Iaq Pubs

It’s the second Monday of school year, and at Park Orchard Elementary in Kent, half-a-dozen 5-year-old hands shoot into the air when Georgia Nielsen asks her first question of the class.

“How many of you know only some English?”

In schools throughout Kent School District and the state, the answer to this question is increasingly important.

The reason, district leaders say, is a change in rules that this is the first year this school must consider students learning English as one of the groups included in the complex calculation that determines whether an elementary school makes “adequate yearly progress” as defined by federal law.

To make national benchmarks, a school must meet goals in reading and math for all students and those for every subgroup, including specific ethnic groups, special education and students learning English.

Until this year, if a school had a relatively small number of students who were learning English, they were not required to meet targets for subgroups. Only students in fourth grade were included. Now, the number includes all tested grades, which for Park Orchard is students in grades three through six.

Preliminary state results show that 12 Kent elementary schools missed national achievement targets under the national No Child Left Behind Act. Five of those schools, including Park Orchard, failed because they missed targets for ELL students. The other seven schools missed two or fewer targets in specific groups: special-education and African-American and Hispanic students.

For districts like Kent, results from next year’s test will give a better picture of how schools are doing. Schools and districts that miss one or more of the federal targets in the same subject for two years in a row face a series of sanctions that become more severe the longer the schools stay on the list.

Sanctions apply only to Title I schools, such as Park Orchard, which are schools that have a high percentage of low-income students. Ten of the 12 Kent elementary schools that did not make adequate yearly progress are Title I schools, the district said. Schools on the list can be removed once they meet all targets two years in a row.

“You’ve increased your chances … not making it by having more students who are now on the radar,” said JoLynn Berge, federal policy and grant administrator for the state Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction.

What is happening in Kent schools mirrors what’s happening around the state, Berge said.

In Washington, the number of schools that failed more than doubled this year - 757, up from 338 - and Berge said next year could be worse. This is the first year any Kent elementary school has missed the No Child Left Behind targets. Now, many are looking for new methods to target specific groups.

Kent elementary schools have new reading curriculum this year, along with all-day kindergarten at some elementary schools with many children of poor families.

Mark Haddock, assistant superintendent of curriculum and instruction, said the new data will help the district support failing schools.

“It’s about refinement,” Haddock said. “We look at our data and assess how to use maximize our available resources to assure the greatest likelihood of success.”

Later this fall, the Kent School Board will vote on individual improvement plans for each of the district’s 28 elementary schools.

Cami Okubo, principal of Park Orchard, said she was surprised but not discouraged by this year’s results.

“No Child Left Behind has raised awareness of all the subgroups,” Okubo said. “I don’t think before there was enough intentional analysis of that data.”

For Okubo, one of the biggest challenges is finding balance. She is spending more money on targeted programs for kindergarteners and first-graders who are learning English, but she wants to be sure resources and money are going toward other core areas, such as reading, writing and math.

Park Orchard is not wasting any time with students who need a boost.

English Language Learners in kindergarten now get more one-on-one time with paraeducators, who work with struggling students in reading and writing.

Other changes this year include before- and after-school sessions for English Language Learners in first grade. Over the course of months or years, these students will work their way toward fluency in speaking, reading and writing English, Okubo said.

Not without challenges, of course. The number of English language learners at Park Orchard has tripled in the past decade. This year, 18 languages other than English are spoken by students at the school.

Karen Johnson: 253-234-8605 or karenjohnson@seattletimes.com

Linda Shaw contributed to this story.

The politics of elections

Fight for the right to (your own) party

Editor, The Times:

People argue that they should be free to vote for any candidate of any party to hold any office. This is certainly true, and everyone has that opportunity in the general election. However, the purpose of the primary is to nominate candidates for the general election.

I am a Democrat, and I’m sure that the Republicans, Greens and Libertarians don’t want me to have a say in who will represent them in the general election. I know that I don’t want them to have a say in who will be my party’s nominee.

Washington state’s primary system has an incredibly low threshold for party affiliation; all you have to do is chose a party whose primary you wish to participate in on your ballot - no party registration necessary.

