After 37 years on the job, the guy in charge of making sure Safeco Field runs like a Swiss Watch is packing up and heading south, leaving with quite a legacy and a few regrets.

As long as the Mariners have existed, Bellevue native Tony Pereira has wanted to be a part of his beloved hometown team.

“When I was 14 I wrote an essay for a Seattle Times contest about why I want to be a bat boy for the Mariners. They liked me, but I was too young. You had to be 16. So I started off passing out stuff at the gates, stuffing envelopes, that sort of thing. Thirty-seven years later, here I am,” Pereira said.

He’s come a long way since that inauspicious start.

As the senior director of ballpark operations, it’s Tony’s job to oversee all facets of Safeco Field, from the front gates to the beer stands.

He’s truly worked his way up from the bottom, his first big break coming when the Kingdome director of stadium operations needed a gofer. The then-15-year-old jumped at the chance.

“So I just did errands for him, got him hot dogs, all kinds of glamorous stuff, but just stayed with it. When I was 20 they hired me full time in the mailroom,” he said.

He gradually worked his way up, ultimately securing a full-time job working in stadium operations in his 20’s. He was part of the team that led the transition from the dingy confines of the Kingdome to the shiny new Safeco Field.

Well before the stadium opened July 15, 1999, Tony and his team hit the road to figure out how to actually run the place right.

“In the Kingdome days, we knew it wasn’t a great building, for baseball in particular. So when Camden Yards opened in 1992 I was there in April, and my counterpart there said I was the first one to visit. I was so anxious to see what the new ballparks were all about. Throughout the 90’s even before we knew we were going to get Safeco Field, I’d go to Cleveland and see Jacobs Field, and Coors Field in Denver,” Pereira said.

Safeco Field has deservedly earned accolades across the country as one the best building’s in the business.

The secret? It’s a bit Mickey Mouse. Seriously. The Mariners have modeled their operation on Disney, with Tony and team attending what’s known as the Disney Institute. It’s an intensive program that teaches everything from customer service and operations to leadership.

“I would say we start with striving to treat our day of game staff the best that any team could treat them. Because the philosophy is very simple: you treat them well, if they’re having fun, they enjoy coming here, that’s what they’re going to exude to our guests,” he said.

But it’s not always easy. With 81 games a season, Tony admits it can be a grind.

“This is an 11 game homestand in 12 days. To perform at that level and ask everybody to perform day in and day out (can be difficult.) And we’ll say to them in training in March that September 30 is just as important as April 4^th,” Pereira said.

And it’s not just baseball. Safeco Field hosts dozens of other events a year, from high school graduations to corporate fundraisers.

And then there are the concerts, which Tony worked for years to make happen.

“With Paul McCartney, we were finally able to do it. I went to Fenway because the Red Sox do a number of shows,” he said.

It was a rousing success, and Tony’s since booked Beyonce and Jay Z and Billy Joel, and this summer Safeco will host Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers.

But Tony won’t be there. His wife wanted to return home to her family in Phoenix, so he agreed it was time for a move. Lucky for him, an opportunity opened up to oversee University of Phoenix Stadium, home of the NFL Cardinals and dozens of other events including Super Bowls and megaconcerts.

It’ll be just the second company he’s ever worked for. And although he’s excited about the new challenge, he leaves with a couple of regrets.

He never got Pearl Jam to play. And he never got to celebrate a World Series.

“We came really close. Three ALCS’ where we were just a couple of games from the World Series. And so that’s the piece that I really hope the team gets over the hump soon. The city deserves it, the region deserves it, the people that work in the front office deserve it. I’d love to be here for it. The next best thing though will be watching it. And I will be here in the stands when it does happen,” he said.

That would only be fitting because he’s been there since almost the very beginning.

But for the eight students donning the cap and gown at Seattle’s , it’s an achievement that seemed unlikely or impossible just a short time ago after struggles with drug and alcohol addiction threatened to derail their young lives.

It’s hard to know exactly how widespread the problem is, because most teens won’t disclose their use until it causes problems, and many parents have no idea what their kids are actually up to when they leave the house, says Seth Welch, a certified chemical dependency counselor and coach at the Recovery High School.

“The amount of young people and teens that are at least getting high and getting at least a little drunk on weekends is pretty substantial, and then you’ve got a whole another group that we’re trying to affect change with that are using much more frequently, if not daily,” Welch said.

Peer pressure and the widespread availability of drugs and alcohol have always played a part in teen addiction issues. But Welch says it’s far more prevalent, with even heroin easily accessible in local schools on a regular basis.

While traditional high schools have offered some kind of counseling that can get kids to inpatient treatment, Welch says failure happens far too often for those kids when they return to their old setting, where drugs, alcohol, friends that use and peer pressure make long term sobriety difficult if not virtually impossible.

The Recovery High School is one of several dozen specialized programs around the country that combine academics and chemical dependency counseling and life skills training.

Just two-and-a-half years old, what started with just one student has grown to several dozen.

“This alternative environment provides something that’s extremely unique and it actually, from what the kids say and what we can see, it makes recovery accessible, realistic, attractive and actually cool,” Welch said.

The school offers both in-person and online classes, allowing students to work at their own pace, catch up, and actually move forward.

A number have come from the depths of addiction, living on the streets, shooting dope under a bridge, committing crimes to support their habits. All before they’re even old enough to drive.

“What I didn’t know as a kid was that I could have a great group of friends, have the fun that I wanted and be on good terms with my parents and be doing good in school. It was always one or the other,” Welch said.

Welch says they’re seeing tremendous success, with at least six of the kids graduating this week accumulating over a year of sobriety while earning their diplomas.

And he says the school is even beginning to attract a few younger students who simply don’t want to be in an environment where you can buy anything from pot to heroin before homeroom, and you can be ostracized simply for saying now.

His hope is to spread the word about the little-known program, offering the possibility of recovery and a better life for young people and their families alike.

We could easily serve upwards of 40 to 50 kids, which still seems fairly small. But as soon as we hit that, then we’ll open another one. They should and they will be popping up all over the place. We should lead the way in this movement, especially when it regards the lives of our young people.”

You can learn more about the Recovery High School online or by contacting Welch directly at 206-947-1532.

So it’s only fitting that after years of talking, planning, and fundraising, makes its official debut.

Much like Jimi transformed music, the park is the transformation of 2.5 acres of undeveloped land in Seattle’s Central District into a celebration of his life and music.

Project manager Maisha Barnett says it’s a vital part of preserving his legacy in a number of ways

“One, the park is located in the neighborhood Jimi grew up in. It’s also a space that celebrates his life, not his death, which is represented in all aspects of the park,” she said.

The new park is adjacent to the .

The landscape is shaped like a guitar. Pathways spiral out like peddles of a flower. Along the neck of the “guitar” is a chronological timeline of Jimi’s life, according to Barnett.

Barnett says on the outer edge of the timeline are lyrics to the songs Angel and Little Wing.

It is a city park, but it took far more than tax dollars to bring it to fruition. Donations and grants from a number of private and corporate donors helped the non-profit supplement the public money needed to create the park.

Barnett says the goal was to create a true living space that regularly showcases live music.

