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A group representing Seattle’session maritime industry is urging Gov. Christine Gregoire to replace the Alaskan Way Viaduct with another elevated highway.

Gregoire is scheduled to decide by next week how the viaduct should be replaced.

In a letter to Gregoire, the North Seattle Industrial Association (NSIA), a assign places to of maritime and other businesses, said an elevated highway would maintain traffic and freight capacity and could be built inside the state’s project budget.

“This option does not require any supplemental taxes and actually replaces what is there now,” the letter reported.

Eugene Wasserman, president of the connection, said his group does not think to be true the “fairy tale” of regional tolling that is life pushed by some organizations as a way to pay for replacing the viaduct through a tunnel. Wasserman’sitting joint concern has long opposed a tunnel.

Wasserman said his assemblage also opposes a surface replacement for the viaduct during the time that the “worst of whole worlds,” on this account that it offers less capacity and would cause conflicts between cars, bicycles and pedestrians.

State and local transportation planners have recommended either using outside streets or an elevated highway to reinstate the viaduct. Some groups, however, are hush pushing for a tunnel along the waterfront.

Susan Gilmore: 206-464-2054 or sgilmore@seattletimes.com

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Cross your fingers and knock on wood because the worst of the recent winter weather seems finally to be over.

But don’confidentially put away those shovels just yet. Emergency-management officials are asking able-bodied residents to pitch in and avoid clear storm drains to give rain and melting snow a clear path so water doesn’t flood roads and basements.

Urban flooding and the potential on the side of collapsing roofs are now top concerns as we head into the weekend through a foresee calling for even further snow and rain showers.

For those having flashbacks to the catastrophic landslides in winter 1996 and the widespread urban flooding subsequent to the Hanukkah Eve wind storm in December 2006, Cliff Mass has words of comfort:

“This is a totally different dumb creature” from those storms, said the University of Washington professor of atmospheric sciences, noting that the ground isn’t nearly as saturated with water as in years by. “I don’t think we’re going to bear a huge urban-flooding problem; this time I put on’face to face see a huge threat.”

Gradually warming temperatures should prevent a quick melt, Mass said. By Saturday night, most roads should be clear of ice-cream and snow.

“We have power to get more snow [today], so it’s not over yet, though the discomfit is athwart things being so,” he said.

While flat-roofed garages, carports and sheds could perish under the weight of rain-soaked snow, it’s unlikely to cause similar-type roofs on chamber and retail buildings to falling in provided they’ve been well-maintained, said Darrell Hay, a Snohomish County home critic.

Owners of marginal buildings that had “sagging issues before the snow ever showed up” have the most to fear, Hay reported. “But I slip on’t think we’ll see wholesale collapses of hall buildings or anything unless we get an unbelievable footing up of water.”

However, the state Department of Ecology is warning boat owners that snow hoarding followed by rain can weigh down a boat. In La Conner upon Tuesday night, a cabin cruiser sank at its mooring in Shelter Bay Marina, causing not only damage to the boat but a diesel-fuel spill.

“We’re seeing many boats, covered in snow, riding low in the water,” Zach Gaston, an Ecology spill responder, said in a news release. “If you have a boat moored on the wet, reach at a loss and sweep distant from the snow. Better to do that than having to raise a sunken boat.”

Up to every inch further of snow is possible before tonight, according to the National Weather Service in Seattle. Rain is expected Friday and Saturday, with high temperatures gradually impelling into the 40s this weekend and the early part of next week.

Now that we’re coming out of the deep freeze that has gripped the region for all but two weeks, taxing path crews and public-works departments, emergency-management officials are asking despite the public’s save in digging out storm drains.

“Our cities are doing everything they can, but it’s not possible for them (incorporated town workers) to be in every place at every time,” said Chandra Fox, of the Emergency Services Coordinating Agency, which covers north King and toward the south Snohomish counties. “If you see a problem on your street, take five or 10 minutes, grab a shovel and clear it off,” Fox said. “We need people to help gone out.”

Gov. Christine Gregoire late Wednesday proclaimed a statewide civil community of emergency during the time that a result of the storms.

