Take a first step against drug abuse
April 6, 2011
Later this month, Snoqualmie and North Bend police and the Snoqualmie Tribe will be participating in the second annual National Prescription Drug Take Back Day.
Prescription drugs are one of the most abused drugs in America. Teenagers are especially prone to abusing prescription drugs.
Take precautions to properly store any prescription medications in your home, and take any unused, old medications to the drug take back events.
Mark it on your calendar: 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. April 30, at Sno Falls Credit Union, 9025 Meadowbrook Way S.E., Snoqualmie, and at the North Bend Park and Ride located between East McClellan Street and East Park Street.
Last year, police in Snoqualmie and North Bend collected more than 100 pounds of prescription drugs.
School shooting simulation unites agencies behind safety
April 6, 2011
The shooter fired on the victims and policemen fired on him.
Then, they strolled one room over and reviewed it all while sipping on Starbucks.
Another shooter fired twice. Police broke into his hideaway and unloaded on him.
Then, the shooter thanked the officers. They told him to give his family their best regards.
A police officer shows what his mask looks like after being hit with a Simunition, a wax bullet loaded with dyed laundry detergent. By Sebastian Moraga
It may look like fun and games at times, but the Coalition of Small Police Agencies’ Active Shooter Training is serious business.
Officers from 14 police departments trained at Snoqualmie Middle School March 28-31 for future public-place shootings.
The setting was realistic: shots ringing out, victims screaming and police officers in full gear breaking into a room like in the movies.
Firearms weighed the same, looked the same, and felt the same as the real thing. They even loaded and disassembled the same way.
Instead of bullets, the weapons carried Simunitions, a non-lethal wax bullet filled with dyed laundry detergent.
With a little help from my friends
April 6, 2011
Talking about her radical hysterectomy hurts, but doesn’t break Toddia Stone.
Talking about her dire financial situation is tough, but she’s tougher.
No, what makes the torrent of tears unload from the eyes of this North Bend woman is talking about new tires.
In the midst of her chemo this past winter, Stone’s friends kidnapped her vehicle, put new tires on it and fixed it, so she would be safer traveling back and forth from the hospital.
Toddia Stone
“My friends,” she said, voice breaking, “I have some wonderful friends. I didn’t even know about this, they did it to surprise me.”
They showed up in shifts to clean her house, fill her fridge and keep her in clean laundry.
“They’ve given me money because I’ve got no money,” she said. “They gave me a bunch of Valentine cards with cash in them.”
In treatment since the beginning of February, she will undergo chemotherapy until this summer. The diagnosis was one more link in a chain of events that make her smile bitterly at times. Lost her escrow business, lost her next job and now she’s fighting to hold on to her health. She has also lost 36 pounds so far.
The Fire Inside makes merry Celtic tunes
April 6, 2011
Irish music lithely springs from its instruments during reels, jigs and pub songs.
“I like it because it’s actually quite simplistic, but you can make it complex,” Issaquah violinist Tami Curtis said. “It’s just plain fun. It puts a smile on your face.”
The Celtic group The Fire Inside is playing gigs across the Eastside. From top left are Carol Whitaker, Tami Curtis, Sue Lawrence and David Edfeldt. From bottom left are Daniel Horn, Michael Hurtenbach and Greg Stearns. Contributed
Curtis and six other local musicians, living in an area stretching from Issaquah to the Snoqualmie Valley and up to Redmond, have formed a Celtic band named The Fire Inside.
The band is the brainchild of Carol Whitaker, of Fall City. Whitaker played for an informal group, and she knew several other people who played in bands about town. She wanted to play more challenging Celtic music, so she took her flute and penny whistle and formed a group of her own this past winter.
“She’s British and bossy and really cool,” Curtis said.
During rehearsal, Greg Stearns, an Irishman living in North Bend, gave a speech about how the Celtic band had potential.
“He said, ‘Despite our age and getting on in the years, we still are in possession of the fire inside,’” Curtis remembered.
As soon as the words had left his mouth — in his deep Irish accent, no less — the entire band agreed The Fire Inside would be an excellent name for the group.
The Fire Inside plays songs from all across the British Isles, including Welsh music and Scottish tunes — “It’s all Celtic,” Curtis said.
Chris Blake is the district’s middle school teacher of the year
April 6, 2011
Chris Blake (back row, center), posing with some of his ‘fellow sixth-graders,’ recently won the Snoqualmie Valley Schools Foundation’s Middle School Educator of the Year award. By Sebastian Moraga
Chris Blake spends at least eight hours a day in the wrong building. And he loves it.