To officially christen the new park, the foundation will host a grand opening celebration from Noon to 5 p.m. on Saturday. It’ll feature appearances and special live performances from a number of top local artists including Seattle guitar wizard Ayron Jones, Singer Grace Love, and up and coming rock greats the Hollers.

But most important, it’s another chance to remember the incredible artistry and talent that emerged from Seattle’s Central District.

Father Oliver Duggan has plenty to worry about as the head of Assumption Catholic Church in Northeast Seattle.

So an application by T-Mobile to install a cell tower directly across the street from the church and 500 student school on NE 65th was the last thing on his mind.

“We found out about it from a parishioner who happens to work for the state and checks these things all the time. Otherwise, we would have been blank on it,” Duggan said.

He should have known if the city had done its job properly. The Seattle Department of Construction and Inspections is required by city rules to post four large signs or placards at least 18 by 24 inches notifying the public of such a project. It is supposed to notify anyone within three hundred feet by mail.

But neighbor and parishioner Jessica Jackson says none of that happened.

“The process has not been followed here … and I think the city should follow the rules,” she said.

Jackson is a stay-at-home mom, and an attorney by trade. She began digging into what was going on after Father Duggan raised concerns.

She learned the city had posted just one small notice – an 8.5 by 11 inch, three -sheet paper notice stapled to the existing utility pole. It was wrapped in plastic and facing away from the school. So no one across the street at the church would ever see it.

She says it was posted Dec. 15, which started a two-week public comment period. But the church school had just begun winter break that day, so the comment period closed before families returned from the holidays and could have commented.

“It would be hard to believe that would be done as a coincidence. It seems to be purposeful,” Jackson said of the timing.

So Jackson launched a petition on , which garnered 250 signatures. And she reached out to the Department of Construction and Inspections but says she got nowhere.

“The city was just unresponsive or responded to us in a way that was very dismissive of our concerns,” she said.

The biggest concern for families and the church is the potential health effects of the proposed 70-foot tower.

While T-Mobile and the industry and the city assure that studies have not shown any adverse health effects associated with such cell sites, Jackson and Duggan argue there have been no long-term studies — especially when it comes to kids.

“The telephone company tells us, wow, there’s no problem. There’s nothing wrong with this, there’s going to be no radiation at all,” Duggan said.

“But medical people tell us maybe that’s not so at all. So there’s a big question there all the time and I think there’s a valuable question there that should be looked into.”

Despite the concerns, the Department of Construction and Inspections issued a recommendation to Seattle City Light this spring, which made the final determination to allow T-Mobile to install the new cell tower on a pole just outside the Bryant Corner Cafe.

And DCI says its recommendation was not appealable because it was merely a recommendation.

In an email, a department spokesperson said DCI mailed notices to 64 addresses, posted required signage and attended a community meeting organized by the church in March. But the department declined my request for an interview, referring me to City Light.

Sephir Hamilton, City Light’s officer of engineering and technology innovation, made the ultimate decision. He says the department went out of its way to consider all the issues.

“And we heard all of those concerns, weighed them against the benefit of additional cellphone coverage in this area, and ultimately concluded that after looking at many different poles, this was the best location — or the least-worst location — that T-Mobile could find,” Hamilton said.

Hamilton says the new pole will replace an existing one, just with multiple cellular antennas atop it.

He says the city worked with T-Mobile to reduce its height by 11 feet – from 70 to 59 feet.

“The feedback that we heard did result in some changes that I think lessen the impact, but it always is balancing the pros and cons. And in this case, we think this is the best location for that antenna,” Hamilton said.

The situation is far from unique. There have been numerous lawsuits and complaints filed about projects like this across our region. And Hamilton expects far more conflict as companies look to continue growing their services, especially with the coming move to 5G networks.

Hamilton points out there were a number of supporters for the project who just wanted better cell service.

But Jackson says there’s a far more fundamental issue: Whether people should have a greater say in what goes on in their neighborhoods.

“I feel like the process has not been respected at all and city officials are not following the law,” she said.

Councilmember Rob Johnson is vowing to change that. He attended a community meeting about the tower and promised change.

“We recognize this is probably the first of probably hundreds of cell towers that are going to go up from T-Mobile and other carriers around the city. And this is a precedent setting thing. And I believe there’s a better process, that in collaborating with the community, we can find better solutions,” he said.

But in this case, the new cell tower is going up, neighbors and the church be damned. Still, Father Duggan vows to keep raising concerns.

“It’s never too late, really, to listen to the people. If it was election time, we’d get listened to much better. But really, it’s never too late,” Duggan said.

Drayer:

Some fans are accusing the M’s of price gouging to take advantage of our neighbors to the north.

Much like the swallows returning to Capistrano, tens of thousands of Canadian baseball fans will pack Safeco Field for the three-game set getting underway Friday night.

“With 39 million people and only one team, they all cheer for one major league baseball team and that’s the Toronto Blue Jays,” said .

“So for fans that live in Western Canada … British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba even, [Seattle is] one of the easiest places for them to see them.”

But Pawson says this year, he’s getting an earful from Canadian fans who are complaining that they found for the series have gone way up. In some cases, they’re double what they sell for in other series.

“Some fans think that the Mariners organization is taking advantage of Western Canadian fans by putting in this dynamic pricing and using that as an excuse to increase the cost of the games,” Pawson said.

It’s certainly a hot ticket. Prices range from $30 to $150 for the three Jays games, while you can get the same seats for half that to upcoming Mariners series against other teams such as the Tigers and Astros.

But Mariners spokesperson Rebecca Hale says it’s simply a matter of supply and demand.

“Back in 2008, we started using a system called variable pricing. That means that we took a look at the schedule and so a Tuesday game in April was going to be priced differently from a Saturday game in August with the New York Yankees in town,” Hale said.

So it’s not personal. Most pro sports teams have implemented variable and dynamic pricing. Hale says much like airline tickets, prices are higher for premier matchups.

“The same thing is happening with the Yankees series, with the Mets series, with the Edgar Martinez number retirement game. Those are high-demand games. The algorithm doesn’t care where you come from. It’s going to follow the market forces and that’s how the prices get set,” Hale said.

But many of our neighbors to the north don’t believe it. They think the Mariners are simply trying to counter the annual takeover that makes Safeco feel a lot more like Toronto’s Rogers Centre.

There was a time when Safeco Field was packed on a regular basis with Mariners fans as the team was among the top in attendance league wide.

“It is something that we really, really want to have back here at this really amazing ballpark, is to fill it with crazy, cheering Mariners fans,” Hale said. “And if these guys keep playing the way they are and [general manager Jerry Dipoto] keeps working his magic, that could very well happen.”

If the past week is any indication, that could happen sooner rather than later. The Mariners have won four of the past five and displayed a firepower that hasn’t been seen around here in some time, despite Thursday night’s 2-1 .

Sarah’s daughter Katie first met Sarah as a 9-year-old looking for a place to call home. Today she’s a mother herself.

“She never wanted kids to feel like she did,” Katie said. “She wanted them to feel love and to know love and always know they had a home.”

Sarah gave selflessly and tirelessly for years, until her body gave out over the weekend and she passed away. Her huge extended family in Maple Valley and beyond didn’t have the money for a proper burial, so they turned to the Ron and Don Nation for help.

