August 2015

The Nordic Heritage Museum will host its second annual Run-Like-a-Viking 5K at Golden Gardens Park. The run kicks off the 32nd Viking Days, the Nordic Heritage Museum’s annual summer festival.

Registration is now open for the Run-Like-a-Viking 5K. Viking-inspired costumes are encouraged for runners. On-leash dogs are welcome to run with their owners, and are encouraged to wear costumes as well. Gun time for the race is 8:00 am on Saturday, August 22. The run will be chip timed and the field is limited to 500 participants. Participants are welcome to walk instead of run, and participants may push strollers.

The National Volleyball League (NVL) Seattle Championships will be held August 28 – 30 at Alki Beach Park, 2901 Alki Ave SW, Seattle, WA. The tournament will feature a 16-team draw per gender with beach volleyball pros competing for a $75,000 prize purse. General admission to the tournament is free and VIP tickets may be purchased here. Local residents interested in volunteering at the tournament can sign up here.

"We’re excited to make our debut in Seattle and share the NVL beach lifestyle with local fans," said Albert Hannemann, NVL Founder and CEO. "Alki Beach is considered the heart of beach volleyball in this region and it will be a spectacular setting for our pros to contend for a Seattle Championships title.”

Seattle Championships Event Highlights:
Friday, August 28th
9:00am-Dusk – Qualifier Matches

Saturday, August 29th
9:00am-Dusk – Main Draw Matches

Sunday, August 30th
8:00am – Quarter and Semi-Finals
2:30pm – Women’s Finals
4:00pm – Men’s Finals
*Finals times subject to change

By Tim Clifford

Loco for Four Loko
On Aug. 8 a very thirsty suspect damaged goods and assaulted a store manager at a convenience store located on the 4800 block of Erskine WY S.W. Initially the suspect was described to dispatchers as a Pacific Islander and later revealed to be a light skinned black male. When officers first arrived at the scene they spotted the suspect walking across the parking lot but decided not to detain him until they had a positive ID.

The clerks in the store explained that at about 2 a.m. the suspect walked into the store and began stuffing his pockets with cans of Four Loko beverages. When the clerk and manager confronted him about it the suspect emptied his jacket and walked to the back of the store where boxes of unopened product were stacked. The suspect grabbed one of the products, a box of wine, and attempted to leave the store with it.

The manager reached out and grabbed the box of wine which initiated a “tug-of-war”. Finally the box broke and the suspect ran out the door.

By Karen Pruett

For the past five years I was part of an international group of professionals and laypersons who insisted on the public’s right-to-know regarding Meredith Kercher, Amanda Knox & Raffaele Sollecito’s case as it played out in Italy. The international group helping the Knox and Sollecito families are collectively known as the Supporters, the Innocentisti, the Pro-Innocence People (PIP) or the Amanda Knox-Raffaele Sollecito (AKRS) Advocates. I fondly call these people “The Justice League.”

The AKRS Advocates are a microcosm of the Earth’s Northern Hemisphere, with a sprinkling from the Southern, and they represent more than 30 nations.

By Amanda Knox

As I take up the reins of Kyra-lin Hom’s weekly column, I am riding a warm wave of romanticism after reading the story of another columnist of a local paper, albeit a fictional one—the unnamed protagonist of Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s Memories of My Melancholy Whores.

It is a credit to Marquez that he could inspire a feminist like myself to feel butterflies when the novella’s premise is so repulsive. The opening words are the protagonist’s: “The year I turned ninety, I wanted to give myself the gift of a night of wild love with an adolescent virgin.” Standing on the upper landing of the bookstore, pausing in the process of shelving a stack of fiction titles to read this line, my eyebrow rose in the way a cat’s back-fur bristles. “Oh, really…” I thought.

The National Volleyball League (NVL) Seattle Championships will be held August 28 – 30 at Alki Beach Park, 2901 Alki Ave SW, Seattle, WA. The tournament will feature a 16-team draw per gender with beach volleyball pros competing for a $75,000 prize purse. General admission to the tournament is free and VIP tickets may be purchased here. Local residents interested in volunteering at the tournament can sign up here.

"We’re excited to make our debut in Seattle and share the NVL beach lifestyle with local fans," said Albert Hannemann, NVL Founder and CEO. "Alki Beach is considered the heart of beach volleyball in this region and it will be a spectacular setting for our pros to contend for a Seattle Championships title.”

Seattle Championships Event Highlights:
Friday, August 28th
9:00am-Dusk – Qualifier Matches

Saturday, August 29th
9:00am-Dusk – Main Draw Matches

Sunday, August 30th
8:00am – Quarter and Semi-Finals
2:30pm – Women’s Finals
4:00pm – Men’s Finals

North Seattle residents and citizens from as far as Kent gathered at Leif Erikson Hall August 12 for a public meeting hosted by the Office of the Mayor to discuss the proposed homeless encampment at 2826 NW Market Street.

The meeting was held for public comment on the encampment site and for City Officials to present the vetting process for the encampment selection. City officials were also going to present on encampment options.

Hundreds of citizens gathered in the hall to hear from City officials. Among them was Deputy Mayor Hyeok Kim and Council member, Mike O’Brien. Staff from the Department of Planning and Development and the Department of Neighborhoods spoke at the meeting.

Mayor Ed Murray did not attend the event.

A male driver was injured slightly when the SUV he was driving rolled on its side on Roxbury Street SW near 5th Ave. SW shortly before 1pm on Friday.

The vehicle was attempting to negotiate the turn at 4th Ave SW from Olsen Place SW to Roxbury Street SW during the sudden thunderstorm that made roads slick and visibility limited. The vehicle ended up on its side off the road.

The driver was seen climbing out of the vehicle and walking with a slight limp.

With more than 22,000 locations around the world Starbucks is seemingly everywhere. But until Aug. 14, the one place our hometown coffee giant had no presence was in the heart of West Seattle in the Junction.

The official opening of Store Number 248837 on Friday came without fanfare but not without a lot of attention. Locals had been popping in during last week asking about the opening and expressing excitement said the management team at the location. Starbucks now has five company operated and three licensed stores in West Seattle.

The 1500 square foot space on the southeast corner of the intersection has 22 full and part time employees will be open Monday through Friday from 5am to 10pm and 5:30 am Saturday and Sunday.