Photographer: Greg Gilbert / The Seattle Times . Kevin Berg lives with a disability. It is cerebral palsy.
Read Full StoryPhotographer: Jim Bates / The Seattle Times . Jack Harris is the Seattle Plastic Bag Monster. Emma Kelin is Mrs.
Read Full StoryPhotographer: Alan Berner / The Seattle Times . Ray Friday is a glass artist. Her hearts are hot! First she melts the glass in a very hot oven (2,300 degrees). Next she takes the glass out of the oven.
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Liz De la Fuentes My name is Liz. I’m from Peru. I left my family and came to the U.S. to find opportunities. One of those opportunities is being a nanny for a little boy, His name is Ferrin, and in September he turned 6 years old. I love this boy.
Lunar New Year Lunar New Year starts on Jan. 23rd and ends with the Lantern Festival on Feb. 6. Lunar New Year is celebrated in many Asian countries. In fact, many Chinese people will travel from far away to go home. People dress up in new clothes. Children receive lucky money wrapped in red envelopes from older people.
Students who speak Chinese and other languages are filling classes at community colleges and universities in Washington. In fact, the number of foreign students at the University of Washington this fall outnumbered those coming from other states. In 2006, only 2 percent of incoming freshmen at the UW were from other countries.
Photographer: Greg Gilbert / The Seattle Times . Kevin Berg has cerebral palsy, but some special technology allows Kevin to live a full life. He can fix computers with the strange-looking wand on his head and a tablet computer. In fact, in 2006, he started a computer repair business, CompuPane, in Auburn, WA.
Photographer: Jim Bates / The Seattle Times . Soon, Seattle shoppers will no longer hear the question, “paper or plastic?” A new rule bans thin, plastic shopping bags at many stores. Starting in July 2012, shoppers must bring their own bags or pay 5 cents for a paper bag.
“Oh, rats!” might be the response of some to the results of a new study. In the December 2011 edition of the journal Science, researchers reported observing rats help each other. Until now, helping behavior had been linked only to humans and apes. People often hate rats because they see them as unclean, so the outcome of this simple experiment might seem surprising. Researchers at the University of Chicago wanted to find out if a “free” rat would release a fellow rat from a cage.
“Goodbye to bullfighting,” say the people in Barcelona, Spain. Barcelona has only one ring and fifteen bullfights a year. But people here say, “Bullfighting is unkind to bulls. No more blood.” Bullfighting is a traditional Spanish sport. It is dangerous, but it is still popular in other parts of Spain.
North Korea’s “Dear Leader” died on December 19, 2011, from a heart attack. Kim Jong-il was 69. Kim Jong-il became president in 1994. Inside North Korea, he was called a heroic leader. Outside of North Korea, he was seen as one of the world’s most repressive dictators. Kim expanded North Korea’s nuclear weapons program.
Vaclav Havel, the renowned Czech writer, dissident, and statesman, died December 18, 2011, at 75. He was a leader of the Velvet Revolution that ended Czechoslovakia's communist government in 1989. He was president of both Czechoslovakia (1989-92) and the Czech Republic (1993-2003). Born in 1936 to wealthy parents, Havel was prevented from pursuing higher education by the communist government.