The right to associate with the party of one’s choosing is fundamental to our democracy, but it doesn’t give anyone the right to nominate another party’s candidates. One also has the right to be an independent, of course, but must realize that if you chose not to be affiliated with a party, you don’t have a say in what that party does.

Many people complain that none of the parties represent their views. The best solution is to become more active in a party. After all, they have no incentive at all to represent people who refuse to associate with them.

- Eric Berg, Seattle

Proposition 1

Sims’ stand welcome in a time when leaders often give a blank stare

I want to make sure you hear from someone who appreciates Ron Sims’ clear position against the roads-and-rail package [”The roads-and-transit plan: so much cost to do so little,” Times, guest commentary, Sept. 27]. His comments about letting the voters decide was atypical of what we can expect, these days, from elected officials who have swallowed too much of the “gotta-get-along” water in this region.

I’m sick of guessing what to do on such issues, where elected and appointed officials have all the information, but it’s up to voters to determine the benefit or folly of their vote. We elect people to try to lead us and tell us what they think, given their information and experience.

Mr. Sims, thank you for helping me understand this package. Thank you for taking a stand, and for letting us know what that stand is. You have given King County your opinion and your reasons for it. Those who trust your judgment will now know better how to evaluate their vote.

- Miryam Gordon, SeattleThe Keystone Kops taking us for a ride

About Ron Sims’ stinging rebuke of the ill-conceived Proposition 1 ballot measure, transit-board Chairman John Ladenburg says, “I’m not a big believer in endorsements” [”Sims to vote ‘no’ on ‘Roads & Transit’ measure,” Local News, Sept. 28].

I can identify with his opinion, except that it’s Un-Sound Transit that exceeds my capacity for belief. Un-Sound Transit has been a Keystone Kops operation from day one, and is apparently simply a way for its employees to work at a governmental agency and thereby build up retirement benefits.

Millions for bread and circuses, but not one more dime for Un-Sound Transit!

- Jay Kridner, SeattleWatch out, polar bears

RTID [Regional Transportation Investment District] will cook polar bears and light-rail commuters alike. No matter what good RTID could do, it would do irreparable harm to any progress we could make to slow global warming. A Puget Sound Regional Council study predicts the roads portion of the package would cause a 45 percent increase in car miles traveled. That would be the hot kiss of death to every creature, from polar bears to commuters. This bill must be exorcised and brought back as a stand-alone public-transportation bill.

The future could be bright if we address our addiction to cars. The first step? Stop building new roads to serve sprawl.

This compromise bill was brought to us through our flawed deal-making political process that caters to selfish voters. That same process has us killing for oil. We need to open our eyes, grow up and work toward a sustainable future.

Run, don’t drive, to vote against RTID.

- Jack Tomkinson, SeattleDoing something now is better than nothing

I could only laugh when I read that Ron Sims is urging us to vote no on Proposition 1 this November, saying that we must wait until “real transportation solutions” are before us - this coming from someone who was on the Sound Transit governing board. This is the same person who thinks it is a great idea to rip up rail tracks that essentially run the length of Interstate 405 to put in a trail, which would essentially destroy any chances of putting in light rail or a Sounder train from Snohomish to Renton in the future. (It is no coincidence that Proposition 1 would allow this corridor to be studied for such a purpose.)

I urge everyone to ignore his lackluster argument and vote yes on Proposition 1. Doing something now is far better than doing nothing. You cannot put a price on that!

- Will Brandt, Lake StevensSims tells it like it is

Good for you, Ron Sims! You’ve called out Proposition 1 as the misguided boondoggle that it is. In our current climate crisis, we need to do more now. For example, those billions of dollars could provide free 15-minute bus service to any locale in the county for decades!

By the way, when are you running for governor, Mr. Sims? For your integrity and being brave enough to say out loud, “folks, this [Proposition 1] emperor is buck-nekkid!”, you can count on my vote, my contribution and my volunteer time.

- Judith Rickard, SeattleJane Hague

It’s past time to put away the scarlet S for “scandal”

Enough already. So Jane Hague made some mistakes. Let’s get out the wooden crossbeams and spikes and go to work with a heavy hammer.

So she gave to her own campaign - with her own money. Hillary Clinton made less of a fuss when she grudgingly gave back $850,000 donated by a criminal on the lam - and has rarely been accused of using her own money for anything.

