Over the past week, a sharp increase of one-off swine flu cases in students raised a few eyebrows, as King County health officials decided to shut classroom doors for seven days. Now they are kicking themselves and second-guessing future decisions. With no confirmed cases in Washington and the end of the school year in sight, King County won't be closing any more schools that have a student or two with suspect symptoms. Now they say simply, teachers and children should just stay home if they are sick. more ›

Kids must be smarter than we give them credit--those little stinkers might be pulling a "Oh, I'm sick, I have swine flu and can't go to school" after hearing Madrona K-8 closed for an entire week. Currently, seven of King County's ten suspected cases of Swine flu H1N1 flu have infected children and teens. More local schools where a "suspected case" has attended classes are now closed as a precaution. Schools include: Madrona (Seattle) K-8, Aki Kurose Middle School (Seattle), and Stevens Elementary (Seattle) are all currently closed and set to re-open May 8; Woodmont K-8 (Des Moines) closed through May 11; Lakes High School (Tacoma) closed Friday, only pending three case results; Odyssey Elementary (Everett) closed only on Friday.
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Check. Mate. The current queen of the chess is Bellevue's own Megan Lee, a 12-year-old middle school student (12!), who cleared the chess board this past weekend to win the number one spot (and a four-year scholarship to the Univ. of Texas at Dallas) in the 18-years-and-younger division of the U.S. Chess Federation's All-Girls Nationals. Be on the lookout next time you think about playing chess in the park, an innocent sweet-voiced ringer (whose last read was Bobby Fischer’s 60 Memorable Games) may take your money be watching your every move. more ›