Category: Uncategorized

One year we put holiday trees at Seatac Airport, took them all out again, and then put them all back. The next year a group put a sign written by athiests right next to a Christmas display at the statehouse, only to have it stolen, and then put back again.

The US Supreme Court just ruled on a similar situation in a park (specifically a monument with the Ten Commandments) finding that cities do not have to allow every single possible religious group to place it’s own monuments right along side other community monuments that have religious as well as historic significance.

While it does not directly address the case of community “Holiday Trees,” the language of the ruling tends to validate my own view that a community of thinking adults ought to be able to tolerate a holiday tree in their community (or statehouse), as they have for a century, without feeling like they must now provide displays for every other religios and non-religious idea that exists in the universe.

I’ll let the lawyers decide for sure what this means for “holiday trees” in our state. But it sounds like good news to me.

Here is the Story in the Seattle Times

I hope they are successful in writing a law on the topic that passes constitutional challenges. There has to be some check on outright falsehoods in campaigns.

The Sanctuary Apartments provide the key residential element at the Landing, and will enhance day-and-night energy in the retail/restaurants and entertainment.

Here is the LINK to the Sanctuary Apartments at the Landing. “The Sanctuary” will offer great views, easy access to shopping and Coulon Beach Park, convenient access to the freeway, and many modern features. I’ve heard from many Renton citizens who are interested in leasing one of the new apartments– I think they will go pretty fast.

Yay! Ken Griffey’s coming home!

This should add a spark to the team. It would be nice to see them get some momentum again.

The latest Gallup Poll shows congressional approval increasing over the last month, coinciding with their efforts to get the economic recovery package through.

I would have liked to see the stimulus package remain more focused on large infrastructure improvements. But still, I’m glad congress took action. We need to see job creation, house prices stabilizing, and credit markets unfrozen in order to restore our economic health. The stimulus package is intended to work the job element.

Some customers of the Banner Bank, at Airport and Rainier, were not going to let a robber get away with the bank’s money today. They caught him after a quick chase.

Here is the press release:

RENTON POLICE DEPARTMENT
MEDIA RELEASE
February 12th, 2009

On 02-12-09 at 9:34 AM Renton Police Officers responded to a Bank Robbery in progress at the Banner Bank located at 54 Rainier Ave. S. in the City of Renton. The suspect presented a note demanding money from a Bank Teller and implied he had a weapon concealed in his jacket. He obtained an unspecified amount of cash and then fled the bank on foot.

Bank employees indicated that they had just been robbed and two bank customers saw the suspect fleeing and gave chase. They were able to catch the suspect in the 200 Block of S. Tobin St. and detained him until officers arrived and took the suspect into custody.

Bank employees were able to positively identify the 23-year-old Auburn man who was in custody as the same suspect who had just robbed the bank. The money that was stolen from the bank was recovered from the suspect and he was booked into the Renton Jail for Bank Robbery.

Commander Paul Cline
Patrol Operations Division
Renton Police Department
(425) 430-7597

Dear Council,

In case someone asks you what happened at City Hall last night (Friday), I’ll try to give you a little detail. Shortly before 5:30 p.m., a woman apparently driving northbound on Benson Road apparently lost control of her car, struck the freeway retaining wall on the eastside of the road and careened across the southbound lanes, went airborn, struck a tree that was about 10 to 15 feet above the ground, and slammed sideways into parking garage wall, coming to a rest at the P2 level close to where I park my car. The impact snapped off the tree, which had a diameter of at least 10 inches, at the point of impact.

Our fire fighters worked for nearly 30 minutes to safely remove her from the car and get her up the bank. She was conscious at the scene but the extent of her injuries are not known.

Denis

Sports Illustrated reported yesterday on its website that Alex Rodriguez failed an “anonymous” steroid’s test in 2003; the results are no longer anonymous thanks to a federal search warrant.

This is very bad news for A-Rod and his fans (a group I used to count myself in, but I don’t think about A-Rod much any more).

