A sense of 1960s-style activism was revived at a press conference in the Daybreak Star Indian Cultural Center in Discovery Park last week when a new version of the Four Amigos banded together to launch a blistering attack on proposed federal budget cuts.The Amigos (a.k.a. Gang of Four) originally included Larry Gossett, now a King County Council member; Bob Santos, now executive director of the non-profit Inter*Im, Roberto Maestas, now executive director of El Centro de la Raza; and the late Bernie Whitebear, who founded the United Indians of All Tribes Foundation.Whitebear, a tireless American-Indian activist who once led an occupation of Fort Lawton, died from cancer in 2000. But Phil Lane Jr., the new UIATF director, simultaneously evoked the spirit of Whitebear and stood in for his old friend as he joined the other three Amigos at the sparsely attended Feb. 10 press conference.Lane said the four of them represented a spiritual union of African, Asian, Latino and American-Indian communities, which, in turn, encompass 80 percent of the world's population in the Western Hemisphere.
Sheley Secrest is a phenom.This bright, lively 31-year-old woman is the newest president of the Seattle Chapter of the NAACP, which stands at 2,000 members strong.Secrest a former law clerk for federal judge Franklin Burgess has been working as an attorney for the Public Defender Association in downtown Seattle for only six months. But this Seattle University Law School graduate, originally from Puyallup, isn't the type of person to let the grass grow under her feet.Secrest hasn't risen so far so fast by playing politics either: She is forthright and outspoken.Secrest characterized the local chapter of the NAACP, in the past as, "more of a social organization."Filling big shoesShe calls herself a protege of Carl Mack, who brought the NAACP into the news over the last few years with his many bold and confrontational approaches to problems of racism, real and perceived.Alfoster Garrett succeeded Mack in early 2005, when Mack moved out of the area, but his tenure only lasted about nine months. Secrest had little to say about Garrett, but she admires Mack immensely.
The year 2006 is the 250th since the birth of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. Classic KING FM radio aired 31 days of Mozart, all January long. The Seattle Symphony, with Maestro Gerard Schwarz and his connection to Mainly Mozart, did the composer proud by devoting many concerts to his works. And the Bellevue Cham-ber Chorus pre-sents a special Mozart concert on March 11. The Seattle Opera's tribute is Mozart's opera "Cosi Fan Tutte" - a light, frivolous farce, in which Don Alfonso, a cynical bachelor, plots to win a wager proving all women are fickle. Hence the title, which translates as "women are like that."
The Super Bowl is past, but with the Winter Olympics and the Sonics about to bust out, interest in spectator sports seems to be at an all-time high. However, with more than 70 percent of Americans not regularly phys-ically active (according to the National Center for Health Statistics), interest in actually participating in sports or exercise seems to be at an all-time low. We are all familiar with the old saying "use it or lose it," referring primarily to exercising the muscles of our body; I admit, I say this all the time when I am training clients. And yet I wonder how many of us fully realize its importance or take it seriously.
Widespread changes are in store for Seattle Public Schools that will include building closures, according to the final recommendation released Friday, Feb. 10, by a special committee charged with solving the district's compounding budget shortfalls."During the course of our analysis and deliberations, we came to see that the district's financial challenges could not be viewed in isolation, but rather were symptoms of broader systemic and organizational issues," said the report issued by the Community Advisory Committee on Investing in Educational Excellence (CACIEE).The 14-person committee, made up of local civic and business leaders, was created last July by Seattle Schools Superintendent Raj Manhas in response to public outcry over the district's initial plan to close schools in an effort to cut costs. The district faces a $15-million shortfall this year, a deficit projected to increase to $44 million by 2010-2011.
If you're like a lot of people, that New Year's resolve to get fit is beginning to dissolve right about now. Maybe you're even close to throwing in the towel on those daily treadmill workouts.Don't despair. Success is still possible. The key to turning a fitness resolution into an ingrained habit is to choose enjoyable activities you can do regularly and adapt over time.If you've been sedentary, aim for at least 30 minutes of regular activity five days a week. Eventually you'll be rewarded by a boost in energy, lower blood pressure, stronger bones and muscles, better balance and an improved mental outlook.
When William Dunlop died of cancer on Oct. 20, 2005, at age 69, the local media scarcely blinked. The English expat, Queen Anne resident and former University of Washington professor surely deserved better.Passing mention was made in Seattle Weekly, where Dunlop, lover of classical music and Venice, served as opera critic and soccer correspondent for two decades. More to the point, Dunlop was a poet with "a coterie reputation as one of the finest of his generation," as fellow Brit and Queen Anner Jonathan Raban, an author of international repute, once wrote.Besides the Weekly's quick take, a short, paid obituary appeared in the Seattle P-I.And that was it.However, a two-column obituary, with photo, ran in Great Britain's estimable Independent; it was penned by Dunlop's old Cambridge classmate, acclaimed writer Margaret Drabble.Dunlop's posthumous neglect in Seattle seems oddly apt. Friends say Dunlop, in the City of Nice, didn't always suffer nicely those he considered fools.
Pedestrian safety is a concern for me. Ever since I lost the sight in my right eye, I've been especially observant as I walk or drive about the neighborhoodA year ago, out of nowhere, two pedestrian-crossing warning stanchions appeared at the intersection of Smith Street and 34th Avenue West.The signs stood at attention, ostensibly to warn drivers that pedestrians frequently walk in the designated zone-so drive carefully. The message was clear to me, and I liked the signs. Their overnight arrival reminded me of a Life magazine photo depicting mushrooms popping through asphalt streets.Then, just as quickly and mysteriously, the signs disappeared. What the heck, I thought. A few months passed and, lo and behold, the two stanchions reappeared. I glanced at Rita as we slowly drove past them. "Did you see them?" I asked her. Rita looked up. "Did I see what?"
