News
Former FWHS grad following his dream...and the Cubbies
Gordon Wittenmyer knew what he wanted when he burst through the door at the Chicago Tribune.
"I thought I could just go in there, like in Spokane," said Wittenmyer, who was immediately ushered out. "I couldn't even get in."
The 19-year-old Eastern Washington University student had fallen in love with the Chicago Cubs as a youth, and wanted a job covering the team for a newspaper. The Tribune was the one he wanted.
Wrong time, wrong paper.
Wittenmyer eventually wound up in the Windy City following the Cubs, only for the rival Chicago Sun-Times.
"I was asked in an interview what I saw myself doing in five years, and I said covering the Cubs for the Tribune," Wittenmyer said. "I wound up covering them, but not for the Tribune, and it took a lot longer."
Wittenmyer stepped right into the role of a professional journalist while attending Eastern.
The 1983 graduate of Federal Way High School worked as a freelance sports writer for the Federal Way News, and wound up working all over the Northwest.
More ›Des Moines reluctantly approves shore plan
The Des Moines City Council has officially approved a new Shoreline Management Program (SMP). Des Moines plan was six years in the making.
Des Moines was one of the first jurisdictions to begin the process of revising their SMP. Councilman Dan Sherman described Des Moines' process for renewing their SMP as an experiment-- an experiment that went horribly wrong.
In 2003, the state Legislature passed legislation that requires every shoreline jurisdiction in Washington to pass a new SMP, which must ultimately be approved by the state Department of Ecology (DOE).
Des Moines began their updating process in 2004. The council approved two versions of the SMP before the final one, and submitted them to the DOE, which rejected them each time.
At one point, the DOE identified 117 deficiencies in the SMP submitted by Des Moines.
The DOE has broad guidelines for the plans, including a requirement that they must result in no net loss in ecology to the shorelines, but the agency wants the jurisdictions to be able to tailor the SMP's to their shorelines.
More ›Metro updating bus service to and from downtown Seattle
Starting Saturday, Feb. 5, King County Metro Transit is updating its bus service. This includes routing and bus stop changes for approximately two dozen bus routes from various areas of the county that pass through downtown Seattle.
The downtown changes are designed to keep people moving during the long-term construction along the Seattle waterfront and SODO area.
Here are the highlights of the February changes for bus riders in the Highline area:
Select trips will be deleted on routes 21, 23 and 131. Check the blue timetables or online Trip Planner for details.
One trip on Route 192 that currently leaves downtown Seattle at 5:34 p.m. will be deleted.
In downtown Seattle, there are bus routes shifting from First Avenue to Third Avenue; from Third Avenue to Second/Fourth avenues; and new bus stop locations on Third Avenue for several routes - some of which could affect local routes traveling into downtown.
Route 99 will loop to travel north on First Avenue and south on Alaskan Way in Seattle, and buses will no longer be "wrapped" to look like the old waterfront streetcars.
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