Money

Volunteers boarded tugs, kayaks, small boats and recreational vessels to pick up litter from the Ballard Locks to the Fremont Bridge last Saturday during the annual Ship Canal Clean Up Project.

Over 90 people gave up their Saturday morning to use nets and pickup sticks to retrieve plastic bottles, aluminum cans, Styrofoam and just about anything else that ends up in the water.

Foss Maritime brought 16 volunteers and the Port of Seattle had the most with 20.

"We're being good stewards for the water front.

To the Editor:

A performing arts center will improve our quality of life and benefit the local economy.

I encourage our City Council to continue moving forward on development of a Performing Arts/Event Center.

As a resident and as a member of the Chamber of Commerce, I believe an appropriately designed facility will improve our quality of life and provide additional engine for economic development.

Our community needs a facility to accommodate larger events, which our schools, performing arts groups, and business needs, but currently must look outsid

People need to watch government

By Tim Eyman

In your story, you blamed "tax-cutting Initiative 695 by Tim Eyman in 2000" for a lack of government services (Ballard News-Tribune, April 30).

I'm very proud to have been one of the co-sponsors of that 1999 initiative to lower vehicle car tabs fees to $30, which voters overwhelmingly approved, despite our side being outspent 20 to 1.

But it's important for newspapers to accurately report that it wasn't the voters who implemented I-695 - it was Olympia. I-695 was struck down by the courts.

At the April 21st meeting of the Burien City Council, the council received a staff recommendation for partial annexation of North Highline.

Once again the financial data provided by city staff was skewed towards annexation.

The 2008 cruise season got underway April 1 and will bring new ships and more economic benefits to the region, says the Port of Seattle.

The cruise business has grown exponentially since 1999, when just six ships and 6,600 passengers arrived. In 2008, 211 vessel calls will bring more than 800,000 passengers to Seattle, and a total of nine ships will call Seattle their homeport.

In 2007, the cruise industry was responsible for more than 2,000 jobs, $268 million in business revenue and $6.7 million in state and local tax revenues.

We greet you in this season when Christians proclaim the joy of Easter. Spring is a time when many faiths mark holy days and observe special traditions, a time when many of us are reminded that we are truly blessed.

Recently you received a letter from the Internal Revenue Service, with the heading, "Economic Stimulus Payment Notice." It stated that individuals who qualify may receive as much as $600 ($1,200 if married filing jointly) in our government's effort to stave off an economic downturn.

The Legislature has made the right first step, but there is much to do to come up with a coherant housing policy in the city.

Lawmakers in Olympia passed a measure that strengthens protections for tenants displaced in the overpowering rush to turn usually older apartment buildings into cash machines for their owners. Hundreds of rental spaces have been lost to conversions into condominiums.

Every day there seems to be a new woe for the Washington State Ferry system, a service that carries 24 million passengers and 11 million vehicles a year on 10 cross-Puget Sound runs. Bulletins are issued often, sometimes hourly of late, telling of a new series of cancellations of service, late sailings, substitutions of service, closed kitchens and sick passengers needing ambulance service.

Those notices have always happened, as they do with any major transportation system, but they were of a more routine nature.

Jorstad Jewelers will close its doors for good Feb. 29 after 50 years of service in Burien. Owner Denny Clarke has decided to retire after 32 years at the store and 13 years of outright ownership.

Jorstad's is what is known as a "full service" jewelry store - they sell jewelry and also do repairs and other jewelry upkeep that many other independent stores no longer do.

Bob Jorstad established Jorstad's in 1958. In 1976 he expanded the store only to have the place completely destroyed by what is believed to have been an electrical fire.

Jorstad Jewelers will close its doors for good Feb. 29 after 50 years

of service in Burien. Owner Denny Clarke has decided to retire after

32 years at the store and 13 years of outright ownership.

Jorstad's is what is known as a "full service" jewelry store - they

sell jewelry and also do repairs and other jewelry upkeep that many

other independent stores no longer do.