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CDNews scanner report tipped us to this incident -- a man found in his car bleeding from a gunshot wound at 1145 Broadway near the Polyclinic. Traffic in the area was tied up by the emergency response that began around 3:30p. Though initial reports indicated the shooting may have been self-inflicted, witnesses describe seeing a man run away from the vehicle right after the shot was fired. He's a black male, 30s-40s, 5'10", slender build, black heavy jacket, black pants, black backpack, last seen southbound on Broadway.

Update: 4:24p SPD confirms that they believe the shooting was self-inflicted. The info officer used the word 'suicide' but I need to to confirm status of the victim.

Just had a quick chat with information officer Renee Witt from SPD about how the East Precinct is approaching Friday night in light of the ricin threat letters and the community's repsonse -- a planned Capitol Hill Pub Crawl. Witt said that East Precinct head Paul McDonaugh met with some of the threatened bar and club owners this afternoon to discuss the situation. Witt would not say specifically whether there will be more officers on the streets of Pike/Pine and surrounding areas this weekend but she did say there will be an 'increased presence.' Unless we're talking about bigger cops or fancier outfits, this probably means more feet on the streets.

As for the ongoing investigation of the letters sent to eleven Capitol Hill gay bars and The Stranger, Witt said SPD continues to work with the FBI on tracking down the sender and would not comment on any connections between this investigation and other incidents in the city.

There were some expressions of shock that so few citizens spoke at Tuesday's open hearings on Seattle's winter and emergency preparedness. Not sure I'm surprised that nobody showed up in the middle of the day to talk snow and ice. Expect the public comment period at the Jan 22 meeting on final Seattle school closure recommendations to be a little more interesting. For one, it's being held at a time of day when working people can be there. For another, hey, this one is for the kids. To get on the list to speak at the meeting at the district's Sodo HQ send a note to hearing@seattleschools.org with your contact info.

You can pretty much take that Seattle chill crap and toss it away over the next few days. If you're still chilled come Saturday, can't blame Capitol Hill. Here's what's lined up -- each is organic, community driven and a chance for you to connect with people like yourself. Details below.

• Thursday: Art walk, public party
• Friday: Future Tense, Bar Crawl

THURSDAY
Art Walk - 5p
The 2Tue Art Walk is now on Thursdays. Go figure.

Public Party - 7p
We've already told you about all the amazing (free!) food that will be available. The group behind the event -- the Capitol Hill Community Council -- is a good way for you to get involved in all those things in the neighborhood you keep thinking you should get involved with. Free delicious chow is a good way to get started.

FRIDAY
Future Tense - 6:30p
Friday brings a monthly cycling event called Future Tense an outgrowth of the Fast Friday that made fixies famous. Future Tense falls on the second Friday of every month and meets at Cal Anderson Park. Organizer Zach's list of three thins to check out Friday night:

• Head to head sprints. Think Fast and Furious but with fixed gears.
• Footdown: 20+ riders enter a circle. last one pedaling wins!
• Tricksters. This guy specifically is fun to watch.

Capitol Hill Bar Crawl - 8p
Go out for a dozen drinks or so in support of the 11 bars and clubs targeted in the ricin threats.

Full flyer

With all the rain and flooding, the most direct route to Portland is circumnavigating the globe. Here is a selection of Capitol Hill links to enjoy on the way.

• Charges have been filed against the suspects in the Chop Suey shootings that killed one man and injured two others. Slog has story but forgot to mention one important detail -- the murder charge against suspect Carlos Bernardez is first degree. 18 years old and facing murder in the first degree? Ugly. Meanwhile, Roger LaBranche, the man whose feud with one of the surviving victims allegedly was at the core of the violence, was hit with drug possesion charges. Charging papers say police found 45 grams of cocaine, nearly 300 ecstasy pills, 81 grams of marijuana, a handgun and $7,000 cash in LaBranche's car.
• Looking through the King County Jail web site to check out a rumor that LaBranche had been released from custody (he had not at the time of writing this, btw), I found that the 25-year-old Everett man was recently jailed for more than 30 days on drug and posession of stolen property charges. He was released on Nov. 28th.
• In other things Slog, the ongoing drama at Neighbours dance club continues. Claims of rent not being paid vs. claims that it has vs. rumors that club is to make way for condo development.
• Seattle Weekly calls Poppy "occasionally brilliant, occasionally off-kilter." The review also includes some ridiculous lines -- that won't be repeated here -- about north Capitol Hill mansions and financially secure renters. Weakly, you sound like a Seattle PI commenter when you talk like that.
• We fretted recently about what effect a rumored layoff at Microsoft would have on the hill. Our neighbor neighborhood blog The Southlake discusses local impact of the Big M's decision to not pursue a plan to move some of its employees to a SOLU building.
• Wondering what it looked like to go out with the young folks of Pike/Pine on New Year's Eve? Ask Capitol Hillebrities.
• Remember the snow? Hillku found remnants of the last snow drift on Capitol Hill. And here's a panoramic shot of snowy Broadway for you to relive it all.
• Seattle Transit Blog reminds that January brings groundbreaking on the University Link light rail segment that will run, litterally, through the hill after eight years of digging.
• The red light cam at the intersection of 23rd and John will go into operation at the end of the month, says CDNews. Also appears to have a video camera so might be available via the Intertubes. Oh, and those flashes you sometimes see and wonder if you just got nailed when the light was green? SPD says not to worry. Just testing.
• Introducing yet another new thing -- the CHS Most Viewed page. Shows you our most popular posts today. A good way to find the best posts from the last few days. Will be adding it to the tabs soon and also adding optiosn to change the date range. Stay tuned.
• And another new thing. Did this week's Capitol Hill Times look a little odd to you? Yup, that was CHS on page 3.

