Here and Now
Holiday preview

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Most banks and credit unions will be closed, but US Bank will be open. Most government offices will be closed, including post offices and state liquor stores.

But some basic services will be on a regular schedule, such as garbage pickup. Seattle's transfer and recycling stations will be open.

Metro and Sound Transit will operate on regular schedules, but some Metro commuter routes will not operate. (Call 206-553-3000 for information).

Community Transit buses will run on an adjusted schedule, with some routes canceled. (Call 425-353-7433 for information).

Everett Transit and Pierce Transit will operate on regular schedule. Ferries also will be on regular schedule. Seattle's downtown bus tunnel will be open, and Metro's waterfront streetcar will be operating.

Today

• Catholic Community Services will dedicate its new $2 million Martin Luther King Jr. Day Home Center, a child-care and early-learning facility, at a 4 p.m. ceremony led by Archbishop Alexander Brunett of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Seattle. The ceremony is open to the public, and tours of the center will be offered, starting at 3 p.m. The new two-story center is at 1855 S. Lane St.

Tomorrow

• Children's Hospital and Regional Medical Center will hold a community open house for its new wing, the five-story Janet Sinegal Patient Care Building at 4800 Sand Point Way Northeast, at 10:15 a.m. Tours will be available. The new facility increases the hospital's in-patient capacity from 208 to 250 beds. The building is named after Janet Sinegal, a hospital board member.

Artifact road show

Got any odd bugs, bones or baskets you've been wondering about? Once a year, the University of Washington's Burke Museum of Natural History and Culture gathers staff experts to help people identify hidden treasure in their possession.

The museum's Artifact Identification Day is tomorrow, and a dozen museum staffers and curators will be on hand from 1 to 4 p.m. to help identify cultural artifacts from the Northwest, Pacific Islands or Asia, as well as any objects from the natural world, like bones, fossils, rocks, minerals and animal teeth.

It doesn't matter whether your prized possessions are common objects or rare finds.

But because of the past popularity of the event, there is a limit of three items per visitor.

No appraisals will be given. The museum charges admission. The museum is on the UW campus at Northeast 45th Street and 17th Avenue Northeast. (www.burkemuseum.org; 206-543-5590.)

The bare facts

If you can bare it, a group known as the Body Freedom Collaborative will hold its second annual Polar Bare Dip, a skimpy plunge into Puget Sound off the Carkeek Park beach tomorrow morning. Organizers say anyone can join in and go as bare as you dare, rain or shine, starting at 9:30 a.m. The dip will take place along the main section of the beach (950 Northwest Carkeek Park Road), beyond the footbridge over the railroad tracks.

Afterward, a clothed beach cleanup will start about 10 a.m., and those who wish to participate should bring gloves and heavy-duty garbage bags.

Traffic alert

• Eastside: The northbound Interstate 405 ramps to and from eastbound Northeast Eighth Street in Bellevue will be closed this weekend as a result of drainage work under the roadway. Work will affect the on-ramp from eastbound Northeast Eighth to northbound 405, and the northbound 405 exit to eastbound Northeast Eighth. The two ramps will be closed from 11 tonight to 6 a.m. Monday. Traffic will be detoured to the northbound on and off-ramps at Northeast Fourth Street. Drivers may also use the ramps at the Southeast Eighth Street interchange.

Here & Now is compiled by Seattle Times staff reporter Charles E. Brown and news assistant Suesan Whitney Henderson. To submit an item, e-mail herenow@seattletimes.com or call 206-464-2226.

Copyright © 2004 The Seattle Times Company