Fans walk up to the stadium before the Seattle Mariners game against the Texas Rangers on March 31, 2008. (Getty Images)

A group of activists dropped off nearly 5,000 signatures at Safeco Field Thursday, calling on the Mariners to boycott the 2011 All-Star game in Arizona.

The protest is being waged against Arizona's controversial stance on immigration. The state's lawmakers are under fire for allowing law-enforcement officers to ask for citizenship documents after stopping someone for another offense.

A federal judge put key provisions of the controversial law on hold Wednesday, but the campaigns of immigration activists haven't slowed.

Asking baseball players -- and Major League Baseball as a whole -- to snub the All-Star game is largely a symbolic gesture. But it's also an attempt to keep tourism money from pouring into Arizona's economy during the Phoenix event.

The goal: Force Arizona lawmakers to change their stance on immigration documentation. or persuade baseball to move the All-Star game.

Mariners spokeswoman Rebecca Hale said the signatures were received Thursday. At this point, the team isn't taking a stance on Arizona's law -- or on the location of the 2011 All-Star game.

Hale said the Mariners have minor-league operations in Arizona and have spring training in the state. The team is informing international players about what documentation they'll need to have on-hand in Arizona.

"We're educating ourselves and our players," she said.

So far, a handful of players have come out in support of the effort, saying they won't play if the game remains in Phoenix.

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Luna Park, built on a pier in West Seattle, was designed as the Coney Island of the West. The park, shown in this postcard circa 1910, was crowded with rides, amusements, an indoor swimming pool and the longest bar on the bay. Luna Park was closed in 1913, five years after it opened. (Seattlepi.com file)

Each week, we've been creating online historical photo galleries from prints that have sat in the files of the P-I building for decades.

In the latest, we take a look back at Seattle amusement parks and include photos from the Seattle Municipal Archives.

Also each week, seattlpi.com offers "Seattle Rewind," a local history podcast highlighting stories from our city's past. This week, host Feliks Banel looks back at Seattle amusement parks. (Click here to download the podcast through iTunes.)

Seattle had several amusement parks more than a century ago. The Leschi Park Gambling Casino operated on the shores of Lake Washington from 1888 to 1909 and Madison Park's White City was built at the end of an electric trolley line, according to Historylink.org.

But the city's first major amusement park was built not far from where the city's first pioneers, led by Arthur Denny, landed in November 1851. Called Luna Park, it was similar to Coney Island in New York and became part of the city when nearly six square miles of West Seattle was annexed by Seattle in 1907 – a year when Ballard, South Park and other cities also joined Seattle.

Luna Park rides included a roller coaster, water slide, merry-go-round and the Cave of Mystery. But the amusement park was notorious for it's booze – Luna Park had the largest bar on the bay - and its dances, where teenagers often got drunk and found trouble.

The park closed in 1913, five years after it was opened, doomed in part by rides that would stay out of service for months while awaiting repair parts shipped by boat. The park's Natatorium, which had fresh- and salt-water swimming pools, stayed around for nearly two decades before an arsonist torched it in 1931.

During extremely low tides, people still can walk around the Luna Park pilings. Treasure hunters bring their metal detectors hoping to find something from a place that left few keepsakes.

Now the best display of images from the park are at the Luna Park Cafe on Avalon Way, a short drive from it used to stand.

A May 23, 1930 P-I ad for the opening of Playland.

Playland, which would become Seattle's second major amusement park, opened on the south shore of Bitter Lake in May 1930.

It was constructed over seven months and advertised as the million-dollar Playland. According to a P-I account from that May 23, 1930, the Dipper was a $75,000 roller coaster and the merry-go-round was $30,000.

Seattleites took the street car to what's now North 85th Street and Greenwood Avenue North and transferred to the Everett Interurban that took them directly to the Playland entrance. The 25-cent fare to the city limits and back was 25 cents and included admission to the park.