RELATED: Ron and Don listeners raise money for foster mom

Listeners responded, donating over $14,000 in just a couple of hours to grant Sarah’s family the burial she wanted, and to help cover the costs of expenses for the adopted children left behind.

“It was absolutely heartwarming,” Katie said. “You know, we sat here and listened to the show and within the first few minutes there was like $3,000 raised. We all just busted into tears and could not believe it, just the outpouring of love and help for our family that we received, it was just so overwhelming and amazing.”

The grieving hasn’t eased since Sarah died Sunday. But Katie says not having to worry about her burial or taking care of Tracy and the other girls is a huge relief.

“We were allowed to miss her, but ‘never stop living’ is what she told us,” Katie said.

Foster kids in Washington

While Sarah fostered dozens of kids, I was again reminded it’s just a drop in the bucket. Kim Emmons met Sarah in a support group for foster parents in Maple Valley.

“She was one of the first ones to embrace me,” Kim said.

What Kim learned is the state offers foster parents virtually zero support, financially or otherwise. So they created a non-profit called Foster Champs, to do just that for Maple Valley families.

The group provides funding for anything a foster family might need, from clothes to school supplies to activity fees, not to mention anything extra. When it comes to the need, the numbers are staggering. The state says over 10,000 kids are currently in foster care in our state, with over two thousand waiting for adoptive families.

“There’s such a crisis right now,” Kim said. “Social workers are overworked, overtaxed, have way too many cases. Some of them are taking children to hotel rooms for the night because there’s not a home for them.”

Losing an angel like Sarah is a big blow to far more than just her immediate family. It’s one less home for girls like Katie.

“Now I have two beautiful kids and I get to pass that on to them, show them what love means and being completely safe and loved and respected,” Katie said. “It’s amazing.  I couldn’t have done half of what I do without my mom.”

And thanks to your generous donations, her mom will be buried near her husband next week, just as she wanted. And the money you gave will provide a future for a foster family she made whole.

“I can just see our mom smiling down going ‘thank you for helping my babies.'” Katie said. “So thank you guys a lot, everybody who donated, shared it, posted their condolences. That means a lot to us, more than anybody will ever know. So thank you guys.”

As Seattle throws millions of dollars and exhausts all sorts of resources trying to tackle the problem, just up the road in Snohomish County, a group of women are making a big dent in the community’s homeless problem, all from their kitchens.

“I was shocked when I discovered how many homeless kids we had — 644 to date that attend schools in the Edmonds School District,” said Lake Forest Park resident Kim Gorney.

Her husband is a teacher in Edmonds, and she just couldn’t believe it. So she went down to the district and found out the startling truth, which is when she knew she had to do something.

RELATED: More than 11K homeless counted in King County

“Most of us are parents and we just can’t imagine that the child sitting next to our kids in school may be the one that doesn’t have anything to go home to eat,” Gorney said.

She learned that under federal law, kids get to stay in school wherever their families first became homeless, regardless of where they end up.

That can be shelters, tents, cars, transitional housing or other places; perhaps a couch somewhere. The law requires the district come pick them up wherever they are.

Gorney began talking to some of her friends and they formed a small nonprofit they call to help feed them.

“The kids are on the bus sometimes two hours a day,” Gorney said. “We designed a snack program with the Edmonds school bus drivers to provide food for the kids that may not have any food until the next day when they come back to school.”

The small group began recruiting volunteers. The response was overwhelming. Other parents, children, and businesses all began donating food and money and volunteering to pack snack bags for the hungry kids.

“The community has been absolutely amazing,” Gorney said. “Because nobody really knows about these kids. And I think that’s what we’ve been able to do, is raise awareness.”

They’re doing far more than just feeding children. She soon discovered homeless students have all sorts of other needs as well.

The group works with dedicated student advocates assigned to each Edmonds school. They help provide whatever is needed to keep children in school. That includes motel room vouchers, temporary financial assistance, toiletries, even an emergency closet where kids can get clothes, shoes, and supplies.

“I just did the numbers and we provided 42 black zip-up hoodies last year for high school students,” Gorney said. “So whatever it is the kids need.”

Now they’re launching a new program to help pay activities fees, buy musical instruments, anything to keep kids involved in sports, music, even robotics.

“I’m surprised by how fast we’ve grown,” she said. “We really were not expecting the support that we’ve gotten or to be able to offer the programs we’ve been able to offer just in this last year.”

All just because a couple of moms took it upon themselves to do something.

It’s a telling lesson that maybe you don’t need all that bureaucracy and millions of dollars to make a difference.

But they could certainly use more money and more hands. That’s why we’re proud to partner with the Seahawks and Carter Subaru in honoring as Bonneville Seattle’s charity of the month.

More from Josh Kerns

A new exhibition making its world premiere this weekend at brings the most diverse and comprehensive collection of Henson’s career together for the first time.

“The intention is to tell the story of Jim Henson’s amazing career, how these characters and stories came about, give some insight into his lasting legacy,” said Barbara Miller, the curator of .

She’s been working on it since Henson’s family donated a vast store of memorabilia, storyboards, and other never before seen treasures from his decades-long career to the Museum of Moving Image in New York.

MoPop Curator Brooks Peck says the museum jumped on the chance to be the first in the country to host the new traveling exhibition.

“He’s completely evergreen, pardon the pun. His inter-generational appeal. Kids grow up watching him and introducing their kids to him. And even though he passed away some decades ago now, his legacy is really strong,” Peck said.

It’s a legacy that actually started well before Kermit and Elmo. The roots go back to those early days in DC when his creations became popular characters on national commercials and variety programs.

The exhibition features early films and other archives tracing his rise. It features plenty of Henson’s pioneering puppets, including Kermit, Ernie and Bert, and more, along with a vast array of everything from early drawings to costumes spanning his entire career.

“We tried to pick some important characters, some well-known characters from all of his major work…and there’s also some puppets you don’t know about … and I think we really wanted to mix that up,” Miller said.

They’ve done that and more. The archives, videos, costumes and other rarities capture the heartfelt musical and comedic genius that pervaded all of his groundbreaking work, from Sesame Street to the Muppets, Fraggle Rock to Labyrinth.

The “The Jim Henson Exhibition: Imagination Unlimited” kicks off with a gala party Friday night.

It officially makes its world premiere Saturday, and whether you love the Muppets or Dark Crystal, you can’t help but be moved and inspired by the new exhibit.

A U.S. court granted the Shoreline man legal custody of his then 7-year old son Mochi because his then-wife had been found to be abusive and an alcoholic.

A judge limited the Japanese national to supervised visitations and prohibited her from getting a visa to travel with the boy out of the country.

But on Father’s Day 2010, she took the boy to Portland illegally during what was supposed to be a brief visit, fraudulently obtained a visa, and immediately fled with him to Japan.

He hasn’t seen or heard one word from his son Mochi since.

“I don’t give up. I’m never going to give up,” Morehouse said via phone from Washington DC, where he was again calling on lawmakers and the Trump Administration to pressure Japan to follow the law and force his wife to return Mochi to America.

Morehouse heads the non-profit , an organization he co-founded to help raise awareness of the issue.

