I don't know how many of you are familiar with Twitter, a site that lets users keep up to date with each other through short messages that can even be sent from cell phones.

One of the blogs I check regularly, BoingBoing, mentioned in a post about the hurricane that Twitter might be an interesting new way to keep with some of the Gustav goings on. The New Orleans Times-Picayune is even Twittering the storm. (Who knows, we might try something like that with bad weather here someday.)

Right now, it's early and most of the messages are like this one: "ladycrumpet: Hoping Gustav miraculously weakens but if not that ppl have gotten out in time." -- but to check out how people are communicating with it, follow THIS LINK.

I was going through the recent federal lawsuit filings and came across this gem.

Among the allegations levied by James Crary:

Heart poison crime and related medical complications partially investigated at authorization of Governor Christine Gregoire, despite political hazards in calling legal attention to a decades old ordeal of pitiless stalking and unprovoked savagery by Yoko Ono, Obama and the Clintons.

(Don't worry, it's typed.)

=> Read more!

More info after the jump.

=> Read more!

The Pierce County Medical Examiner's Office has identified at 25-year-old man killed after hitting a telephone pole on South 72nd Street on Saturday as Matthew Wilson of Tacoma.

Wilson died after he lost control of his car and hit a telephone pole while speeding eastbound on South 72nd Street near Canyon Road, Pierce County sheriff’s spokesman Ed Troyer said.

An electricity transformer caught fire following the accident, interrupting power in the neighborhood. He was not wearing a seat belt. The accident, which was reported at 12:14 a.m., was under investigation.

The Department of Defense has launched a new campaign aimed at "That Guy."

The Department of Defense (DoD) sponsored the creation of an Alcohol Abuse Prevention campaign referred to as “That Guy.” This campaign does not specifically target military personnel, but a peer who becomes “that guy” as his/her alcohol consumption impairs their abilities. This campaign tries to use humor to convey a message that one does not want to be “that guy” and may be applicable to anyone -- military or civilian.

The pickup truck driver killed in a fiery crash on Interstate 405 this morning has been identified as a Bonney Lake man.

Brian T. Berg, 29, was killed when his truck got sandwiched between to semi-trucks in the southbound lanes of I-405 near Southcenter just before 6:45 a.m., the Washington State Patrol reported. No one else was injured in the four-vehicle crash.

The crash and the ensuing investigation blocked all lanes of southbound I-405 for several hours Friday morning.

According to a State Patrol press release, witnesses reported that Berg was "traveling erratically" before the crash and going "faster than the normal flow of traffic and as a single occupant in and out of the HOV lane several times to get around slower vehicles."

The truck made a quick lane change and moved directly behind a stopped semi truck.

"This action cut off the second semi box truck and took away its safe stopping distance," the State Patrol reported. "With no other recourse the semi box truck slammed into the back of the white pickup forcing it into the semi tractor-trailer and burst into flames."

A fourth vehicle crashed into the back of the box truck.

Troopers and firefighters tried to pull Berg from the fiery truck but were unsuccessful. Intense flames engulfed his truck and the box truck.

Washington State Patrol troopers got a little help from their airplane early Friday to arrest a 24-year-old Tacoma man on suspicion of drunken driving.

Troopers in the aircraft spotted a white Cadillac Escalade driving erratically north on Interstate 5 in Olympia shortly after midnight, the State Patrol reported. Using their equipment, they determined the driver was passing cars at more than 110 mph.

The troopers in the airplane notified a trooper on the ground. That trooper stopped the SUV just north of the Nisqually River Bridge just after 12:30 a.m. The driver was arrested on suspicion of drunken driving and a felony drug warrant, the State Patrol reported. He was booked into Pierce County Jail.

The State Patrol has been using specially-equipped airplanes to help with DUI enforcement patrols since July.

Douglas S. Chanthabouly, who is accused of fatally shooting a classmate in the hallway of Foss High School Jan. 3, 2007, appeared in court this afternoon for a competency hearing.

The young man's ability to stand trial for first-degree murder has been an issue in the case.

Prosecutors allege Chantabouly shot and killed Samnang Kok, 17, in a Foss High hallway before the first bell Jan. 3, 2007.

Deputy prosecutor Fred Wist reported that Western State Hospital officials have found that Chanthabouly is competent to stand trial. That report was recently delivered.

Chanthabouly's public defenders did not stipulate to that conclusion at Friday's hearing and are contemplating their next move. Chanthabouly is scheduled to be back in court Sept. 26.

Neither of Chanthabouly's attorneys could be reached for comment Friday.

I'll be in court most of the morning, listening to closing arguments in a civil lawsuit against the Pierce County Sheriff's Department.

Dino Johnson was injured when a suspect being chased in a high-speed pursuit crashed into his motorcycle.

Read Adam's first story about the case here.

The trial started last week.

Rescuers are out searching for a possible missing person in the water between Fox Island and the Tacoma Narrows Bridge.

According to Pierce County Sheriff's spokesman Ed Troyer:

A woman called police around 7:45 p.m. to report she had been watching the water with binoculars and saw a man in a plastic rowboat disappear.

The Sheriff's Department, Tacoma Police, Coast Guard and a State Patrol helicopter equipped with infrared are aiding in the search.

No one has been reported missing or overdue, Troyer said.

MORNING UPDATE: There's not much new to report as of 8:20 a.m.

The folks who took police cars, an ambulance and other emergency medical equipment to Mexico a year ago will be returning with another delivery next month.

Nicknamed "Mission to Mexico" by The News Tribune, the group will be hoping a ride with the 446th Airlift Wing on Sept. 19, the reservists announced today. They'll be taking a fire truck and 12 pallets of emergency equipment to the small town of Ayutla.

As you may recall, idea for this mission began during a vacation to Mexico. The News Tribune hitched a ride with the group when they delivered the equipment to Ayutla.

Find my original story below.

=> Read more!

Pierce County sheriff's deputies arrested a woman Tuesday after a high-speed chase.

Prosecutors charged Melissa Rae Mendez, 27, on Wednesday with second-degree assault, two counts of third-degree assault, attempting to elude a pursuing police vehicle, taking a motor vehicle without permission, reckless driving, reckless endangerment and resisting arrest.

According to court documents, deputies spotted Mendez driving at a high rate of speed. She blew through a stop sign without stopping. The car bounced violently as it went over two large speed bumps. (Charging documents don't give a specific geographic location for this incident.)

She eventually stopped but as deputies approached the car on foot, she took off again at a high rate of speed, court documents state.

"As the vehicle came to a stop, the deputies observed that the vehicle brakes were smoking," court documents state.

She continued at speeds up to 55-60 mph. At one point, she made a U-turn and drove within a foot of a patrol car.

"The deputies had to take evasive action to avoid a collision," court documents state.

Mendez drove down a dead-end road and was stopped. She was taken out of the vehicle when she refused to comply with orders. While deputies drove her to jail, she repeatedly yelled and cursed at the deputies, court documents state.

During the booking process, she spit on two deputies.

She had a 14-year-old boy in the car during the pursuit. She also was driving a car without the permission of the owner, court documents state.

A group of children suffering from life threatening and chronic illnesses will have a day of their lives today.

They'll be named honorary police chiefs, don uniforms and badges and get to interact with motorcycle officers, police dogs and other specialty units.

It's all part of the annual Chief For a Day celebration this afternoon at the Washington State Criminal Justice Training Commission in Burien.