Playland opened at noon each day during that first year and advertised a dance band every afternoon and evening. Other amusements included a penny arcade, skee ball and what was advertised as "the finest shooting gallery ever conceived." A miniature railroad circled the park.

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Richard Newton displays the peace sign as the Navy's USS Germantown passes the Seattle waterfront on Wednesday, July 30, 2008. (Seattle Post-Intelligencer/Dan DeLong)

If you like naval ships -- or sailors -- you're in luck.

Fleet Week starts next week, the part of Seafair where we get our annual fix of really big ships.

The event kicks off Aug. 4 with the Parade of Ships on Elliot Bay. That goes from 1:30 to 2 p.m.

The fleet will dock on the Seattle waterfront at terminals 24, 46 and 66 -- and tours will be available Aug. 5. More info on schedules is here.

On the roster this year: four U.S. Navy ships and three ships from Canada. The official lineup, courtesy of Seafair organizers, is below.

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Washington hikers won't see many grizzly bears, but they might encounter black bears in the woods. (Getty Images)

A fatal bear attack near Yellowstone National Park has hikers feeling just a little squeamish about upcoming camping trips.

The attack happened at the Soda Butte campsite in Montana on Wednesday, leaving one dead and two others injured. A female grizzly bear entered the campsite around 4 a.m. and attacked the campers in their tents, according to several reports.

Montana wildlife officials say they've captured the bear believed to be responsible using a culvert trap. Apparently, the bear returned to the scene of the crime.

Here's the good news for hikers in the Washington state: We really don't see very many grizzly bears.

Every once in a while, one will roam down into the Northern Cascades, said Craig Bartlett, a spokesman for the state Department of Fish and Wildlife. But for the most part, you won't have to worry about grizzly bears.

However, Washington hikers might see black bears, known for being smaller and far less aggressive.

Only one fatal bear attack has been recorded in Washington state. There are three non-fatal attacks on record.

Woodland Park Zoo officials recently demonstrated how much damage bears can do to a campsite. Here's the video.

Though Washington doesn't have grizzly bears, black bears can be dangerous, Bartlett said. If you do encounter a bear while hiking, there's one key thing to remember.

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The corner of 23rd Avenue and East Union Street in Seattle's Central District looks pretty empty these days.

The art installation that's long been a fixture at that corner has been dismantled, taken down because of complaints from neighbors. Police told the landowner about complaints regarding the display, which featured photos of prominent but controversial members of the Central District community.

The artist, KUOW producer Jenny Asarnow, removed the installation earlier this week. Now, 'The Corner: 23rd and Union' is gone.

Sean Whitcomb, a spokesman with the Seattle Police Department, said police passed on complaints about one component of the project. He declined to provide details of the complaints, saying they're confidential.

The project's removal has proved controversial, with some questioning whether police instructed the landowner to take the display down. Whitcomb said that's not what happened.

"We didn't ask anyone to take anything down," he said. "We're not art critics. People expect us to share information -- good officers will do that."

He said the decision to remove the exhibit originated with the landowner and the artist.

The exhibit was a fixture in the Central District for more than a year. Asarnow also coordinated an audio installation online, featuring the words of Central District residents who called a hot-line number to share their memories.

Residents were asked questions such as, "What do you remember?" And, "What needs to happen?"

The project grew from a trend that's taking place in many of Seattle's old neighborhoods: In with the new. In a 2009 statement, Asarnow said she wanted to document the changes happening in the Central District and to create a place for residents to share their opinions.

"I wanted to know why this place is the way it is," she wrote. "And I wanted to invite everyone who knew the neighborhood to collaborate in telling its story."

Here's Asarnow's statement about taking 'The Corner' down:

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In case you missed it:

A while back, Rickey Sharratt was having a good time "mudding," which for you city folk, is when you take your giant truck into the woods and spin it through the mud for fun.

So why is Sharratt now looking contrite on YouTube?

