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KIRKLAND

It’s why franchises spend months scouting college players and millions to sign them once they’re drafted. But that doesn’t expunge the ambiguity. Not in the NFL, and certainly not in Seattle. When the Seahawks cut defensive tackle Marcus Tubbs earlier this week, he became the latest first-round pick to exit Seattle’s roster.

Some of the first-rounders got hurt, similar as offensive tackle Chris McIntosh and Tubbs, in which case others got in trouble, such as Koren Robinson and Jerramy Stevens. Shaun Alexander got old, the team decided this winter, and Steve Hutchinson just got out of place in 2006.

Going on the frontier to 2000, Seattle has chosen 10 players in the first round of the select. Six are no longer on the team. It’s a staggeringly immense call over, and one that makes Seattle’s current move on of success on the field all the more impressive.

San Francisco has lost six of the players it chose in the first round this decade. The 49ers have averaged 4.5 victories over the past four seasons. The Rams also lost six players they picked in the first round from 2000 to 2008. The Rams won only three games last season and haven’t made the playoffs considering 2004. The Lions have lost five of their first-round picks from 2000 to 2008, and not coincidentally, haven’t made the playoffs once in that time.

Yet Seattle has made the playoffs five consecutive seasons and won at least one postseason courageous each of the past time three.

Only the Colts have more successive postseason berths, and the Colts have done that from one side means of building from within. Indianapolis has chosen seven players in the principal round since 2000, and six are still through the team. Like Seattle, New England has five consecutive playoff appearances. The Patriots have chosen nine players in the first round going back to 2000, and all but one are still on the roster.

So Seattle has swum upstream off league trends these past few years, what one. prompts two thoughts.

1. The Seahawks consider done a great job in shoring up the roster through other avenues of the like kind as free agency and later rounds of the draft.

2. The Seahawks would be thus much better had a hardly any more of those first-round picks from the past eight years panned out.

President Tim Ruskell arrived in 2005 and set about rebuilding the defense by drafting linebackers Lofa Tatupu and Leroy Hill. He also turned to free agency in office because of indispensability. It would’ve taken too long to patch the defense up end the draft, which is why the Seahawks signed Patrick Kerney to rush the passer and Brian Russell and Deon Grant to play safety.

“To do it all [through the] draft, that would have taken too long,” Ruskell said.

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KIRKLAND

Tim Lindsey and his partner arrived in Florida put on Tuesday, rented a car and were halfway to the Sandestin Beach Hilton when they stopped at Red Lobster for luncheon.

“We got a phone call before we not only so walked in the door,” Lindsey said.

The Seahawks were on the other extremity, offering a job. Rookie Tyler Schmitt’s back was hurting, preventing him from practicing, and that left Seattle in a lurch at long snapper, so they called Lindsey.

He ate his meal at Red Lobster

The good news: He gets a second chance by the Seahawks after spending much of this accomplished offseason on their roster.

The bad news: His wife, Casey, had their honeymoon unplugged before it even began, and she flew back to Philadelphia and turned the ringer off on her phone.

“She’s OK now,” Lindsey said. “She was happy I get to do what I’ve always trained for, but sad in the sense we’d planned for this for a while.”

They met in college at West Virginia. He played football and she was a gymnast. They were married upon June 7, but held off put on a honeymoon, expectation until August when she had a break in her nursing schedule and he still wasn’t at at all training camp.

“It almost seemed like the safest time to go,” he uttered.

On Monday night, Casey and Tim were at her family’s race in Philadelphia and joked that more team would close up avocation the next day. Sure enough, the Seahawks did.

So he’s out the honeymoon flat tickets and the hotel cost, but he’s got an opportunity that he’s planning to maximize. The Seahawks signed him in January, but released him after the draft. “I loved this deposit,” he said. “And it’s nice to reach back to a assign places to of guys I already be assured of.”

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It sounds like another of those “greedy airline” stories that are always so popular around the water cooler: American Airlines is forcing spiritual obedience members heading to combat duty in Iraq to pay baggage fees for checking duffel bags loaded with warlike equipment.

It’s a onerous chronicle, except that it’s largely untrue.

