The Seattle Times is reporting that a convicted sex offender was busted recently after he placed pornographic pictures on cars parked at Burien City Hall in August and September.

The offender, Noah Nelson, 31, was charged this week with both possessing child pornography as well as cyberstalking.

The Times reports that in September:

Nelson was caught on a security camera driving up to cars on his scooter and leaving porn on the cars of strangers, according to court charging paperwork.

Burien police installed the hidden camera in the city parking garage after the pictures were left on the car of Finance Director Gary Coleman and other city employees.

Read the full story here.

The Seattle Times reports that Burien’s Town Square is facing foreclosure.

According to the report:

The firm that holds the note on the construction loan for Burien Town Square Condominium filed a legal notice late last month that it intends to foreclose on the property Oct. 29 unless developer Urban Partners comes up with $3.5 million by Sept. 1 to cover missed monthly payments and related charges.

We’ve been following the travails of Town Square’s financial difficulties probably closer than anyone (read our previous coverage here), and rest assured, we’re on this news like white on rice.

We’ll have our own full, in-depth report within the next few days.

PREVIOUS COVERAGE:

• “We Can Be Proud Of What We Did” Town Square Developer Dan Rosenfeld
• Is Town Square’s Urban Partners Becoming A “Silent Partner” To Burien?
• What Is Urban Partners Planning To Do With Burien Town Square?
• Here’s Why Burien Town Square Sits Vacant Less Than A Year After Opening
• 10-Screen Multiplex Theater May Be Built At Old City Hall Location
• Cinema Reps Make Their Pitch To Burien City Council
• Will Condo Prices Be Lowered Now That Burien Town Square’s Lender’s Assets Have Been Sold?
• Are Reports Of The Demise Of Burien’s Town Square True? Take Our Poll
• Over 1,000 Witness Burien Town Square Grand Opening

Our news partners at The Seattle Times published a great story Saturday by Mason Kelly about a hot local baseball star from Highline High School named Ryan Brett.

Aside from already having a big-league sounding name (“Now batting, Ryannnn Brett!“), this kid is so good that Major League Baseball scouts can often be seen in Burien crowding the stands, sometimes just to watch him run the 60-yard dash.

Here are some excerpts from the story:

“I’ve been coaching for more than 30 years,” (Coach Dave) Larson said. “I’ve never had anyone like Ryan.”

“Seeing all these scouts here this year, I just try to keep myself relaxed and just try to hit the ball hard,” said Brett, who is hitting .667 with two home runs, five doubles, 11 stolen bases and nine runs batted in through six games.

We tip our collective ballcaps to young Ryan, and encourage everyone to read about this rising young local star here.

Our news partners at The Seattle Times are reporting that Jeffrey Fay, 54, the Burien man who tried to fire a shotgun into passing traffic last Tuesday morning (March 23), has been charged with first-degree assault.

According to The Times, Fay is using “sleepwalking” as his defense:

Fay told deputies that he had awakened that morning to find that his children were missing, his house had been ransacked and “the next thing he knew he was walking down the street with a shotgun,” charging papers said.

Fay’s brother told authorities that the man had a history of sleepwalking, court papers said.

Read the full story here, and our previous coverage here.

We’re proud to announce a news partnership with a Seattle-based media outlet you may have heard of – The Seattle Times – as The B-Town Blog and four of its sister sites (along with three other local blogs) are now part of The Times’ innovative local news site partnership!

What does this mean for us? Hopefully, more exposure for our stories (as well as for Southwest King County area news), as The Times will now be posting and linking to content originally created by us. Also, we will now be “official” partners with them, which means we’ll be posting more relevant stories from their outstanding staff, including such luminaries as Pulitzer Prize winning investigative reporter Susan Kelleher, who just happens to be the sister of one of our best friends (screenwriter Tim Kelleher).

We see it as a definite win-win for both parties, as well as for our Readers.

On a personal note, just seeing the iconic, classic old-school Seattle Times logo on this site gives me goosebumps. When I was a kid in sixth grade, I “published” my first “newspaper” called The Seattle Star (yes, I stole the name from a defunct old Seattle paper), and I remember spending hours hand-drawing its logo to look just like the font used by The Times. I think the logo was the best part of that publication, which consisted mostly of jokes stolen from Mad Magazine, and for which I charged 25-cents to any sucker family member who’d take pity on me.

Amazing how life comes back at you with surprises isn’t it?

Here’s what The Seattle Times has to say about our partnership (here’s a link to their announcement):

The Seattle Times is expanding its partnerships with local news Web sites with the addition of eight more sites today. That brings the total number of partner Web sites to 27. (See the complete list, along with their latest headlines.)

Partnering with The Times today are:

• Shoreline Area News and editor Diane Hettrick.
• My Edmonds News and editor Teresa Wippel.
• The B-Town Blog (Burien), as well as four other sites operated by Scott Schaefer: The Waterland Blog (Des Moines), Normandy Park Blog, Tukwila Blog and SeaTac Blog.
• Surrounded By Water (Mercer Island) and editor Ellie.
  

