NEWS TEAM: GOOD MORNING SOUTH SOUND >>>

Out House: Tacoma Housing board fires top leaders at Martin Luther King Housing Development Association.

The Great Inoculation: South Sound public health officials and school administrators scrambling to beat the H1N1 virus.

Oh No: Mullen says Afghan security situation "serious," getting worse.

CIA Torture Report: U.S. officials call for prisoner abuse cases to be reopened.

Nope, It Stays In Your Front Yard: Cash for Clunkers ends today.

Recession App: Apple may be highest grossing Fifth Avenue retailer.

Mark Zuckerberg Wants To Be Your Friend: Facebook plans to boost staff 50 percent this year.

Harsh Reality: Murder suspect Ryan Jenkins found dead of apparent suicide.

Salty Goodness To Strong: Man tries to rob store over beef jerky.

LEGOS!

NEWS TEAM: GOOD MORNING SOUTH SOUND >>>

Who Knew?: We’re switching from analog TV broadcasts to digital? You serious?

Not Good: Supervolcano may be brewing beneath Mount St Helens.

Dorn To Be Wild: State schools Superintendent Randy Dorn is tardy.

Change They Can Believe In?: High turnout in Iranian elections boost Ahmadinejad’s challenger.

They Return To The Dark Ages: Microsoft is ordered to ship Windows 7 without Internet Explorer in Europe.

NEWS TEAM: GOOD MORNING SOUTH SOUND >>>

Seeds Of Change: A gonzo adventure through one of Tacoma’s most misunderstood schools.

Ganging Up Again: Tacoma Police officials will Increase efforts to tackle gang problem.

Muri And Pabst: Important people said stuff this week.

Numbered Spaces: Weekly Volcano’s quality of life meter for Pierce County tips positive.

Teacher's Lounge Refrigerators To Have More Room: Tacoma school officials might cut 100 jobs.

Oh. My. Gawd.: Even fashion houses aren’t safe from the clutches of the recession.

Space Monkeys: Happy anniversary Able and Baker.

What the duck?

MATT DRISCOLL: TACOMA SCHOOL BOARD RACE HEATS UP >>>

Perhaps, lost in the hype of City Council elections and Tacoma’s Mayoral race â€" not to mention the latest season of American Idol â€" the campaigning now underway for two seats on the Tacoma Public School Board has missed your radar. Perhaps you’ve been too busy to pay attention, or too overwhelmed to take note, or too unemployed to care, or too drunk to know any better ...

All reasonable excuses, really, but in a world as topsy-turvy and seemingly doomed as our current one, there may not be a more important battle.

The children, after all, are our future. If we teach them well, someday they’ll lead the way â€" and hopefully clean up the gawdawful mess we’ve made for them. (I believe Whitney Houston left that last part out because she was high on crack.)

The Tacoma School Board has five positions. All five spots are elected at large in Tacoma, to six-year terms. The board is responsible for, among other things, reviewing and adopting school district policy, choosing superintendents and ensuring that the goals of the district are met â€" which include making sure that “underperforming subgroups” (which is PC speak for minorities, the poor and all those other children the district may have ignored in the past) make strides toward reaching to district average for performance.

This year, in November’s election, two Tacoma School Board seats will be up for grabs â€" kind of. Incumbent Connie Rickman currently holds seat 2, and if she announces intentions to run for reelection (which she hasn’t done yet) she’ll be fending off promising fresh faces including Chris Van Vechten â€" he of Pierce County Arts Commission and The Melon fame (among other things) â€" and Catherine Ushka-Hall, a more established (dare I say old school) candidate that recently announced her own candidacy and has already garnered endorsements from the Tacoma City Council’s Julie Anderson, Spiro Manthou and Connie Ladenburg â€" not to mention the Pierce County Council’s Tim Farrell. Deb Blakeslee is also in the mix for seat two.

Then there’s Kurt Miller’s seat, which will also be available for the taking come November, though currently no one has filed to run for it. However, Miller is expected to announce candidacy for school board reelection by the June 5 filing deadline, and it wouldn’t be at all surprising if he ends up running unchallenged. Miller is popular and well respected.

As November draws nearer, these are names you’ll want to know â€" that is, if you care about the children. At least now you’re up to date. Go back to American Idol at your own risk.

