Fourth-quarter rally carries Liberty girls past Bellevue
January 20, 2011
NEW — 11:30 a.m. Jan. 20, 2011
The Liberty High School girls basketball team outscored host Bellevue 15-8 in the final quarter Wednesday to post a key 3A/2A KingCo Conference victory.
Aspen Winegar led the Patriots with 14 points. Halie Ericksen and Danni Sjolander each added 10 points, and Sierra Carlson had eight points.
Liberty trailed by one point entering the final quarter before overcoming the Wolverines.
The Patriots went to 7-2 in league play and remained in a tie with Mount Si for second place in the standings. Liberty, which has a four-game winning streak, takes on first-place Juanita, 9-0, at 6:30 p.m. Jan. 21 at Juanita. The Patriots lost to Juanita 58-56 in December.
In other league action, Mount Si rallied in the fourth quarter to beat visiting Interlake 48-44, Juanita downed Lake Washington 49-42 and Mercer Island cruised by Sammamish 64-35.
Students can attend camp for mid-winter break
January 20, 2011
NEW — 6 a.m. Jan. 20, 2011
Middle school students can register for !mpact’s mid-winter break camp, Feb. 21-25.
Students will go to Pattison’s Roller Skating Rink, Hard Rock Café, Pike Place Market, and an improv comedy show at Unexpected Productions. Campers can also take DJ classes and be a contestant on a game based on the TV show “Minute to Win it.”
Find the registration form at the Issaquah School District website. The camp costs $40 per day. Contact Colleen Carroll with questions at 837-5080 or carrollc@issaquah.wednet.edu.
Registration is due by noon Jan. 21.
City Council sets candidate interviews for March 1
January 20, 2011
NEW — 6 a.m. Jan. 20, 2011
City Council members updated the schedule Tuesday to appoint a successor to former Councilwoman Maureen McCarry.
The council plans to interview applicants in 10-minute segments March 1. Candidates must apply for the post by Feb. 4.
The process is similar to the steps used to fill a vacant council seat in 2006 and another in 1998.
The council selected March 1 because the original date scheduled for interviews, Feb. 22, has a packed schedule.
The vote to appoint a member to the council is scheduled for March 7.
In the meantime, the council faces potential 3-3 ties on decisions until the open seat is filled. Mayor Ava Frisinger casts the tie-breaking vote in such cases.
Issaquah boys basketball team snaps losing streak
January 19, 2011
NEW — 3 p.m. Jan. 19, 2011
Steven Rael scored a season-high 20 points Tuesday as he led the Issaquah High School boys basketball team to a 69-64 victory in overtime against visiting Roosevelt. The victory for the Eagles snapped a five-game losing streak.
Issaquah, 2-6 in 4A KingCo Conference play and 5-9 overall, made a tremendous fourth-quarter rally to send the game into overtime. The Eagles trailed by nine points after three quarters. However, Issaquah outscored Roosevelt 17-8 in the final period to send the game into overtime. The Eagles outscored Roosevelt 16-11 in overtime to win the game.
Counting Rael, five players in all scored in double figures for Issaquah. Nik Landdeck contributed 14 points. Fletcher Martin, Evan Peterson and Nick Price each had 11 points. Joe Knight had 15 points to lead Roosevelt, which is 2-7 in league play and 3-10 on the season.
Village Theatre First Stage sign restoration / January 2011
January 19, 2011
Maywood continues on normal schedule despite power outage
January 19, 2011
NEW — 1:10 p.m. Jan. 19, 2011
The power went out at Maywood Middle School on Wednesday, but the outage did not interrupt classes or lunch.
The school experienced a power outage at 11:15 a.m. Puget Sound Energy expected the outage to last until about 1 p.m., Issaquah School District spokeswoman Sara Niegowski said.
Cafeteria staff had cooked hot meals before the outage and they were able to serve them to students. School will proceed on a normal schedule Wednesday, and will still have after-school activities.
