That parking lot at 22nd and Main was still an active crime scene Monday

Police are still looking for information about a fatal shooting in a parking lot near Blanche Lavizzo Park last weekend.

Q13 has identified the man killed as Wilbert Plummer.

Police say he was at Tia Lou’s nightclub in Belltown Saturday night, but they do not know how he ended up shot in the 22nd and Main parking lot.

Anyone with information or who may have seen him or his black 2012 Jaguar Saturday night or Sunday morning should call 911 or the Seattle Police Homicide Tip Line at (206) 233-5000. You can also report any tips anonymously through Crime Stoppers by calling 1-800-222-tips.

Announcing $500k for arts education in partnership with @seapubschools ^at twitter.com/mayormcginn/st…

— Mayor McGinn (@mayormcginn) May 14, 2013

Mayor Mike McGinn announced Tuesday that the city will invest a half million dollars in art education in schools in and around the Central District.

The funding comes from tax revenue generated by the waterfront Ferris wheel and the Chihuly museum in Seattle Center.

Funding will go first to K-12 schools within the “Central Pathway.” Over the next several years, the program will reach to other schools in the city, as well.

From the Mayor’s Office:

Today the Mayor announced that the city of Seattle will deepen their partnership with the school district to invest in arts education.

Investment dollars will ensure that every student in the Central Pathway of Seattle Public Schools receive a minimum of two hours per week of arts education programming, as well as support the purchase of instruments and other art supplies for classrooms. The Central Pathway, which consists of schools in and around Seattle’s Central District, was chosen due to strong existing partnerships with community-based arts education organizations. The eventual goal of the program is to expand the program each year until all students at Seattle Public Schools receive two hours per week of arts education programming by 2020. Continue reading →

Faculty and students protest the MAP in February

The Seattle School District will no longer require MAP tests at city public high schools, Superintendent José Banda announced Monday.

Faculty at Garfield High School this year led a boycott of the test that quickly expanded to other Seattle schools and drew national attention. Opponents of the test argued that it detracts from valuable classroom time, has little to do with instruction subject matter and are not taken seriously because students know they don’t affect their GPAs.

A Seattle Public Schools review of the test has recommended that the test be optional to city high schools, paving the way to Garfield to stop administering the test, so long as they “provide evidence of a way to assess and monitor progress of students who are below standard in math and reading. In addition, the high school must follow their typical school-level decision-making process,” according to a statement from Superintendent José Banda:

In February we formed a Task Force on Assessments and Measuring Progress to review our testing policies and explore concerns about the Measures of Academic Progress (MAP) assessment. This group, comprised of principal, teacher, student, family and community representatives, met eight times and developed a list of recommendations for the 2013-14 school year. Continue reading →

Here’s a look at some of the past month’s crime incidents in the neighborhood. Information is from Seattle Police reports.

Robbery spree suspect arrested, 9:50 p.m. April 18

One of two men suspected of robbing two people in the area April 18 was arrested in the U District, according to the police report.

One robbery occurred near 24th and Olive Street around 9:50 p.m. While police were talking to the victim, they received a call of another possibly-related robbery at 22nd and E Thomas Street. Then, while searching the area, they received word that the suspects were being detained near 43rd and Roosevelt in the U District.

The first victim positively identified one of the suspects, and he was arrested. More details from the police report:

Continue reading →

City officials and community leaders in January announce the first gun buyback event at Mount Zion Baptist Church

Students of the Central District, what have guns done to your community, and what would a CD without gun violence be like?

The city is looking for your thoughts, which they will then turn into pieces of art using the steel from guns purchased during a recent gun buyback event.

This is all part of the Weapons to Words program, funded with the help of Chihuly Studio and Schnitzer Steel. Deadline to enter is June 7.

Details from the city:

Weapons to Words is a program for students in Seattle sponsored by the Office of the Mayor and Office of Arts & Culture in cooperation with Chihuly Studio and Schnitzer Steel that encourages a violence free future for Seattle. Metal upcycled from guns recovered from Seattle’s gun buyback program will be tuned into plaques featuring quotes from Seattle students.

Students are asked to submit quotes that signify what gun violence in their community means to them, and what we can do to stop it. This program encourages kids to think about clear, simple actions and attitudes that they can take to contribute to the elimination of violence in schools and in our city. A panel convened by the Office of Arts and Culture will select one entry per school to be engraved on a publicly displayed installation designed by Chihuly Studio.