Fifteen law enforcement agencies, including the Tacoma Police Department and the Washington State Patrol, are participating. Tacoma is the only Pierce County agency involved this year and the department is sponsoring a 3 1/2-year-old boy.

In addition to Tacoma police and the WSP, the other participating agencies are: Bothell Police Department, Forks Police Department, King County Sheriff's Office, Kirkland Police Department, Lacey Police Department, Mukilteo Police Department, Port of Seattle Police Department, Port Orchard Police Department, Redmond Police Department, Seattle Police Department, Snohomish County Sheriff’s Office, Stillaguamish Police Department and the state Department of Fish and Wildlife.

Representatives from the agencies will be picking up their child this morning. Each will get a police escort of patrol cars, motorcycles and limos to the Burien academy at 10:30 a.m. They'll dress in a hand-tailored chief's uniform and receive gift basket.

Lt. Gov. Brad Owen will lead a swearing-in ceremony at 11 a.m.

A News Tribune reporter and photographer will be at the event. Look for their report on Sunday's You & Me page.

(News Tribune photographer Drew Perine took this photo of WSP Chief Jared Koon during the 2004 Chief for a Day event.)

Then you're not one of those affected by the power outage.

Here's the press release from the Valley Regional Fire Authority:

Swaying poplar trees connected with 115,000 volt electrical lines causing a power outage through Algona, Pacific and south Auburn. This has interrupted the evening commute as the crossing gates at various railroad crossings have come down. Representatives from both the Union Pacific Railroad and Puget Sound Energy are on scene working to restore operations. They anticipate the power being restored around 7:00 p.m. this evening.

Here's the press release from the Kent Fire Department:

At 1302 hours today, units from the Kent Fire Department, Valley Regional Fire Authority and South King County Fire & Rescue responded to a reported apartment fire in the 700 block of 1 Av S.

The first Kent fire unit on location reported a kitchen fire, with smoke coming from the second floor window.

Fire was confined to the kitchen, thanks to the help of the neighbors, who used fire extinguisher on the fire before the fire department arrived.

No one was home at the time of the fire.

The cause of the fire was determined to be a cooking pan left on the stove. The fire investigator has ruled this as an accidental fire.

The occupants are working with the apartment manger for placement in a vacant unit.

A cook at the women's prison in Purdy has pleaded guilty to inappropriate sexual contact with three inmates at the facility.

Eddie Garbitt, 57, entered Alford pleas to two counts of first-degree custodial sexual misconduct and one count of second-degree custodial sexual misconduct during a hearing this morning. An Alford plea allows him to maintain his innocence while admitting that sufficient evidence exists to convict him at trial.

Garbitt was immediately taken into custody and booked into the Pierce County Jail, pending his sentencing on Oct. 15, deputy prosecutor Tom Howe said.

Garbitt worked as a cook and had a supervisory-type role at the Washington State Correctional Center for Women.

Prosecutors alleged he had sexual contact with three inmates between May 1, 2006, and Aug. 30, 2006.

One inmate, who was assigned to work in the kitchen, told investigators Garbitt made repeated sexual advances toward her in August 2006. During one encounter, he called her over to his desk and kissed her neck and touched her body, according to court documents. He also stuck his hand in her panties but stopped when she objected.

The inmate asked to be transferred. When Garbitt heard about it, he threatened to fire the inmate's girlfriend, court documents state.

A second inmate told investigators Garbitt made advances toward her. They had sex four times, court documents state.

A third inmate told investigators she had a consensual sexual relationship with Garbitt, who was her supervisor in the kitchen. The relationship ended when he was placed on home assignment.

Garbitt faces between 15 and 20 months in prison, Howe said. He will have to register as a sex offender for 10 years after his release.

UPDATE: Department of Corrections spokesman Chad Lewis reports Garbitt worked as a food service manager out at Purdy. He resigned Aug. 16, 2007.

Lakewood police have arrested a man suspected of impersonating a police officer at least once.

The man was certainly equipped to have done other crimes, which is what Lakewood police are worried about.

Read more here.

After three hours of deliberation, a federal jury has decided Joseph Duncan should be executed for his crimes.

Here's the coverage from the Spokesman-Review.

Pierce County prosecutors have charged a 20-year-old man in a driveby shooting early Sunday in an unincorporated neighborhood sandwiched between Lakewood and Steilacoom.

Shots were fired from a newer model Infiniti about 12:30 a.m. Sunday in the 10300 block of 98th Street Southwest. No one was injured but one bullet hit a bedroom window of one house, according to charging documents.

More than three hours later, University Place sheriff's deputies stopped a newer model Infiniti in the 8800 block of 27th Street West after the driver made improper lane travel. The car was consistent with the description of the vehicle in the driveby shooting, court documents state.

The driver, identified as 20-year-old Andrew Nicholas Johnson, appeared intoxicated. He was arrested on suspicion of drunken driving.

Deputies searched the car and found two spent shell casings. They also discovered a .40-caliber gun in the center console, court documents state.

Johnson gave several versions of events. He eventually told officers he fired shots out of his sunroof. He claimed the gun belonged to someone else and also told officers he was a gang member.

Prosecutors charged Johnson on Tuesday with driveby shooting, unlawful gun possession and drunken driving. He was arraigned Tuesday afternoon.

Earlier today I spoke with Andrew Stringfield, an 18-year-old who says the the goat that was used for bow and arrow practice in Graham last week belonged to him.

According to him, about a year ago, a friend gave him two male goats, Billy and Bob. But they duo kept escaping and eating neighbors' flowers. So decided to give them to his dad's girlfriend's daughter's friend -- whom I'm not naming because he hasn't been charged. The young man said he'd take the goats to live on his farm.

"He seemed like a pretty good guy to give them to," he said.

But something didn't work out and the man and his friend tried to sell the goats out of the back of a camouflage 4X4, Stringfield said (and other witnesses have corroborated).

The teens sold the hornless goat to "a Samoan" for $50, Stringfield said, noting he'd called around to all the teens' friends trying to get the scoop on what had happened to his goats. The teens bragged about killing tying the other goat to a tree in the woods and killing it, he said.

"I’m pretty pissed," Stringfield said. "Those were my buddy's goats and I promised him I’d take care of them. He needs to go to jail."

The teen with the truck was arrested last Friday, but prosecutors have so far declined to file charges. The investigation is continuing the Pierce County Sheriff's Department has said.

Here's the press release from the Kent Police Department:

KENT, WA – August 26, 2008 – Dog thieves stole a litter of five purebred miniature Australian Shepherd puppies from a Des Moines dog breeder. Sue McCullough reported the theft of the ten week old puppies to Des Moines Police as soon as she discovered the theft on Saturday morning. She suspected that the two men who looked at the puppies on Friday evening had stolen the dogs. McCullough also reported this to a local television station and the story was broadcast Monday evening.

A citizen tipster called McCullough within minutes of the evening news and reported seeing dogs just like those at a neighbors home on the east hill of Kent. McCullough called the Kent Police with the information. Responding officers found three of the five puppies at that home. The dogs were identified with photographs as Australian shepherds have distinctive markings. The identity and vehicle of a possible suspect was also developed.

On Tuesday morning, August 26th a Citizen’s tip advised that the suspects vehicle was again at the home where the dogs were found. Responding Kent officers stopped the suspect as he was leaving the area. The fourth of the stolen dogs was found in the suspects vehicle.

The suspect, a 30 year old man from Seatac, was booked at the Kent Jail for 1st degree possession of stolen property. He will have his preliminary hearing on Wednesday August 27th at the South District Court.

