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The Lakewood Officers’ Charity was shocked and outraged when we first learned about the allegations of theft of donated funds intended for the Charity. Federal prosecutors have charged Skeeter Manos with ten counts of wire fraud. Manos was the Treasurer of the Lakewood Police Independent Guild, but has never been a member of the Charity’s executive board. Since being notified, we have fully and completely cooperated with the investigation. We will refer all questions pertaining to the investigation to the U.S. Attorneys’ Office.
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Sincerely,

Alexandra Vlaming

Now that same sex marriage has been made legal in Washington, it is worth examining some of the logic that brought this about.  One of the Republicans that supported recognizing gay marriage (Senate Bill 6239) is Glenn Anderson (Fall City – King County).  While Anderson explains his rationale at some length, there are a couple of reasons to believe Anderson’s is little more than an argumentum ad populum.  Anderson is, after all, a candidate for lieutenant governor.

Announcing that he has “investigated the relevant criteria defining marriage,” Anderson concludes that the “primary purpose of civil marriage remains to provide a neutral and secular foundation for social order and an orderly transfer of property rights.”

Transgenders can do that.

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This is the third in a series of e-mails that address the reasons given by City Council members for their vote to approve or disapprove the 2011 Settlement Agreement, as reported in the 1/27/2012 South Puget Sound News article.

Councilman Courts is quoted as saying:  "that he was comfortable with the process that the agreement spells out."

The process that Councilman Courts is "...comfortable with..." was astutely crafted by CalPortland's lawyers, and agreed to by representatives of the Department of Ecology, the Environmental Caucus and the City of DuPont administration and staff (and now the City Council) under the duress of CalPortland's threat of protracted litigation, in a manner that assures that CalPortland will manage and control the outcome of the stated purpose of the 2011 Settlement Agreement which is that  participating governmental agencies and environmental groups will "... support CalPortland’s mining in the ... South Parcel...[which includes 117 acres of the existing 360 acre gravel mine]." as well as control the process by which a $200,000 restoration plan for Edmond Marsh and Sequalitchew Creek is funded and developed.

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This is the second in a series of e-mails that address the reasons given by City Council members for their vote to approve or disapprove the 2011 Settlement Agreement, as reported in the 1/27/2012 South Puget Sound News article.

Councilwoman Trotter is quoted as saying: "We could not get the [$200,000] restoration plan without the agreement,..."

The $200,000 restoration plan to which she refers does not achieve restoration of an already degraded Edmond Marsh and Sequalitchew Creek.  The only actions that will restore degraded Edmond Marsh and Sequalitchew Creek are to (1) prevent their further degradation by not permitting any activity that will result in further lowering the Vashon aquifer groundwater table level since such activity will result in adverse environmental impacts on the groundwater connected and sustained surface water bodies in this watershed, (2) restore continuous flow from Sequalitchew Lake into and through Edmond Marsh and down Sequalitchew Creek, and (3) remove the physical impediments that currently interrupt and impede the continuous flow of water from Sequalitchew Lake through Edmond Marsh and down Sequalitchew Creek to Puget Sound.  Permitting CalPortland to dewater the Vashon aquifer (and permanently alter its hydrological function) so as to facilitate mining Vashon aquifer saturated gravel located on 117 acres of its existing 360 acre mine and beneath 180 acres of the South Parcel is not only contradictory to achieving a restored Edmond Marsh and Sequalitchew Creek ecosystem, it is prohibited by provisions of the 1994 Agreement, DuPont's Comprehensive Plan and DuPont's critical and sensitive area ordinances.

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It is interesting to note that the City Council's approval of the CalPortland, DOE and Environmental Caucus drafted 2011 Settlement Agreement will obligate the City of DuPont Planning Manager and Hearing Examiner to support CalPortland's mining of the Vashon aquifer saturate gravel that is located beneath 117 acres of its present mine and 180 acres of the South Parcel.  Apparently the only unresolved question at this time is the nature and extent of mitigation that it will take to rationalize circumventing application and enforcement of the no alteration of natural conditions provisions of DuPont's Comprehensive Plan and DMC 25.105 sensitive area municipal code.  The Countywide Planning Policies for Pierce County, which the Council has approved, stipulates that the City of DuPont will "Maintain natural hydrological functions..." and the Puget Sound Partnership's legislative mandate that Puget Sound and the streams, wetlands, lakes and rivers in the Puget Sound Basin be preserved, protected and those degraded restored by 2020 to achieve the following six goals:

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While proponents of the agreement say that it describes a process that could restore flows to Sequalitchew Creek, the proposed mining expansion and draining of the underlying Vashon Aquifer within the South Parcel will further degrade Edmond Marsh, Sequalitchew Creek, and the near shore seeps along the Puget Sound shoreline. The proposed draining of the aquifer at the site will permanently change the hydrology of the watershed. A permanent and irreversible lowering of the ground water table appears counterproductive to any long-term restoration plan for the Sequalitchew Creek watershed.

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The signature drive to stop High Speed Rail (HSR) through Lakewood continues to March 2. Two 2'x4’ banners have been created for the signature gathering sites (Post Office, Library and Safeway).  Volunteers will be coordinated via communitymattersweb@gmail.com.  All materials will be made available which also can be found here.

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As you regret the excesses of the holidays, and make all sorts of resolutions to improve your health there is a great facility to help you, whatever your age or physical condition. In my group are several people, including me, who use canes, and we have and have had several people using walkers. The motto is: "Do what you can, but don't overdo and hurt yourself." When our leader introduces a new exercise, she always provides alternatives for those whose whose muscles won't cooperate. (For example: My right arm won't always cooperate in the exercises involving raising one's arms over one's head. There's an alternative for that.)