Sharratt, who is from the Southeast Washington town of Camas, was caught and convicted in February for his illegal, off-road caper in the Yacolt Burn State Forest near the Oregon border. The land is owned by the state Department of Natural Resources.

Sharratt, who was 28 at the time, had driven his Chevy 4x4 past a locked gate and tore up the land, causing about $2,000 worth in damages, according to the department.

The Clark County District judge who sentenced Sharratt gave him a modern-day choice: Forty hours of community service, or a public-service video filmed by the state on YouTube.

Sharratt chose the latter. He was also ordered to reimburse the state for the destruction he caused.

"Off-roading damages habitat that fish and wildlife depend on," Sharratt, clad in camo cap and Lynyrd Skynyrd tee, says earnestly in the video posted this week.

"It costs taxpayers a lot of money."

Says the Department of Natural Resources: "Soil torn up by vehicle tires is more likely to erode in our rainy winters, causing silt and mud to flow into nearby creeks, many of which have fish, including salmon."

That kid on the right? He doesn't really represent the Quileute legends, according to a Seattle Art Museum exhibit. (Courtesy photo)

Twilight got it all wrong regarding Quileute legend.

First of all, there weren't ever werewolves. There wasn't a pact with vampires. And there certainly aren't teen heartthrobs running around the woods wearing cutoffs and not much else.

But according to the Quileute Tribe, there were wolves.

Quileute legend is the subject of an exhibit opening in August at the Seattle Art Museum. Spurred by the craze that's grown from Stephenie Meyer's "Twilight" books and the more recent movie saga, SAM is preparing to open an exhibition called "Behind the Scenes: the Real Story of Quileute Wolves."

In case you're not up on the latest teen craze, the Quileute people are portrayed in the "Twilight" books and movies as werewolves, the sworn enemy of vampires. One particular werewolf, Jacob Black, is a love interest of heroine Bella Swan.

The SAM exhibit debuts at the museum Aug. 14 and will run for one year. The idea is to authentically portray the Quileute legends built around wolves, said curator Barbara Brotherton.

Believe it or not, it's not exactly the story Jacob lays out for Bella while strolling on a Washington beach during the first movie.

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The long-suffering and long-gone West Seattle totem pole is back up in West Seattle.

The pole, which was stolen in November, was put back up Wednesday at Rotary Viewpoint near 35th Avenue Southwest and Southwest Alaska Street, the Seattle Parks and Recreation Department said.

The pole had been there since 1976, Then it was stolen and found in a trailer in Keizer, Ore., near Salem.

The Rotary Club of West Seattle oversaw the repairs to the totem pole.

There will be a community celebration to be Aug. 10.

Leonard G. Fish. (Courtesy photo)

He did it. Leonard G. Fish made it into the Seattle Aquarium.

Well, kind of. Aquarium officials have consented to give the pesky little goldfish a place among their exhibits. It just so happens the place they chose is a former maintenance closet.

How's that for a slap in the gill?

After Leonard went to all the trouble of gathering 30,000 votes, aquarium officials are telling him he needs another 15,000. At least, he'll need to reach 45,000 votes if he wants to be displayed in the aquarium's grand-hall entry way instead of a closet.

Poor Leonard. In other words, the "Vote Leonard In" campaign continues.

Leonard is central icon of a marketing campaign for the aquarium for several years now. His site -- Voteleonardin.com -- has attracted more than 32,000 votes to date. His orange, bug-eyed face is featured on billboards, and the character even has a Twitter presence as @LeonardGFish.

Aquarium officials drafted an official letter to Leonard, explaining their decision to keep him apart from the main exhibits. (Don't take it too hard, Leonard. I'm sure the desire for prolonged exposure didn't factor into the decision at all.)

You can read the letter to Leonard here.

Here's an excerpt:

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The Dude (Jeff Bridges) and his buddy Walter (John Goodman) as they appear in the Coen brothers' "The Big Lebowski." (Courtesy photo)

Mark your calendars, "Big Lebowski" fans. If you even have a calendar. Writing down appointments isn't very Dude-like.