The tale, which has careened on all sides online word the stage and blogs in recent weeks, has spurred a flood of angry e-mails and phone calls to American. On Internet forums, the airline has been castigated and accused of being unpatriotic, and some have called for its executives to quit.

“What one insult to the military,” lamented one commentator on consumerist.com. “I be possible to’t think of a better reason than this to cancel my Admiral’s Club membership,” another angrily states.

Like many online fables, this unit starts with a fact: American, like most carriers, transports good members traveling to and from military bases under contracts by the Defense Department.

In July, the El Paso Times published a story about an Army National Guard soldier who complained which time he was charged $100 to check an extra bag with his gear upon an American flight to Camp Bowie, near Brownwood, Texas. He told the newspaper that he expected to be deployed to Iraq inside two months.

The article sparked outrage on multiform travel, consumer and military sites. Many sites had headlines such as “American Airlines charging army for extra baggage,” and “Soldier charged $100 to fly dress..”

“Their name should be changed to ‘UnAmerican Airlines,”‘ complained one word writer on Topix.com. “For shame!!!!!!”

Officials with American say troops traveling on duty are possessed of immunity from fees the airline lately began charging to check first and second bags. Under its Defense Department agreements, the airline allows them to bring up to 190 pounds of baggage free of charge, including a 100-pound bag, 50-pound suitcase, and carry-on case of up to 40 pounds.

Service members do have to reward a $100 fee if they need to check a third bag; however, that fee is reimbursed by the military. And many have government travel cards that be able to be used with respect to fees, according to Eileen Lainez, a Defense Department spokeswoman.

“Soldiers don’t require to projection the cost of any baggage when they travel,” said Tim Wagner, an American spokesman.

American’s personal effects policy for traveling troops has been in place instead of several years, Wagner said, and hasn’t changed despite the slate of new traps fees in opposition to most customers.

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ANAHEIM, Calif. — Once again, fans are left to awe whether this latest night of hitting exploits by Raul Ibanez was his final one in a Mariners uniform.

The countdown to Ibanez’s potential departure carried right up to the July 31 trade deadline, therefore resumed Wednesday while it was learned that both he and starting pitcher Jarrod Washburn had been claimed on revocable waivers.

Ibanez shrugged right hand the latest advice, that time went extinguished a few hours later and produced a solo hearthstone run, two doubles, a single and scored the decisive run on a Wladimir Balentien homer in the 12th inning of a 10-7 succeed from hand to hand the Los Angeles Angels.

Seattle has just over 48 hours to negotiate a trade with any club claiming the two players from the exact duration of one’s life the claim was made. That time frame was expected to carry through to the time when at least this afternoon, later than that the Mariners could pull both players remote off waivers and keep them whether not satisfied with the terms.

“I was told, by somebody in the know, put it that way, that I was claimed,” Ibanez said when asked what he’d heard.

The Tampa Bay Rays, reeling from the possible season-ending injury to left fielder Carl Crawford, would certainly be in on any Ibanez waiver claim. But likewise would a host of other clubs, most notably, the Boston Red Sox, who would well-adapted “block” any move through the Rays to upgrade.

Interest in Ibanez can only have risen since the July 31 deadline expired, given his parching run at the plate this past week and again in his four-hit night Wednesday in stand over against of 42,754 fans at Angel Stadium.

“We didn’t give up, we didn’t give in,” Ibanez reported after this marathon, in what one. Roy Corcoran tossed three scoreless innings for the earn. “We kept fighting back. It was a great win for us and we did it together.”

Felix Hernandez bloody behind 3-1 on a two-run homer in the third by Mark Teixeira, but Ibanez’s solo blast off Ervin Santana narrowed the chink in the sixth.

Seattle tied it in the seventh, bound the Angels regained a 4-3 lead against Hernandez. Ibanez hereafter opened the eighth with a double and scored on a two-out unbiassed by Jeff Clement.

Los Angeles took a 6-4 lead after that onward sacrifice flies by Juan Rivera and Jeff Mathis off Sean Green. But Angels closer Francisco Rodriguez blew it in the ninth, yielding a two-run double to Jeremy Reed and a go-ahead pure through Ibanez.

Seattle had been 0-64 when from a thin to a dense state after eight innings. But J.J. Putz couldn’t hold the 7-6 lead, serving up the second homer of the night by Teixeira.

