Taking a page out of blogmaster Ian Demsky's book, I want to end your workweek on a cheerful note. Here is a light-hearted YouTube post from T-town. I know St. Patrick's Day was last month, but enjoy:

Have an aggressive or dangerous dog? It’s not welcome in Orting.

The Orting City Council unanimously voted this month to ban all dangerous dogs from the city.

The approach is stricter than in neighboring Puyallup, Sumner or unincorporated Pierce County, which all allow dangerous dogs as long as they’re securely muzzled or penned and their owners pay for a $500 permit.

Orting’s new rules follow the other jurisdictions’ processes for declaring a dog dangerous: the dog has to severely injure or kill a human without provocation, or injure or kill livestock on private property.

Orting council members didn’t see any reason why a dog that would do those things should be allowed to stay in Orting, Orting Mayor Cheryl Temple said this week.

“We think it will just help with people feeling safer,” Temple said.

City officials revisited the rules in part because they were concerned about dogs that had been declared dangerous in another city coming to Orting and getting a free pass, Temple said.

Orting’s new rules state that a dog that has been declared dangerous in any jurisdiction isn’t welcome.

Rogers High School senior Carl Spencer didn’t have to take the math WASL this week thanks to a state law that he helped get passed.

He took the test anyway.

“I figured I didn’t want to be known as the kid who didn’t pass the math WASL,” said Spencer, student body president of the Puyallup school. “I said I may as well just take it and pass it.”

Spencer testified before the Legislature in February in support of a bill that would end the graduation requirement for teens who failed the math test in 10th grade to keep retaking it in 11th and 12th grades.

Under the previous requirement, high school students had to meet standard on the math, reading and writing on the 10th-grade WASL or a state-approved alternative as one of their graduation requirements. If they didn’t pass the math section – the hardest part for most teens – they could still graduate IF they continued to earn math class credits and retake the math WASL till they graduated.
They didn’t have to pass the math test; just keep retaking it.

Spencer met the WASL reading and writing requirements when he was a sophomore, but not the math section.

In 11th grade, he thought he’d be safe since he was passing geometry class. Like many other juniors statewide last year, he didn’t realize he also had to attempt the math test again.

“After I didn’t take it an on-time graduation specialist (at his school) said this year I needed to take it and PASS it to graduate,” he said. “If by some chance I didn’t pass this test, it could possibly stop me from graduating, which could drop my acceptance from college and scholarships I might receive.”

That would be bad. Spencer plans to attend Brigham Young University’s branch in Idaho.
The 18-year-old says he's on track to meet his other graduation requirements, and he’s passing second-year algebra.

On March 30, Gov. Chris Gregoire signed House Bill 1562 into law, allowing Spencer and others in the same boat to skip the math retake as long as they keep passing math classes.

Teachers say it’s still a good idea for 11th- and 12th-graders to keep attempting the test. Students statewide who meet standard on all three WASL sections receive a special “Certificate of Academic Achievement.”

At Rogers, student government representatives also encouraged classmates to keep giving the math test a try, Rogers said.

“If you passed it, it creates a lot of options,” he said. “If you don’t pass it you still need to take a math class. If you do pass it, then juniors are free to not take a math class” in their senior year.

Spencer thinks he did well on the math test that he took with Rogers classmates on Monday and Tuesday. It seemed easier than the ACT, a college entrance exam that covered higher level math and more questions than the WASL, he says.

“It felt like a walk in the park compared to the ACT.”

Spencer should find out his test result before the end of the school year.

UPDATE: UP Mayor Linda Bird told me a few minutes ago that although the city and library pushed back the opening to 2011, UP still expects a new library in 2010. Find out more in my story for Saturday's print paper.

No really. This is the last time.

At least that’s what the Pierce County Library System and University Place are saying after the two sides again pushed back the opening of the future branch at the city’s Town Center project.

Now, the library’s projected opening date is early 2011, some six months after the new branch was originally scheduled to open.

The country’s economic woes, along with a shortage of some $10 million, forced the two sides to negotiate the opening of the branch, which will share a building with the future City Hall.

UP also has failed to sign an agreement with a developer to build the $250 million project's other components.

The news is disappointing for Mary Denzer, who was checking out magazines at the temporary branch of the UP library today. It has operated out of a former auto parts store on 27th Street West since mid-2006, when the plan was to operate there two years.

=> Read more!