What do you think…. will this mark the end of his super-stardom?

Photo by Tacoma News Tribune

I had an opportunity to tour Renton’s new Federal Reserve Bank today (Actually the Seattle Branch of the Federal Reserve of San Fransisco) along with a couple dozen members of Renton’s business community. We were treated to economic presentations and predictions by the Federal Reserve staff and Puget Sound Economist Doug Pederson. (I’ll make their predictions another blog topic for another day, but the preview is that both sources expect economic recovery to begin late this year…yay!…but they are not certain…boo!)

Anyway, back to the bank. It seems almost surreal to see greenbacks loaded into carts, about ten millions dollars per cart, and pushed around the floor just like insulation bales at McLendons Hardware.

The money-handling employees looked just like you or me, dressed in normal casual attire, some young and some more experienced. They all looked like they took their job seriously… you don’t want a stray Franklin ending up on the bottom of someone’s shoe. And the security personnel looked very serious– uniformed, well-armed, and watching activities intently. There are more cops at the bank than in all the rest of the City of Renton put together.

Essentially, the money is hand-carried in in cloth bags through a sort of air-lock, that keeps the armored car personnel from ever getting into the same room as the Federal Reserve employees.

Bank bundles are then removed from the cloth sacks, and each bundle is tagged and entered into a central computer system for tracking.

Once a cart is stacked with about ten-million dollars or so in bills, the cart is taken to a counting and inspection room. Here, automated equipment counts the bills, and credits the bank that delivered the bundle. While counting, the high-tech machines are also visually and chemically assessing the bills for damage– in the words of our host Mark Gould, the machine decides if the bill is “fit, unfit, or counterfeit.” Counterfeit bills go into a special collector to be turned over to Secret Service. Unfit bills are shredded immediately, and the remnants float up a clear exhaust tube looking something like puffs of smoke.

Finally, the bundles are re-stacked and relabeled, and taken to the vault for storage until some bank in Washington or Alaska is in need of them. The vault is right out of Harry Potter or The Da Vinci Code. (I noticed the Tacoma News Tribune writer had the same reaction I did.) The concrete is about two feet thick, and the steel door (open during business hours) is at least a foot thick itself. Inside the vault is a crane/elevator/conveyor system, which moves the bin of money to it’s special location in 3D space deep inside the vault.

Coins come in in a different “air-lock”, and they are moved to the vault, but they never leave the bags they arrive in. Before arriving they are automatically counted by the banks and Armored Car companies (presumably by calibrated and audited equipment), and the Federal Reserve Bank receives and stores them as is. I guess it is just not worth the money to recount it, and damaged coins are too rare to worry about.

There was lots of fascinating security equipment, making the building a true fortress. I don’t know what I could or should talk about, but suffice it to say it’s not going to get robbed.

The Tacoma News Tribune did a great write-up, and anyone who wants to learn more can read about it HERE.
______________________________

You can visit the bank yourself by making an appointment for your tour group.

Here is some info:

Seattle: Make your tour reservation today by calling (425) 203-0705.

* Tours are provided at the Seattle Branch (located in Renton) Monday through Friday, by reservation only.

* Tours last approximately 75 minutes and include an overview of the Federal Reserve System, pictorial history of the Seattle Branch, historical currency display and the Branch’s cash operation.

Tour Details

Prearranged tours are available to groups of students (high school and college), teachers, bankers, and community and business organizations, with a minimum of 8 persons (10 persons for San Francisco only) and a maximum of 30.

In San Francisco only, sixty-minute public tours of the Fed Center exhibit are available on a walk-in basis Fridays at noon.

All locations require a minimum of two weeks advance notice as well as a list of tour participants submitted to the tour coordinators two weeks prior to the scheduled visit.

Important Note

Due to heightened security requirements, we may close to the public at any time if the national threat level is elevated. No cameras or camera phones are allowed in our facilities; photo identification is required. We have security checks similar to those at airports. Groups requesting more than two tour reservations per month must obtain prior approval from the tour coordinator.