She runs Broadway's Museum of Mystery so she deals with strange reports all the time but Charlette LeFevre says she is tracking down information and pictures from the time when baby Barack made his home right here on Capitol Hill Seattle.

The possible discovery stems from this exchange on the Hill's community council web site:

Ann Dunham's apartment
Leif 13 Dec 2008, 12:54 -0-800
Hi, does anyone happen to know where the apartment is/was where B. Obama's mother lived on Capitol Hill? I'm really interested in Seattle history and have been striking out on the exact address. Apparently, before the C. Hill apt. she lived at a "Laurelhurst dormitory" near UW, but I don't know exactly where that is either, or if it still exists.

Re: Ann Dunham's apartment
Charlette 1 Jan 2009, 22:09 -0-800
Hi Leif, Interesting inquiry. If Stanley Ann Dunham was living on Capitol Hill that means our next President Barack Obama also lived on Capitol Hill as an infant. (Interesting he is going from Capitol Hill to Capitol Hill). If the time period was from around March 1962 to at least September 1962 then Barack Obama would have been around 7 months old. There is a possiblity if Ann signed on with UW as a student that UW Housing may have records.

Re: Ann Dunham's apartment Charlette 6 Jan 2009, 23:16 -0-800
Confirmed Barack Obama lived here on Capitol Hill. Document and photos to be posted soon.

There is no doubt baby Barack lived on the hill. It was a tumultuous time in his young mother's life. According to this Seattle Times article, Obama's mother, who spent her teenage years on Mercer Island, moved back to Seattle from Hawaii in 1962 to attend UW and, one can imagine, try to get her life back on track. She was separated from Barack's father who had returned to Kenya. The Times article says she and her 1-year-old son lived in a Capitol Hill apartment but soon move back to Hawaii to live with her family. The hill apartment, it seems, wasn't the place to put your life back together.

I'm interested to know more about this short period in Obama's life, if for no other reason, because it will be cool to have another interesting place of history on Capitol Hill to wander by and wonder what if. What if Ann Dunham had made it work here? Could this Capitol Hill have created a president?

There are still a few more days to participated in the CHS Census 2009, flawed as a few questions might be.

Start the census

We have about 250 respondents so far. One question is an open-ended opportunity for you to provide feedback about CHS. I'll share all the data from the census when it's complete but here's a sneak peek Wordle style at the kinds of things you're telling me need to be fixed on CHS.

Your feedback Wordled

My favorite piece of feedback so far called for fewer 'self important' posts on the blog about the blog. Sorry. Here's the second in two days. Can't help it.

The first thing you need to remember when looking at the new 2009 Capitol Hill walking map put together by the hill's chamber of commerce and community newspaper Capitol Hill times is that it's not designed for you -- it's designed for people from far away places like Madrona.

The second thing you need to remember is that somebody decided that the map should be oriented with west at the top of the map. That's the place you normally put north.

The third thing to remember? I sold out and became part of the establishment 13 days ago and joined the chamber. So if you're gonna make fun, you gotta be nice or I'll be shunned at the next meeting. OK, more shunned.

As for the Nary a Dull Moment line, I can offer no excuses.

Nary

Somebody is threatening Capitol Hill gay bars with attacks using the deadly poison ricin. The Stanger reports that it and 11 gay bars received threatening letters today describing how the attacks would unfold. Here is the letter received by Re-Bar that appeared on the Slog:

The letter writer named Elite, Neighbours, Wild Rose, the Cuff, Purr, the Eagle, R Place, Re-bar, CC's, Madison Pub, and the Crescent in the letter sent to The Stranger. The writer, it seems, knows his or her gay bars including the top 5. Some talk of bar crawls this weekend in defiance of the threats. Going out?

Seattle's school district has released what it is calling its "final recommendation" for school closures and program moves in the city. The announcement comes after weeks of public discussion regarding the district's budget crisis.

Full report

The only Hill-area school slated for closure is T.T. Minor -- closing down the Central District school has been part of the district's proposals from the earliest stages. This post to CDNews captures some of the opposition to the move.

There are sure to be more attempts to stop these closures and changes including this online petition to stop the process.

Update: Comments below discuss the Lowell situation. Will be interesting to see how the transition of 'general education' students into Lowell will progress.