MARK THOMAS DEMING: POLITICAL GURU ENTERTAINS AND INSTRUCTS AT UWT >>>

James Carville sits cross-legged in a chair, wearing tan sneakers, khaki jeans, a pink shirt, purple tie, navy-blue blazer and shades. This room on the UWT campus is small and the press-conference audience smaller â€" maybe five other people and me. This is James Carville for chrissakes, one of the great political minds of the last 50 years, the author of bestselling books, the wild and not-so-wooly CNN pundit â€" James Carville, the Ragin’ Cajun! In Tacoma! Sitting there like somebody’s funny uncle! How weird! How awesome! So where is everybody?

He seems bored. Somebody asks about transportation. Transportation! Busses and trains and carpool lanes! Potholes! This is a man who has a conference call every morning with Rahm Emanuel and George Stephanopoulos, who has Hillary on speed dial, who advised the 42nd president to say, “I didn’t inhale!”

Transportation?

Someone else asks something else. I don’t know. I’m not even listening. I’m writing stuff down. Tan sneakers. Khaki jeans. Pink shirt. Shades.

I don’t want you to think I’m impressed with famous people. Well, I am impressed with famous people, or at least I’m intrigued by fame. But that’s not what this is. This isn’t about fame. This is about power. I’m impressed by power. No, I’m intrigued by power. No, I’m fascinated â€" yes, that’s it, fascinated â€" by the phenomenon of power, of leverage, of political strength. Of all this world’s oddities, this to me is the most amazing and exotic: the crazed intricate machinery of rule. And James Carville knows how that machinery works. He can show you where the dipstick is. He can tell you how to adjust the fuel mixture. He has driven the goddamn thing! He has held the keys in his hand!

Maybe I’m a simpleton. Maybe I’m a hick. Maybe I grew up thousands of miles from Washington and hundreds of miles from the capital of a state (Montana) with one frigging representative in congress. Maybe I didn’t pay close enough attention in Civics. I don’t know. All I know is I know very little about how this country is actually run, about the closed-door meetings and polls and posturing and strong-arming and drafting and signing and gerrymandering and accusing and denying and filibustering and just what exactly the hell goes on. And I want to know. I want to know what transpires in the cockpit of this thing called America. I want to know what knob does what. I want to know what these assholes at the switches are thinking and why. And do they really put their pants on one leg at a time like the rest of us? And what do they eat for breakfast?

Carville, though â€" up close â€" is just, you know, human. He’s funny looking. He giggles. When I ask him a question, some unimportant nonsense it took me three days to think up, he answers thoughtfully and then challenges my inference. And what do I do? I challenge back. I parry with the bastard! Like I have a clue! Like we’re debating Ford versus Chevy or the latest Mariners trade. Putz for these no names! Are you out of your mind?

The dude’s funny. After the press conference, he treats a packed Philip Hall to a stand-up routine. Where’s John McCain when that phone rings at three ‘o clock in the morning? Looking for the bathroom! Ba bop ching! The interesting thing about the Republican candidates is the only one with just one wife was the Morman! You like that one? I got a million more!

And when he’s not funny, he’s inspirational. He talks about getting up when you get knocked down, about working hard, about fighting. And the thing is, he knows. He’s been there. He engineered the comeback kid, after all. Fall down seven, stand up eight is his mantra. He holds Tacoma up as an example. “You’re in the midst of what was one of the greatest failures in the western United States,” he says, speaking of downtown T-Town. Winos on the curbs! Drugs! Prostitutes! And look around you! Look at this fancy hall you’re sitting in! Look at these tasteful modern chairs! It can be done! It has been done! Keep doing it! Suddenly politics doesn’t seem so arcane. Just roll up your sleeves, this man is saying. Pitch in! Sandbag the levies! He’s not a liberal or a progressive, he tells us â€" those terms mean nothing â€" he’s an evidence-ist. Just do what works! That’s all there is to it! Don’t wring your hands, use them! He gave us the phrase, “It’s the economy, stupid.” Now he’s saying: Hey stupid, it’s you.

“To hell with the despair. To hell with the fear.” ---- James Carville

ERIK EMERY HANBERG: BEYOND “MATH AND SCIENCE” PART II >>>

Among the many qualifications it takes to land a job as Science and Technology Writer for the Volcano, I think the one that sealed the deal was my “Sophomore Science Student of the Year” award. ... Yeah, that’s still on the ol’ resume.