PSE attributed the outage to substation issues. During the outage, emergency lights came on to illuminate classrooms.
“Classes are going on as normal, it’s a sunny day so the skylights are helpful,” Niegowski said. “The only change in process was that the lunch folks had to manually write down students’ lunch accounts.”
County Council appoints citizens to redraw districts
January 19, 2011
NEW — 6 a.m. Jan. 19, 2011
King County Council members appointed a team of community leaders Tuesday to update the map for representation in county government.
The council appointed four members to the King County Districting Committee, the citizen committee responsible for redrawing council districts based on 2010 Census data.
“Redistricting is a challenging, time-consuming process that is vital to ensuring our residents are fairly represented,” Councilman Reagan Dunn said in a statement. “We are grateful that these four highly-qualified community members are willing to provide their service to King County.”
Dunn represents District 9 on the nine-member council. The district encompasses the rural area near Issaquah, plus Newcastle, Maple Valley and areas inside Bellevue and Renton.
Issaquah proper is inside District 3. Councilwoman Kathy Lambert represents District 3. The northeastern King County district is the largest in the county.
Residents could lose voice if community councils fold
January 18, 2011
King County residents called on leaders last week to preserve community councils in rural and unincorporated neighborhoods, despite directions from the County Council to slash dollars for the groups.
Residents from the Puget Sound shoreline to rural areas near Issaquah operate unincorporated area councils to conduct neighborhood programs and foster citizen participation.
The councils also act as liaisons for unincorporated area residents to the county government based in Seattle. The county is home to 1.9 million people, including 340,000 residents in unincorporated areas.
But County Council members winnowed the budget for the unincorporated area councils from about $330,000 to $50,000 late last year, as the county faced a $60 million budget gap. Read more
Curtain rises on refurbished theater sign
January 18, 2011
Shellee Miggins (left), neon department chief, and Chris Greytak, router operator, employees at The Sign Factory in Kirkland, turn up the lights for the first time Jan. 11 on the restored Village Theatre First Stage Theatre sign. By Greg Farrar
The color palette on the sign slicing the First Stage Theatre façade suggests a candy store.
Consider the rich chocolate and cream blended to form the soft-edged letters. Or the neon — as brash as Liberace — done up in bubblegum pink and spearmint green.
The restoration team at a Kirkland sign manufacturer spent weeks to restore the decades-old sign. Crews installed the refurbished sign on the façade Jan. 14, as the theater reconstruction project nears completion. Read more
Questions linger in months after lethal shootings
January 18, 2011
By Dona Mokin
Gunshots interrupted the summer hubbub at Lake Sammamish State Park just after sunset last July 17. The picnics and twilight dips in the lake clamored to a halt as a fistfight escalated into a firefight.
In the six months since gunfire pierced the summer night, the lethal shootout at the packed Issaquah park has defied easy answers. The investigation remains open, but tips to the King County Sheriff’s Office dried up not long after the incident.
Now, King County Medical Examiner’s Office reports, court documents, and accounts from law enforcement officers and park rangers offer a glimpse at the chaos inside the park amid the firefight and the ensuing investigation.
Yang Keovongphet, 33, a Laotian immigrant and a Kent resident employed in manufacturing, and Justin Cunningham, 30, a native Seattleite and a mechanic, died in the shootout.
Investigators hope ballistics tests help determine the shooter or shooters. Sgt. John Urquhart, sheriff’s office spokesman, urged observers to hold off on speculation until the investigation concludes — despite reports identifying either dead man as a shooter.
The investigation timeline remains uncertain, because the process has slowed as the state crime laboratory toils to process evidence in the case. The results could remain unavailable until almost a year after the incident.
The long backlog at the understaffed and underfunded Washington State Patrol crime laboratories means evidence needed for upcoming trials or to charge jailed suspects receives more immediate attention.
“It’s not like ‘CSI’ by any stretch of the imagination,” Urquhart said. “It just doesn’t work that way.”
