue math education advocacy work throughout the state.

The House of Representatives approved a bill today by a vote of 96-2 that would allow the ports of Seattle and Tacoma to create a collaborative partnership for certain maritime operations.

“Our state laws governing ports were written over a century ago when competition was largely between Washington’s port districts,” said the bill’s prime sponsor, Rep. Judy Clibborn (D-Mercer Island). “Times have changed dramatically since then. This bill will allow our ports to better compete in a 21st Century global economy.”

“Washington is heavily dependent on trade and our ports play a key role in our economy,” said Rep. Gael Tarleton (D-Ballard). “Nearly a half million jobs are supported by cargo moving through Washington’s two largest ports. Marine cargo operations in Seattle and Tacoma generate over $4 billion in economic activity. Passage of this bill greatly increases Washington’s competitiveness.”

Under current law, the port districts are constrained from sharing sensitive financial data. This law was first written in 1911 to ensure fair business practices at a time when ports mainly competed with other ports in neighboring counties.

For the past couple of decades, a female river otter named Salishan enchanted visitors with her energetic diving, gliding and cuteness. Today, March 5, Woodland Park Zoo humanely euthanized the 19-year-old otter following a period of declining health and lethargy. She was fondly called “Sunny” by her keepers.

River otters live 8 to 10 years in the wild and 18 to 20 years in zoos.

The zoo’s consulting veterinary cardiologist, Dr. Jerry Woodfield with Northwest Cardiology Consultants, diagnosed the otter a year ago with age-related congestive heart failure. She was given a prognosis of three to six months to live but survived another 12 months.

“Targeted treatment, close monitoring, excellent supportive care, and lots of TLC by our keeper and veterinary staff all contributed to giving Salishan a very good quality of life for the past year,” said Dr. Kelly Helmick, Woodland Park Zoo’s associate veterinarian. “Rarely do we get to successfully manage heart disease like hers for so long and for so well.”

As a standard procedure, the zoo’s animal health team performed a necropsy (an animal autopsy), which confirmed congestive heart failure.