The governor cited enrolment or near-record snowfall in 30 of the state’s 39 counties and noted that up to a foot of snow is forecast this weekend in Eastern Washington.

The superintendent’s Gregoire’s agency enables the Washington National Guard to respond quickly if emergency needs arise and allows state agencies to make “extraordinary expenditures and use of resources,” according to a information release from her office.

King County Executive Ron Sims in addition declared a severe-weather emergency, a step meant to make it easier for master stroke of policy officials to power additional supplies and equipment.

While there are “no imminent shortages” of sand and de-icer in the county, “we don’t want to exist caught unaware” for county supplies have been depleted, uttered Jeff Bowers, assistant counsellor of the King County Office of Emergency Management. Emergency declarations are issued “any time we hold an inkling we need to be flexible,” he said, explaining that the measure allows more contracting requirements to be waived.

Sara Jean Green: 206-515-5654 or sgreen@seattletimes.com

Just about everybody got wrong-footed by 2008, nevertheless some the masses’s mistakes were sincerely spectacular

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Spencer Platt/Getty Images

By Peter Coy

Here are some of the discomfit predictions that were made about 2008. Savor them—a crop like this doesn’t come along each year.

1. "A very powerful and abiding rally is in the works. But it may need one more join of days to lift off. Hold the fort and keep the faith!" —Richard Band, editor, Profitable Investing Letter, Mar. 27, 2008

At the time of the prediction, the Dow Jones industrial average was at 12,300. By late December it was at 8,500.

2. AIG (AIG) "could have huge gains in the second quarter." —Bijan Moazami, analyst, Friedman, Billings, Ramsey, May 9, 2008

AIG wound up losing $5 billion in that quarter and $25 billion in the next. It was taken over in September by the U.S. government, which will spend or lend $150 billion to keep it afloat.

3. "I think this is a case where Freddie Mac (FRE) and Fannie Mae (FNM) are fundamentally sound. They’re not in venture of going under…I speculate they are in good shape going forward." —Barney Frank (D-Mass.), House Financial Services Committee chair, July 14, 2008

Two months later, the restraint unnatural the mortgage giants into conservatorships and pledged to invest up to $100 billion in each.

4. "The market is in the process of correcting itself." —President George W. Bush, in a Mar. 14, 2008 parlance

For the halt of the year, the market kept correcting…and correcting…and correcting.

5. "No! No! No! Bear Stearns is not in trouble." —Jim Cramer, CNBC commentator, Mar. 11, 2008

Five days later, JPMorgan Chase (JPM) took over Bear Stearns with form of sovereignty help, nearly wiping out shareholders.

