The Mercer Island Chamber of Commerce hosted District 41 state legislators Judy Clibborn, Marcie Maxwell and Randy Gordon at its monthly luncheon on April 8. The representatives each spoke on their personal area of expertise: Clibborn on transportation, Maxwell on education and Gordon on state taxes.
According to Clibborn, “transportation is making more bipartisan headway than any of the other budgets.”
The tension is not so much between parties, she said, but rather between “Democrats and Democrats, and between the House and the Senate.”
But King County transportation is moving forward. The Island representative said that she was happy with plans for the Alaskan Way Viaduct and seawall replacement project. According to WSDOT, major construction on the decades-old elevated SR-99 highway begins this summer. Engineers and environmentalists are still reviewing three alternatives for the viaduct’s central waterfront section: a cut-and-cover tunnel; elevated structure alternatives, and a bored tunnel alternative recommended in January 2009.

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Like much of the Seattle area, Mercer Island has no shortage of commercial real estate up for lease. The signs are visible throughout the Town Center. Even on the South end, shopping center windows advertise vacant retail and office spaces. It is a reflection of the times. Yet commercial realtors on the Island say the situation is getting better.

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Once an orthodontist, now a stage-hopping jazz artist with local notoriety, Gail Pettis has made quite the occupational jump. The Island resident, with a natural — albeit long unrealized — talent for singing, has just released her second album, “Here in the Moment” (OA2 Records) after her first CD, “May I Come In?” was welcomed with warm response in 2007. Most of her songs are well-loved classics: “The Very Thought of You,” “Night and Day,” “I Could Have Danced All Night,” given new life through Pettis’ sensuous voice, which lingers long after the songs end. A relative newcomer to Seattle’s jazz scene, Pettis sat down with the Reporter to discuss her first tentative steps into music and the rewarding success that followed.

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It’s hard to decide what is more remarkable; Maria Frank Abrams’ artwork or her life story. Both, of course, are connected.
A Hungarian-born Holocaust survivor, Abrams has spent the majority of her life in the Pacific Northwest. She studied art at the University of Washington after emigrating from war weary Europe in 1948. The young artist quickly fell in love with Washington’s landscape and “beautiful light.” It served as the inspiration for much of her work. And it helped the Holocaust survivor, who lost 33 members of her family — including her parents — to heal.

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Islander Middle School student Kela Harrington, 13, is the region’s new spelling bee champion. Harrington won the King and Snohomish…

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Forest Ridge seventh-graders Anika Patel and Angela Riggins have developed scientific plans for a printer that reuses ink and paper….

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