Spring sports underway

It must have been the sound of cracking bats and “attaways” from the dugout, because it surely wasn’t the weather that signaled the arrival of spring.

The Federal Way High School JV baseball and Freshman softball teams hosted home games yesterday in some unseasonably cool weather.  The girls battled Auburn, while the JV boys played Kentwood.  

Enjoy the Federal Way News’ first spring sports photos of the year!

Police chief apologizes for misusing mobile device on the road

Blackberry distraction blamed for accident caused by FW Police Chief

On March 18 Chief Brian Wilson stopped at a red light, glanced down at his BlackBerry and then—thinking that traffic had started moving again—took his foot off the brake and collided with the car in front of him.

There was no damage to either vehicle and no injuries.

City Manager Neal Beets conducted an internal review on March 24, found the collision to have been preventable and issued a verbal reprimand to Chief Wilson.

In the past, Federal Way officers who have had collisions resulting in less than $700 in damage have received a verbal reprimand or counseling for a first collision.

“I take full responsibility,” said Wilson, who has never had an at-fault accident in his 28 years as a police officer. “Staying focused and avoiding distractions while driving is essential for safety,” he said.

“This is a good lesson in the intense concentration driving takes. If you’re not focused, accidents can happen,” Wilson said, “even to the chief of police.”

Emergency vehicles such as police are exempt from the new Washington State law that prohibits sending, reading or writing messages while driving.

This exception is based on the need for operators of emergency vehicles to use essential communication devices. However, Wilson said that doesn’t excuse the behavior.

“Was this an essential communication for me to be on at the time?” Wilson asked, rehetorically, “No.” Wilson was viewing newspaper headlines and e-mail on his BlackBerry at the time of the incident and said he violated the spirit of the exception in the law. He has vowed this will not happen again. 

The accident occurred at the intersection of South 324th Street and Pacific Highway South in Federal Way. Wilson was driving an unmarked police vehicle. Immediately after bumping the car in front of him, he turned on his emergency lights and used his police radio to request assistance.

The incident was the subject of a routine accident investigation.

Letter to the Editor: Federal Way protest

To the Editor:

I have written many times to the Seattle Times about the upcoming protest in Federal Way, and have been repeatedly ignored. I find it very alarming that the Seattle Times has published articles (many articles) about ABC show The Bachelor, while also refusing to publish an article or even a short letter about the protest. Federal Way has twice as many rapes as the national average; a protest to persuade our city council to train and hire more police and invest in police technology is important.

That’s true whether or not the Seattle Times prefers reality TV journalism. For anyone that thinks the upcoming protest is more important it’s Tuesday, March 31, 2009 at 4:00PM. It will be held at The Commons at Federal Way 1928 S Commons Federal Way, WA 98003.

Tyler Young, Federal Way

Town Hall meeting on City Center Access Project set

If you commute through or live near the bloated I-5 and 320th St. interchange, chances are you’ve been paying attention to the new proposal to add a new interstate exit into Federal Way. 

Although the Federal Way City Council has opened the floor to public input for months, the council once again requests community involvement in a project that proposes big changes to the flow of traffic in the city.

The Federal Way City Council invites the public to attend a special Town Hall meeting on the City Center Access Project from 5 to 7 p.m. on April 2 at the Truman High School Cafeteria.

Truman is located at 31455 28th Ave. South.

Korean and Spanish interpreters will be available. 

Preliminary design drawings and informational materials that have been presented at past open houses and public meetings will be available for review. The purpose of the Town Hall is for the city council to discuss the project with the public.   

The City Center Access Project is designed to relieve traffic safety concerns and congestion at the I-5 and S. 320th Street interchange, which may involve adding a new freeway interchange.

The project started five years ago and has been led by the City, the Washington State Department of Transportation, the Federal Highway Administration and a team of community stakeholders, citizens and consultants.

The parties worked extensively with the public to narrow the original 47 alternatives down to three in 2005 using a variety of methods and a technical scoring process. 

At its April 21 meeting, the City Council will make a final decision on whether to move Alternative 1 forward (with the No-Build Alternative) to finalize the Environmental Assessment process. 

