Strollerderby : Seattle

Teacher in Affair with 6th-Grader to Host 'Hot for Teacher' Night

Madeline Holler — Fri, 22 May 2009 21:05:00 GMT

Remember Mary Kay Letourneau, the teacher who was convicted of raping a sixth-grader at her school? Well, she's back in the news (as she is every few years) for yet another questionable act: she's hosting "Hot for Teacher Night" at a Seattle bar.

Ha ha! Hot for teacher! Get it? Every boy's fantasy comes true -- screw the law! Rock 'n' roll!

A paychecks a paycheck and all that, but, geez, Mary, are you sure about this?

The bar owner, Mike Morris, argues that Letourneau has served her sentence and now it's time to have fun. But would this be so much fun if it were a male gym coach, convicted of raping the cheerleading captain, promoting the re-release of "Porkies"? Why does Letourneau's and Fualaau's relationship always get painted as a quirky little love story?

Letourneau, now 47, wound up marrying the student she had sex with, Vili Fualaau, who will be guest DJing at the "Hot for Teacher" event. At the time of her crimes, she was 34 and he was 12 years old. The couple has two daughters, who hopefully aren't being told to embrace sexual advances from their summer camp counselors, but perhaps I'm just meddling.

I can't help but wonder what her children think of this -- in addition to her daughters with Fualaau (the youngest is 12), she had four from her first marriage.

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Photo: CBS2.com

Dad Robs Store with 9-Year-Old Daughter By His Side

SunnyChanel — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 22:00:00 GMT

It’s take your daughter to work day! At least for this Washington State Dad it is. And what kind of job does this Daddy have? Why, he’s dabbling in a career as a convenience store robber.

According to the Seattle Times, Robert Daniel Webb robbed a Ellensburg, Washington convenience store at gunpoint with his 9-year-old daughter at his side. His daughter, dressed in a cheery pink coat, is seen on video surveillance tapes right next to Dad as he pulls out a revolver and robs the clerk of $200. The undersherrif of the county said "I don't think I've ever heard of a little girl with her dad on an armed robbery. How anyone could endanger a child like that? You never know how someone is going to react when you pull a firearm out. How the clerk's going to react, somebody walking in? Absolutely can't even imagine it."

The man and his daughter are still at large.

How much harm do you think witnessing this crime will have on his daughter?

Source and Source

Greenhouse: Bag Tax Bad, Bag Bonus Good

Amy Kuras — Wed, 10 Sep 2008 21:36:00 GMT

I used to feel like a ridiculous hippie for carrying my own bags to the store, but in the year-ish I have been doing so it's become really common, so common that now I feel shamed when I don’t bring them.

Some stores around here even give you a little discount -- 5 cents or so -- based on the number of bags you bring. Makes sense to me – not only does it keep bags out of landfills but it saves the store a little money.

Which is why I think Seattle's proposed "bag tax" is a horrible, horrible idea. It would tax stores at the rate of 20 cents PER BAG for each plastic bag used. Which doesn’t sound too terrible, until you consider the impact this would have on low income consuers already squeezed badly by higher food costs and fuel costs. When you have to plan your food costs very carefully, getting socked with an extra dollar or so to carry the stuff home in something other than your pockets would really hurt.

If you have to take the bus to get to a grocery store and/or walk several blocks there, you may not have a convenient way to schlep along several bags – or what if you're stopping at the market on the way home from work and don’t have your bags with you?

Not only that, but 63 percent of Seattelites oppose the tax. Some don’t think it goes far enough, and most common plastic grocery bags are made from #2 plastic, which is widely recyclable. And still others point out that most people reuse the bags anyway instead of throw them out --- for pet waste or to line trash bags, for example. I know in our house my husband gets a little nervous when I haven’t been collecting enough "poop bags" at the store.

Socking people with a heavy tax doesn’t seem fair – but giving them an incentive to not use the bags does. I'll be interested to see how this plays out in Seattle.

