LA Fitness plans grand opening
LA Fitness will celebrate its grand opening 4 to 6 p.m. Jan. 15 at 520 Washington Ave. S., Kent. The free event will include a ribbon cutting ceremony at 4 p.m. with Kent City Council President Debbie Raplee, as well as food, music and prizes. The gym is located in the former press plant of the King County Journal, which ceased operations two years ago. For details, call 253-859-7815.
Business breakfast set
Kent Chamber of Commerce will present its monthly business seminar breakfast, Good Morning Kent, 7:30 to 9 a.m. Jan. 15 at Zephyr Grill and Bar, 240 W. Kent Station St. At the meeting, Pamela Whitfield will discuss “Identity Theft Issues in Regards to Businesses.” The cost is $20 for chamber members, and $30 for non-members. For details and registration, call 253-854-1770 or danak@kentchamber.com.
4Culture makes new hire
Brandi Link has joined the staff of 4Culture, King County’s Cultural Services Agency. Link in January will join Heritage and Preservation 4Culture as their new program support specialist.
Throughout 2008, Link worked part-time as the landmark preservation consultant for the city of Bothell and as the project assistant for King County’s Historic and Scenic Corridors project, administered by Preservation 4Culture.
Prior to that, she worked with Washington Trust for Historic Preservation and Artifacts Consulting, a Tacoma-based firm, developing the interactive travel guide “Revisiting Washington: A Guide to the Evergreen State.”
“I am very pleased to be able to continue at 4Culture on at full-time basis, and can’t wait to see what exciting projects 2009 brings,” she said.
Local firm delivers holiday gifts
Military families stationed in Ft. Lewis, Wash., were treated to gifts from Santa’s Castle, a “store” set up with the help of City Moving Systems to provide Christmas gifts for their children.
City Moving Systems of Kent, an agent of United Van Lines, delivered all the donated gifts to Ft. Lewis by Dec. 15.
Then, the gifts were arranged into a store-like setting in a building on the base and families made appointments to come in with their kids and choose Christmas gifts.
City Moving Systems was also among the organizations that donated toys for the event.
This was the second year City Moving Systems participated in Santa’s Castle, and the firm plans to continue supporting military families through this event in the future.
South King Chamber breakfast Jan. 16
The Southwest King County Chamber of Commerce will host its January Networking Breakfast at 7 a.m. Jan. 21 at the Great American Casino, 14040 Interurban Ave. S., Tukwila.
The cost is $17 pre-paid and $20 at the door. The event is sponsored by Menzies Aviation, the Port of Seattle and Puget Sound Energy.
For more information visit www.swkcc.org.
State unemployment up in December
Despite snow-related closures and overloaded telephone systems, the Employment Security Department took in a record number of new unemployment claims in December.
Some 90,331 people applied for regular unemployment benefits in December, an increase of about 75 percent over December 2007. The previous record was set in December 2001, when 72,942 people filed initial claims.
The week of Dec. 21-27, 2008, which included the Christmas holiday, also set a one-week record, taking in 25,687 new unemployment claims, nearly twice as many as the same week in 2007.
Employment Security Commissioner Karen Lee said the record numbers of applications are especially staggering, considering that the department’s unemployment call centers were closed or understaffed for several days in December due to snow and the offices were closed on Christmas Day.
In addition to adding phone lines, the department has doubled staff at its unemployment call centers since last summer and is working to hire and train additional staff.
At the end of 2008, more than 136,000 Washingtonians were receiving unemployment benefits, compared to 72,910 at the end of 2007.
Unemployment benefits are paid out of the state’s unemployment-insurance trust fund. The trust fund has a current balance of more than $4 billion and is considered to be one of the healthiest in the nation.
By law, the maximum weekly unemployment benefit is $541 and the minimum is $129. The average weekly payment in 2008 was about $350.
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