“I had my US legal custody order recognized by the Japanese courts in 2014. They recognized in their own courts that it has a legal effect there. However, there’s no current mechanism to actually enforce it and return Mochi to my custody,” Morehouse said.

The Japanese government has repeatedly ignored his pleas.

“What’s even more heartbreaking to me now: in addition to my own personal case, my own personal story is each year meeting new parents and new families that are torn apart by this crisis.”

More than 400 American children have been abducted to Japan. Despite repeated attempts to get the Obama administration to act on their behalf, his and other parents’ pleas fell on deaf ears.

In recent weeks, they’ve found some support in a place he didn’t expect — the Trump administration.

“We had a meeting there last month in the White House … with staff very close to Ivanka Trump and the president. We’re very hopeful this will continue to gain traction in the White House that will lead to those next steps.”

The biggest step: using the presidential bully pulpit to pressure Japan into taking action.

“I think that type of criticism, especially coming from the president towards Japan, would mobilize the Japanese government to have to create a response. And the appropriate response would be returning Mochi and the other kids that have been kidnapped there. Especially the cases that are so black and white from a legal perspective,” he said.

In the meantime, he continues his own shuttle diplomacy along with a number of other parents of abducted children.

Last week, Morehouse spoke with and addressed a conference focused on the issue at the US Institute for Peace in the nation’s capitol.

As Morehouse contemplates another Father’s Day without his only child, he remains steadfast in his efforts, despite the ongoing stonewalling by the Japanese government.

“It doesn’t end until the children come home,” he said.

The Seattle-based carrier faces an impending shortage of pilots and others to keep the airline flying high into the future.

“This year alone we’re going to hire 2,300 front line employees. And that includes pilots, flight attendants, maintenance, agents,” said Carlos Zendejas, the Seattle-based chief pilot for Alaska.

Zendejas was among hundreds of employees who volunteered last weekend for the airline’s annual Aviation Day.

More than 1,000 students gathered in the massive Alaska maintenance hanger at the south end of Sea-Tac airport to get an up close look at the airline’s operations.

Spokesperson Bobbi Egan says the airline works hard to reach out to local schools to make young people aware of the opportunities.

REPORT: Boeing temporarily grounds new 737 MAX for quality check

“The goal here is to show young people that there are so many opportunities here in the Pacific Northwest, whether you work for Alaska, Boeing, the Port of Seattle,” Egan said.

But there’s no seemingly greater need than to prepare the next generation of pilots.

The Regional Airlines Association forecasts the major carriers like Alaska will need upwards of 18,500 pilots new pilots by the end of 2020, while there are just 18,000 potential candidates in the pipeline currently flying for regional carriers — the major source of pilots for the big airlines.

Zendejas says two big things happened to spark the shortage — in the past decade the FAA mandated pilots retire at age 65, while many potential pilots chose other careers during the recession, in part because entry level flying jobs pay so little.

“Right now we’re still doing very well.  But as you look two years down the road the supply is certainly going to get very tight,” Zendejas said.

And there’s a good reason why Alaska and other airlines are doing all they can to head that off.

Zendejas says the industry might be faced with lowering pilot requirements if it doesn’t have enough flyers for the future.

“Right now at Alaska, if you’re going to apply you have to have at least three thousand hours of flight time, a little less if you come from the military, ” Zendejas said.

“But as you start to go forward and not all the people are available that would have those qualifications, I think all the major airlines will have to start looking and go ‘well, instead of 3,000 hours, maybe we’re looking at 2,500 hours.”

But Zendejas insists we shouldn’t be worried about that impacting safety, because all new Alaska hires will still go through the airline’s stringent ground and air training before they earn their wings.

But what if you don’t want to be a pilot? A big part of last weekend’s annual aviation day is to inspire kids from all walks of life to pursue a career in the ever growing industry.

Anais King, 18, is one of those.

“About a year ago I was introduced to something called Young Eagles. And it was where we were able to be flown in an airplane. And I was just enthralled.  I looked out of the window and said ‘I want to do this,'” she said.

The home-schooled high school senior has always had an interest in engineering. And thanks to her exposure to Alaska, she’s now considering a career in aviation.

When people hear aviation they think pilots, but in aviation you can be an engineer, a mechanic, or many other things. There are just so many fields.

In fact, Alaska says it’s even competing with the likes of Microsoft and Amazon for top tech talent – another reason for spreading the word through Aviation Day and other outreach.

“We also go down to Aviation High School, we talk to them. We talk to the different universities.  As a matter of fact, Green River (College) now has a four-year aviation program right here in our own backyard,” Zendejas said.

More by ����Xվ Radio’s Josh Kerns

It turns out there’s a woman at Safeco Field whose job it is to try and reconnect them with their lost belongings. From sunglasses to cell phones and everything in between, Ede Fitch has just about seen it all.

At the end of every game, whatever gets left behind is collected and ends up in Ede’s hands.

“A large plastic bin’s worth is probably the minimum per game. And if it’s a much larger game that’s much more well attended, we’re probably going to have two or three of those plastic bins come to us full,” she said as we surveyed the file cabinets full of stuff she keeps in a room just off the third base reception desk on First Avenue.

Most commonly, it’s something easily replaceable like a hat, sweatshirt, or an umbrella. But it can also be something far more significant like a wallet or a wedding band.

Ede neatly organizes and catalogs everything left behind, tagging each item and recording it in a spreadsheet.

Then comes the fun part — trying to reunite people with their stuff.

“The nice thing is, especially when those guests do get reunited, is to be able to say there are still honest people that walk this Earth. Because we get wallets turned in with quite a large amount of cash in them, credit cards still intact,” she said.

Whenever she can, Ede figures out how to get in touch with the people and return their valuables.

She’s only been on the job since the start of the season, but already she’s had plenty of surprises. Most notably the large collection of knives she’s amassed.

They’re forbidden at Safeco Field. If someone tries to get past the metal detector, security confiscates the knife but gives the customer a claim check to get it after the game.

“It’s surprising how many knives I get left with. At least ten per game. Sometimes it’s been more than 20. It’s like if they can’t leave home without it, how come they’re leaving the stadium without it? And very few actually come back and get them,” she said as she poured out a small garbage bag filled with dozens of knives.

We’re talking everything from Swiss Army to big switchblades.

But that’s not the only head-scratcher. There’s a much bigger one she pulled out of a bin, what should seemingly be a precious item left behind: an ornate white wedding dress. It was turned in following Opening Day.

“We have no idea the story behind it but boy we’ve had fun making stories up,” she laughed.

Did the wedding fall through? The bride have a few too many? Ede would love to find out. (Some ����Xվ Radio listeners tell us it was from a bachelor party)

Whatever’s still there after 30 days gets donated to a good cause, from the Lions to Children’s Hospital.

Thankfully, there are plenty of happy endings. Perhaps none more gratifying for Ede than the teen she recently reunited with his wallet — tracking the seventh grader all the way to Wenatchee.

“There was the school ID with his name on it. So I researched that school, found the address, sent a letter to him care of his school, and left it at that,” she said. “About three weeks later his father showed up and said his son was so excited and was excited to find that his wallet was intact. That young man has $26 in his wallet … and he got it all back.”

So if you forgot something at Safeco Field, give Ede a shout. There’s a good chance she’s got it.