The college-credit imbroglio is too ridiculous to make an issue of even for The Times. Let’s not bring up all the good things she’s done for King County; after all, it might skew a good story.

Then we have the so-called DUI. It’s a good lesson for all of us, even for all the nondrinking reporters - if such a species exist. When one is tired and under stress it’s not the best time to have a glass of wine.

However, Jane didn’t:

Drive off a bridge and kill someone;

Slam into a tree;

Or sideswipe other cars and then claim to be too drunk to remember.

Why is it when a Republican makes a mistake they are supposed to slit their throat, and yet Democrats are consistently given a pass?

To put things in perspective, if a member of the Kennedy clan had made these “mistakes,” it would be considered just another day at the office. And a boring one at that.

- Denny Andrews, BellevueSex offenders

Reaction an overreaction

Regarding “School on alert over sex offender,” [Local News, Sept. 13], if the offender is present when children are not, then he is not hurting anyone or tempting himself. The Mountlake Terrace school overreacted and took it too far.

Timothy McKenna is living temporarily with his sponsors, and the school singling him out is not aiding his recovery. He is a person, not just a thing they can get rid of.

Sex offenders can change their ways, and it has been almost 12 years since his last offense. He is living permanently in Marysville in a halfway house for sex offenders. Nothing in his conditions upon release stated he could not live temporarily next to a school. When he was released, a standard community alert was issued. McKenna served his time but will always carry the burden of his past.

He is now no harm to the school, neighborhood or community.

- Alexis Hamilton, KirklandSonics

Bennet isn’t winning any popularity contests

Clay Bennett needs to wake up. He knew the Sonics were losing money when he bought them. He knew the taxpayers would not pay for another arena for him. He knew there was a contract with KeyArena that he would have to honor. He knew he was not going to keep the Sonics or the Storm here from the beginning.

He lied.

I, like a lot of other people, am sick of seeing him on the news and hearing his lies. Do what you have to do, and just shut up. If you leave, the teams will be missed, but you won’t be.

- JoAnn McCord, RentonSend the team to pack and citizens to the track

I went to the University of Kansas (in the state just north of Oklahoma), where I took 15 semester hours of calculus and three semester hours of economics. I guess what I needed to take to understand the current situation with the Sonics was the course in “Oklahoma business math” that Clay Bennett must have taken.

Then I might understand why, if one loses $17 million a season, one would need to spend (or to get Seattle to spend) a half-billion dollars on a new arena to make up for that loss [”Blame flies as city sues Sonics,” page one, Sept. 25].

I think Seattle has the right idea in standing firm on this, but maybe not for the right reason. The emphasis on spectator sports versus participatory sports may be one reason we are all so fat. Getting rid of spectator sports would make municipal coffers fat and the citizens lean.

- Thomas J. Munyon, MarysvilleCall her President Clinton, please … or not

Ambition somehow equals demonization

Sen. Hillary Clinton has always been a lightning rod. If you dislike her politics, you know what you to do at the polls. If you dislike her husband, you also know what to do.

We know she is ambitious - and yes, I remember Whitewater. And she’s the only one? At least some of our senators are indicted or convicted felons. (Perhaps we need to hear about Idaho one more time?)

What bothers me about all of this is that she seems to be continuously demonized. God forbid she should be smart, ambitious and qualified.

My fondest hope is that journalists behave like journalists and not a bunch of tabloid hacks, and that the people pointing fingers take a good look in the mirror, scour their own consciences (assuming they have one), and then tell me what they think.

- Beverly Verner, KentInsurance logic 101

I’ve read recent letters to the editor decrying Hilary Clinton’s health-care plan for requiring healthy people to get health insurance - “especially those who need it the least,” according to one writer [”She’s rough on the help,” Northwest Voices, Sept. 23].

I’m not sure how to break the news to these people, but that’s how insurance works.

- Mark Damberg, SeattleHillary’s not exactly reinventing the wheel

Many people seem to be concerned that they will be forced to buy insurance under Hillary Clinton’s universal health-care plan. What many people do not know is that they already do. Every time someone who does not have insurance goes to the emergency room, we who do have insurance have to pay for them.

And emergency-room care is much more expensive then preventive care.