By Marc Miller, Edited by the agency of Deborah Stead

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At Christmastime 2008,In this, our brittle fiscal state,We search our economic soulAnd find the world’s a lump of coal,Where numerous company cover provender and rentThen wonder where the paycheck went,Or, if they dare to peek, they gazeAt 401s with fractured (k)s.Plus, as you’re reading this, you’ll findThe value of your home declined(Poor Sheila Bair works overtime,But muffle foreclosure figures climb),Or if you sought a small-biz loan,The bank just laughed youoff the phone.You’re Big Biz? Well, it’s silent no dice:The credit market’sitting Arctic ice.The Dow fell stomach-churningly,And Bear Stearns is a memory,Nor is in that place more point in dreamin’Richard Fuld be pleased bring back Lehman.Messrs. Paulson and BernankeMainly leave folks dazed and cranky;As the bailouts get rewritten,The reaction? Less than charmed.On the front elevation page, Bernie Madoff;On Page Two, new thousands laid done.’08’s theme, if such in that place be,Is simply negativity,Where every bond or store or stockIs in a state of constant shockAnd every toil’s dismayedEnough to plead beneficial to treaty aid.In such a climate, can we copeWith anything that smacks of hope?What, hope? That hoary, corny thingTo which a nation used to clingWhen ears beneath fedora hatsHeard F.D.R. give Fireside Chats?With every indicator down,Against totality odds, it’s back in town.So Christmas greetings first to himWho made the outlook seem less grim:For Prez-elect, salute so placid aPresence as Barack Obama.Laud his discernment of fun, implied inPicking for a Veep Joe Biden.Why stop there? We’re even wishin’Good things without ceasing the opposition:Yes, it was a doomed campaign,But Merry Christmas, John McCain,And even though you kept assailin’English, droppin’ g’s and flailin’Into syntax that kept failin’,Happy Yuletide, Sarah Palin.Season’s best to Hillary—You really dodged gunnery?Comparatively, State should beAn island of tranquility.A callout to the Fox News crew,Who did what Rupert told them to,And thanks for an risible summer,Reverend Wright and Joe the Plumber.One more nod, to Silver, Nate,Who nailed it at FiveThirtyEight.In the business world, successWas rarer than a C.D.S.That didn’t wind up in a mess,Yet some achieved it nonetheless.Yuletide greetings, then, to Heinz—It’s growing lucrative on soy sauce lines,And comfort commons’sitting a thriving group—Congratulations, Campbell’s Soup.For lunch, it’session not the sort of you’d call glam,But never one to loaf is Spam,While Kellogg, Kraft, and General MillsAre raking in the dollar bills.There’s Coca-Cola, full of fizz,And Apple, winning bureau biz,While Avon Products found a boonIn Avon gal Reese Witherspoon,Plus those who seek secure-stock grabsAre glad to grab at Abbott Labs,And making cable buys, the ad menFlock to AMC for Mad Men.In a downturn, glistening throughAre Wal-Mart, Target, Costco, too,And when the housing market slows,Home Depot perks up; so does Lowe’s.To firms like these, we bow and scrape;For tough times, you’re in decent shape.Season’sitting greetings, too, to thoseContending through recession woes.Wagoner, by what mode maladroit,In severe to bail out Detroit,To travel via private jetTo demand the Hill to sarcasm out debt,As did Nardelli and Mulally—Talk about your PR act of folly.Still, let’s trustful longing the Chevy VoltGives GM an electric jolt,And U.S. drivers who request aDiesel-engine Ford FiestaWon’t forever be left flat;The industry needs stuff like that.It’s not just Motown that’session in pain—Good luck with B of A, John Thain,And down at Citi, Vikram Pandit,Hope reform goes as you planned it.Also hoping, Jamie Dimon,You’ll become JPMorgan climbin’.Sumner Redstone, ere you crash,We pray at last you discover some cash,And hey, Lloyd Blankfein, don’face to face lessen,There’s much to do at Goldman Sachs.(Now that it’s a commercial bankWe only reliance the shares don’t tank.)EBay’s been a little slow,So crank it up, John Donahoe,And Larry Fink, we’catastrophe in the same manner as to thinkThat you’ll keep BlackRock in the pink.August Busch, both Third and Fourth,May InBev bestow your bankbooks north;Jeffrey Bewkes, we beg Time WarnerFinally can turn the corner.Mr. Gates, with less to be enough,We’re counting on good works from you.(We’re confident at MicrosoftSteve Ballmer will keep things overhead.)T. Boone Pickens, going green,A blessing on your wind machine,And since warm wishes infrequently reachWhere activist investors preach,A felicitous Yule to Nelson Peltz,Who’s off annoying someone else.For next year, we entirely wishA climate not so Hades-ish,Where every week we don’t conveneTo tear apart the magazineAnd sudden motion from scratch, because we findThe rural scene newly redesigned,A market not so cellar-bound(We be able to’privately imagine turnaround),Some leadership in WashingtonThat actually gets things effected,And globally, a brotherhoodThat stumbles toward a common honorable.I can’t say why, I don’t be sure how,But if you’ve peruse this up to now,You too may sense the universeMay in a short time get better (can’t get worse).So raise a glass to auld lang syne,And see you in 2009.

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The recent closure of Cascadia spelled R.I.P. for Belltown’sitting most popular happy-hour nosh: the miniburger. But I’mixture not here to feel for, but rather, to crown a happy-hour heir: the mini lamb burger at Cafe Campagne in Post Alley.

