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LOCAL | Maple Valley City Council to put fireworks ban advisory note on November ballot [2]
Pursuing Passion | Hydroplane pilot Jimmy Shane chasing the title [7]
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FRIDAY, JULY 31, 2015
A DIVISION OF SOUND PUBLISHING
Digs for Denise returns to Lake Wilderness Park BY SARAH BRENDEN Reporter
C
ome Saturday, Lake Wilderness Park will be bustling with people bumping, setting and spiking a volleyball. For the second year in a row, the Digs for Denise volleyball tournament will begin at 9 a.m. Aug. 1 and ends around 4 p.m. The tournament is in honor of Denise Thom, a Fairwood resident, who died in September 2014. Thom was diagnosed with triple negative
breast cancer in October 2012. Erinn Cassidy, Thom’s friend, said friends and family hosted the first tournament last year “in an effort to lift her spirits and bring all of her loved ones together for a day of fun and opportunity to visit with her.” A volleyball tournament seemed the best fit because one of Thom’s daughter plays volleyball and Thom and her husband also played on a rec team, Cassidy said. “Volleyball is also a great activity for people of all ages to participate in,” she added.
Last year’s inaugural Digs for Denise raised around $7,000. Cassidy said they hope to meet or exceed that number this time around. “But ultimately, it is also a day about remembering and celebrating Denise as well as bringing awareness to breast cancer,” Cassidy said. So far, 100 participants are registered and she anticipates there will be roughly 200 spectators. The tournament is broken up into six age divisions. [ more DIGS page 10 ]
Initiative gets green light from County Council BY REBECCA GOURLEY Reporter
King County voters will decide whether to add an average of $4 per month in property taxes to their bill this fall. The King County Council voted 8-1 in favor of putting King County Executive Dow Constantine’s “Best Starts for Kids” initiative on the Nov. 3 ballot. District 9 Councilman Reagan Dunn voted no. The proposed levy would be for six years and is aimed at funding early intervention programs and early childhood development for kids in King County, according to a release from Constantine. The release also stated the levy would generate approximately $58.3 million in 2016. The majority of those funds (50 percent) would go toward early childhood development programs for children up to age 5. About 35 percent would go to programs that assist kids and adults ages 6 through 24, 10 percent to commu-
nity programs that “improve health, social and economic outcomes,” and 5 percent would be used for “evaluation, data collection and program improvement.” Constantine stressed the importance of investing in kids’ health early on to prevent future problems. “We have the means, the shared commitment and now the opportunity to put every child in King County on a path toward lifelong success,” he said. “Thanks to (the) action by council members, voters will have the option to invest earlier in the development of our children and youth, when we have the greatest chance to help them reach their full potential.” According to a University of Washington study published in April of this year, there is a “causal” link between early home environments and kids’ stress response systems. In an article published the same day of the study, UWToday writer Deborah
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KING COUNTY
Behind the state Senate budget doors BY DENNIS BOX Editor
The doors of the 2015 legislative session opened Jan. 12, and 176 days later the battle-scarred lawmakers left Olympia – sine die. The budget gymnastics beat the former high-water mark of 163 days set in 2001 by 13. In a few years the session may be little more than a foggy question on some high school senior’s history exam, or background for a reporter’s story about another legislative battle royal, but this year it left many lawmakers staggered like punchdrunk pugilists in the 15th round. For the record the lawmaker met for the initial biennial budget session of 105 days. The work spilled over into three special sessions with the end coming on a Friday – July 10. The operating budget, which created most of the trouble in River City, was settled in principle after 163 days. The next 13 were spent finishing the transportation budget and wrestling for the votes to delay by four years implementation of Initiative 1351, the class size initiative. Suspending the initiative took a two-thirds majority in both chambers. The math to balance the operating budget was based on suspending the initiative, which saved $2 billion.
INSIDE THE ROOM
Motamedy and his band played in the first 2015 Jammin’ Darren Covington Summer Concert Series of the season July 23. In The Islanders Steel Drum Band will be on stage today, Friday, at Park the community park. DENNIS BOX, The Reporter
A week after the close of the session, 47th District Sen. Joe Fain, R-Auburn, discussed the session and his role in the budget battle. Fain said the lead players on the Senate side who crafted the budget were Sen. Andy Hill, R-Redmond from the 45th, Sen. John Braun, R-Centralia, 20th and himself. Fain Joe Fain said his role was generally in the back office offering “quality control” and a “reality check.” He said the process began as bipartisan but the minority party representatives left
[ more INITIATIVE page 15 ]
Enjoy an evening sipping hard cider and snacking on sausages! Saturday, August 22 | Covington Community Park | 4-8 pm TICKETS $15-$50 | AGES 21+ | WWW.SAUSAGEANDCIDERFEST.COM
[ more BUDGET page 6 ]
Enjo live muy s and law ic games!n