Lebowski Fest is returning to Seattle, scheduled for Oct. 15 and 16 at The Showbox downtown.

Plan on bowling. Plan on drinking White Russians. Plan on wearing your bathrobe.

Tickets are $20 if you buy them in advance. It'll cost $25 to get in at the door.

The event was founded almost a decade ago by two guys (Dudes, even) in Kentucky. Seattlepi.com freelancer Shawn Telford previewed the event last year.

Read what he wrote below.

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Seattle weather will fall into a familiar pattern the next several days, the National Weather Service says.

Morning clouds will slowly give way to sunshine. Temperatures will be in the lower 70s. And at night, the cloud cover -- nature's air conditioner, after all -- rolls in. Evening lows will be in the mid- to upper 50s.

Going to Pike Place Market or Pioneer Square can often be a battle of elbows and a serious test of your patience with tourists. But when you do make it out, particularly on a nice sunny day, you're likely to get a nice view of a totem pole in one of their plazas. You look up and see a variety of animals and other symbols carved out of wood, left to wonder what the Native Americans could have meant with each one. So you might wonder ...

Is the tradition of carving totem poles native to Western Washington?

Experts at the Burke Museum of Natural History and Culture have the answer in our 14th installment of Ask the Burke (got a question for next time? Send it here):

Different faces, different places

Tlingit totem pole is unveiled at Pioneer Square, Seattle, Washington, October 18, 1899. Photo courtesy University of Washington, Special Collections Division.

Although totem poles have become a symbol of all Northwest Coast Native people and their use has spread to neighboring tribes through the years, they weren't always in the Seattle area. Tall multiple-figure poles known as totem poles were first made only by the northern Northwest Coast Haida, Tlingit and Tsimshian peoples in Southeast Alaska and British Columbia and are not native to the people of Western Washington.

Closer to home, the Coast Salish people in Southern British Columbia and Western Washington carved large human figures representing ancestors and spirit helpers on interior house posts and as grave monuments.

Even though totem poles were not originally carved by people living around the Puget Sound, references to totem poles can be found in many places around Seattle. For example, the Tlingit pole standing in Pioneer Square was acquired in 1899 by a group of Seattle businessmen who took a trip to Southeast Alaska and stopped in the Tlingit village of Tongass. They assumed that the village had been abandoned and proceeded to remove a large pole that was taken back to Seattle and erected in Pioneer Square. In fact, the Tongass people were just away at their fishing camps, and when they returned, they were unhappy to find the pole stolen. The thieves had been observed and their actions were reported to Governor Brady in Alaska. The Tongass people asked for the return of the pole or payment for it. After lengthy negotiations, a payment was made, but the pole remained in Seattle. This pole was damaged by fire in Pioneer Square in 1938, and a replica was carved by a group of Tlingit carvers from Ketchikan as part of a Civilian Conservation Corps project. This replica pole still stands in Pioneer Square in Seattle today.

To learn more about the history of totem poles and other carvings, visit the web site The Enduring Power of Totem Poles.

-- Burke staff

Look up museum hours here. And for updates from the Burke Museum, check out the Burke Blog.



More Ask the Burke
Are Washington's favorite animals dying off?
Why are there so many crows in Seattle?
How far did the ash travel from the Mount St. Helens eruption?
Why do woodpeckers hammer away at my house?
How do Northwest tribes tell of 19th century epidemics?
If a tsunami comes to Washington, how long do we have?
Have we found dinosaur fossils in Washington State?
What's the largest bird in Washington state?
If it's so wet in Seattle, why aren't there more mosquitoes?
Where was the first archaeological dig in the Puget Sound?
Which state volcano is most likely to erupt next?
What is the most abundant fish in Puget Sound?
Why are the Quileute people werewolves in 'Twilight?'