Captain Ron Mead says he won’t have any part of that kind of behavior.

“Any rhetoric like that in calling for the shutting down of freeways is reckless and irresponsible,” he said.

Mead oversees all of King County and says he’s outraged a local leader would jeopardize public safety with such an irresponsible and potentially dangerous incitement.

“While we respect people’s right to protest and other acts of civil disobedience, the freeways are simply no place to do that,” he said. “It’s unsafe for both protesters and motorists alike. And we are simply not going to tolerate that unlawful behavior of trying to shut down the interstate or state highway systems.”

Mead says such protests have the potential to block ambulances, police, and firefighters from responding quickly to emergencies.

RELATED: Seattle council affirms city workers get May Day off

He says state troopers have trained with Seattle Police and the Washington State Department of Transportation to ensure protesters get nowhere near on- and off-ramps, or the freeway.

“We work tirelessly,” Mead said. “My troopers work tirelessly every day at ensuring the flow of freeway traffic. We just cannot accept or tolerate unlawful behavior occurring on the freeways.”

But Sawant told ����Xվ Radio’s Hannah Scott she’s not about to back down.

“There are tens of thousands of potential peaceful activists in Seattle who will fight for their conscience, will fight for social justice, in a peaceful, non-violent but courageous and militant manner.”

We have seen increasing efforts by protesters to take the freeways. Several years ago they were briefly successful, bringing traffic to a halt. But over the past several years, police and state troopers have been able to keep them away and keep traffic moving.

Mead says it’s all hands on deck to make sure that trend continues.

“No trooper, no commissioned member of the Washington State Patrol in King County has Monday off. So, I mean, everybody that is assigned here from me on down will be working Monday.”

And even though Washington is one of just six states where doctor-assisted death is legal, very few utilize it, and many know nothing about their options. But a dedicated group of volunteers is working tirelessly to change that.

RELATED: Seattle program helps comfort homeless people in their final days

Retired Seattle chaplain Trudy James says death has always been a part of her life.

“My first baby died at 4 days old, my father took his own life when I was 35, and I became a hospital chaplain when I was 47,” she said.

As a chaplain, she was at the forefront of the AIDS epidemic, working daily with people young and old facing death. She helped build a community of volunteers to support them.

“They were suffering and they knew that they were going to die,” James said. “And what we learned is when they had people around them and things to look forward to and people to talk to, they lived longer and they died better deaths.”

That led James to create the Heartwork end-of-life planning groups.

She began offering workshops and training volunteers in congregations, senior centers, private homes and elsewhere to help raise awareness about the options, and to help people take control of their own end-of-life decisions.

Death with Dignity

Washington’s Death with Dignity Act in 2008. It allows terminally ill adults with six months or less left to live to request lethal doses of medication from a doctor, refuse life-saving medical treatment like resuscitation, and to stopping eating and drinking to hasten death.

There are a number of steps involved in this, such as exams and repeat oral and written requests to a doctor who chooses to prescribe the medication.

“A lot of people don’t even know we have this new law in Washington. And if they do know or if they voted for it, they have no idea how to access it or what it would mean or what it offers them,” she said.

There are plenty of people and organizations opposed to doctor-assisted death.

Many religious groups and right-to-life advocates argue doctor-assisted death interferes with God’s will. Doctors in some religious-based hospitals are prohibited by their employers from discussing the law.

After seeing scores of people die extremely painful deaths over the years, James couldn’t disagree more.

“I say dying in intensive care with machines hooked up to all of you and not being able to speak to your loved ones isn’t really a natural death,” she said. “It’s prolonging dying, but it’s not prolonging living.”

This is not suicide

One thing James and other end-of-life advocates underscore is that they are not promoting or encouraging death – just awareness of the options. Namely, that those suffering from painful, degenerative conditions — ranging from cancer to ALS — can hasten their death.

And these advocates emphasize that this is not doctor-assisted suicide. They argue the word suicide should only describe those physically well enough who would otherwise continue living.

“These are people who are going to die anyway and they’re just reducing suffering for themselves and their family,” she said. “That seems to me what God would want.”

James’ experiences with her ministry and the workshops inspired her to produce a short film she could show at senior centers, hospices and elsewhere.

What started as a 12-minute, simple short is now a full-fledged 30-minute documentary called It’s basically people speaking from the heart about their own experiences with illness and death.

James says even though people don’t want to think or talk about death, when they can learn their options and plan for it, it can bring incredible peace of mind. And she says it’s something we should all be thinking about and planning for with our families, friends or doctors sooner rather than later.

“There’s nothing that says you’re not going to die until you’re 75 or 80,” James said. “Many people die young and it’s so comforting if they’ve done some work with them and talk with them and tell them what they want.”

James will be hosting a special screening of the “Speaking of Dying” on Saturday, April 29 at Seattle Baptist Church. The goal is to celebrate the film’s second anniversary and raise money to help show and distribute it to more broadly.

“There is always grief when someone you love dies,” she said. “But I say it’s better when they’ve had a peaceful ending.”

Most notably, scammers taking advantage of people in their care, often stealing their life savings, other times physically abusing them.

But a new law just passed this week by the Washington state legislature is aiming to curb crime against what some call the ever-growing ranks of the aging known as the “Silver Tsunami.”

Adult Protective Services received more than 7,800 complaints of financial exploitation, and more than 5,400 neglect complaints in 2015 alone, according to Washington state Attorney General Bob Ferguson.

That’s why he championed the new law that creates a new category of crime for stealing from vulnerable adults, stiffening penalties and lengthening the statute of limitations from three to six years so prosecutors have more time to bring a case to court.

“Often you don’t even realize your parent has been scammed until well after that period of time has gone by. So our proposal allows for a six-year statute of limitations, creates a separate crime and allows us to prosecute these cases in a much more efficient manner,” Ferguson said.

That’s welcome news to elder advocates like Kirkland attorney Rick Gregorek, an estate and elder law specialist, and host of ‘Your Partner in Law’ on ����Xվ Radio Sundays at 8 a.m.

He sees the effects every day in his practice. Most troubling, the vast majority of scammers are family members.

“This isn’t the province of any particular demographic group. From people stealing grandma’s $800 social security check – her entire net worth, if you will – all the way up to people stealing millions of dollars. So no one is immune,” Gregorek said.

Gregorek says it’s most disturbing when a supposed loved one is doing the abusing, especially under the guise of taking care of them.

The abuse can include forcing vulnerable adults to change wills, powers of attorney and bank accounts in favor of exploiters.

The stories can be horrifying. Most of us remember the ugly battle over legendary DJ Kasey Kasem between his daughter and wife playing out in Kitsap County.

And then there was the Redmond woman who built cages around her parents to keep them from getting out of bed for years, all while draining their bank accounts.

“Her dad was blind, had severe dementia. Her mother had severe dementia. They were not in reality at all,” Gregorek recounted.

“They deserved to be in a protected environment, probably assisted living of some sort where they’d get the care they needed. They had the money but the daughter in charge of their money didn’t want to spend it because that would have reduced her inheritance. So two-by-fours and chicken wire and you build a cage around them. They were in that cage for six years.”

There are often warning signs such as increased isolation – a caregiver claiming the person doesn’t want to see friends or family. Or money starts draining from bank accounts.