It is believed that the fifth of the stolen puppies has been sold or given to someone in the Seattle Tacoma area. It is described as a Tri-color female, Brown coat, white collar, and tan around the eyes. This dog can be positively identified. Anyone who may know the location of this puppy is asked to call the Des Moines Police or the Kent Police.

(Photo by all your pictures are belong to us.)

Here's the press release from the Kent Fire Department:

Units from Kent Fire Department and Valley Regional Fire Authority responded to a house fire at 11:22 am in the 300 block of 1 Av S, Kent, Wa.

The first fire unit on the scene reported a kitchen fire in the back part of the house. An attack was made through the front door and the fire was brought under control in about 10 minutes.

There was extensive smoke and heat damage throughout the house. The renters did not have renter insurance.

One, unknown age male that was in the house at the time of the fire did receive burns to his left leg and hand. He was transported to Harbor View Medical Center by South King County Medic One. His condition is not known at this time.

The house did have smoke detectors and they were working at the time of the fire.

The fire is still under investigation.

I got an e-mail today from a Pierce County resident who heard a rumor going around his neighborhoood.

Apparently a drunk woman had refused to exit her car in the vicinity of Brookdale and Canyon, and one of her two dogs (pits?) jumped out an open window and menaced the officers, who then shot the dog. The other dog was controlled through the open window by Animal Control officers, allowing the officers to arrest the woman for DUI.

I read the Pierce County Sheriff's Department report on the incident and can report:

A deputy spotted a vehicle parked at 48th Avenue East and Brookdale Road East at 1:48 a.m. Monday and investigated. The deputy found the driver slumped over the wheel and initially not responsive. Her passenger side window was open and the driver's side window was open. The report states there were two aggressive pitbulls in the vehicle.

The deputy tried to wake up the driver using the patrol car's lights and horn. Another deputy arrived to assist. The dogs were both barking and jumping around the car.

A sergeant and fire personnel also responded to check on the driver's condition. She was unresponsive for 15 minutes, then she gained some responsiveness but her speech was slurred and attention span limited. She was barely able to understand/answer questions. A deputy repeatedly told her to roll up her windows so the dogs could not get out. She didn't respond and yelled at the dogs.

One of the pitbulls jumped out of the vehicle through the passenger window. The dog ran toward one of the deputies. The deputy backed up but the dog kept charging at full speed, the report states. The deputy shot the dog once in the head. The dog dropped to the ground.

The driver then rolled her passenger window up and got out of the car without the other dog escaping.

Paramedics checked out the woman and found no medical issues. Her vehicle was secured and she was arrested for driving with a suspended license and physical control of a vehicle while intoxicated.

An animal control officer responded to the scene and took the pit bull from the backseat of the vehicle.

The report says nothing more about the shot dog.

This comes to L & S from our Lakewood reporter, Brent Champaco.

Lakewood City Manager Andrew Neiditiz wrote about three Lakewood officers competing in the Police and Fire Games in Boise.

Police and Fire Games: Officers Jim Syler, Michelle Hector and Jeff Martin are currently competing in the Police and Fire Games being held in Boise, Idaho. Hector and Syler took 2nd place in the "Toughest Man Alive" event. This competition has several events within it. Some of the events are running, rope climbing, shot-put, weight lifting and an obstacle course. They both received the silver medal and a moment on the awards podium. Michelle Hector competed in the 5K cross country run on Tuesday and took the gold medal. She competed against men and women and apparently smoked everyone. The 5K was no easy course; it consisted of pavement, dirt trails, large hills, and sand. Congratulations to all officers who participated!

Find more on the Police and Fire Games here.

For those who missed last week's town hall meeting on sex offenders, TV Tacoma is providing an opportunity to get tuned into the discussion.

The local station will air the "Safe Child Town Hall: Sexual Offenders" through Sunday.

The town hall was held Aug. 20 at Lincoln High School. Panelists addressed child safety in the community, among other topics.

Here's a list of the replay times starting Wednesday.

Wednesday, Aug. 27 – 9 a.m.

Thursday, Aug. 28 – 9 p.m.

Friday, Aug. 29 – 2 p.m.

Saturday, Aug. 30 – 5 p.m.

Sunday, Aug. 31 – 3 p.m.

TV Tacoma is Channel 12 within the city limits on Click! Cable and Comcast. You can find it on Channel 21 in Pierce County and on Channel 85 in University Place.

This is a little out of our usual jurisdiction, but there's nothing from the wire services on it yet.

A Denver TV station is reporting that authorities may have uncovered a plot to assassinate Barack Obama during his Thursday night acceptance speech and have made several arrests.

CBS4 Investigator Brian Maass reported one of the suspects told authorities they were "going to shoot Obama from a high vantage point using a ... rifle … sighted at 750 yards."

Law enforcement sources tell Maass that one of the suspects "was directly asked if they had come to Denver to kill Obama. He responded in the affirmative."

The Rocky Mountain News also has a story, which credits CBS4 for the scoop.

The station is reporting the U.S. Attorney's office in Denver has scheduled a press conference on Tuesday.

Update: This just came across from the Associated Press. The tone is a little more skeptical:

DENVER (AP) — The FBI is looking into reports in Denver media outlets that a man under investigation for drug and weapons violations may have made threats against Barack Obama, officials said Monday.

“It’s premature to say that it was a valid threat or that these folks have the ability to carry it out,” said a U.S. government official familiar with the investigation. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because the investigation is ongoing.

Obama will be in Denver this week to accept the Democratic nomination for president.

FBI spokeswoman Kathy Wright confirmed the FBI was investigating the reports but declined to elaborate. The Joint Information Center — a command set up by Denver, state and federal authorities to field media inquiries during the Democratic convention — said it had no immediate comment.

Aurora Police Detective Marcus Dudley said Monday that 28-year-old Tharin Robert Gartrell was arrested early Sunday in a routine traffic stop in the Denver suburb of Aurora. He is being investigated for possible methamphetamine and firearms violations, officials said.

Two other people were arrested in the case, Aurora police said in a statement. They didn’t immediately release more details.

Law enforcers in Denver are trying to find out whether the reported threats to Obama were valid.

“It could also turn out that these were nothing but a bunch of knuckleheads, meth heads,” the U.S. government official said.

Gartrell was being held at the Arapahoe County jail on $50,000 bail on a felony charge of special offender, drug violations. The jail said he didn’t have a lawyer yet but was due in court Thursday.

U.S. Attorney Troy Eid said in a statement that federal charges were anticipated. Eid did not elaborate, but officials with the FBI; Secret Service; the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives; and Aurora police set a news conference for Tuesday afternoon.

Chase St. John Jonker, 25, was charged in Pierce County Superior Court on Monday with two counts of second degree arson.

According to charging documents, Jonker told investigators that he and a guy named "Dave" set fire to two portable toilets at the Midland Community Center on August 14 because it gave them "something to do." (He was later identified from security video.)

The fire department put out the first fire, started with the aid of WD-40, but the men started a second fire, court records say. One toilet burned to the ground.

Jonker was scheduled to be released late Monday on $15,000 bond, according to online court records

(Photo by skippy13.)

The Herald of Everett is reporting that a Puyallup teenager who supplied drugs to another teen who later died of an overdose has been sentenced to two years in juvenile detention.