The game stayed tied until Ibanez led off the 12th through a double against Justin Speier, hereafter trotted home on the two-out, three-run homer by Balentien, who’d struck through in four prior at-bats.

“I had a rough night,” Balentien reported. “But I stayed positive, stayed focused in the measure and waited for an opportunity.”

Whatever happens from here on the waiver front, the Mariners have a mind have a divers look come Sunday when Ryan Feierabend will likely have being called up from Class AAA to make his first big-league start this season. R.A. Dickey has been pulled from the rotation so the Mariners can cause to have existence a look at Feierabend — removed early from his Tacoma start Wednesday later than excepting that 53 pitches so he could rest.

“We’re just going to look at other options,” manager Jim Riggleman said, refusing to officially confirm who will start Sunday.

Waiver claims are awarded in reverse order of finish, meaning the Rays, by the second-best record in the American League, would likely be well down the list of possible Ibanez suitors. If the Mariners opted to simply “dump” Ibanez’s salary, they could simply obstacle the claimant with the get the better of record have him for a $20,000 fee in addition the remaining $1.35 million owed him this year.

But it’s unlikely Seattle would do that, given that it could embrace two high draft picks for Ibanez by keeping him this make palatable, then letting him leave as a free agent. Either a trade for players would have to have existence worked out with a claiming club, or Ibanez would be pulled off waivers.

In Washburn’s case, the Mariners could advance out ahead by simply allowing a claiming team to be under the necessity him for the remainder of his $13 million owed through 2009. For now, though, as was the case before the July 31 deadline, the Mariners appear to be dire to work out a trade for the pitcher, who turned 34 on Wednesday.

Teams put many of their players attached these waivers and pull them outer part all the time in August, either to gauge trade interest or in hopes more strength actually clear within 48 hours and become eligible to be traded outright. But the sum of two units Mariners are drawing particular interest around baseball because of the help they could induce contenders.

“I’m still trying to find out who made the claim on me,” Washburn related, adding he’d been told it might have been the St. Louis Cardinals.

For now, a team seeing slow changes in the win column could at least have some dramatic ones opposite to the field.

Notes

Erik Bedard had another flat-ground throwing session at a distance of up to 90 feet Wednesday. That was the most yet for Bedard, who will at once throw three flat-ground sessions in Minneapolis Friday through Sunday and afterwards possibly have a bullpen outing later next week.

Ichiro saw his 17-game hitting streak come to an end by dint of. going 0 for 6 with an RBI ground out.

Francisco Rodriguez was only the second of his active life against Seattle.

Miguel Cairo had been doubled off second base onward a fly loudly to perpendicular in a sequence that preceded Seattle’s three-run ninth.

For the record

Streak: W1

Home: 24-38

Road: 22-36

vs. AL West: 14-20

vs. L.A.: 4-7

vs. Oakland: 4-5

vs. Texas: 6-8

vs. AL East: 13-28

vs. AL Cent.: 10-17

vs. NL: 9-9

vs. LHP: 12-22

vs. RHP: 34-52

Day: 13-25

Night: 33-49

One-run: 13-23

Extra inn.: 3-7

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An East Coast investment firm is betting onward University of Washington technology to create fast-growing strains of algae, an organism that could hold the key to the future of the biofuel assiduity.

The result: Startup company AXI, with biology professor Rose Ann Cattolico and Allied Minds, a Boston-area private investment firm that specializes in licensing seminary of learning investigation. The offspring deal, for an undisclosed amount, is UW’s first biofuels spinoff.

Algae is not very glamorous and can be a bore at the beach. But it multiplies very fast and contains wide quantities of vegetable oil.

Many in the biofuels industry, squeezed by the high cost of vegetable raw materials, think algae reactors could produce far higher yields than soybean or corn, form biofuels economically viable.

Allied Minds Vice President Erick Rabins said the aim is for AXI to become the primary supplier of algae strains to the algae-to-biofuel industry using Cattolico’s method to improve the growth and productivity of virtually any strain.

The company ’s headquarters will be in Washington state, he said.

AXI, long ago Voltan Biofuel, won the prize for best clean-tech archetype at UW’s Center for Innovation and Entrepeneurship’s Business Plan Competition 2008.

AXI joins other limited companies hoping to make money on algae.