So how can you protect yourself or your loved one? Gregorek says planning is the key. It starts with an elder law and estate planning attorney who can put a number of safeguards in place.

They can include alerts for bankers whenever there’s a significant financial or other change

And you can get a trustee or co-agent – someone outside the family who acts as your agent or consultant so one person doesn’t have total control of all your affairs.

“So if you have a professional fiduciary that’s maybe an attorney or a trust company, to get them to exploit that senior with a family member, the odds are that’s not going to happen,” Gregorek said.

But Gregorek says the biggest thing is to plan well ahead. And he says estate planning isn’t a one-time deal – you have to address changes such as in-fighting in the family.

But there’s hope the new law passed this week will help prevent at least some of the abuses going on.

“We can prosecute more cases and more successfully. And number two, once you do that you’re sending a message to individuals who may want to seek out and try to exploit vulnerable seniors that they will be prosecuted and they’ll face tougher sentences if convicted,” Ferguson said.

The measure passed overwhelmingly by both the House and Senate now goes to Governor Inslee for his signature.

RELATED: Mayor Murray’s big changes for Seattle police

The federal monitor assigned to oversee SPD has given the department glowing reviews in a new report issued this week — the same week attorney general Jeff Sessions said the DOJ should back away from engaging in consent decrees with local departments because they could hamstring cops.

“In the vast majority of instances, officer force appeared necessary, proportional, and objectively reasonable under the circumstances – with a number of incidents featuring superior examples of officers strategically de-escalating situations in order to minimize the nature of the threat while potentially mitigating the severity of force that needed to be used,” wrote in a filed Thursday with the U.S. District Court in Seattle.

Of perhaps equal significance, the Monitor found there was no increase in crime or officer injuries, as was feared by critics of the oversight.

Bobb left no ambiguity about his report, saying “the significance and importance of his finding cannot be understated.”

That’s welcome news to Deputy Chief Carmen Best, a decades-long veteran of the department.

“I’ve really seen a major shift in both the training and the work the officers have put in. And this wouldn’t have happened without their buy-in and their diligence,” Best said.

“At the end of the day, a policy is only a piece of paper unless it’s implemented appropriately and we feel very good about the fact our officers have done the work that’s needed to be done.”

The monitor analyzed use of force for a two-and-a-half year period.

Among the findings are that officers used force far less frequently, especially when compared to the several years prior to the consent decree.

Chief Operating Office admits there was plenty of initial skepticism and criticism from the rank and file, especially regarding the emphasis on so-called “de-escalation.”

“It doesn’t mean that you’re not ever going to go hands on with someone or never have to resort to force, especially in defense of yourself or others, but that the policing needed to become a lot more thoughtful and you needed to use time, distance and shielding just to slow down events and deal with them very thoughtfully,” Maxey said.

The report comes the same week US Attorney General Jeff Sessions said the Department of Justice should back away from entering into consent decrees with local police departments in large part because they could prevent cops from doing their jobs.

But Maxey admits it’s unlikely SPD would have changed without it.

“I would like to think that the department could have done this on its own without the guiding hand of the DOJ and the monitor and the court but realistically I think it was the catalyst, I think it forced change to happen rapidly. I think it provided a structure to address the issues in the department and to tackle them head on,” Maxey said.

While the department brass is thrilled with the monitor’s findings, they’re far more gratified with the public’s perceptions of department changes.

Surveys have shown a significant increase in citizen satisfaction and confidence with SPD across all demographics, with a 72 percent approval rating in a 2016 report, according to Maxey.

“That’s just huge,” Maxey said.

There is one important caveat here – the Monitor still found racial disparities in the population officers used force against, although there were no significant disparities in the type or severity of force used.

And since the consent decree was driven in part by a pattern of racial disparity, he’s conducting a more specific review on that front and will issue a subsequent assessment. The federal judge overseeing the consent decree could remove the federal oversight of the Seattle Police Department as soon as next year if the Monitor determines the department is in full compliance and has made all necessary systemic changes.

But both Maxey and Best insist the department is committed to increasing diversity and continuing to eliminate biased policing, with or without the federal microscope.

“Certainly this is a good start … we’re going to continue to work and continue to improve the agency as we move forward,” Best said.

FIVE M’S STORYLINES:

His name might ring a bell. The Mariners drafted the strapping 28-year-old Vancouver, BC outfielder back in 2007.

At the time, the standout was sure it was the start of what would be a big-time baseball career.

“I showed up, I came to work and the Mariners rewarded me for it,” he said. “You know, I loved it there.  I miss my times I had there, to be honest with you.”

He’s understandably melancholy about his brief stint with the M’s. Two years after he was drafted, the team traded him as part of the deal that brought All-Star pitcher Cliff Lee to Seattle.

But Gillies never fulfilled his tremendous promise. In part because of injuries, in part because of an arrest for cocaine possession — an incident he says was widely misreported and tainted his reputation.

“It’s been seven years now since that happened and I still haven’t been able to sit down and tell the world what happened,” Gillies said. “And that is a huge reason I’m still playing this game today, so I can have that chance to be on the big scale and tell people ‘this is what happened.'”

But he can’t do that unless some team gives him another, perhaps last, shot.

That’s why he’s been pushing his body to the limits the past several weeks in a nondescript Kent warehouse.

I watched as he threw weighted baseballs and medicine balls, stretching and straining to build up his gazelle-like frame.

He’s come, along with a number of big leaguers and big-league hopefuls, to Driveline baseball.

Tyler Kane (Wichita) faces off against the Driveline Hitters in Live At Bats pt. 17, feat. newcomer Tyson Gillies.

— Kyle Boddy (@drivelinebases)

The next generation training center is a state-of-the-art baseball bastion, where founder Kyle Boddy and his team of coaches and trainers use state-of-the-art training methods to help players both rehab from injury and maximize their potential.

“He’s an incredible athlete,” Boddy says of Gillies.

“A lot of what goes on beyond the scenes is missed,” Boddy added. “He was hurt consistently but played through injuries on his foot … and I just think a lot of instruction he got in the past didn’t match up with his skill set. So he should be a 20-home run guy. A guy that hits for a lot of power.”

That’s why Tyson refuses to give up on his dream. Even if he is relatively old for an aspiring big-leaguer at 28.

“Age is just a number,” Gillies said. “I feel as young as I ever have. Energy-wise, I think you can ask anybody in there I’m as high-energy as they come.”

Gillies defying the odds

It’s a longshot, but it wouldn’t be the first time Gillies defied the odds. Like overcoming nearly total deafness to rise to the top of Canadian baseball and a spot on the national team.

“They didn’t find out until I was four-and-a-half-years-old because I was reading lips and speaking about 500 sentences,” he said.  “Yeah, I guess I just fooled everybody.”

But it also contributed at times to an undeserved reputation for being arrogant or aloof.

“If people are behind me talking, or to the side of me and I’m walking, I run into so much trouble. People think, ‘Oh, this guy’s a bad egg, he doesn’t listen.’ I really can’t hear you,” he laughed. “I don’t wear these things (hearing aids) as a fashion statement.”

It’s led to issues with teammates, other players and even umpires.

But he has a much bigger challenge to overcome — his 2010 arrest for cocaine possession in Florida after a night partying with teammates.