5 Reasons We're Falling Behind Our Parents

Rachael Brownell (Redsy) — Thu, 15 May 2008 17:01:00 GMT

Nan Mooney's book "Not Keeping Up with Our Parents" describes the decline of the professional middle class in America and points to a few key reasons our generation is faltering when it comes to money-matters.

Apparently, it has little to do with cutting out lattes:

1. Homeownership no longer means stability - We may own houses, big houses, but we own less of them as a % than prior generations.

2. The dual-income trap - Since wages have stagnated, it now usually requires two incomes to make ends meet. Add to that the high cost of childcare and the problem continues.

3. Shame of financial instability keeps people quiet and inactive - In a culture of "personal responsibility" people blame themselves and so don't hold government accountable in any way.

4. Student Debt - People carry student loans now for 20, 30, 40 years with no reprieve.

5. Consumer goods may be cheaper but they are the same % of our income as they were in the 70s.

Ms. Mooney's premise, that externalities might have more to do with the faltering middle-class than personal profligacy, is a kind of relief in a time when many of us are hunkered down, head in hands, wondering what the hell happened! For more on this topic, go here.

Are Parents 'Victims' of Autism?

Rachael Brownell (Redsy) — Tue, 06 May 2008 00:00:00 GMT

According to researchers from the University of Washington, parents of children with disablities such as autism, suffer from high levels of anxiety, depression, and divorce. Are parents effectively victims of autism?

An interesting article in today's Seattle P.I. profiles a middle-income family with an autistic son that implies the answer is "yes."

There is no question that parents with kids who are autistic face long waits for diagnosis, insufficient insurance coverage for behavioral treatments, and the extra complications and stressers of caring for a special needs child.

The article provides a sympathetic view of the endless and unenviable tasks many parents who find themselves in this position face each day. To wit:

Children have autism, but parents are often invisible casualties. Their child's disorder ricochets through their lives, breaking up marriages, draining bank accounts and robbing them of sleep.

But are parents really victims and invisible casualties of autism? Don't we, as parents, sign up for this when we decide to have children? We deserve sympathy, but do we deserve pity? I'm sure what was intended with this piece was to shed some light on the impact of having an autistic child on parents, but something about the word "victim" rubs me the wrong way.

Dad's Monkey is Mom's Monkey, Too

Adrienne Martini — Sun, 23 Mar 2008 19:00:00 GMT

In theory, kicking your substance of choice -- whether that is booze, smokes or something more illegal -- should be a piece of cake. Just stop doing it, right? The reality of quitting is a completely different beastie. But cleaning up is even more important when there is a small person in the works.

Moms have a biological reason to stop smoking/drinking/etc when the bun is in the oven and are often able to use that as a tool to quit. Dads, however, seem to get a free pass. A new study out of the University of Washington indicates that dad's habits have a huge impact on mom's behavior, too.

Researchers studied a group of young (21-24 year old) parents. Almost all of those new moms who quit while pregnant were back at the bar and/or bong two years later. Dads didn't appear to cut back their use at all, which created a household environment that made it nearly impossible for mom to stay sober.

Perhaps it may be time, as the Seattle Post-Intelligencer Editorial Board suggests, to stop giving dads a free pass. Or, at least, to realize that they contribute something other than sperm to a growing child.

Top Ten Fittest Cities for Kids

Karen Murphy — Thu, 04 Oct 2007 22:34:00 GMT

I knew there was a reason that I'm being drawn slowly and inexorably toward the Pacific Northwest: not only is it beautiful but it;s a great place to raise fit, healthy kids. That is, if you believe Mens Health magazine, and why wouldn't you?