The Times’ effort to build community-news relationships began last August with the launch of the Networked Journalism project. Read about that project here.

The other partner sites are:

• Capitol Hill Seattle Blog
• Central District News
• Fremont Universe
• Magnolia Voice
• My Ballard
• PhinneyWood.com
• Queen Anne View
• Rainier Valley Post
• Seattle Local Health Guide
• West Seattle Blog
• White Center Now
• Aurora | Seattle
• Beacon Hill Blog
• Eastlake Ave. Blog
• Kirkland Views
• MLTnews.com
• Redmond Neighborhood Blog
• Seattle Beer News
• Three Sheets Northwest

The Seattle Times is reporting that a couple from Normandy Park is suing Toyota in federal court, demanding that the company either take back the vehicle they just bought or reimburse them for its loss in value since the automaker’s sudden-acceleration troubles became news.

According to The Times:

The lawsuit alleges that the issues plaguing Toyota violate the state’s Consumer Protection Act and amount to a breach of contract. The lawsuit is a proposed class action and, if certified by a federal judge, could apply to other Toyota owners in Washington with similar issues.

Read the full story here.

On Monday (Mar. 1st), Seattle Times columnist Jerry Large published a followup article that is basically a reaction to him being confronted by Burien Mayor Joan McGilton, Councilmember Kathy Keene and City Manager Mike Martin over Burien’s desire to annex the remaining portions of White Center.

The encounter came after Large published a column on Feb. 3rd extolling how White Center is “the right fit” for Seattle.

Councilmember Keene then sent us a copy of a letter she sent The Times, where she strongly refuted Large and claimed that Burien would be a better fit for White Center (read Keene’s letter here).

In Large’s latest column, he starts out by saying:

Burien is getting feisty.

The small city is not counting itself out as a home to the northern neighborhoods of North Highline.

So now, “feisty” Burien has struck back, and the columnist has printed our cityfolk’s claims, stating that “Burien knows what it wants” – read his full column here.

We wonder what will happen next in this political opinion-shaping chess match…stay tuned.

The Seattle Times reports that the Coast Guard searched the waters off Burien’s Seahurst Park Friday after receiving a report of an overturned kayak around 5pm.

Two Coast Guard boats on the scene found nothing more than a floating piece of Styrofoam that was the probable cause of the call.

The search was called off around 9pm after nothing else (and thankfully no humans) were found.

Read the full story here.

According to The Seattle Times, Hollie Beston, 31, of Burien, was arrested along with her ex-husband, Brian Beston, 36, of Kent, for filming themselves raping their 4-year old daughter and sending photos of the abuse to a man in Southern California.

The two were arrested by Seattle Police last week after the FBI learned of the crime from the recipient of the photos, a man facing child-molestation charges in Southern California, said charging documents filed Wednesday in King County Superior Court.

The Times goes to on report that the Bestons have each been charged with:

• First-degree child rape
• First-degree child molestation
• Sexual exploitation of a minor
• Depictions of a minor engaged in sexually explicit conduct

Both are currently being held at the King County Jail on $500,000 bail each.

Some other amazingly unpleasant facts from this story:

• Police believe the Bestons abused the girl for several months.
• Hollie Beston is also accused of operating the camera and sending the images via a cellphone and the Internet.
• Police apparently searched the Bestons’ homes in Kent and Burien last week and confiscated computers, cameras, flash drives, cellphones and other electronics, court papers said.

The child was taken into custody by state Child Protective Services.

We did our own Google search for “Hollie Beston” and found a profile for her (direct link here), which includes some incredibly ironic statements like:

• “I am a fun loving and caring person.”
• “I have a problem with caring for people too much, which leads to people trying to use me.”
• “It is a lot of fun meeting new people but I am careful because I have a young one to take care of.”

Here’s exact wording from her Google Profile:

Hollie Beston

Medical Assisting ; Student at Kaplan University
Burien, Washington

Interests:
Traveling, astrology, baking some, reading, swimming, going for walks…

I am a fun loving and caring person. I love to goof off and raising my child. I graduate in August but will be done with classes in the middle of march then plan on continuing my education by going for my RN. I have a problem with caring for people too much, which leads to people trying to use me. I enjoy doing a variety of things and have hopes and dreams that will someday come true. It is a lot of fun meeting new people but I am careful because I have a young one to take care of.

Places I’ve lived
Golden Valley, AZ ; Lenoir, NC; Kent and Burien, WA

Read the full Times story here.

The Times says that the renter of the house said Saunders first pointed the laser at their horses until he was asked to stop. At least 12 airplanes reported being “lasered” that night, and numerous incidents happened over the following 2-3 weeks.

As the police interviewed the renter, Saunders arrived at the residence and confessed to pointing the beam in multiple directions on the day of the party and that he might have “lasered” a plane.

Read the full story here.

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