Information on the project can be found at www.cityoffederalway.com by clicking on the “City Center Access Project” link. Comments can also be sent to Project Manager Maryanne Zukowski, P.E., 253.835.2707 or citycenteraccessproject@cityoffederalway.com. 

 

Eagles honored by King County Council

King County Councilmember Pete von Reichbauer, left, honored the Federal Way Eagles basketball team for winning the school's first-ever 4A state championship.

Yesterday King County Councilmember Pete von Reichbauer led the Council in a formal recognition ceremony for the Federal Way Boys’ Basketball Team, which won the schools’ first ever 4A State Basketball Championship. 

The Eagles are coached by Jerome Collins, who finished his 25th season as the team’s head coach. 

“The obstacles these student athletes overcame are a great testament to the strong character they have shown on and off the court,” said von Reichbauer. “After the heartbreaking loss in the championship game last year, the team held their heads high and focused on getting back and winning it this year.”

The Federal Way Eagles made it to the championship game in 2008, but lost to Ferris High School. 

The team returned most of its starters for this season. In addition to winning the championship, the Eagles won their 9th South Puget Sound League Championship and the West Central Division Championship for the first time since 1994.

“The success of these young men should bring great pride to everyone in the region,” said von Reichbauer.  “Winning a championship is a remarkable achievement for the players, their families, their friends, Federal Way High School, and our community.”

Dog adoption can be a crapshoot

Mrs. Anthony posted a picture of Cadbury, the six-year-old Shepherd mix female on bulletin boards at her job, and I emailed and told people verbally about the sweet, friendly girl-dog.

By Scott Anthony

A friend of a friend said, “I have to move and I can’t take my dog.” Knowing that Mrs. Anthony and I have been involved as go-betweens in previously successful dog adoptions the friend asked us to help.

Mrs. Anthony posted a picture of Cadbury, the six-year-old Shepherd mix female on bulletin boards at her job, and I emailed and told people verbally about the sweet, friendly girl-dog.

Some time passed and then the phone rang. “Hello…do you still have the dog?”

A nice lady with a fenced yard was inquiring. I described Cadbury and explained the reasons why she needed a new home, and the nice lady asked if I could bring the dog over, as she only had a small car.

Sure, I said and I made arrangements for the following weekend.

On Saturday Mrs. A and I drove over to Cadbury’s house and met with our friend, the owner.

Cadbury was in her dog run, just had a bath and was still fluffed up with clumps of semi-brushed fur floating off her back whenever she jumped.

The friend apologized about how he just didn’t have time for Cadbury anymore now that the kids were gone and that he was glad she was going to a good home.

He made sure we understood that Cad was an outdoor dog and explained about how he regularly shooed her out when she would try to poke her snoot in the sliding glass door.

With this, the friend opened the door of Cadbury’s kennel and she shot out of there like a tennis ball out of a slingshot.

We watched as she tore around the yard in circles, clearly happy to be out while the owner explained that this was the first time she’d been out for a while. He cautioned us that if Cad got out, she might not stop and that this could potentially ruin our day quite effectively.

We nodded in agreement and together decided to try and corral the gazelle-like fluffball and get a collar and leash on her.

I tried to coax her with treats and Mrs. Anthony and the owner cooed at her in that high, silly register that we assume dogs like.

Eventually, while approaching me for a snack, the friend tackled her and we got the collar on.

We loaded Cad in the back of the truck canopy and the owner threw in a decent Igloo doghouse.

During the 30-minute drive we wondered how Nice Lady would view a dog this rambunctious and if we’d be back to pick her up again due to irreconcilable differences. At Nice Lady’s house, I backed in and Nice Lady came out, already swooning for the fluffy drooler smearing her doggie nose all over the back window. “OH…she’s so beautiful!” 

A good start, I thought.

I asked her if she’d like me to take the Igloo around through the gate to backyard.  “NO….no, I think the garage would be good.”

I hedged, “Ahh…you might want to reconsider, Cadbury is sort of an outdoor dog and…”

Nice Lady would have none of it and insisted that we bring Cad directly into the house to meet her other dog and cat.