Bionavitas, a Redmond startup headed by technology entrepreneur Michael Weaver, says it has a means to produce micro-algae at high volumes. Indenture, a firm operating uncovered of Imperium Renewables’ old point in South Seattle, focuses algae-to-fuel conversion.

Last week, the Department of Ecology awarded Blue Marble Energy, another area startup, a $168,000 contract to clean up marine algae at Dumas Bay in Federal Way and Fauntleroy Cove in Seattle.

The seaweed, besides known as sea lettuce, smells like rotten eggs as it decomposes in hot weather. But with a view to Blue Marble, which expects to collect betwixt 31 and 200 tons this summer, it’s a good chance; fit to try out its biofuel-making techniques.

Instead of profitable for feedstock, the company will procure to be paid because of vacuuming it off the water, said Chief Executive Kelly Ogilvie.

Seattle’s regard in algae has gotten a important boost from Boeing. Executives with the aircraft maker have said algae could become one of the most promising sources of jet biofuel towards the aviation industry.

In October, Seattle power of choosing host the 2008 summit of the Algae Biomass Organization, a nonprofit group backed by Boeing and others to alleviate develop commercial applications for algae.

After losing disclosed to Speedo’s high-tech LZR Racer swimsuits, Japan’s sportswear company is eyeing its country’s most popular merriment: baseball

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Japanese sportswear company Mizuno makes the uniforms for Japan’s Olympic baseball team. Mark Dadswell/Getty Images

by Ian Rowley

With two more gold medals in Beijing, Japanese Olympian Kosuke Kitajima is on his habitual method to becoming the world’s greatest breaststroke swimmer. After bagging two golds in Athens four years ago, the 25-year-old from Tokyo on Aug. 14 won gold in the 200-meter breaststroke in Beijing, and that was on meridian of a globe record-breaking swim on Aug. 8 for 100 meters.

Yet space of time Japan rejoices at Kitajima’s success, executives at Japanese sportswear company Mizuno (8022.T) may be in actual possession of mixed emotions. After all, in June, Kitajima called on the Japan Swimming Federation to let its swimmers ditch Mizuno swimsuits (BusinessWeek.com, 6/8/08) in favor of British Speedo’s high-tech LZR Racer gear (BusinessWeek.com, 4/14/08), which has been credited for helping U.S. star Michael Phelps and other swimmers make docile universe records this year. Kitajima got what he wanted: His two golds were both achieved while he was wearing the high-tech Speedo swimwear. Just as galling, before the launch of Speedo’s LZR Racer line in 2007, Mizuno canceled a licensing catch it had through the British company—independent years early.

Still, a successful Olympic campaign for Japan’s exceedingly rated baseball team, nicknamed Hoshino Japan after coach Senichi Hoshino, could accept Mizuno executives smiling again. The Osaka-based company, which has suffered a 20% drop in its stock price this year, makes the Japanese team’s uniforms and, with baseball the biggest sport in Japan, a robust performance by the Japan team could make up for some of those lost swimwear sales. "If Hoshino Japan wins, most amateur baseball teams will likely copy the same vertical-striped uniforms," a Mizuno source told the Sankei Shimbun, a Japanese daily, before the Olympics got subordinate to way.

According to pundits, Japan’s baseball team has a great chance of taking gold in Beijing. That’s despite a disappointing 4-2 defeat in their opening game Aug. 13 against Cuba. Recent history suggests they be in actual possession of reason to be confident: Japan won bronze in Athens (Cuba took gold), and the current squad includes five members of the team that won the inaugural World Baseball Classic in 2006.

What’s more, amid the newer faces is superstar pitcher Yu Darvish. The gangly 21-year-old starts against Japan’s colorfully named Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters, and in 2006 helped the team get the compliance of its first Japan Series since 1961. Already without ceasing the radar of several Major League teams, Darvish—who stands 6 feet 5 inches, has every Iranian father, and is connubial to an actress—has enough star quality to build up instead of the loss of Major League stars like Daisuke Matsuzaka of the Boston Red Sox or the Seattle Mariners’ Ichiro Suzuki.

A gold medal for the Japanese team would catapult Darvish to legend status and give Mizuno welcome publicity. Still, Darvish has some be in action to do. "He was not in good form today," coach Hoshino complained after the Cuba loss. "He did not do his job today."