This contest is open to students in the City of Seattle in grades 1-12. One winner per school will be selected by a panel of judges. Entry deadline is Friday, June 7th. More information about the contest, including rules, eligibility and participation requirements can be obtained online at seattle.gov/WeaponsToWords. You can contact [email protected] or 206-615-1446 with any questions.

Contest Topic:

We’re asking students to think about what gun violence in their community means to them, and what we can do to stop it. What would a Seattle free of gun violence be like? How can we get there? How would life for young people in our city be different without fear of gun violence? Continue reading →

CDNews will have live coverage of the 2013 May Day March for Workers and Immigrant Rights, which is scheduled to leave Judkins Park at 3 p.m. destined for the Federal Building downtown.

If you can’t make it out for a sunny march for social justice, stay tuned here and follow @CDNews on Twitter for updates. Post your updates in the comments below.

Here’s a map of the route, from SPD:

Updates: The march is just about ready to get started.

Turning down Jackson from 20th:

Continue reading →

The 13th Annual May Day March for Workers and Immigrant Rights will again start at St. Mary’s Church at 20th and Lane near Judkins Park. The large march will end with a rally at the Federal Building downtown. Marchers will meet at 1 p.m. to get ready for a 2:30 3 p.m. start.

The family-friendly march brings together people from all walks of life who support social justice. See our coverage from last year’s march.

Details on the march, from El Comité Pro Reforma Migratoria Y Justicia Social:

The theme of the 2013 march will center on justice for all workers and a community-based framework for dialogue on Immigration Reform. The action on May 1st is calling for an immediate end to the E-verify and S-Comm programs, as well as a moratorium on all deportations. Nationally, immigration has returned to the fore as politicians debate several proposals for addressing a matter that has been neglected since 2009.  Congress, through inaction, has been complicit in the use of enforcement-heavy tactics such as dragnet raids, racial profiling of immigrants, and the use of discriminatory employee verification programs.Under the current administration, up to 390,000 undocumented immigrants are deported each year, with 2011 bringing the most deportations to date, according to recent statistics.  This is not the progress we envisioned when we sought to defeat xenophobic congressional legislation seven years ago.  As such, we continue to organize at the grassroots level to ensure that families are not forcibly separated and to ensure that our communities are able to live, work, and are granted the opportunity to normalize their documented status, without fear and deprivation of basic human rights.

EDUCATE, ORGANIZE, MOBILIZE.

In recent years, May Day has received more coverage in Seattle for radical actions, including some high profile acts of vandalism downtown last year that law enforcement spent much of the past year investigating. Police action in response to the protest involved at least one raid at a Central District residence. Continue reading →

Because I might pull a muscle trying to out-pun Jonah at SPD, I’ll let him take it away:

Vandal (or Rogue Chicken) Wanted for Egging Car, Attempted Hot Tub Poaching

Seattle police are working to crack a tough case after some fowl fiend threw an egg into a Madrona man’s car and then cracked a dozen more into his backyard hot tub over the weekend.

Appropriately, Officer Samuel Byrd (no yolk) was called to a home near 36th Ave and East Pike Street Saturday afternoon to take the man’s report.

The man wasn’t able to provide police with any leads about suspects in the case—and no one came forward at the scene to admit “I am the egg man”—but SPD’s hard-boiled sleuths will keep working to make sure the suspect doesn’t fly the coop.

Faculty and students protest the MAP in February

The Garfield High teachers leading the revolt against the MAP standardized test in Seattle say their push-back will gain new steam with a May Day rally.

They will hold a media event Monday afternoon to discuss the renewed effort and are calling on supporters in Seattle and around the world to show solidarity. From the Scrap the MAP blog:

Now the Seattle teachers need your support again.

The spring offering of the MAP test produces the scores that are supposed to be used in Seattle’s teacher evaluations. For this reason the Seattle School District could take a harsher stance against boycotting teachers this time around.

May Day is traditionally a day of international workers solidarity. What better time to show your support for the teachers who have risked their livelihoods to advocate for quality assessment and for our resources to be used to support learning rather than endless testing? Continue reading →