- Barry Meister, West RichlandCalling H.G. Wells …

Let’s see: O.J. Simpson has been in jail and Hillary Clinton is pushing a costly big government health-care plan. Did I go through a time warp and it’s 1994 again?

- David Glenn, Renton

GAINESVILLE, Fla. - On a day filled with upsets, Auburn turned in one of the biggest.

Freshman Wes Byrum kicked a 43-yard field goal as time expired to lift the Tigers to a 20-17 victory over fourth-ranked Florida on Saturday night.

The loss snapped an 11-game winning streak for the defending national champions and gave the Gators their first home loss under coach Urban Meyer. They had won 18 in a row there, 17 since Meyer took over in 2005.

Florida (4-1, 2-1 Southeastern Conference) could take a big step back next week at No. 2 LSU. If the Gators perform like they did Saturday, they could be in for a long day.

Other Top 25 games

Kansas State 41, No. 7 Texas 21

AUSTIN, Texas - Two kick returns for touchdowns and an interception return for another score propelled Kansas State to a victory over Texas (4-1), the Longhorns’ worst home defeat in 10 years under coach Mack Brown.

Linebacker Ian Campbell scored on a 41-yard interception return in the second quarter and James Johnson took a kickoff 85 yards for a 21-14 lead moments after Texas had tied the score.

Jordy Nelson’s 89-yard punt return in the third put the Wildcats up 34-21.

No. 2 Louisiana State 34, Tulane 9

NEW ORLEANS - One good half was more than enough for LSU against Tulane.

Jacob Hester’s second touchdown of the game and Charles Scott’s pair of scoring runs helped LSU (5-0) amass 24 unanswered second-half points.

No. 8 Ohio State 30, Minnesota 7

MINNEAPOLIS - Chris Wells rushed for 116 yards and two touchdowns, and the Ohio State defense didn’t budge in a victory at Minnesota.

The Buckeyes (5-0) have allowed only 34 points in five easy victories, making life much easier for new quarterback Todd Boeckman.

No. 9 Wisconsin 37, Michigan State 34

MADISON, Wis. - P.J. Hill ran for 155 yards and two touchdowns and Wisconsin (5-0) extended the nation’s longest winning streak to 14.

Maryland 34, No. 10 Rutgers 24

PISCATAWAY, N.J. - Backup quarterback Chris Turner led three second-half scoring drives, Keon Lattimore rushed for 124 yards and a touchdown, and Maryland’s defense shut down Ray Rice.

No. 12 Boston College 24, Massachusetts 14

BOSTON - Andre Callender ran for 115 yards and two touchdowns and Matt Ryan threw for one TD to lead Boston College past its feisty state rival and give the Eagles (5-0) their best start since 1954.

Georgia Tech 13, No. 13 Clemson 3

ATLANTA - Georgia Tech stifled the dynamic running duo of James “Thunder” Davis and C.J. “Lightning” Spiller and took advantage of a stunningly poor performance by Dean Buchholz and the rest of Clemson’s kicking game.

No. 14 Kentucky 45, Florida Atlantic 17

LEXINGTON, Ky. - Andre Woodson threw for a career-high five touchdowns in an easy win but had his NCAA-record streak of consecutive passes without an interception snapped at 325.

No. 15 Georgia 45, Mississippi 17

ATHENS, Ga. - Thomas Brown ran for 180 yards - the most for Georgia in six years - and three touchdowns on runs of 50, 41 and 4 yards.

No. 16 South Carolina 38, Mississippi St. 21

COLUMBIA, S.C. - Freshman Chris Smelley threw for a career-best 279 yards and two touchdowns to lead South Carolina (4-1).

No. 17 Virginia Tech 17, North Carolina 10

BLACKSBURG, Va. - Tyrod Taylor, Branden Ore and Virginia Tech still can’t find their offense, but the defense made big plays.

No. 19 Hawaii 48, Idaho 20

MOSCOW, Idaho - Adam Leonard and Myron Newberry returned interceptions for touchdowns and Hawaii (5-0) overcame a career-high five interceptions by Colt Brennan.

Illinois 27, No. 21 Penn State 20

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. - Regus Benn returned a kickoff 90 yards for a touchdown and caught a pass for another and the Illinois defense intercepted three passes against Penn State (3-2).