Even if the Japan team turns things about, Mizuno would be wise to ramp up its swimwear efforts in time for London in 2012. As things stand, Beijing will be the last Olympics to feature baseball; the International Olympic Committee voted baseball deficient in of the London Games.

To close the rift adhering Speedo, Mizuno is planning new, faster swimsuits of its own and emphasizing that its swimwear line rivals LZR Racer for lightness and independence of movement. "We will desire plenty of opportunities, such as the world swimming championships next year in Rome, to boost our brand figurative expression," Mizuno President Akito Mizuno told the Nihon Keizai, Japan’s leading dealing daily, in July. "Athletes and businesses have one thing in usual—we cannot win each single game."

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They heard from her inventor and they saw poignant letters written in captivity by the girl, at another time 8, and her 9-year-old brother before the boy was slain.

The divine revelation came on the second day of the sentencing hearing for Joseph Edward Duncan III, who faces both vitality in prison or death.

Duncan, a convicted pedophile from Tacoma, Wash., pleaded wrong in December to 10 federal charges related to the kidnapping of Shasta Groene and her brother Dylan. Three of the counts transport a potential death penalty.

The children were taken from their Coeur d’Alene home in May 2005 after Duncan fatally bludgeoned the children’s mother, Brenda Groene; their 13-year-old brother, Slade; and the mother’s fiance, Mark McKenzie.

Both children were sexually abused before Duncan young hog. and killed Dylan at a campsite in western Montana. Shasta was rescued on July 2, 2005, at the time that a waitress spotted Duncan and the lass in a Coeur d’Alene restaurant.

Duncan earlier pleaded found in guilt in state court to murdering McKenzie and Slade and Brenda Groene.

Coeur d’Alene police Officer Shane Avriett, the first official to talk to Shasta in relation to she was rescued, testified about in that which manner he turned upon his vehicle’s dashboard-mounted video camera, with the camera marked away from Shasta, and recorded her talking about her ordeal.

When he asked where Dylan was, she told him, “in heaven … there may be some prove down in the Lolo woodland, because that’s in what place we were.”

“We’ve got a lot of people looking for you,” Avriett told Shasta. “What made you end up in the present state? Just hungry?”

“He was going to take me home,” she replied, talking about Duncan, whom she called “Jet.”

When Avriett asked wherefore Duncan changed his be inclined, her voice broke.

“He was going to change his mind because he said I taught him how to love,” she said.

It wasn’t clear what was meant in the discussion about Duncan changing his mind, and lawyers in the case weren’t able to elaborate. They are under a gag order imposed by U.S. District Judge Edward Lodge.

Shasta also warned the officer: “He’s killed way a lot more people that you don’t even know about. He killed Dylan.”

She cried as she told Avriett how Duncan shot her brother in the swallow at the campsite, then shot him again in the head and burned the corpse in front of her.

The children’s become a father to, Steven Groene, took the stand Thursday morning, showing pictures of his youngest children and choking up after confirming their chirography on notes apparently written at their kidnapper’s behest.

Groene said it was the first time he had seen common of the letters, which offered a false promise. “Dear Dad, I have extremely good news. And it is we are coming home soon! It might be a week or 2 so we will have existence back,” the unsigned literal meaning read.

Prosecutors avoided discussing the contents of the letters. But they’re believed to be the letters found in the car Duncan was driving just before his arrest.

Excerpts on these terms in court advise Duncan directed the children to write them, lacing them with curious lies.

“We might see you again and we might not if we decide to state of facts with him we will go see Eminem and get $1,000,000, and we before that time have $1,000,000 nevertheless we figured the $1,000,000 was fake,” read undivided from Dylan to his father.

Others were righteous terribly sad: “Dear Dad, this is Dylan we are serene alive we are OK and we comprehend what happened to Mom, Mark and Slade and I’m sorry you had to loose (sic) a son and an exwife and I’m sorry we had to be taken away from you and I miss you.”

Duncan, who is personation while his own attorney, questioned witnesses for the first time on Thursday. FBI Special Agent Mike Geneckow took the raised station to discuss a security video taken from a gas station in Kellogg, Idaho, on July 1, 2005, the light of day before Shasta was rescued.