I really am disappointed in hearing about members of congress who failed to pay income tax or self-employment tax. It’s ridiculous that so many of the top members seem to have such tax problems. If these are presumably the people that favor government, that know where the money is going, that are RESPONSIBLE for the spending, and that are behind the system we all pay into…and the people that probably have the most to lose by failing to pay–one would like to think that they are the people who would be the most compliant. What does this mean about tax compliance across the rest of the nation?

I’m beginning to think we could sustain a massive tax cut paid for by the people that have not been paying all their taxes up till now. And maybe it’s time we have a tax auditor look at the records of anyone running for any public office… make their tax compliance an open-book before they run. I don’t think we have heard the end of this.

Here is the latest news.

This just in. I’m bummed. But I suppose we can survive with the other five or six Starbucks stores in the area 🙂

_________________________________

Council,

It’s our understanding that Starbuck’s will not be opening their store at The Landing. We have heard that they removed all of their equipment and signage. This is not a surprise with the announcement last night about 6,700 company layoffs. We will keep you updated as we learn of new tenants coming online.

Denis

Last night we decided to accept the ten-percent annexation petitions from Fairwood and West Hill. We will study the potential costs of both annexations more closely, and possibly allow one or both to go to ballot. There are A LOT of factors to still consider, and it is not clear to me what the voters in each of these areas will ultimately want. But at this time, both potential annexations are possibilities.

Other than the possibility of determining that we won’t take these on because of cost, the City of Renton will officially stay neutral on the annexations. This official city position does not extend to our employees however, who (like all citizens) are free to support any political positions they choose on their own time with their own resources. (For instance, our fire fighters local has endorsed the Fairwood annexation drive.)

Here are more details about last night’s vote on this topic (from today’s Renton Reporter).

The following detail was in the Seattle Times this morning:

Man arrested in 2006 fatal shooting in Renton

A 27-year-old man wanted in connection with a 2006 fatal shooting outside a Renton bar was booked into jail Monday afternoon.

By Sara Jean Green

Seattle Times staff reporter

And here is more info from Denis Law:

A 27-year-old man wanted in connection with a 2006 fatal shooting outside a Renton bar was booked into jail Monday afternoon.

William Adam Gray was charged with second-degree murder in November 2006 and a warrant was issued for his arrest, according to documents filed in King County Superior Court. He is suspected of fatally shooting 19-year-old Sanelive Hikila and wounding Vita Moimoi, now 19, in a parking lot across from Pounders Bar & Grill at 221 Main Ave. S. in Renton, just before 2 a.m. on Nov. 5, 2006.

Gray was also charged with first-degree assault and unlawful possession of a firearm in connection with the shooting.

According to charging papers, a fight broke out between a group of people as the bar was closing and patrons were ushered outside. During the fight, “a male known to witnesses as ‘D.I.’ moved toward Hikila and Moimoi and shot both at close range,” the papers say. The shooter fled in a red Chevrolet Caprice. Officers later found two .380-caliber casings in the parking lot.

Renton police released surveillance photos to the media and a citizen recognized Gray from a television news cast, court papers say. Witnesses, including a Pounders employee who had tried to break up the fight, later identified Gray as the shooter from a photo montage.

The circumstances leading to Gray’s arrest on Monday were unclear.

The King County Sheriff’s Office issued the warrant for Gray’s arrest but sheriff’s spokesman Sgt. John Urquhart said he couldn’t determine which police agency was responsible for apprehending Gray.

Gray was booked into the Regional Justice Center in Kent just after 5:30 p.m. Monday, jail records show. He was booked on investigation of second-degree murder, domestic-violence malicious mischief and for failing to appear in court on a drug charge.

Gray has previous felony assault convictions, including the shooting of another man, court records say. According to charging papers, he also failed to show up in court for his arraignment on the second-degree murder charge.

Denis Law