The Herald said Donalydia Huertas, 19, who was convicted of second-degree manslaughter after jurors disagreed on a first-degree manslaughter charge, was found culpable in the death of her friend, Danielle McCarthy, 16, in 2007. She was sentenced in Snohomish County Superior Court this afternoon.

Huertas provided McCarthy with the drug Ecstasy and failed to get medical help for her when she began to show signs of having overdosed. McCarthy was eventually taken to Stevens Hospital in Edmonds, where she was pronounced dead.

Pierce County Superior Court Judge Lisa Worswick sentenced a Gig Harbor man to 119 months in prison today after he sexually abused two boys.

The sentence could be longer, though, because Price Nick Miller Jr. will have to go before the state's Indeterminate Sentencing Review Board at the end of the his prison term. The board could keep Miller in jail for life, depending on how he responds to sex offender treatment while incarcerated.

Worswick's ruling came at the end of an emotionally packed two-hour hearing this morning. At one point early in the hearing, a man was escorted out of the courtroom after yelling at Miller. The man yelled obscenities as he was led outside.

Miller's family and attorney had requested he be given a sentencing alternative that would have allowed him to be released without serving prison time.

The two victims, their families and the prosecutor requested the longest possible term.

Miller owned and operated Town and Country Towing before retiring a couple of years ago. He was involved with his church and the Boy Scouts.

He pleaded guilty earlier this year to second-degree child rape and second-degree child molestation. He was originally charged with seven sex crimes but pleaded guilty in a deal with Pierce County prosecutors.

At the end of the sentencing, one of his victim's stood in the gallery and watched as Miller was handcuffed.

"Hey Nick. I'll never be like you," the 18-year-old man, identified only as T.J., said.

He was quickly hushed by supporters and escorted out of the emptying courtroom.

Outside court, T.J. told reporters he was fine with the sentence but was angered at Miller's apology.

"I didn't buy into it," said the teen, who was surrounded by his family and several members of Bikers Against Child Abuse.

While I was driving back from dinner, the car ahead of me changed lanes without signaling. It reminded me I've been meaning to blog about what seems like a flaw in our state law.

Here's what RCW 46.61.305 says:

(2) A signal of intention to turn or move right or left when required shall be given continuously during not less than the last one hundred feet traveled by the vehicle before turning.

That may sound well and good, but tying signaling to distance rather than time seems to defy logic.

That means a car going 60 miles per hour is legally required to signal a lane change for 1.14 seconds. Meanwhile, a car driving 10 miles per hour is required to signal for 6.84 seconds. And if you stop at a stop sign, then decide to make your turn, it will never be legal, no matter how long you signal.

Does this seem bass-ackwards to anyone else?

On a positive note, the law does include this common-sense language:"No person shall turn a vehicle or move right or left upon a roadway unless and until such movement can be made with reasonable safety..."

(Photo from www.mustangproject.com.)

There's a section of our blog software that allows us to see what search terms are bringing visitors to our site from places like google.

I check it about once a week and am frequently surprised at some of the results. It's pretty obvious that some people are looking for stuff they shouldn't be looking for, while others don't really know how search engines work. And then there's the people where you wonder, how could you possibly think we had what you were looking for?

Here are some examples:

* defense of possession of child pornography
* lights and sirens bar and grill
* used police lights and sirens for sale
* how to find out the profile and comments of all the public defenders in the tacoma, washington area
* see threw bikini
* tacoma doctors who prescribe methadone
* graphic videos and stories of animal and child abuse
* Minor boys spanked nude for videotaping
* is cab driving dangerous
* free sex in puyallup
* Do police officers give infractions for possession of marijuana by minors in wa state?
* black sirens area 51

And those are just from this weekend...

A 22-year-old Buckley woman was ejected from her 1996 Saturn this afternoon, when she lost control on Highway 512 at Highway 161, the Washington State Patrol reported.

Her car flipped in the 2:37 p.m. crash after hitting a pole. The woman was taken to Madigan Army Medical Center; her condition was not released.

The cause of the crash remains under investigation.

KOMO-TV is reporting that warning signs were removed from an area at Dash Point State Park were a 15-year-old from Oregon was critically injured Saturday. According to the TV station, a fence has since been erected.

The boy was playing inside a sand cave when it collapsed.

I tried checking on the boy's condition today, but haven't been able to find anything out. Fire officials said he had been transfered from Harborview Medical Center to Children's Hospital in Seattle. A spokeswoman for Children's said she had no information she could release.

Update: KING 5 is reporting the boy remained in critical condition Sunday.

Two small earthquakes shook an area just north of Ashford in Pierce County Saturday, the Pacific Northwest Seismic Network is reporting on its web site.

The first had a magnitude of 1.9 on the Richter Scale, and occurred at 2:03 p.m. The epicenter was about seven miles northeast of Ashford, the network said. The second quake, with a magnitude of 2.6, came about three minutes later and was centered very close to the first temblor. No injuries or damage was reported after either quake.;

Investigators are trying to figure out who tied a goat to a tree in Graham and used it for bow and arrow practice, the animal rescue group Pasado's Safe Haven is reporting.

The goat was found in the woods near 224th Street East and 58th Avenue East. The goat was wearing a collar and was probably a pet, the group said.

Padado's is offering a $5,000 reward for information that leads to a conviction.

I've got some calls out and will provide more information as it's available.

Here are some photos of the scene released by Pasado's.

Three people were arrested Friday following a raid on a suspected marijuana-trafficking operation in Milton, authorities reported.

Officers from the Washington State Patrol and the Fife and Milton police departments seized marijuana, scales, packaging materials and other paraphernalia used in the sale of drugs, the Milton Police Department said in a news release.

The raid at a residence on Bacchant Court followed what police called an "extensive investigation into trafficking of marijuana in the Milton, Fife and Edgewood areas."

Those arrested are expected to face charges of selling marijuana.

James Machado now has legal headaches to go along with his physical ones.

Pierce County prosecutors have charged Machado with first-degree robbery. They contend he used a pellet gun to hold up a convenience store in the 700 block of Commerce Street in downtown Tacoma on July 13.

But it was the way he was taken down that makes this story interesting.

According to court records, a man who witnessed the robbery attacked Machado as he tried to flee the market.

The man told police he waited by the door for the bandit to exit then hit him three times in the head, knocking him out cold. Police officers dispatched to the scene found Machado, 42, unconscious on the sidewalk.

Machado spent several days in the hospital for treatment of his injuries. Police arrested him Wednesday on a warrant charging him with the robbery.

"Machado denied that he robbed the store," deputy prosecutor Phil Sorensen wrote in charging documents. "Video surveillance confirmed the general fact pattern."

A not guilty plea was entered on Machado's behalf at his arraignment Thursday. He remains in the Pierce County Jail.

That snow-cave collapse was big news for Seattle media Thursday.

We ran a wire-service account in today's paper.

Other news outlets blew out their coverage.

Our friends at KIRO-TV have some good stuff on their Web site, including a 20-photo slideshow of images from the scene.

Fire caused nearly $350,000 damage today to a house in Parkland, Central Pierce Fire & Rescue reported (View Map).

The blaze broke out about noon in a two-story home in the 400 block of South 133rd Street. Firefighters battled the flames for nearly 30 minutes before bringing the fire under control.

No one was home at the time of the fire, and no firefighters were hurt, according to a news release.

The cause of the blaze is under investigation.

The Fort Lewis soldier killed when he wrecked his pickup on Interstate 5 Wednesday morning was 19-year-old Steven P. Clark, the Pierce County Medical Examiner's Office reported today.