Again I protested, and Nice Lady just giggled and took the leash and led the way. Door open, Cadbury hesitated for a moment and I could see by the way she looked up at me that she was not used to this.

Inside we removed her leash and that’s when the fun started.

Cadbury hopped around the room once, ignoring the other dog and then promptly squatted in the middle of the carpeted living room and relieved herself in a decidedly copious pool.

Before we could even react to this, she spun around two more times and the let fly with the other, nastier business, this time in triplicate.

The three of us hooped, yelled and spun around not knowing what to do either, the whole thing perhaps resembling a very weird party scene from a Stanley Kubrick movie.

After the, ahem, distasteful display, we all calmed down enough to get the leash onto a clearly more comfortable Cadbury and as I took her out the back door into the fenced yard, Nice Lady cleaned up the mess and laughed, not worried about the old carpet, etc.. etc.

Mrs. Anthony joined me outside and with wide eyes and red face she suggested that we might have a less than copasetic dog and owner match.

Cadbury sniffed a bit and Nice Lady’s other dog came out and together they toured the confines of the fenced yard.

Nice Lady came out and while we watched the dogs getting acquainted, she suggested that maybe putting the Igloo in the backyard was a good idea after all.

Nice Lady told us she had things under control and that she would call if there was anything she needed and we left the happy group to themselves.

On way back home, Mrs. Anthony said, “Do you think they’ll make it as a family?” 

Safe in my truck, unscathed by dog dirt, I replied, “After an entrance like that, I really don’t think there will be a problem.”

“How much (or how little) do students in Federal Way really know?”

By Charles Hoff

What do our kids know?

This past week in my copy of “Education Week” there was an excellent column by Robert Pondiscio. 

Mr. Pondiscio suggests that many of our children do not begin to understand many of the references President Obama made in his Inaugural Address.

I offer the following quote:  “If you do not know what happened at Concord, Gettysburg, Normandy, and Khe Sanh, the sacrifices of those who “fought and died” for us in those places is lost on you.

As uncomfortable as it is to consider, if our children are ignorant of that history, then at least some measure of that sacrifice was, alas, in vain.”

I have seen many examples of this “ignorance” in discussions with students and even among some school board members with whom I served.

Why is this the case?  Some educators would suggest that this is a result of the intense focus on Reading, Writing and Mathematics that the WASL and No Child Left Behind (NCLB) have required. 

Others, including many in our district’s Social Studies Department would suggest that they “do not cover specific events” as they are trying to “develop critical thinking!”  So much for the idea that an understanding of History is of any importance!

In the past schools in this state have been pretty proud of their ability “to raise the reading levels” of their students and point out that WASL scores, in reading, have risen above 90 percent. 

One might ask, “What were these kids reading?”  Evidently not anything that included any significant facts.  Instead of reading about Wolfe, Pitt, Paine, MacKenzie, Coulter, Shackleton, Curie, Pasteur, Tesla etc., they have been given assignments that may have improved their reading skills, but did not give them any sense of progress in either History or Science. 

Many Blacks can’t identify Martin Luther, and many Mexican Americans can not describe “Cinco de Mayo.” 

I should have figured this out many years ago when I was in one of our high schools using the telephone, and asked a couple of students “who had invented it?” 

Will “Dick and Jane” and “Catcher in the Rye” add to a child’s basic knowledge of History or Science? 

Will reading these novels portray the concept that it is through effort that success is achieved?  No in both cases!

Why is it that most of us, who went to high school 40 years ago, would recognize most of these significant personages and most, if not nearly all, of current students have no idea what we are talking about?  Why is it that most of us of that era can figure out how much a 10 percent discount is?

Could it be that we had parents, and teachers, who made it clear to us that these were priorities?  I think so.

Thomas Friedman, highly regarded columnist of the New York Times, wrote the other day about a solution to our current financial problems that was suggested to him when he was visiting India. 