In the video, Shasta walks around the convenience store with her arms tightly folded and Duncan nearby. At one point, Geneckow pointed out, a police car drove by.

In cross-examination, Duncan asked the court to show the last frame of the video again — only to point fully that a second police car had moreover passed them by.

Duncan’s past is littered with arrests and prison proper time for crimes ranging from car theft to rape and molestation. He is suspected in the 1996 slayings of two half-sisters from Seattle and is charged with the 1997 killing of a young boy in Riverside County, Calif.

(This interpretation CORRECTS the require authoritatively wording of excerpts from the letters to reflect that some words were misspelled.)

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The original 1975 film was a horror parody featuring the adventures of a newly engaged couple who find themselves caught up in the bizarre world of Frank-N-Furter, a "luscious transvestite from Transsexual, Transylvania."

Based on a British place of exhibition show, the film starred Tim Curry, Susan Sarandon, Richard O'Brien and singer Meat Loaf, featuring songs including "Time Warp" and has grossed more 140 the great body of the people dollars (94 million euros) in the US alone.

The cast this time round has not yet been decided, but the remake inclination employment the original screenplay and is vital principle revived in a partnership deal for MTV in the US and Sky Movies in Britain, who confirmed the move.

The film's executive producer Lou Adler, who is reprising his role from the original, said: "So here we be of use afresh, through a new cast, believing that the Sky and MTV remake will add to the Rocky Horror phenomenon."

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It is difficult to compel a price on quality of life. As we enter difficult economic spells and increased pressures, opportunities for families to enjoy parks and outdoor recreational resources become even more precious.

Unfortunately, the quality of time from birth to death on the side of thousands of families was not taken into consideration when the Cascade Water Alliance in Bellevue negotiated a closed-door deal by the Puyallup and Muckleshoot tribes over the future of Lake Tapps in North Pierce County.

Lake Tapps is the third-busiest lake for recreational use in the state, with two public parks and eight private parks beside the shoreline. One of the parks at Lake Tapps gets 150,000 to 250,000 visits each year. The lake is also central to a highly valued and delicate ecosystem, providing habitat with respect to eagles, ospreys, pileated woodpeckers, several types of fish and other wildlife, and significant wetlands.

All of these things were ignored when an entire region and its communities were shut out from the negotiations.

Fair and equitable negotiations on how to horsemanship our water resources need to contain all of the stakeholders. That was the case when the Lake Tapps Reservoir Management Agreement was signed by Puget Sound Energy, the Pierce County executive and members of the Lake Tapps common in 2004. All the stakeholders were invited to participate in the negotiations, including the tribes and Cascade Water Alliance. This agreement has been very successful and has led to a flourishing lake, healthy area of distribution, reliable water for diverse cities and one enlarge in salmon.

We have not been given any reasonable explanation for why the new owners of Lake Tapps — Cascade Water Alliance — refuse to honor an agreement that worked hearty for Puget Sound Energy, the community and the seek by indirection.

With awful bipartisan leadership from affirm Rep. Christopher Hurst, D-Enumclaw, and Pierce County Councilman Shawn Bunney, we have taken our case to the Washington State Department of Ecology, the agency responsible by regard to approving water rights in our state. Hundreds of individuals have written to the province and the manager asking them to protect Lake Tapps and take a balanced approach to managing the whole of of the region’s get moisten needs. The sphere of duty is required by regulation to consider public touch when issuing a water right.

The state agency has already proposed standards for a water right that would require compromises from all parties involved. It is not perfect but it’s a balanced beginning.

Sound science and careful assessment of the facts should be the deciding factors in how this water right gets issued, not a closed-door give driven by politics, paybacks and special interests.

We believe it is likely to have a moisten right that protects all interests involved — fish, tribes, water for Bellevue and a lake that is a regional treasure and very estimable natural resource for our state and communities.

Those of us in Pierce County look forward to working with Cascade Water Alliance to maintain a healthy lake, ecosystem and water supply, but there is a portion more that necessarily to be resolved under the jurisdiction anyone celebrates a water deal done behind closed doors.

Chuck Romeo is president of the Lake Tapps Community Council, a nonprofit organization working to preserve and protect Lake Tapps.