Clark, originally of Simi Valley, Calif., died about 12:40 a.m. when his 2005 Dodge Dakota left the southbound lanes near the 72nd Street interchange, struck a guard rail and road sign then rolled, the Washington State Patrol reported.

A 23-year-old Frederickson-area man believes he was struck in the hand by a bullet while in his backyard today, Pierce County Sheriff's spokesman Det. Jerry Bates said.

The man believes the bullet was fired from the Tacoma Sportmen's Club, which is about a mile away by car from where he was hit off 160th Street Southeast. Investigators talked to the range master, who said only three shooters fired rifles at the ranger throughout the rainy day and that none of them fired toward where the man was hit.

You can follow this link to see a map showing the distance between the two locations.

When I was growing up, the main source of deviant knowledge came from a black volume called the Anarchist Cookbook.

These days, instructions for making bombs are all over the Internet, especially video sites like YouTube. A while back we had a story on kids getting in trouble for making "works bombs" out of household chemicals.

Adam's working on a story today about the man who was arrested yesterday on suspicion of making an explosive device after co-workers found fertilizer, lighter fluid and other items in his locker.

Prosecutors have declined to file charges so far, but court records say he liked to copy incendiary devices he saw on YouTube.

For those of you who don't cruise the site looking for bomb-making tips, here's an example of the kind of instructions easily found for explosives that use only household items. These videos can be extremely popular -- as of this posting, the one below has been viewed nearly 130,000 times.

Oh yeah, don't try this at home.

Here's the press release from the Washington State Patrol:

(Olympia)—Troopers of the Washington State Patrol are asking drivers to do something easy for safety.

“When you come upon a trooper or other emergency vehicle beside the roadway, please either move left or slow down as you pass,” said State Patrol Chief John R. Batiste. “Please give our troopers some room to work beside the road.”

Across the country, more police officers are killed and injured in traffic incidents than in assaults by criminals.

“We think this is a pretty ‘easy’ request for people to honor. Simply ease over to the left, or ease off the gas,” Batiste added.

It is not unusual for impaired drivers to hit parked police vehicles outright, as happened in Spokane just a few days ago. But today’s request is aimed at sober and courteous drivers who still pass too close to troopers standing beside a stopped vehicle.

How close? In 2007 the side mirror on Lt. Mike Turcott’s patrol car was snapped off by a driver passing at high speed.

“I was just about to step out of the vehicle to contact a violator I had stopped,” Turcott said. “If I’d opened the door two seconds sooner I would have lost my arm instead of my mirror.”

The driver who hit Turcott’s mirror wasn’t drunk, just inattentive.

Moving left or slowing down is required by law, but troopers will focus on education not enforcement.

“We hope that by making people aware of this issue, they’ll be courteous and give us more space,” Turcott said.

The best option for drivers is to move left if safe. If you’re on a road with multiple lanes going in the same direction, move completely into the next lane over. If it’s not safe to move, troopers ask that you slow down.

Troopers are trained to pull violators as far off the road as possible, and frequently contact drivers from the passenger side of their vehicle. But in many cases that’s just not possible.

Washington’s move over also applies to fire trucks, ambulances, and tow trucks.

A man accused in an attempted robbery last week is believed to have committed suicide Tuesday night in the Pierce County Jail.

William Bessenbacher, 48, was found shortly after 7:22 p.m. in a shower area of the jail, Pierce County sheriff's detective Sgt. Jerry Bates said.

Corrections officers, a nurse and paramedics tried to revive Bessenbacher but those efforts were unsuccessful.

Detectives and forensic investigators responded to the jail to investigate.

He was in the general population and not under a suicide watch at the time of his death, Bates said.

Tacoma police arrested Bessenbacher Friday night after he allegedly tried to rob the M Street Market. He was booked into the jail and charged Monday with attempted first-degree robbery. He was being held in lieu of $150,000 bail.

UPDATE: Bessenbacher is a confirmed suspect in two other store robberies in Tacoma. He was picked out of lineups by witnesses in those incidents.

Those cases will be closed out with his death, a detective told Lights & Sirens.

Many of you likely got stuck or delayed by a serious injury crash on Highway 512 on Tuesday.

Here's what happened.

According to the Washington State Patrol, a speeding car spun out and crashed into two other vehicles, injuring three people.

The incident occurred on eastbound Highway 512 near Portland Avenue about 11:20 a.m. Tuesday.

The driver of a 1994 Honda Civic, a 19-year-old Seattle man, was going east on Highway 512 at a high rate of speed. He spun out, striking a 2008 Chevy Malibu, and then hit a semi-truck, troopers reported.

The Civic's driver received minor injuries. He was treated and released. Troopers then booked him into Pierce County Jail on suspicion of vehicular assault. His passenger, an 18-year-old woman from Yelm, was seriously injured and transported to Harborview Medical Center.

The driver of the Malibu, a 47-year-old Eatonville man, suffered minor injuries and was treated and released, troopers reported.

The semi-truck driver, a 50-year-old man from Oregon, was not injured.

Lakewood City Manager Andrew Neiditz's weekly bulletin to the mayor and members of the City Council included this tidbit about a crew of volunteer crime-fighters being trained to keep an eye on the city's neighborhoods.

Lakewood Volunteer Observation Patrol Recruitment: The new Lakewood Volunteer Observation Patrol (LVOP) has begun citizen recruitment. This grass-roots citizen-designed and operated "mobile block watch" has successfully become a non-profit organization, obtained liability insurance, and begun monthly training sessions with Lakewood Police.

These concerned neighbors want to support local law enforcement efforts by being the "eyes & ears" of the LPD. They patrol their neighborhoods in personally owned vehicles and look for signs of ongoing crime and blight, which they report to police or other City departments as needed.

Volunteers do not carry weapons, and do not involve themselves directly in police actions. They serve as early warning, and they make good eyewitnesses in cases of emergent crimes. Training provided by the Lakewood Police consists, in part, of Suspect Identification, Vehicle Identification, Gang and general crime awareness, How to Work With Police and 911, and other aspects of observation/evaluation/reporting of criminal or suspicious activity in their neighborhoods.

They are not trained in defensive tactics or surveillance, or any other ‘police-type’ activity, and do not wear uniforms, carry badges or weapons; they are not police or City employees or agents. Interested persons are asked to contact the LVOP President Carol Hudgins at 253-584-5905.

Our news parters at KIRO 7 Eyewitness News are reporting that a Parkland bikini barista threw boiling water at a man who was exposing himself.

“He has underwear over his face, he's wearing hot pink panties now and the underwear that he was wearing is over his face and there's a little peephole so he can see,” (barista Jamae) Feddock said.

Feddock and another barista were working around 5 a.m. last Thursday when the incident happened. They tried to get a look at the man’s license plate, but that too was covered up with women’s underwear.

When the man came back a third time one of the baristas took a cup of 220 degree water and doused him with it.

“Kylie opened the door and threw boiling hot water on his face and his chest and he said oooh yeah,” Feddock said.

You can find their story, including video, HERE.

An Auburn woman pleaded guilty today to helping Internet customers get prescription painkillers without ever seeing a doctor.

Here's the press release from the U.S. Attorney's office:

KATHLEEN GAIN, 31, of Auburn, Washington, appeared today in U.S. District Court in Seattle and entered a guilty plea to the felony offense of acquiring a controlled substance (hydrocodone) by misrepresentation, deception, and subterfuge, in violation of federal law. This offense is punishable by up to four years in prison, a two hundred fifty thousand dollar fine, and a period of supervised release of up to one year.