A goat works on clearing the Pine Street Hill Climb Monday. (Angela Nickerson/Seattle P-I)

You know you're vacationing in Seattle (or the Swiss Alps) when...

Upon leaving your hotel, you see goats grazing underneath a viaduct.

At first, Becka and Kirstyn Lazur thought the animals were horses. The sisters, in Seattle on vacation, spotted the goats as they walked away from their hotel late Tuesday morning.

A closer look showed the animals were too small to be horses. On second thought, they were probably too hungry as well.

"We thought it was a museum -- some kind of goat exhibit," said Becka Lazur, who is from Connecticut. Her sister is from Los Angeles.

Not so. The animals seen scouring the Pine Street Hill Climb this week might best be described as working goats -- a new social class of Capra aegagrus hircus that's showing its face around Seattle more often lately.

Just think of them as hairy little eating machines.

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People ride the Mellenflieger the Puyallup Fair in 2004. Scott Eklund/Seattle Post-Intelligencer

Need a job? The Puyallup Fair is gathering applications for seasonal workers to staff the September event.

But if you'd planned on picking up some extra cash by working at the fair, you'd better move fast. With unemployment still hovering around 9 percent, these jobs might go fast.

WorkSource's website started accepting applications for fair jobs Monday. Applications won't be accepted in person this year.

Karen LaFlamme, a spokeswoman for the fair, estimated about 3,000 workers will be hired. Wages start around $8.55 per hour.

Here's what LaFlamme told me about the jobs:

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Seattle's summer continues Tuesday.

The National Weather Service says to expect sunny skies and a high temperature of 80 on Tuesday.

Clouds will increase Tuesday night. Wednesday ought to start off cloudy, but skies will clear later in the day.

The high temperature Wednesday ought to be 79 degrees. Thursday may be just a little cooler.

The Church of Scientology on Queen Anne. (Angela Nickerson/ Seattle P-I)

I was audited Monday.

It's not what you think -- the Internal Revenue Service wasn't even involved. I was audited by a pleasant-looking woman named Judy Bruning who works for the Church of Scientology.

This happened in the line of duty, while I was reporting on the church's new lower Queen Anne headquarters. I was curious, wanting to find out more about how auditing worked. And since they offered, I had a seat in front of the Hubbard electropsychometer (E-meter for short).

Scientologists believe that by measuring electrical resistance, the device can pinpoint distress or painful topics on a subconscious level. The E-meter is supposedly extremely sensitive; Scientology Founder L. Ron Hubbard reportedly said it can detect that tomatoes "scream when sliced."

I was not sliced, thankfully. I'm sure I would have screamed.

I was, however, pinched.

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Stenson in action. (Photo courtesy Zig Zag Cafe)

Murray Stenson, the bartender at Seattle's Zig Zag Cafe, was named "Best Bartender in America" over the weekend.

Stenson, who is credited with helping to revive cocktail culture in the United States, won the honor at the the Tales of the Cocktail festival in New Orleans over the weekend. Check out Crosscut and The Seattle Times for more.

Also, click here for a nice piece on a Stenson creation from the San Francisco Chronicle.

Hearing about this kind of thing just makes me wish I'd paid more attention in my high school botany class.

Estella Leopold, a professor emeritus of botany and forest resources at the University of Washington, just landed the International Cosmos Prize. For those of you who aren't familiar with the Japanese award, it comes with a big cash prize: 40 million yen.

That's almost $500,000. The prize goes to one person or team every year for demonstrating how human beings can live in harmony with nature.

From a UW news release:

Leopold, 83, has been teaching and conducting research for more than 60 years, 35 of them at the UW. She pioneered the use of fossilized pollen and spores in North America to understand how plants and ecosystems respond over eons to such things as climate change.

The University of Washington said Monday that Nike has resolved issues with workers once employed at plants in Honduras, allowing the school to renew its apparel contract with the Oregon company.