Florida State 21, No. 22 Alabama 14

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. - Xavier Lee came off the bench to throw two touchdown passes to De’Cody Fagg, and Antone Smith scored on a 5-yard run.

No. 24 Cincinnati 52, San Diego State 17

SAN DIEGO - Ben Mauk threw four touchdown passes in the second quarter and the Bearcats scored on six of their first seven possessions to rout San Diego State.

No. 25 Nebraska 35, Iowa State 17

LINCOLN, Neb. - I-back Marlon Lucky passed and ran for touchdowns and Bo Ruud scored on an interception return for the second consecutive week.

Running

Ultramarathoner covers 152.4 miles in less than 24 hours: Scott Jurek of Seattle captured his second straight Spartathlon ultramarathon in Greece on Saturday, winning a 152.4-mile race that attempts to retrace the journey of the legendary messenger Pheidippides 2,500 years ago.

Jurek completed the run from Athens to Sparta in 23 hours, 12 minutes, 14 seconds.

He was among 332 runners at the foot of the Acropolis on Friday to start the race. The route covers highways, rural roads and mountain paths.

Jurek won last year’s event in 22:52:18 and owns the fifth- and sixth-fastest winning times in Spartathlon history. The first international Spartathlon was in 1983.

Webb wins Fifth Avenue Mile: Alan Webb passed defending champion Kevin Sullivan to win the Continental Airlines Fifth Avenue Mile in 3 minutes, 52.7 seconds in New York.

Canadian Carmen Douma-Hussar, the 2005 winner, took the women’s race in 4:22.8.

Tennis

Williams to face Kirilenko: American Venus Williams advanced to the final of the Korea Open by defeating Flavia Pennetta of Italy 6-2, 6-2 in Seoul.

The top-seeded Williams will face fourth-seeded Maria Kirilenko of Russia in today’s final.

Kirilenko beat fifth-seeded Eleni Daniilidou of Greece 7-5, 6-0 in the other semifinal.

International basketball

U.S. women rout Argentina in semifinal game: The United States is one win from qualifying for next year’s Olympics in Beijing.

Rebekkah Brunson scored 20 points as the U.S. team routed Argentina 104-53 in Valdivia, Chile, to advance to today’s gold-medal game at the FIBA Americas Olympic qualifying tournament.

The United States (4-0), coached by Storm coach Anne Donovan, will play Cuba (3-1) for the gold medal.

Candace Parker added 17 points for the United States, which was forced to qualify for Beijing after finishing third at last year’s world championships.

College basketball

Police say marijuana was found at Tennessee player’s apartment: Marijuana was found in the on-campus apartment of Tennessee forward Duke Crews before the player was suspended from the team, university police said.

Capt. Keith Lambert said no one was in the apartment when the two small bags of marijuana were found Monday by housing personnel who were investigating a complaint of loud music.

Volunteers coach Bruce Pearl announced Crews’ suspension Wednesday, saying he “made some poor decisions.”

Crews averaged 8.4 points as a freshman last season.

Rugby

Fiji advances to Cup quarterfinal round: Fiji reached the Rugby World Cup quarterfinals with a 38-34 victory over Wales in Bordeaux, France.

Fiji will play South Africa in the quarterfinals.

Scotland made the quarterfinals by defeating Italy 18-16. New Zealand crushed Romania 85-8 and Australia beat Canada 37-6.

Cycling

Bastianelli of Italy wins women’s road race at worlds: Marta Bastianelli of Italy won the women’s road-race title on a breakaway at the world championships in Stuttgart, Germany.

Bastianelli, 20, covered 83 miles in 3 hours, 46 minutes, 34 seconds.

Boxing

Pavlik knocks out Taylor: Kelly Pavlik knocked out Jermain Taylor in the seventh round to win the world middleweight title in Atlantic City, N.J.

Far behind on points, Pavlik (32-0) cornered Taylor (27-1-1) in the seventh round and stunned him with a hard right to the jaw, then stopped him with a flurry of lefts and rights.

Dawson keeps title: Chad Dawson retained his WBC light-heavyweight title by stopping Epifanio Mendoza in the fourth round in Sacramento, Calif. Dawson improved to 25-0.