“Originally, I was going to be a fourth-grade school teacher,” the Chief Kanim Middle School science and math teacher said. “No way I would ever try middle school.”
That was Blake’s mindset 15 years ago. Since then, he has taught nothing but sixth grade.
State extends studded tire deadline to April 14
April 6, 2011
Washington state has extended the deadline for removing studded tires from vehicles to April 14. It is the second extension this year.
The Washington State Department of Transportation extended the deadline because forecasts call for continued winter driving conditions across the mountain passes and higher-elevation areas in eastern Washington, according to a news release from WSDOT.
Studded tires are legal in Washington from Nov. 1 to March 31, unless the deadline is extended.
WSDOT officials remain concerned about safety risks and roadway damage associated with studded tires. Research on studded tires consistently shows that vehicles equipped with studded tires require longer stopping distance on wet or dry pavement, according to the release.
WSDOT officials encouraged drivers in lower elevations with no plans to drive over passes to remove studded tires earlier than April 14.
Snoqualmie Tribe judge dismisses case against Venturas
Snoqualmie tribal council members Arlene Ventura and her son Kanium had their day in Snoqualmie tribal court Thursday, where the judge dismissed all charges against them. Each was elected to tribal council but had been suspended until a conclusion of the case.
The Venturas were criminally charged in tribal court and suspended from their council positions late last year in connection with an ill-fated audit of the tribe’s casino. In an oral order from the bench, the court held that the doctrine of legislative immunity prevents council members from being prosecuted for engaging in legitimate legislative acts.
Reinstatement to the council will be the subject of a requested court order, said Kyle Gotchy, an attorney at Garvey, Schubert Barer helping with the case.
Snoqualmie girl among state’s top young writers
April 6, 2011
Abby Bateman, a student at Snoqualmie Middle School, won first place in a statewide literature contest, defeating more than 80 semifinalists.
More than 3,300 students entered the Washington branch of the competition.
The contest, Letters About Literature, required that Bateman write a letter to an author of her choice.
Abby Bateman and some of her best friends: her books. The middle-schooler from Snoqualmie won first place in a statewide contest that required students to write letters to authors. By Sebastian Moraga
Bateman wrote to Katherine Paterson, author of Bridge to Terabithia, a 1977 story of two lonely children who create a magical forest kingdom.
“Her book has a lot of emotion in it,” said Bateman, who wrote the letter but did not send it to Paterson
Rene Peterson, one of Bateman’s middle school teachers made the girl and her classmates participate in the contest, she said.
It’s her first writing award and it feels weird, Bateman said.
North Bend teacher wins Star FM’s Teacher of the Week
April 6, 2011
For a day, Kelsey Myers was Star’s star.
The Seattle radio station KPLZ Star 101.5 named the North Bend Elementary’s first-grade teacher its Teacher of the Week April 1.
It was not an April Fools’ joke, although that’s what Myers thought at first.
At midmorning, at mid-lesson, radio personalities, her boss, TV cameras, parents and one proud colleague invaded her classroom.
Kelsey Myers reacts to hearing she has been chosen as the Star 101.5 Teacher of the Week. By Sebastian Moraga
“It’s a great spring surprise, totally unexpected, I had no idea,” Myers said. “What a wonderful treat.”
Myers hugged student Rhys Buchthal, who wrote the radio station nominating his teacher for the award.
Then, they posed together with a plaque, an oversized check for $100 from City University of Seattle, and a cardboard key to a new car that she became eligible to win.
Mount Si track team keeps busy in the rain
April 6, 2011
Keenan McVein, a sophomore equaled his best mark, pole-vaulting 9 feet, at the tri-meet against host Newport and Skyline. By Sebastian Moraga
It’s the first day of Spring Break most everywhere, it seems, but on the track at Mount Si High School.
A reduced, but still drenched contingent of athletes practice, while most of their classmates enjoy a weeklong furlough.
Dispatches from Everest
April 6, 2011
Arriving in Nepal
Snoqualmie residents Dennis Broadwell and Brian Dickinson are climbing Mount Everest, the tallest peak on earth. Boradwell also owns Mountain Gurus, a climbing guide service.
Snoqualmie’s Dennis Broadwell and Brian Dickinson (not pictured) are attempting to climb Mount Everest, the tallest peak on earth. Broadwell runs a climbing guide service. Contributed
Dickinson is trying to climb the highest peak on each continent.
Broadwell is filing regular dispatches from the trip. These have been abridged for the SnoValley Star. Follow him online at mountaingurus.blogspot.com.