Since college, I’ve mostly been an arts and humanities kind of guy--film, theater, novels, etc. But before that, I was quite the science nerd.

So maybe that’s why I’m so glad to see the birth of the Tacoma School District’s “Science and Math Institute” (SAMI).

The subject: the natural world. The classroom: Point Defiance Park. Thanks to partnerships with MetroParks (which runs the zoo), UWT, UPS, Northwest Trek and the United States Geological Survey, students will be a part of a very unusual school, one focused on science, math, and environmental research.

Students will have a longer school day than most high schools--8:00 am to 4:00 pm--and an unusual school year. Like many colleges, SAMI will have a January Term where students take one intensive class for 3 weeks, with opportunities for specialized research or even travel abroad.

There will also be a strong focus on community service, where students can take what they’ve learned and contribute back to the region. SAMI will be so committed to this that students will be able to earn a varsity letter in community service.

As I learned more about the program at one of the school’s information nights, I couldn’t help but think back to the Marine Chemistry program I was enrolled in at Bellarmine Prep here in Tacoma.

The four-year program was both academic and extra-curricular. We were in school for a week every summer, learning statistical analysis one year and learning to SCUBA dive the next. Every student conducted a senior year research project.

For my project, I tested the water quality of Snake Lake and China Lake. Somehow my teacher, Ron Nilsen, swung things so that I got the opportunity to present my research to the staff at the Snake Lake Nature Center. Looking back, it’s hard to know if the staff was humoring me or if I actually had something of value to tell them. But at the time ... I gotta say, I was pretty proud of that.

Nilsen is still running the Marine Chemistry program at Bellarmine. I followed up with him to see how Marine Chemistry has been doing since I graduated. I was pretty impressed, and the potential of SAMI became even more apparent.

Right now, Bellarmine students are doing red tide research in Quartermaster Harbor--a 2006 graduate won first in the nation at the National Junior Science and Humanities Symposium for her red tide work there. Other students are creating Geographic Information Systems (GIS) maps of the Titlow marine sanctuary--last year two students presented professionally at a GIS conference.

We should not underestimate the positive effect applied scientific research can have on high school students. In addition to a love of the sciences, students will emerge with a deeper understanding of our natural world, particularly the forested Point Defiance Park and the beautiful waters of the Puget Sound.

Tomorrow is the groundbreaking for Urban Waters, a research center dedicated to studying the health of the Sound. Could Urban Waters be another partner for SAMI and Bellarmine’s Marine Chemistry program? With them guiding the work, and hundreds of interested high school students helping, our region might become a powerhouse of marine research.

The pieces are there. Here’s hoping they start coming together ...

ABOUT HAZARDOUS BUSINESS: Erik Emery Hanberg's Hazardous Business column - which looks at the business of technology and the environment in Tacoma and the South Sound, and how it will shape our future- appears every other Tuesday here on Spew. For previous Hazardous Business columns, click here.

MICHAEL SWAN: SOOOO TIRED OF THE 101 TAG >>>

Just found this press release on Bobble Tiki’s inbox:

 
Scheduled themed events include:
 
Friday, April 17â€"Classic Cocktails 101
(Gin Martini, Vodka Martini, Manhattan)

Friday, May 15â€"Spring Fever
(Cosmopolitan, Lemon Drop, Kamikaze)

Friday, July 17â€"Summer Lovin’
(Classic Mojito, Ginger Basil Mojito, Long Island Iced Tea)

Friday, September 25â€"Fall Essentials
(B-52 Coffee, Hot Toddy, Hot Buttered Rum, Peppermint Patty)

Friday, November 20â€"Home for the Holidays
(Holly Berry, Winter Wonderland, Poinsettia)
 
Matriculation fee: $40 per person, plus tax and gratuity.
 
Don’t wait for the bell to ringâ€"there isn’t one! Classes are held from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m., but guests needn’t arrive promptly at the beginning: students may come and go as they pleaseâ€"without a hall passâ€"and sneak out whenever they want.

Thought you’d want to know since Bobble Tiki typically never shows up at the office on Thursday.

LINK: South Sound happy hours

MATT DRISCOLL:WHAT DOES THE FUTURE HOLD? >>>

MATT DRISCOLL: UNFORTUNATELY, I TOLD YOU SO >>>