“All you need to do is grant visas to two million Indians, Chinese and Koreans,” said Shekhar Gupta, editor of The Indian Express newspaper. “We will buy up all the subprime homes. We will work 18 hours a day to pay for them. We will immediately improve your savings rate – no Indian bank today has more than 2 percent nonperforming loans because not paying your mortgage is considered shameful here. And we will start new companies to create our own jobs and jobs for more Americans.”

Jobs for Americans? 

I am not sure if there are any Americans who would either qualify for these jobs, or be willing to take them. 

The good paying jobs that they would offer would require “knowledge” and the other jobs they offer would, as the President of the University of Washington suggested, be “washing the cars” of those with knowledge.

Knowledge would appear to be the desired commodity of the 21st Century. 

Yet in schools, and after schools, there seems to be very little regard for this by a majority of students who seem to either not be planning a future, or planning one that they think will not require “learning.” 

Rock stars, NBA player seem to a vocational aim for a very significant portion of our children, and the adults in their lives seem to be willing to allow this kind of thinking.

In the New York Times this past week there was an article entitled “Student Expectations Seen as Causing Grade Disputes.” 

This article, written by a college professor, put forth some concepts that students have evidently learned in their K-12 experience. 

“I tell my classes that if they just do what they are supposed to do and meet the standard requirements, that they will earn a C,” he said. “That is the default grade. They see the default grade as an A.” 

“Students often confuse the level of effort with the quality of work. There is a mentality in students that ‘if I work hard, I deserve a high grade.’”  

“I feel that if I do all of the readings and attend class regularly that I should be able to achieve a grade of at least a B.”  These are all quotes from this article!

Could this be why the Indians, Koreans, and Chinese do so well in our flaccid education system?  If we were to judge our system on the basis of passing Advanced Placement exams versus ethics of test takers, I think we might be able to reinforce this theory.

If “Knowledge is the Commodity of the 21st Century,” and we keep this up, car washing in the slums of the future America just might be the highest goal for many of our students. 

Remember only 14 percent of Washington’s 9th graders finish college in 10 years.  This means that there will be no shortage of car wash candidates.

Are we switching from the “Village Idiot” to the “Village of Idiots?”  School Board members and parents please take note of these trends, and act!

 

Eagles soar to state title

Victorious Eagles - The Federal Way Eagles soared to the WIAA state championship over the Garfield Bulldogs by a score of 62 - 54. Photo by Seth Bynum.

 

 

 

 

 

 

UPDATED: Check out three albums of photographs from the Eagles’ historic run to a state title.  All photographs by Federal Way News photographer Seth Bynum.

Opening Round

Semi-Finals

Championship Game

Reprints from the tournament are available by emailing photographer Seth Bynum at:  seth@sethbynum.com

 After a year of hard work and sacrifice, the Federal Way boys’ basketball team now knows what it feels like to be champions. 

In fact, this year’s squad is the first in school history to cut the nets at the WIAA State Basketball Tournament.

Building upon last season’s second place finish, the top-ranked team in Washington knew this was their tournament to win or lose; and with all eyes upon them, the Eagles got the job done Saturday night against Garfield.

Federal Way relied on solid defense late in the game to put out the spark of a mostly flashy and superficial Bulldog offense, giving the Eagles a 62-54 finals victory. 

Federal Way protest calls for end of six-year war

Sign-waving groups lined the corners of the busy 320th/Highway 99 intersection in Federal Way last Thursday, March 19, to protest the ongoing war in Iraq.  2009 marks the sixth year of the conflict, and the desire to voice their complaints motivated the activists to brave the rain on a dreary pre-spring evening. 

Federal Way resident Karen Backman waves to passers-by during last Thursday's protest of the Iraq war. The conflict is now in its sixth year. Backman joined fellow protesters at the intersection of 320th and Highway 99 on March 19. Photo by Seth Bynum.

“This war has gone on for too damn long,” said Federal Way resident and protester Karen Backman, shown in the above photo.  “I’m not a pacifist, I’m just cheap,” she added, “and war is expensive.”

Others had personal reasons for attending, like Kent resident Joe Colgan.  Colgan lost his son, Lt. Benjamin Colgan, in Iraq.