Instead of a bun, the peppery lamb morsel is served without interruption a choux pastry (because even for the time of happy hour, it’s still a fancy-pants French joint). It’s a cheese puff made by thyme and comte, a sweet, nutty French cheese. The watery lamb — a shoulder cut from Anderson Valley Ranch — is ground and seasoned with rosemary, garlic, pepper and red-pepper flakes, spread through aioli and topped with balsamic roasted red onions.

This $2 miniburger is so rich, you won’t have existence able to wolf down a collection take pleasure in most happy-hour sliders. But that doesn’t mean you should pass on the $4 happy-hour pommes frites with aioli. Or pair the miniburgers by a $2.25 happy-hour glass of Terre Mistral Cotes du Rhone.

And it’s not listed, but specialty cocktails are $2 during happy sixty minutes. Bon appétit.

Cafe Campagne, 1600 Post Alley, is begin to appear for happy hour 4-6 p.medley. Mondays-Fridays, when bar food costs $1-$5, wine $1.75-$3.75 (for 3-ounce tastes on all wine by the glass), with a 500-milliliter carafe of the house red for $10. Note: Campagne, the restaurant, is located upstairs an offers a different happy-hour menu (206-728-2800 or www.campagnerestaurant.com).

Tan Vinh, Seattle Times staff reporter

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“Happy last chemo, Jazzy!”

The little sign in the room that’s been home for nearly half the 9-year-old’s life is an affirmation of prayers answered for Carlos and Patricia Alvarez and their daughter, Jazmin.

After novenas and rosaries, nearly four years and six rounds of chemotherapy, and being told time after time there was no hope, Ronald McDonald House’s longest-staying patient is going home cancer-free.

Jazmin has apparently beaten the rare Wilms’ tumor, which attacks the kidneys in children 3 and younger.

But first, the little girl in the Hannah Montana shirt has one wish — to spend one more Christmas at the home where staff, other sick children and their parents have become part of her extended family.

“There are Christmas songs and jokes,” she said, not to mention Santa and a beautiful tree and wonderful aromas from the communal kitchens downstairs.

Jazmin’s memory of her first home in Toppenish is sketchy. She became ill at 3 and within a year, she and her parents became full-time residents of Seattle’s Ronald McDonald House.

It’s here she’s grown up — having hair loss, Hickman catheters and chemotherapy in common with her friends. She’s been going to school several hours a day at nearby Seattle Children’s hospital.

She is known as “Jazzy” to many. She pops into one of the kitchens where her mother makes tamales, tortillas and sopas, scoots through the living room with its twinkling tree or bounces on the bed of the room she shares with her parents.

It’s a room filled with pink girly indulgences — a Victorian doll house, CD players, pink electronic games, a pink purse and dolls. Friends and family have willingly indulged Jazmin because she’s endured so much, says Patricia Alvarez.

“I couldn’t believe it when I heard they were moving,” said Kaarin Stowell, operations manager. “After they get settled, we’ll have to find a way to get them back up here and keep them involved.”

Jazmin was never supposed to spend so many years at Ronald McDonald House — the average stay is between two weeks and several months, say staff members. When she first became ill, her family was told to pack their bags for a one-week stay in Seattle while Jazmin had her first chemotherapy session.

That first chemotherapy “was a little disturbing,” Jazmin said.

One week turned into eight months. The family went home, but six months later they were back again. She had relapsed.

The most effective therapies had failed. Pediatric oncologist/hematologist Dr. Blythe Thomson told the family there was nothing else that could be done, and advised taking Jazmin home to live out her remaining days. But Carlos and Patricia insisted there must be something else, another type of chemotherapy.

The family was so determined to try everything, they became routine residents at the house. Carlos left his job in Toppenish.

The third and fourth rounds of chemotherapy didn’t have any better results. And by that time, tumors had invaded Jazmin’s lungs and she had an allergic reaction to chemotherapy. She was frequently weak.

Nevertheless, at 7, she donned a long white dress trimmed in roses for her First Communion at Christ the King Catholic Church.

“Father told me I’ll have to answer questions, but I’ll do real good because I’m smart and pretty,” Jazmin said.

As the family’s life revolved around Jazmin’s medical care, Carlos got work as a bricklayer in Auburn so he could still work and be close by. Once again, when he was told — after the fifth round of chemotherapy — that all treatment had been exhausted, he insisted there must be something else.