Court documents indicate that during 2007 through early 2008, GAIN worked for multiple internet pharmacy prescription drug web sites, including MYPRIMARYMD.com, PROGRESSIVEMEDICALCONSULTANTS.com and CHATCP.com. These web sites were acting in violation of law. The basic method of operation was that an individual would order prescription drugs on the web site, the web site would employ physicians to authorize the prescriptions, and the drugs would be delivered to the purchaser’s residence or the purchaser would pick up the drugs at a pharmacy. The physicians would never have any contact with the drug purchaser/customer. No patient examinations were ever conducted by the physicians. All of the prescriptions were illegitimate and unlawful, and the distributions of controlled substances were in violation of federal law. GAIN’s duties included receiving customer orders and forwarding those orders to others.

=> Read more!

Tacoma police are investigating why a Tideflats employee had what appears to be chemicals used to make explosive devices in his locker.

Investigators have taken the employee into custody at his East Side Tacoma home. They were waiting for a warrant to search his home further, police spokesman Andrew Hankins said.

The investigation began about 10:35 a.m. today.

A worker at Graymont Western U.S. Inc., 1220 E. Alexander Ave., contacted management about some suspicious items in the man's locker, Hankins said.

Management checked it out and found the suspicious items that possibly could be used to make explosive devices. They called Tacoma police.

The police department's bomb technicians were evaluating the materials and the Tacoma Fire Department was standing by, Hankins said.

The man wasn't at work today. Officers went to his home, contacted him and took him into custody. Hankins didn't immediately have the circumstances that led to the man's arrest.

They were waiting for the warrant to see if there was other evidence in his house, Hankins said.

Hankins said it was early in the investigation. It wasn't immediately known why the man had the chemicals and what - if anything - he planned to do with them.

"We are in the early stages," Hankins said. "This is ongoing."

"It sounds like the employee made the right decision to call police," Hankins said.

Update: The man was booked into the Pierce County jail about 3 p.m. on suspicion of possession of an explosive device and resisting arrest.

An Ellensburg police sergeant has died after contracting what is believed to be the hantavirus pulmonary syndrome.

It's a rare disease but is fatal. It's not yet known whether he contracted the disease while on duty.

A 21-year-old man drove a stolen car at speeds of nearly 95 mph along Spanaway-area streets early Saturday before he crashed and tried to flee on foot, according to court documents.

Deputies captured him and took him to Pierce County Jail. Pierce County prosecutors filed charges against Robert Spencer Rose on Monday.

According to charging documents, deputies spotted a stolen car driving in the 13800 block of Fourth Avenue East about 3:45 a.m. Saturday. They confirmed the car had been reported stolen to the agency.

Deputies were tailing the car when it took off at a high rate of speed, charging documents allege.

Deputies activated their lights and sirens and pursued the car. The pursuit went over surface streets at speeds of more than 90 mph.

The driver ignored traffic laws. A deputy put out spike strips in the 15200 block of Pacific Avenue in an attempt to stop the car, deputies reported.

As the stolen car approached the strips at nearly 95 mph, the driver steered at the deputy, who was seated in his patrol car, and narrowly missed him.

The driver lost control of the car, then regained control. After another 20 blocks, the driver failed to negotiate a U-turn and hit a retaining wall in the 17800 block of Pacific Avenue.

He got out of the car and ran. Deputies chased him and arrested him after a short pursuit, documents state.

Deputies identified Rose as the driver and asked him about the car.

"I'm not the one who stole it," he said, according to charging documents.

Deputies discovered Rose was carrying a drug smoking pipe and several shaved keys. Inside the car, they also found several pieces of stereo equipment that appeared to be stolen.

Prosecutors have charged Rose, 21, with first-degree assault, attempting to elude a pursing police vehicle and unlawful possession of a stolen vehicle.

Rose was being held in Pierce County Jail in lieu of $150,000 bail.

Crews have cleared away a crash that blocked three lanes of southbound Interstate 5 near the Tacoma Dome this morning.

The lanes were blocked for about 15 minutes from 10:15 to 10:30 a.m., the state Department of Transportation reported.

Southbound traffic was initially backed up to 70th Avenue; northbound traffic to the I-5/Highway 16 interchange.

Pierce County prosecutors filed charges on Monday against a 48-year-old man who tried to use a ruse to rob a South End grocery store on Friday.

The disguise didn't work, and neither did the robbery.

According to charging documents, the suspect entered the M Street Market in the 1200 block of South 56th Street just after 9 p.m. Friday.

The store's owner told Tacoma police officers she was at the cash register when the man walked in. She recognized him as a past customer, charging documents state.

The customer was wearing a woman's wig and sunglasses. He displayed a handgun and told the owner. "This is a robbery. Give me the money."

Frightened, the owner backed up into the office were her husband was. The two waited in there until the robber left without any money, charging documents state.

A witness spotted the suspect flee in a vehicle and provided officers with a description and license plate number.

Officers conducted a traffic stop several minutes later on a vehicle that matched the robber's vehicle's description. The owner identified the driver, William Bessenbacher, as the man who pointed the gun at her, charging documents state.

Officers found a pellet gun on the floor of the vehicle.

Prosecutors charged Bessenbacher with attempted first-degree robbery. He was being held Tuesday in Pierce County Jail in lieu of $150,000 bail.

Charging documents say Bessenbacher is a suspect in at least two other robberies. Those are under investigation and more charges could be filed.

A sign asking drivers to not drink and drive will be unveiled this morning at the spot where two young people were killed in 2006 by a suspected drunken driver.

The sign dedication for Cassandra Clay and Shane Bender begins at 10 a.m. at the crash site at State Route 7 and 159th Street South. The dedication is part of the state Department of Transportation's DUI Memorial Sign program. The Pierce County DUI Victim Panel, a group of victim families and police officers who talk with others about what happens when drinking and driving mix, will be participating in the event.

Clay and Bender were passengers in a Mazda that was hit early on Oct. 1, 2006, by a drunken driver.

The 36-year-old man ran a red light and hit the Mazda as it was making a left turn at the intersection of State Route 7 and 159th. Clay and Bender, who were both 20, died at the scene.

The driver, Clevan Derrer of Tacoma, later pleaded guilty to vehicular homicide and was sentenced to more than 11 years in prison. His blood-alcohol level was twice the legal limit of 0.08.

Residents are invited to a Town Hall meeting Wednesday night to discuss child predators and how to keep the community safe from them.

The Safe Child Town Hall begins at 6 p.m. in the Lincoln High School auditorium.

A panel of experts will discuss child predators, how to keep your family safe and what happens when a victim and/or predator is identified. They will take questions.

Participating agencies include the Sexual Assault Resource Center of Pierce County, Mary Bridge Hospital and Health Care Center, Tacoma Police Department, and the Department of Corrections.

According to the Pierce County Medical Examiner's Office, the woman who drowned in American Lake Sunday was Margot Moore, 43, of Tacoma.

James Dale Mosley was booked into the Pierce County jail this afternoon. According to court records, Mosley, a resident of the state's Special Commitment Center for civilly committed sexual predators, is being prosecuted for allegedly lighting a blanket on fire late last year. He was charged with attempted first-degree arson. According to records, he had a plea date scheduled for Aug. 14, but it was canceled.

