He made Queen Anne News a springboard to a publishing empire and political prominenceJohn Staton Murray, Seattle publisher and state legislator, passed away peacefully at his home Oct. 17.In 1953, he purchased the Queen Anne News, the first step in building the Murray Publishing Company. Murray presses printed dozens of local newspapers, including the Issaquah Press, Magnolia News, Lake City Star and the first Vietnamese and Norwegian papers in the state. He also was the last owner of the venerable Argus, one of the most distinctive of Northwest publications. His weekly front-page editorials in Queen Anne News addressed community issues and explained the political decision-making process as he saw it.
General consensus at a Greater Queen Anne Chamber of Commerce luncheon and candidates forum Oct. 18 was that Proposition 1 should be approved. Candidates included Gael Terelton and Bob Edwards for Port Commission, along with Tim Burgess, David Della, Bruce Harrell and Venus Velázquez for city council. That was there. The chamber board itself joined a growing list of opponents by voting last week - by a wide majority - not to support the $18-billion roads and rail package.
The birth of Discovery Park three and a half decades ago wasn't an easy one, and it has faced many challenges since then, current and former city officials said at a birthday celebration for the park on Sunday, Oct. 21.A former military base, the land was turned over to the city for free, thanks to the efforts of the late Senator Henry (Scoop) Jackson, said Mayor Greg Nickels. "We're not so lucky today," he said, noting that it will cost the city $11.1 million to buy the Capehart military housing complex and turn it into parkland.
The sixth annual Chicks Play Hard event, offered in partnership with Seattle Parks & Recreation, will take place Saturday, Oct. 27, from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the Miller Community Center. The free event is a volunteer-run day of sports, music and art exploration for girls ages 9 to 13. Chicks Play Hard welcomes keynote speaker Tia Jackson, the new University of Washington women's basketball coach. Jackson is a former WNBA player for the Phoenix Mercury and served as assistant women's basketball coach at Stanford and Duke University.
Annual show at St. Mark's expected to attract more than guild membersYou may bob and weave if you are a boxing fan, but the operative words are warp and weft for members of the Seattle Weavers Guild, which marks its 70th anniversary this year. Among its 300-plus members are novices, working with small looms at odd hours, and master artists who work full time with computer-driven looms. Some 100 to 150 guild members will participate in the guild's annual show and sale, offering handmade items for sale Thursday through Saturday, Oct. 25 to Oct. 27, at the group's annual fundraiser sale in the basement meeting room of St. Mark's Episcopal Cathedral on Capitol Hill.
A couple catches the day's last light on Monday, Oct. 22, in Volunteer Park.
Seattle residents are used to living with wildlife. Raccoons, squirrels, and opossums have always been known to live in urban areas around Puget Sound. More frequently, though, Seattleites are realizing that a larger, more predatory animal is co-existing with them. You might hear a coyote howling after an emergency vehicle's siren as it passes. You might even see one walking down the street.br>Capitol Hill resident Susan Stowers created a Web site, http://nwcoyotetracker.googlepages.com in order to document urban and suburban coyote sightings in Western Washington. Stowers began the site after hearing about coyote sightings from her neighbors."People had known for a few years that there were dens in the Arboretum, but seeing them in the neighborhood seemed like something new this year," Stowers said.
On Nov. 6, voters in King, Snohomish and Pierce counties have the opportunity to solve our transportation problems and improve our quality of life by voting for the Roads & Transit plan. The plan will help us right here in our own neighborhoods. The proposed streetcar between Capitol Hill, First Hill and the International District will be a welcome addition for residents of these neighborhoods.
More than most, this election season has been dreadful. Recently, I wrote about the vexing Proposition 1, the "Roads and Transit" package that requires voters wishing for 21st-century transportation solutions to also endorse a whole lot of counterproductive 20th- (and 19th-) century boondoggle to get it. That was bad enough. But city voters this season also must consider the future composition of the Seattle City Council.Can we, like, abolish it and start over?
I was saddened by the use of the term "pigs" to describe the Seattle Police Department in your unsigned editorial from Oct. 17. If it is the opinion of your editorial staff that police deserve to be called such names, then I wonder why you would publish an article on the front page encouraging citizens to report crimes.Unsigned editorials ultimately represent the opinion of your paper, not just a single writer. The writer, and possibly your entire publication, should be ashamed of its abuse of the police department and quickly offer an apology.While I'm sure the police often make mistakes, it destroys our communities when we resort to such irresponsible remarks. If you are journalists, act appropriately and save the name-calling for after hours.Sincerely,Gregory Schaffer PUBLISHER REPLIES:The editorial overall, written by editor Erik Hansen, was sound in its thinking.The use of the word "pigs" was not.Hansen was attempting to convey an attitude toward possible malefactors in the police department - and yes, they do exist. But the word is so loaded with negative connotations that it should never have been used.We regret the wrong.And we apologize to the police department and our readers.Mike Dillon
Since my wife's death three years ago, I have felt a sense of kinship with the funeral crashers in the 1971 film "Harold and Maude." I, too, find sharing in the passing of someone else a way to escape my own comfort zone as well as a chance to experience emotions I generally repress. The recent service for my 93-year-old friend Lou Starr was particularly therapeutic.
More than most, this election season has been dreadful. Recently, I wrote about the vexing Proposition 1, the "Roads and Transit" package that requires voters wishing for 21st-century transportation solutions to also endorse a whole lot of counterproductive 20th- (and 19th-) century boondoggle to get it. That was bad enough. But city voters this season also must consider the future composition of the Seattle City Council.Can we, like, abolish it and start over?
This November, voters in King, Snohomish and Pierce counties have the opportunity to solve our transportation problems and improve our quality of life by voting for the Roads & Transit plan, Proposition 1. The plan will help us right here in Magnolia. How many times have you experienced the frustration of the Mercer Street corridor? This mess needs a solution, and without Roads & Transit we won't have the funding for one.
I have a relative who spent his entire adult life, after the Army (during Vietnam), as a police officer in Cincinnati, Ohio. My hometown from birth until age 35. Cincinnati is a racially tense place that makes Seattle look like a successful melting pot on even its worse day. There might be a few more ethnicities represented back there now; on my annual visit last year I noticed a Mexican specialty store and grocery in my old neighborhood. But mostly Cincinnati is black folks and white folks, living in mostly segregated neighborhoods.
Forty-two percent of the class of 2008 has been unable to pass the 10th-grade WASL, which measures understanding of only seventh- and eighth-grade math. The revenues collected by tutoring companies in Washington state have increased 340 percent over the past 10 years. What is going on in our schools? Most of Washington's public schools are using the curricula known as Everyday Math, TERC Investigations, McDougal-Littell Integrated Math, Pearson Connected Math Program (CMP) and Interactive Math Program (IMP).