Track and field

Mississippi sprinter is found shot to death: Mississippi sprinter Rodney Lydale Lockhart, 20, was found shot to death at his apartment near campus in Oxford. His death is being investigated as a homicide, police said.

Seattle Times news services

When the media heard about a homicide inside a Covington-area house filled with marijuana plants, Covington Police Chief Kevin Klason started getting calls from the press.

But the incident, just outside the city, wasn’t Covington’s problem to solve. The house is in an unincorporated area of King County between Kent and Covington.

The King County Sheriff’s Office was in charge of the investigation. City officials had to send out a news release to set the media straight.

In Southeast King County, where city boundaries blend into unincorporated areas, cities often get tagged for crimes that didn’t happen inside city limits.

“We get press inquires all the time about crimes that don’t even occur in our city,” Renton police spokeswoman Penny Bartley said.

Police understand that when the media covers a crime, they need to give a reference point, but police say attributing a crime to the wrong jurisdiction can give cities an undeserved bad reputation.

In the event of a major incident, such as a shooting or armed robbery, the misinformation causes residents to unnecessarily fear for their safety, Klason said.

“It tends to get people a little bit alarmed, a little bit nervous,” Klason said.

A few years ago, a puzzling report on traffic deaths crossed Bartley’s desk. The report stated that Renton was the No. 2 city for traffic deaths in the area. Bartley went through the list and discovered that none of the deaths occurred inside the city.

The agency that compiled the report told Bartley they attributed the deaths to the nearest city.

Police say that part of the confusion comes from people not knowing whether they live inside city boundaries or in an unincorporated area of the county.

Sometimes when people come into the Renton police headquarters to complain or request more patrols in their neighborhood, police have to inform them that they don’t even live in the city, Bartley said.

It’s common for Renton police to get calls from people asking for information about crimes that didn’t happen in the city. In that case, city police don’t know much more than what’s been reported in the media, Bartley said.

“If it’s not in our jurisdiction, we don’t even know how to answer those questions,” Bartley said.

Because cities are compared by their crime statistics, it’s important to get it right, Bartley said.

Lauren Vane: 253-234-8604 or lvane@seattletimes.com

Earl Watson heard all he needed to hear from Jason Kidd about Kevin Durant.

Point guards tend to gossip more than tabloid columnists whenever they play with a phenom like Durant. So after a two-week Team USA training camp, Kidd began spreading the gospel about the Sonics’ prized rookie.

“Jason Kidd really loves Kevin Durant,” Watson said. “He was like, ‘Man, I love that kid. I love playing with him.’ He was just raving about him.

“I was already excited to have a chance to actually play with him for an entire season, and I just wanted to get on the court with him as soon as possible. For a point guard to get that chemistry with a shooter is really important.”

So Watson not only jumped at the chance to play in pickup games with Durant and other Sonics last week, he helped arrange them.

There were no coaches, fans or media at the Furtado Center. The players didn’t run any schemes that will soon be implemented by new coach P.J. Carlesimo, and there was nothing at stake except for pride.

“Everybody is competitive,” Durant said. “Everybody wants to win. We had three teams that played. So you sit out a game [when you lose]. If you sit out a game, you’re very mad. Whoever sits out, you come back out with that fire.

“The first day, my team, we lost three straight, and the first to win four games wins. Then we won four straight and we won. I think that shows that everybody is competitive and everybody wants to win.”

That day Durant played with Sonics Nick Collison and Mouhamed Sene as well as veteran guards Doug Christie and Jermaine Jackson.

By most accounts, Durant, a 6-foot-9 small forward, showed everyone why he was the No. 2 overall NBA draft pick and the favorite to win the Rookie of the Year award.

Still, he was surprised by Watson, the 6-1 guard, who was wildly inconsistent last year and has struggled to find a role with the Sonics since arriving in a Feb. 23, 2006, trade from Denver.

“I haven’t seen Earl Watson since a couple of years,” Durant said. “He impressed me so much. He can do so much with the ball. … He’s a real tough player. He plays defense. He does whatever you need him to do on defense. He’s a pass-first point guard. He comes off the screen and he hits you with no-look [passes]. He comes off the screen shooting jumpers, fadeaways or gets to the basket.