Flipping through the various court filings, I saw a victim impact statement had been filed in the case. That's usually where the victim of a crime tells the court how their life had been impacted. Curious about how the institution had been dealing with the loss of the blue blanket, I opened the file. Here it is:

A man stole a Honda Civic at gunpoint in Parkland this afternoon, firing a shot at its owner as he drove away. No one was hit.

The car was taken at 3 p.m. in the 600 block of 113th Street South, Pierce County Sheriff's Department spokesman Jerry Bates said.

The victim knew the suspect by his gang name, but it wasn't clear if the theft was gang-related.

Jury selection was set to begin today in the case of Dino Johnson v. Pierce County.

Johnson sued the county last year, claiming sheriff's deputies Scott Wheeler and Eric Carlson illegally initiated a high-speed pursuit against a car carrying a suspected fugitive in 2004.

Johnson was injured when the fleeing car smashed into his motorcycle as he rode it to a Denny's restaurant for breakfast.

Johnson, a student at Pacific Lutheran University at the time, submitted a claim to the county asking for more than $924,000 before filing his personal injury suit in Superior Court.

The county claims the driver of the fleeing car was at fault, not their deputies.

Opening arguments could come as early as Tuesday.

Below is the National Weather Service alert for the Tacoma-area issued early for the South Sound area.

If we get hit, I'll be live blogging the storm here on Lights & Sirens.

Don't forget to send your storm/damage photos to NewsTips.

...STRONG THUNDERSTORMS ARE POSSIBLE OVER PORTIONS OF WESTERN
WASHINGTON TODAY..

...AN UNSEASONABLY STRONG AND WET PACIFIC STORM WILL AFFECT
WESTERN WASHINGTON LATE TUESDAY INTO WEDNESDAY..

SCATTERED THUNDERSTORMS WILL ROLL INTO THE AREA FROM THE SOUTH
TODAY. A FEW OF THE THUNDERSTORMS WILL LIKELY POSE A RISK OF PEA
SIZE HAIL OR LARGER...ALONG WITH BRIEF GUSTY WINDS TO NEAR 35
MPH.

A STRONG AND WET PACIFIC STORM MORE TYPICAL OF AUTUMN WILL BEGIN
AFFECTING WESTERN WASHINGTON LATE TUESDAY...AND CONTINUE THROUGH
WEDNESDAY. THIS SYSTEM PROMISES TO BRING SIGNIFICANT RAINFALL TO
THE AREA FOR THIS TIME OF THE YEAR. RAINFALL AMOUNTS OF 1.5 TO
2.25 INCHES ARE POSSIBLE ON THE SOUTHWEST FACING SLOPES OF THE
OLYMPICS. ELSEWHERE...A QUARTER TO THREE QUARTERS OF AN INCH OF
RAIN IS POSSIBLE...WITH SOME SOME SITES ON THE COAST AND IN THE
CASCADES RECEIVING UP TO NEAR AN INCH.

AFTER THE COLD FRONT PASSES EARLY WEDNESDAY...COLD AIR WILL BEGIN
INVADING THE REGION. THE SNOW LEVEL IS EXPECTED TO PLUMMET TO NEAR
6500 FEET BY THURSDAY. THOSE PLANNING ON HIKING OR CAMPING IN THE
MOUNTAINS ABOUT MIDWEEK SHOULD BE PREPARED FOR FALL-LIKE WEATHER
AND PLAN ACCORDINGLY.

(Map courtesy of our news partners at KIRO 7 Eyewitness News.)

A $5,000 reward is being offer for information on an Aug. 6 fire in Covington.

Here's the release sent out today by the Kent Fire Department:

Kent Fire Investigators and Rainier Wood Recyclers Inc. are asking for assistance from the public in connection with the recent wood debris fire at the Rainier site which began on August 5, 2008.

A reward of up to $5,000.00 is being offered for information that helps to determine the cause of the fire, which is still under investigation.

If anyone has any information concerning this fire, they can contact the lead investigator at 253-856-4465. All information is confidential and may be left anonymously.

A 43-year-old woman who went for a swim Sunday evening in American Lake has died.

The woman was swimming with her friends when something happened. She was under water for 10 minutes before her friends pulled her up, Lakewood police Lt. Heidi Hoffman said.

The Pierce County Medical Examiner's Office has not released the woman's name or any other information.

Tacoma firefighters and Department of Ecology crews were on the scene of a diesel spill this morning on the Foss Waterway.

The spill came from a boat and was contained as of 7:40 a.m., the Tacoma Fire Department reported.

UPDATE: The state Department of Ecology, U.S. Coast Guard and Tacoma fire are on the scene of this spill.

It's 100 gallons, DOE reports.

Snapped this after dinner, not long after it got real blustery and it looked like it was going to storm.

It's supposed to storm again tonight. Don't forget to send your storm/damage photos to NewsTips.

Lakewood Police and rescuers responded to American Lake on a possible drowning just after 6 p.m.

Lt. Heidi Hoffman was still awaiting details about the incident, but according to her and radio traffic, a woman entered the water from shore and was later brought to Beard Island. Someone with a boat helped ferry her back to a state Fish and Wildlife boat launch.

The woman was being transported to the hospital by ambulance. It was not clear what her condition was, but at one point rescuers said on the radio that she was not breathing.

Update: Good news? I talked to the Pierce County Medical Examiner's Office just after 8 p.m. and was told they had not been informed of any drowning.

A 68-year-old helicopter pilot was killed Sunday afternoon as he tried to land at a private landing zone near Olalla, Kitsap Sheriff’s officials said.

The man, who was not identified, was trying to land and pick up a passenger in the 12600 block of Banner Road Southeast just before 3 p.m., sheriff’s spokesman Scott Wilson said. But something went wrong, causing him to crash into some trees, setting the craft down near a house, but not damaging the house or hurting anyone on the ground.

“This guy is a hell of a hero,” Wilson said of the way the pilot avoided obstacles on the ground. “It looks like he just lost momentum.” The cockpit was crushed when the craft rolled, he said.

The pilot took off from Bremerton National Airport in a Robinson R22, which is often used for training student helicopter pilots. He lived near the crash site and had cleared a landing zone on his own property, Wilson said.

“What we don’t know is if it was a mechanical problem or some sort of medical condition,” Wilson said.

Witnesses told investigators they heard the engine revving and then a popping noise before the crash.

The National Transportation Safety Board and Federal Aviation Administration are investigating.

Reporters, especially those of us who cover crime, end up getting some pretty strange phone calls. Our phone numbers are all over the Web and appear on everything we write.

Starting when I worked in Nashville, I've gotten into the habit of saving some of the best ones -- the most irate or praising callers, and some that just left me scratching my head.

I was cleaning out my digital tape recorder the other day and came across one of the latter -- the only call I've ever received to reference Sasquatch feces -- and I thought I'd share it.

Click the link to listen:
"I happened to be on the front page of the paper today..."

(Photo by kyducks.)

Pacific Police John Calkins pleaded not guilty last week to a DUI charge.

Our news partners at KIRO TV have obtained a 911 call from a concerned citizen who said Calkins' car was veering all over the road.

A real estate agent called Pierce County sheriff's deputies this afternoon after hearing a suspicious noise in the attic of a home for sale near 176th Street East and 22nd Avenue.

The agent thought someone might be inside the home.

Deputies arrived, searched the home and found nothing, sheriff's spokesman Ed Troyer reported.

That slow down on Interstate 5 through Tacoma this morning?

A collision blocked the far left lane of southbound I-5 near South 72nd Street for a few minutes, the state DOT reported.