Looking at a number of statistics, Men's Health rated a bunch of U.S. cities and Seattle came out on top. Yay Seattle! Here's the rest of the top ten:

2. New York
3. Cincinnati
4. Durham, N.C.
5. Salt Lake City
6. Fremont, Calif.
7. Yonkers, N.Y.
8. Oakland
9. San Francisco
10. Miami

I have to take issue with some of these rankings, by the way, but good old scientific-method Men's Health compared data on nutrition, the number of fast-food restaurants and sports camps in cities, physical-education requirements, federal standards and other information to come up with these. But...New York? ARE there kids in New York? And Cincinnati (where the chili ROCKS, I have to say, but there's also a lot of bratwurst per capita)?

And what about the bottom ten, you're wondering. Just look to where everything is supersized: Texas.

100.Cheyenne, Wyo.
99. Lubbock, Texas
98. Arlington, Texas
97. Charleston, W. Va.
96. Toledo, Ohio
95. San Antonio, Texas
94. Fargo, N.D.
93. Detroit.
92. Jackson, Miss.
91. Anchorage, Alaska

Wondering how your city stacks up? Me too! You can check here.

Parents with Alternative Lifestyles Can Have Hard Time Keeping Kids

thezeroboss — Thu, 22 Feb 2007 15:27:00 GMT

The Stranger, one of Seattle's alternative newspapers, has an interesting piece on the Seattle Sex-Positive Community Center, which is better known around these parts by its self-selected nickname: The Wet Spot. What does a meeting place for swingers and BDSM fans have to do with raising kids, you say? I'm glad you ask! The Stranger's write-up investigates the child custody cases of parents who have had to fight to keep their kids because of their participation in club events. For example, a woman known only as Khaos W. saw her sons adopted out because her vindictive ex-husband brought her "deviant lifestyle" up in court. (He wasn't the kids' father, and didn't want custody; he just wanted to hurt his ex.)

The Stranger's Jason Simms goes on to examine how, in any case involving sex, the parent's lifestyle is assumed to be harmful to their kids; it's up to the parent on the defensive to "prove" that no harm's been done. Bah. This is just another example of how we expect parents to abandon any semblance of an adult life once they have sprogs. So long as parents firewall their adult activities off from their children, what business should it be of the courts - or their vindictive ex-spouses - what they do with their free time?

Airport Insecurity? Boy, 9, Flies Alone, Ticketless

Karen Murphy — Fri, 19 Jan 2007 21:17:00 GMT

A Seattle boy, 9, hopped two Southwest Airlines flights this week. By himself. Without a ticket. That's right, and he made it through airline security to do so. Twice.

Semaj Booker's Seattle - Dallas odyssey began on Sunday when he stole a neighbor's car that had been left running and made off for the airport only to be given chase by authorities. Semaj was apprehended and taken back to his mother after county juvenile officials refused to admit him because of his age. He later escaped and somehow made his way to Sea-Tac, where he lied his way onto an airplane and again in Phoenix where he changed planes. Semaj was foiled by a second attempt to change planes in San Antonio, and never made it to his destination of Dallas before airline workers finally were clued in that something was amiss and that his story didn't check out.

As a former frequent flyer previously married to a pilot for a major airline, I can attest to the vagaries of the airport security system, and I have seen the system change radically since 9/11. Granted, Semaj Booker doesn't sound like the typical 9-year-old, but still this story boggles my mind and I cannot fathom how one smart 9-year old was able to lie his way onto two airplanes, successfully eluding the multiple checks and balances that are present in the system, not once but twice. I will say, however, that security practices do not seem to be uniform among all domestic airports: some are known to be "easier" or "harder" than others.

Which brings me to this somewhat-tongue-in-cheek yet thought-provoking post at The Stranger's Slog. Isn't it time that TSA quit chasing little fires like whether fluids are in or out of ziploc bags and in what size bottles, and what people's shoes are made of (not to mention the indignity of taking them on and off repeatedly), and wanding every random 100th person whether they fit the "profile" or not, and address what the real threat is? Until that threat is understood, it will continue to exist. All this fear-mongering is not helping anyone, and is actually hurting an already-ailing and bloated airline industry. Take a page out of Israel's Ben Gurion Airport's (long regarded the SAFEST airport in the world) security measures handbook, and use it.