Gillies insists it was a big misunderstanding but, despite my pressing, won’t discuss the details.

“It’s a story that I definitely want to tell when people can see my face,” Gillies said. “It beat me up, having to hear that and having to hear the voices and hearing what people said and what people thought of me.”

First, though, Gillies needs some team to give him a chance to prove he’s not what the stories say.

And as the Mariners take the field Monday in Houston, it kills him to know that, for now, his dreams remain dashed.

So he’ll be swinging away in the batting cage this afternoon, facing fellow aspiring players who harbor the same dream.

feelin something then hitting a tank

— Jason Ochart (@Jason_cOchart)

“I’m a lot older, I’m a lot more mature and I know what it means to get my body ready now and that’s been the biggest adjustment I’ve had to make,” he said. “I’m still learning that day to day. It took me that long to figure it out. And I’m figuring it out.”

And he’s being realistic. For now, at least, the goal isn’t to make the majors. It’s simply to get a shot with some team, somewhere. Tyson points to friends playing in Asia and Latin America, and hopes he can simply catch on with someone who’ll pay him enough to keep pursuing his passion.

“I feel like I’ve got a lot of years left,” he said. “I feel like I’ve missed a lot of years that I have to make up now. And I’m not ready to give up playing a game, giving up a dream for a living.”

“I had a lot of self destructive tendencies, which got worse.  And I went into some very dark times … addiction, undiagnosed bi-polar disorder and just sort of dealing with sort of extremes on both ends,” said Bernat, who has created a show based on his downs and subsequent ups being performed as part of the Seattle Fringe Festival over the next two weekends.

Bernat admits he thought often of taking his own life, despite a successful career in technology that took him from NASA to top Seattle-area companies, along with a burgeoning comedy career.

Despite his ongoing and seemingly intractable depression, somehow there was always an underlying sense of humor, Bernat says.

“So I would kind of be writing jokes in my head or still doing comedy here or there, as much as I could, and finding humor in the darkness.  So to me, there was always humor in the darkness until the very end, when I was like, ‘Wow, I’m so depressed, nothing’s funny.’  And then I started to turn my life around,” Bernat chuckled.

There was no magic pill, so to speak.  Bernat says it took a lot of work and the help of out-patient drug treatment, a 12-step support group, mental health counseling and other steps, but life increasingly got better.

And it was at a 12-step meeting that he realized his experience and ability to make people laugh could help others.

“We can all laugh at these monsters together and it’s really hilarious and bonding because we’ve all had these thoughts in that group and so it helps a lot,” Bernat said.  “There’s just immediate catharsis in laughter.”

Bernat’s own travails have turned into a brutally honest, often uncomfortable but ultimately hilarious show that’s equal parts comedy and counseling.

His willingness to bare his own soul touches those darkest places of our own insecurities, fears and foibles.

A great example of how he deftly treads the fine line between humor and bad taste is a bit he does about suicide.

“I walked into a hardware store to buy poisons to kill myself because I thought I was so hideously overweight that nobody would ever love me.  I had a 30 inch waist at the time, so I was super skinny,” he tells the audience in a painful admission of just some of his struggles.

“Looking back, I don’t think I was really going to do it because I got worried the hazardous chemicals might taste bad,” he says.  Then comes the deftly delivered punch line.  “Excuse me, does this weed killer come in pumpkin spice flavor?” he jokes as the audience breaks into uproarious laughter.

Bernat says his act continues evolving as he tests the lines of good taste and humor.  After all, it still has to be a good show.

But at its heart, the comic says what’s most important to him is helping others.

“I want people to know that they’re not alone because I felt so alone,” Bernat said. “And I would read this or that about somebody that was dealing with something similar to me.  And it meant so much.  So I want people who struggle in any number of ways in life to know that they’re not alone.”

“The things that make you feel like a freak actually make you really connected to more people than you can imagine.”

Bernat says the effect has been profound.  People regularly thank him for sharing their truths and helping them.

He says one family who lost a son to suicide told him his act helped their own healing, and reminded them of all the good times they had together.

Bill Bernat’s new show is called “Becoming More Less Crazy.”

He performs Friday night at 6:00 pm at the Eclectic Theater on Capitol Hill, Saturday at 2:00 pm and next Saturday night at 7:15 pm as part of the 2017 Seattle Fringe Fest.

Until recently.

“I’ve always somewhat voiced my opinion but not publicly,” McPherson said. “Being a business owner, it wasn’t until this election that I decided I had to have a voice and I was going to use my company as a platform too.”

Related: A Seattle City Council candidate who could make history

So when her longtime friend, Charlene Strong, recently announced her candidacy for Seattle City Council, McPherson was all in.

On Wednesday, she held a meet and greet and fundraiser for Strong with a group of friends and colleagues at her office in Northeast Seattle.

But McPherson says it’s not about her friend, nearly as much as it is her frustration about the way the city council has seemingly turned its back and thumbed its nose at the concerns of many of the families and taxpayers in the city when it comes to homelessness, heroin and other challenging issues.

“I feel like, especially in the city of Seattle, our voices are not being heard,” McPherson said. “On a national level I feel like we’ve gone so crazy to the right, but in the City of Seattle I feel like we’ve gone so crazy to the left. And no one’s listening.”

Strong agrees. The mother of two and small business owner says she’s frustrated by the lack of responsiveness from city leaders on a number of issues, and decided now was a time to do something about it.

“When I made a decision to run, it came from a very personal [idea] that we can make a difference, we can affect change,” Strong told the gathering. “And one of the things that I’ve always believed in is that it takes all of our voices working together to make things happen.”

Behind this Seattle council candidate

Unlike many politicians, Strong speaks from painful and hard fought experience.

If her name sounds familiar, it’s because the former designer became a headline when a flood engulfed her Madison Park home during a massive December rainstorm back in 2006.

Her partner, Kate Fleming, drowned in their basement studio as Strong desperately tried to save her.

When she rushed to the hospital to be by her bedside, she was denied entry because, at the time, our state didn’t recognize domestic partnerships.

Just one month later, she testified in Olympia in favor of a bill that became law, granting domestic partners rights that would ultimately lead to same sex marriage.

“At that moment, I realized this is going to happen again, and it had because people kept writing me and saying this happened to me, this happened to me, this happened to me. And I thought, ‘You know, I’ve got just enough of a voice that I can do this'” Strong said.

She agreed to accept an appointment by then-Governor Christine Gregoire to the Washington State Human Rights Commission – which she now chairs.

But it was seeing the growing problems around Seattle the last few years and the increasing divide between the city council and many Seattle citizens, that ultimately led to her decision to run for the retiring Tim Burgess’ at-large seat.

“And I think that one of the things I feel strongly about is that we’re not listening to our constituents,” Strong said.

That’s a growing sentiment among many voters and taxpayers in Seattle, who feel the council has repeatedly ignored them, while at the same time asking for more money.

Property manager McPherson says a perfect example is the council’s handling of housing affordability.

Council members recently rammed through Byzantine regulations that requires landlords rent to the first person who applies, limits deposits, and requires property owners finance deposits.

And this week the council created a tenants rights board, with virtually no consultation or inclusion of a single property owner.