“He’s such a smart player. I didn’t know he was that good.”

Durant figures to be the only Sonic with a guaranteed spot in the starting lineup.

Watson will have to contend with Luke Ridnour, who started 58 games last season, and newcomer Delonte West. If Durant starts at small forward, the shooting-guard job is wide open. Contenders include: rookie Jeff Green, Damien Wilkins, Mickael Gelabale and Wally Szczerbiak, who missed 50 games last season in Boston because of ankle surgery but is cleared to practice.

Chris Wilcox is nearly a lock to start at power forward, but Collison may push him for starting time. Collison started 56 games last year as an undersized 6-10 center, but it remains to be seen whether he’ll have a chance to keep his job. Carlesimo has alluded to favoring a 7-footer at center and will have his choice between Johan Petro, Sene and Robert Swift, who missed last season because of knee surgery.

Seattle newcomer Kurt Thomas will also contend for minutes at power forward and center, however the 12-year veteran appears more suited as a backup than a starter.

“Everyone has a chance to compete for a starting role,” Watson said. “So many changes they made, there’s no telling which direction they’re going to take our team in.

“Regardless of anything else, Kevin and Jeff Green are two of the most intricate parts of our team this year. It’s up to us to encourage and support their growth no matter what happens on the court.”

Percy Allen: 206-464-2278 or pallen@seattletimes.com

Last week’s ranking in parentheses

Team

1

Cleveland (2)

I just have a funny feeling about Indians lefty Aaron Laffey

2

Boston (4)

Red Sox fans impatient for another title after endless two-year drought

3

Angels (1)

Big week for Halo franchise, but they hope for even bigger from Master Chief Vlad

4

Yankees (3)

It’s amazing the redemptive potential of a $190 million payroll

5

Arizona (5)

Melvin and Price are getting their just deserts

6

Philadelphia (7)

The Jimmy Rollins-for-MVP bandwagon is picking up steam

7

San Diego (6)

Bud Black needs to get tackling lessons from Shawne Merriman

8

Colorado (9)

These upstart Rockies are humidor-able

9

Cubs (12)

Lou’s magic dream: Beating Melvin in first round, Gillick in second, A-Rod in third

10

Atlanta (11)

Never quite recovered from the Horacio Ramirez trade

11

Detroit (10)

Magglio has locked up batting title, but MVP is still A-Rod’s

12

Mariners (13)

Rejected promotions: Howard Lincoln Hot Seat Night

13

Mets (8)

Randolph is driving the Mets down the stretch at Mauch 1 speed

14

Toronto (16)

How about them Argos?

15

Milwaukee (14)

Just ask Cecil: Prince Fielder is a lock for the MVP (Most Vengeful Progeny)

16

Dodgers (15)

Jerry Rubin: Never trust anyone over 30. Jeff Kent: Never trust anyone under 25

17

Minnesota (17)

Kevin Slowey has agreed to switch last names with Jamie Moyer

18

St. Louis (20)

La Russa voted MLB manager most likely to go Gundy on a reporter

19

Texas (24)

Rangers will start Pete Broberg if there’s a one-game playoff with A’s for third place

20

Oakland (18)

Rich Harden placed on the disabled list retroactive to kindergarten

21

Washington (21)

Nats to use Jonathan Albaladejo in long-name relief

22

Houston (25)

Craig Biggio walks away, will re-emerge in Cooperstown in 2013

23

White Sox (23)

Where’s Walt “No Neck” Williams when you really need him?

24

Cincinnati (19)

Interim Mackanin has impressed, but look at woe Reds had with last managing Pete

25

Florida (27)

Looks like Dontrelle and/or Cabrera will be on the trade block this winter

26

San Francisco (22)

Next year, Bruce Bochy plans to dress like Mike Nolan in the dugout

27

Baltimore (28)

One consolation: Nick has hit the Markakis out of the ball this year

28

Kansas City (26)

In Kansas City, 92 losses is deemed a major step forward

29

Pittsburgh (29)

Exhaustive GM search unearths only man crazy enough to take this job

30

Tampa Bay (30)

Devil Rays finally on the verge of being the third-best team in the AL East