The Feb. 1 Queen Anne News article "A 'gated community' in Queen Anne?" contains few facts and a lot of misinformation.FACTS: The process of developing a comprehensive traffic-mitigation plan that addresses cut-through traffic volume and excessive speed on residential streets in the neighborhood (bounded by Warren Avenue North on the east, Third Avenue West on the west, Queen Anne Drive/Smith Street on the south and Florentia Street on the north) began in the 1990s and involved many, many people.The need for a solution to the problem became even more critical when potential impacts from the upcoming Fremont Bridge closures became apparent. Even without bridge construction impacts, the affected residential streets currently have traffic volumes as high as 2,700 vehicles each day, of which as much as 75 percent is cut-through traffic (traffic traveling on residential streets from one arterial to another). See page 7 of the traffic study, at www.qatraffic.com: Speed studies show that almost all the neighborhood streets have a speeding problem. See page 8: If one takes the time to learn a little bit about traffic patterns in the neighborhood, it is clear the bridge project will aggravate the situation. Here are some of the claims made in the article, and the facts. More claims and facts can be seen on the Web site.
Of all the work legislators do, nothing is as important as providing the necessary funding for educating our children. Our state constitution wisely declares that education is the paramount duty of our state, and it is a responsibility I take most seriously.Unfortunately, providing the fund-ing for the world-class education that Washington's children deserve is always a challenge. There are only so many dollars to go around, and so many needs. And I am one vote in a body with 149 members. Working with other lawmakers who strongly support education, last year we passed one of the best-ever biennial state budgets for our public schools. For the first time, we fully funded the class-size and cost-of-living adjustment initiatives passed by voters, and increased overall education funding by 9 percent.Our current budget makes other important investments in education, too, including a $30-million boost in special-education funding, a 12-percent increase in levy equalization dollars for school districts statewide and $6.2 million for the Early Childhood Education and Assistance Program (ECEAP).But there is clearly more work to do, and securing the funding our schools and children need remains a challenge.That's one reason I supported the creation of Washington Learns last year. This blue-ribbon group is leading an 18-month comprehensive study of our entire state education system - from preschool through graduate school - and before the next legislative session will recommend ways to improve it.
The fine art of playing hooky achieved ever-greater heights this past week. The lengths to which people went were stunning. But the sun was out. Day after day. It became imperative to take time off from the usual day-to-day drudgery of life and bask in the sunshine.It seemed as though everyone's mood was also lifted to greater heights of optimism. Crabbiness took a backseat to forthright hopefulness. It was hard to be overly enchanted with the flowery displays at the Northwest Flower and Garden Show when the sweet, powerful fragrance of Daphne odora wafted in the air of our own gardens.Will we be like the poor sods on the East Coast who experienced a soft, benign January followed by being slammed with a huge winter storm this past weekend? Oh, I hope not.
I have come to believe that George W. Bush is in league with the big drug companies that make and sell the medicine I take for a more and more rebellious stomach. He makes my stomach acid juices flow like the Mighty Columbia River before it was all dammed up.The latest Pinhead project to nut me off is his recently released "budget."Calling this mess of fiscal lies and improprieties a budget is like calling my scattered attempts at cooking, for dates and daughters, fine dining.Pinhead's budget robs Poor Peter to once again pay Rich Paul.Experts are now saying Bush is going to leave his unlucky successor a $354-billion deficit. When evil old Bill Clinton stepped down to have heart surgeries, the country actually had a budget surplus. And yet alleged Conservatives try to claim Bush as one of theirs.Conservatives conserve things, and that includes money.
Plans to fix up the Fremont Bridge have given residents on the north slope of Queen Anne a chance to remedy a long-term grievance over non-locals driving through the neighborhood on narrow streets like Queen Anne Avenue.But getting from here to there on Queen Anne Avenue and other residential streets is going to get a lot more complicated-if not seemingly impossible-under a proposed plan released Jan. 26 at an open house sponsored by the Seattle Department of Transportation.Many, but not all, of those living in the affected area like the plan, which covers an area that is bounded on the north by Smith on the south by Florentia and Nickerson, Fourth Avenue North to the east and Third Avenue West to the west. But the Queen Anne Community Council and most neighborhood residents outside of the area are vehemently opposed to a proposed SDOT plan that involves diversions, street closures and setting up new one-way streets to force traffic onto arterials.
Like many of us, it was St. Valentine's Day that finally threw her over the edge. Her visions of red roses, passionate kisses and sweet somethings were dashed by an early-morning phone call from the man she was dating. Uh ... NPR was on and he wondered if she wanted to come over and make out. "This was not the life that I had envisioned for myself," exclaims a laughing Maria Dahvana Headley, author of "The Year of Yes," a memoir that chronicles Headley's yearlong quest for love with more than 150 New York men and a few women."He was listening to morning news," explains the petite brunette, who today sports bright-red lips and fire-engine high-heels. "And I wanted to be swept off my feet."It was an "Aha" moment that prompted her to question if she really knew what was good for her. Like many of us, she had an ideal of what her dream man would look like. If her potential suitors fit the bill, she said yes; if they didn't, she turned them down. "I'd always believed that I knew exactly what was good for me," she writes. "But clearly that wasn't true. I was no longer a trustworthy guardian of my heart."
SHELLI MARKEE"Hmmm ... it would have to be something that just knocks your socks off like Jaegermeister or a really strong liquor."DAVID NISSANOV"Probably Italian. A good pasta, you know. No meat, just good sauce and quality ingredients."STACY SIKORA"Definitely chocolate. Mmmmm.... The pleasure that it gives, and the craving that it fulfills."