“There’s absolutely no landlord representation whatsoever and now they’re in the ear of the council,” McPherson said. “Now they’re not being paid and they don’t have a vote … so I would like to see the same thing.”

“I would like to see a 15-person commission of small to large landlords that are also being heard.  Because we’re not being heard.”

In the past, people like McPherson would have shied away from criticizing the council out of fear of being labeled a NIMBY or heartless. But she and Strong both point out that they have voted for every levy and other tax hikes to help the needy and less fortunate, and have both have volunteered regularly for a number of causes.

An increasing number like them are standing up and taking action, forming groups like Safe Seattle – a grassroots community coalition that highlighted and eventually forced the city to do something about the heroin-fueled homeless RV problem in Magnolia and Ballard.

Even trade groups like the Downtown Seattle Association and Visit Seattle have grown increasingly vocal in their criticism of city leaders’ seeming unwillingness to consider the interests of the vast majority of people in the city.

Strong’s candidacy could be an important test of whether that dissatisfaction can translate into political action and people actually casting ballots.

“There has to be a balance in the voices in the city,” Strong said. “We have to be able to invite everyone to the table to sit down and talk about the issues.  It’s imperative.  Or we won’t be able to work as a city effectively.”

That could be hard on a council seemingly dominated by the extreme progressive policies of members who regularly refuse to even consider all of their constituents’ concerns before passing legislation like the renter’s rights regulations.

But after fighting for equal rights nationwide on the Human Rights Commission the past decade, Strong says she’s not about to back down now in the face of a screaming Kshama Sawant or anyone else who might try to shout her down .

“I’m an advocate, I’m not an activist,” Strong told the gathering. “You know why I’m an advocate?  Because it says you have to come along with me to do this. I can’t do this alone. So it’s going to take the voices of you and you and you to do this together.”

“So that is the difference, and maybe I will have to get an elbow out there every once in awhile,” Strong added.

“And she’s strong,” McPherson laughed.

Related: Senate Republicans set to release state budget plan

Russ Bartlett was walking down the sidewalk at 9:30 a.m. in Yakima when a drunk driver behind the wheel of a motor home hit him.

“I was married to him for 50 years. We have 11 children and five great-grandchildren. He was the love of my life. And when he was taken the morning of May 29, 2014, our whole family was destroyed,” she somberly told a house committee in Olympia on Monday.

Bartlett was among a number of people testifying in support of a change to the law that would make DUI a felony after four offenses.

“Get with it and get this bill passed, because we’ve been here five times. And it’s ridiculous,” Bartlett said.

“We’re here again,” said Sen. Mike Padden (R-Spokane).

Related: MADD adds another ‘D’ to combat impaired driving

Padden has led the effort to stiffen the felony DUI laws for a number of years, leading to Senate passage multiple times.

But the measure has repeatedly died in the House.

“We know that there’s going to be less victims of DUI if we pass this because we know that the people most likely to have vehicular assaults and vehicular homicides are repeat offenders,” Padden said. “We know that this is an avoidable crime.

Under the proposed change, someone convicted of DUI a fourth time would spend up to 17 months in jail.

“A DUI driver is one of the most dangerous persons in our community. Impaired driving kills more than firearms,” said Deputy King County Prosecutor Amy Freedheim. She’s spent the past 17 years prosecuting every DUI death – vehicular homicide and vehicular assault – in the county.

Which begs the question: why do we allow repeat offenders back out on the streets over and over?

The simple answer is money. Though the Senate has passed the measure before, opponents have repeatedly tabled the measure in the House by arguing the state and counties can’t afford to put so more people behind bars.

Larry Shannon with the Washington State Association for Justice argues the cost is far greater not to lock up repeat offenders before they kill again.

“The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration stresses that each fatality caused by driving under the influence costs society directly and indirectly over $10 million per death,” Shannon said.

According to a , Washington state is the most lenient in the country when it comes to the severity of DUI laws.

Indiana, Minnesota, New York, and Oklahoma all make DUI a felony on the second offense within five to 10 years. Twenty-two states make it a felony on the third offense. Nineteen others including Oregon go with the fourth offense.

It’s estimated the vast majority of repeat impaired drivers get behind the wheel under the influence 80 times before they’re caught.

Prosecutor Freedheim challenges contention by the Washington State Department of Corrections that the state can’t afford the cost put more impaired drivers in prison.

Freedheim says most spend upwards of nine months in the local jail awaiting trial and get time served once they’re convicted and sentenced, so they don’t spend their full time in prison.

“We need to at some point protect people and we need to at some point take these people off the road,” she said.

The House Public Safety Committee will vote on the measure next week. It would then need the approval of the House Appropriations Committee before going to the full House.

Related: Seattle hiring to clean up after the homeless

But city and state officials say a spring clean is underway, with crews converging Friday on several areas along and under I-5 in the University District.

Fred Podesta, the director of operations for Seattle’s Department of Finance and Administration Services, admits the problem has gotten out of hand, and says one of the big challenges the city and state are trying to tackle is who’s actually responsible for what.

“It’s a matter of assembling those crews, it’s a matter of is it state property, city property, is it a park, is it a public right of way, do streets need to be closed?” Podesta said.

The city recently activated its Emergency Operations Center to coordinate the overall homeless response, and dealing with the ever growing trash is a big focus.

That involves representatives from the Seattle Department of Transportation, Human Services, City Light and others, not to mention the Washington State Department of Transportation, which owns much of the land along I-5.

“With other kinds of managed properties or just trash in general, there’s kind of a client and a customer and somebody to pay for it,” Podesta said. “When it ends up on the roadway, or perhaps state land or private property, it’s more complex in that there’s a lot of people involved and you need to get access and who pays for that?”

�������ٱ��:��City will be more accountable with homeless funding, mayor says

The first focus will be along the I-5 corridor through Seattle, according to Dave McCormick, WSDOT assistant regional administrator in the region helping coordinate the cleanup.

“People will start to see that in the next few days and then next weekend we’ll be doing some pretty intensive cleanup in the express lanes,” McCormick said.

The trash is so bad, WSDOT will close the express lanes the weekend of March 25-26 to get heavy equipment and crews in.

“Trash that ends up on very steep grades, sometimes along steep embankments along I-5, that’s its own issue,” Podesta said. “How do you get equipment and people in there in a safe manner and manage the traffic situation but that’s another reason why we’re trying to get everybody in the room to try and work on this together.”

Cleanup crews will be accompanied by outreach workers to help convince the homeless to seek some of the ever-increasing services available – and try to deter them from immediately returning to the side of the road as soon as the cleanup is complete.

Podesta says it’ll all be handled as humanely as possible.

“Are there private possessions that need to be thought about?  Outreach to folks living outside that might be part of the issue,” Podesta said. “So it’s a lot of different resources brought to bear.”

But what’s to stop the homeless and the huge piles of trash from returning as has been the case repeatedly over the past few years?

Officials say they’ll try a variety of deterrents including more fencing and increased enforcement of trespassing laws in certain places, methods that have repeatedly failed in the past.

But there’s renewed optimism with a new, integrated approach to the homeless that includes more outreach, services and ultimately shelter, fewer people will feel the need to camp along the freeway and in other places, and dump all that trash along the way.