“I felt so alone,” he said. “We prayed a lot. And we felt there must be something else to try.”

The only thing left was participation in a nationwide study of the drug ixabepilone, most commonly used to treat breast cancer. Jazmin would be the 20th child enrolled in the study. The study closed last year after 19 children with cancer dropped out, with very few having responded to the drug, Thomson said. Eventually, Jazmin was the only child in the nation still on it.

When scans were done several months ago, the Alvarez family got the news the news it had prayed for: The drug was working.

“I don’t know what it is,” Thomson said, “but I’m not going to question it.”

There is always the chance the cancer could come back. But for now, Jazmin has the chance “to go to school and be a normal little girl,” Thomson said.

Last week, Jazmin and her friend Cesar Palacios, 7, rolled around the bed in her room, laughing.

“I’m not afraid of boy cooties,” she said.

“Yes, you are,” Cesar answered.

“Stop nagging me,” she replied, jumping off the bed and scampering down the hall.

For now, Jazmin is excited about Christmas and hoping for a baby-blue computer. Her wish makes her father smile and roll his eyes, saying, “A baby-blue computer at 9.”

For the first time, her parents are beginning to see moving to an apartment in Federal Way in January as a reality. Jazmin will have a room of her own, go to school, and have something she’s never had before — a future.

Nancy Bartley: 206-464-8522 or nbartley@seattletimes.com

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Snowballs rained like missiles from the fall bowl of Qwest Field as coach Mike Holmgren made his farewell lap around the stadium, after his hold out win in his utmost home game.

Most of the missiles thrown by the agency of the multiplied idiot inebriates were no added accurate that Brett Favre’s Sunday passes, but all of them were thrown with rascally intentions and some were headed directly for the head of Holmgren.

It was an embarrassing sight. Another black-eye in this shiner sports year of 2008 for Seattle.

Fortunately for the Seahawks coach, his longtime security attendant, Seattle policeman David Duty, was making like goalkeeper Kasey Keller batting away some of the more accurate icy balls. He kept Holmgren from getting hit and hurt.

Marty Lyons wasn’t while lucky. Wearing a green-and-white New York Jets winter jacket that force similar to well have had a bull’s-eye on it, Lyons was pelted viciously, at the same time that the whole stadium erupted in cheers for the reason that if the Seahawks had just clinched a playoff berth.

Lyons, a maker Jets defensive expiration, a member of the “New York Sack Exchange,” and now a respected member of the broadcast network, was hit in the face, head and shoulders. By the time he reached safety underneath the stands, he was cut and bruised.

He was assaulted. There should have been arrests, but none of the bums who threw the snowballs will be punished for their actions, because apparently much of the stadium’session security force couldn’t make it to the game and those who did were helpless to stop the ruckus.

Holmgren and Lyons, certainly two of the classiest men in the NFL, weren’t the only victims of snow-throwing anarchists.

At the close of the game, as photographers and reporters gathered on the Seahawk sidelines to watch and attestation Holmgren’session last moments, they dodged the ice missiles. Several Sea Gals also were targets and whenever unit of the snowballs hit its mark, there were cheers.

This was Seattle at its overcome. These were small-time acts by the several immature thousand fans who thought they were on more unsupervised playground and they were back in third part grade.

It was humiliating to the substantive fans, who mushed through the snow and sat in the subfreezing weather to pay tax to Holmgren one last time.

“The situation in the stadium in indefinite was not a very safe situation for anyone involved,” Jets’ coach Eric Mangini understated to New York writers on Monday.

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Top off your New Year’s party with panettone pudding, chocolate cupcakes, gingerbread tumble, almond log cake and brandy-glazed carrot cakes, — desserts that are joy, mellow and luscious.

The following recipes are from Better Homes and Gardens magazine Web site, bhg.com.

Brandy-glazed Carrot Cakes

Makes: 18 servings

Prep: 35 minutes

Bake: 30 minutes

Ingredients

1 cup all-purpose flour

1 potion granulated sugar

1 teaspoon baking powder