I just came back from the gym and I'm feeling great. I'm an old lady, trying to keep what little muscle and brain (or is that brain and brawn?) I have left. I've been working out at Vital Fitness, which is right next to the Goodwill, just off Bridgeport on Mt. Tacoma Dr. I've also been reading more and more articles about how aerobic and strength exercises can delay the progress of the debilitating conditions that affect us, including Alzheimer's and some of the digestive system disorders, and many other conditions, named and unnamed. Needless to say, I am not your typical "jock" (or is that "jockette?) and I feel very uncomfortable in most gyms.

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Now that Tillicum’s Camp Murray Gate debacle has been voted overwhelmingly the top West Pierce news story (in The News Tribune) for 2011, it’s time to reflect on what this means.

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This past holiday weekend, our Needy Child Gift Program resulted in more than 58 Steilacoom children receiving presents to their homes on Christmas Eve by Santa's Elves and Steilacoom's finest Public Safety Officers lead by Larry Whelan. It wouldn't have happened without your involvement and the hard work of Larry and his crew. So if you felt a tug on your heart on Saturday, it may have been because of a child's smile right here in town. Thank you.

Just nights before Christmas, the tree, newly decorated, had not only presents beneath but also four little children, all wrapped in blankets, snuggled together for warmth as the fire in the hearth died to embers.

It was the fourth child, our son Matthew, who saved our lives.

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Several weeks ago, I mentioned in a Kitchen Cabinet update that the City of Lakewood has imposed a new “tax” (which the city calls a “fee”) on its residents for the sewer lines running beneath the city that belong to Pierce County.

I’ve learned more information about the situation since then. The state of Washington paid for a significant portion of the cost for sewers to be installed in the Tillicum area of Lakewood (apparently the state felt it was in the best environmental interest of the Puget Sound to do so). All the sewers in Lakewood are legally owned and maintained by Pierce County.

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We’ve discovered we have more time to gather signatures in the effort to put an initiative on the ballot for a vote of the people on the most significant transportation issue the City of Lakewood is likely ever to face – as many as 12 high speed trains per day through a portion of the business district and along the neighborhoods of our city. Petitions and instructions are available here.

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Steven R. Covey is the author of ‘the main thing’ quote and several others like it.  Covey is recognized as one of Time magazine’s 25 most influential Americans and has written tons of books, most well known perhaps the “Seven Habits of Successful _____ (leaders, business people, parents, even teens)” series.  So he outta know the answer to discovering ‘the main thing.’

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He was standing on the sidewalk, bowed against the cold...

His beard was dark, his hair unkempt and he wasn't very old.

He touched my heart this morning, I really don't know why,

I barely caught a glimpse of him as I was driving by...

His grocery cart was piled high but not with goods or food,

His life was stacked up in that cart, but he was in a pleasant mood.

I made a U turn in the street thinking that I should go back,

Knowing of my bounty, and his obvious show of lack.

I stopped and said... "I have a little extra, I think that you could use"

He smiled at me with a toothless grin at the coming of good news...

Thank you he said, and Merry Christmas!

Hello Governor,

Thank you for you’re many years of service! For all of the right or wrong decisions that you have made during your tenure, there are always some of us who feel that you have made good decisions and some, possibly, not so popular decisions. In the following case, I really do not know if you made a decision at all or that you are receiving all of your mail. The background to this letter is the following. I wrote to you, First Mike, Representative Kelly and other state representatives about the issue of relocating the Camp Murray Main Gate. (more...)

So let's gamble.

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Whether it’s Bing Crosby’s famous rendition of the most requested song at Christmas U.S.O.’s – when the soldiers of World War II learned they would not be home for Christmas after all; or a 16-year-old boy’s longing to be reunited with his mom - which will never happen; or saying the two most difficult words in any language at the bedside of a dear loved one who is leaving for the final time, home is where the heart longs to be.

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"Building trust in government" – the concern raised in the last paragraph of Lakewood City Manager Andrew Neiditiz's column in the fall "Lakewood Connections" recently delivered to mailboxes throughout the city - is placed here in the first paragraph since the topic of trusting government merits discussion of highest importance given recent local developments.

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There is no image available for this post.  Perhaps your picture belongs there?

If you abbreviate the ancient book of Ezekiel to EZ, note that there is nothing E-Z about taking your place in the space about which he wrote.  There was a gap in the wall.  A reformer, restorer, repairer was required – one that “would endeavor by his influence to stop the breaking in.”

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The Point Defiance Bypass proposal for a high speed railway through Lakewood will put between 10 and 20 trains per day through our City, across our streets, through our neighborhoods, past our schools.  There appears to be little or no consideration given for the safety of our citizens and our children.

According to data posted by the Federal Railroad Administration Office of Safety Analysis on their website the safety record of AMTRAK is improving and 2011 could be one of their safest years.  The average total number of accidents from 2001 through 2010 is 105, which is 2.66 accidents per million train miles. The average number of derailments over the same period was 43 or 1.09 per million train miles per year.

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My name is John Edward Lebeter, but I like to be called Ed. I am writing this just to let you know that I am trying very, very, very hard to get a job, but to no effect. I've done everything: the school thing (B.A. from the University of Arizona), the government thing (DVR, job counselors), but my biggest deterrent is my speech impediment (medically: dysarthria).

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