Nike on Monday agreed to contribute $1.54 million to a worker's relief fund in Honduras. The fund will be distributed to 1,500 workers.

The UW said Nike also has agreed to help provide training to workers and to help the workers get priority in local hiring in the next two years. The company will enroll them in a plan to get health care coverage for a year or until they find work, whichever comes first.

"We are delighted at this outcome," UW President Mark Emmert said in a release. "More than taking responsibility for correcting the violations of its subcontractors, Nike's actions chart a responsible course for its competitors to follow in similar situations."

The university's relationship with Nike has been a sore point for many on campus.

A group of students recently urged Emmert to take a stand against the company before he steps down this fall. He will leave to head the National Collegiate Athletic Association.

A university advisory committee for trademarks and licensing had recommended that the UW let its licensing agreement with Nike lapse when it expires in December. The agreement allows Nike to produce apparel and other goods featuring the UW logo.

At issue for both the committee and students has been the treatment of the workers in Honduras.

The University of Wisconsin at Madison ended its relationship with Nike over the controversy. And Cornell University promised that it would do the same.

Indeed, The New York Times reported that the Nike deal came after pressure from students and universities.

"This is certainly one of the most significant successes of universities in their labor rights efforts," the Times quoted Scott Nova, executive director of the Worker Rights Consortium, as saying. The consortium is a group of 186 universities that monitors factories that make college-logo apparel. "This may be a watershed moment. Up until now, major apparel brands have steadfastly refused to take any direct financial responsibility for the obligation to the workers in their contractors' factories. Now the most high-profile sports apparel firm has done just that."

You can read Nike's statment here.

Looking to sell your house? If your zip code is 98424, consider yourself lucky.

That zip code belongs to Fife, a suburb of Tacoma. And it's the Puget Sound region's hottest zip code, according to a report from ZipRealty.

The real estate brokerage's hot-or-not methodology involves looking at areas where homes are selling the most over list price. Homes in Fife are barely selling for more than sellers are asking (averaging about 100.11 percent of list price), according to ZipRealty.

That should give you some idea of just how hot (or not) the rest of the region is.

Seattle's Madison Park and Montlake neighborhoods have the distinction of being the region's coldest in terms of sale price. Houses in the 98112 zip code are selling for about 91.73 percent of list price, according to the brokerage's data.

Take a look at the rest of the region's hot and cold spots.

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Getty Images

When you see a herd of 60 goats perched on the Pine Street Hill Climb this week, don't be alarmed. They're just doing their job.

The Seattle Department of Transportation hired the company that owns the goats to clear the overgrown slope near Pike Place Market.

Transportation officials say the incline, located just off Alaskan Way, is too steep for crews to clear with traditional equipment.

The goats are starting the big chow-down Monday. The job is expected to take five days.

Just so you know, the goats will be contained to the slope with a fence. The nearby stairway will be closed while the hillside is cleared.

Getty Images

It's raining golf balls. Hallelujah. It's raining golf balls. Amen.

No, I'm not talking about giant hail -- the kind we hear about in the Midwest every so often. These are real golf balls. The kind you hit with a club.

Auburn Valley Kiwanis is behind the stunt, part of an effort to raise money for disadvantaged children.

The Kiwanis group is selling golf balls for $5 at the Auburn Farmer's Market and the Auburn Golf Course. Then at the 25th Annual Golf Classic for Kids on Aug. 6, the balls will be dropped via helicopter onto the 10th fairway.

The owner of the ball that makes it in or closest to the hole gets $1,000. The money raised from selling the balls goes to kids in the Auburn community.

Summer keeps on keeping on in Seattle.

Expect sunny skies and a high temperature of 82 degrees on Monday, according to the National Weather Service.

The weather service predicts partly sunny skies and a high temperature in the lower 80s on Tuesday and Wednesday.

It will likely be a little cooler later in the week with perhaps a few more clouds.