The crash was reported about 6:50 a.m. All lanes were opened two minutes later.

Michael A. Parks II was charged with second-degree malicious mischief a couple of days ago. According to charging documents, he gave a Washington State Patrol trooper a pretty rough time on Aug. 10.

According to a prosecutor's affidavit:

The car Parks was riding in was pulled over after an off-duty officer reported someone threw something at her while she was driving on Interstate 5.

Parks, a passenger, at first would not get out and once he did, he offered to fight the trooper.

PARKS smelled of alcohol and was slurring his speech. The trooper grabbed PARKS by the arm. There was a struggle but the trooper managed to get cuffs on PARKS.

PARKS was advised of his rights and informed that was under arrest. The trooper walked PARKS towards the patrol vehicle. PARKS jerked away from the trooper and attempted to run. The trooper was able to pin PARKS against the patrol vehicle. In the struggle the patrol vehicle’s antenna was broken and a fender was dented. The troopers were able to subdue PARKS and placed him in the rear of the vehicle seat belted in.

The trooper was speaking with his sergeant about the damage to his patrol vehicle when he heard the right rear window of the vehicle explode. PARKS had worked his way out of the seat belt and kicked the window out, bending the frame. PARKS was removed from the vehicle and placed in restraints.

The damage to the patrol vehicle is estimated to be in excess of $250.

I've gotten word from Seattle that the jury deliberating the civil suit of Barbara Corey vs. Pierce County has gone home for the day.

They are expected to return in the morning and could have a verdict as early at 10 a.m., the court bailiff told me.

Tacoma police detectives are trying to identify a man suspected in armed robberies at two stores this month.

The first incident was Aug. 9. A man (pictured here) walked into the Wash Grocery & Deli in the 1700 block of South Prospect Street about 6 p.m. He wielded a handgun and demanded cash from the clerk, police reported.

He left with an undisclosed amount of cash.

The second robbery was Tuesday about 5:30 p.m. The same man is suspected of walking into the Big Value Store, 2501 N. Alder St., and asking the clerk for cigarettes, police reported.

The suspect then pulled out a gun and demanded cash.

Witnesses have described the man as white, 50 to 60 years old and about 6 feet tall with a slender build. He is left handed and sports a gray and white goatee.

During the first robbery, he wore a black hooded Nike sweatshirt, sunglasses,
blue jeans and a baseball hat.

Detectives released surveillance photos of the suspect today in hopes of identifying him.

Tacoma-Pierce County Crime Stoppers is offering up to $1,000 for information that leads to an arrest and charges filed in the case. Callers remain anonymous.

Reach Crime Stoppers at 253-591-5959.

Tacoma police are asking the public's help in finding two men suspected of assaulting a man outside a grocery store last month.

Investigators released photos of the two suspects today.

The victim was seated in his car about 9:50 p.m. July 6. The car was in the parking lot of a food store in the 2700 block of South 12th Street, police reported.

One of the suspects rode up on a bicycle and hit the victim's car. The victim confronted the bicyclist, he and a second suspect punched the victim.

The victim was left with severe head trauma, police reported.

The first suspect is described as a white male, 13 to 17 years old. He wore a dark hooded sweatshirt and blue jeans during the attack, police said.

The second suspect is described as white, 18 to 25 years old and 5 feet 8 to 6 feet tall with a muscular build. He was wearing blue jeans and no shirt.

Tacoma-Pierce County Crime Stoppers is offering up to $1,000 for information leading to arrests and charges filed in the case. Callers remain anonymous.

Reach Crime Stoppers at 253-591-5959.

Here's the announcement from Washington Communities Against Predators:

The City of Tacoma is the site of the first Safe Child Town Hall, located at Lincoln High School’s auditorium, is Wednesday, August 20th, at 6:00 pm.

This town hall series is designed to empower communities, parents, and children; to help define and confront real risk head-on, in order to reduce crimes against children and tragedies in our communities. The Safe Child Town Hall series is part of Washington Communities Against Predator’s [Wash-CAP] Safe Child Project, in observance of National Missing Children’s Day. As many of the media know, 67% of all reported Sexual Assaults are committed upon minors: 33% are below 12 years of age. It is the goal of the Safe Child Project to reduce those numbers.

We hope for community members from across Tacoma to attend. Parents, care-givers, concerned adults and teenagers all benefit from learning –proactively- how to safeguard the children within their communities. With knowledge and empowerment, children can be kept safe and secure.

Tacoma Safe Child Town Hall topics will include:
· preventative safety for child and family,

· resources available if your child has been assaulted,

· real statistics on who is a threat to your child and community,

· internet safety

· what is being done to increase the safety of Tacoma’s families & children, and what has been learned in the last year since the tragic loss of Zinna Linnick,

· what kind of oversight Registered Sex Offenders receive,

· Panel Q&A

=> Read more!

The husband of a woman found slain in her South End home last week is expected to make his first court appearance today.

Tacoma police have arrested Eva Poe's husband on suspicion of first-degree murder. He had been at a local hospital, receiving treatment for injuries he sustained in a fire at the couple's house Friday in the 1800 block of South 37th Street.

The 27-year-old man was booked into Pierce County Jail just before 7:30 p.m. Wednesday.

He's listed on the in-custody arraignment list for this afternoon.

Tacoma firefighters found the 44-year-old Poe's body in a bag last Friday while looking for a cause of a fire at her home. Poe had been fatally stabbed.

Tacoma police detectives suspect Poe and her husband got into a heated argument that led to her death.

He was arrested Monday while still at the hospital.

Poe (pictured here) worked as a nurse. She is survived by three children.

UPDATE: Pierce County prosecutors have charged a Tacoma man with first-degree murder in the stabbing death of his wife.

A plea of not guilty was entered on behalf of Jay Nathaniel Poe, 27, during his arraignment this afternoon. Pierce County Superior Court Judge Byran Chushcoff ordered Poe held in Pierce County Jail in lieu of $1 million bail.

A public defender representing Poe reserved argument on bail.

Prosecutors allege Poe fatally stabbed his wife, 44-year-old Eva Poe, early on Aug. 8 after a heated argument in their South End home in the 1800 block of South 37th Street. He tried to cremate her remains in the fireplace but was unsuccessful.

The heat from the fireplace built up over several hours and ignited parts of the attic on fire. Tacoma firefighters were called to the home early Friday as flames shot through the roof.

Jay Poe was rescued from the home and treated as a local hospital for smoke inhalation. Fire investigators found Eva Poe’s remains in a large zippered bag in a bedroom closet while trying to find the cause of the fire.

Here's the press release from the Kent Fire Department:

KENT, WA – August 13, 2008 – This evening Kent Fire Department emergency units responded to a report of a car into a house at 27606 132 Ave. SE. Kent Fire Department personnel found a car containing 2 people that had gone off the road and hit the large mobile home. The impact knocked the home off its foundation. The driver and passenger, both in their 70’s, had sustained injuries and were still in the car when the fire department arrived. The female passenger was airlifted to Harborview Medical Center with a head injury. The male driver was taken to Harborview by ambulance with assorted minor injuries. The residents of the home, 2 adults and 3 children, were home at the time of the accident and were uninjured. The residents are staying with family locally until the status of the home is determined.

Prosecutors today charged a man named Joel Dewayne Mayfield with pimping out a 16-year-old girl, allegedly giving her drugs in exchange for the money she earned.

Watching the jail roster every day, it's fairly unusual to see a person arrested for promoting prostitution; the women selling their bodies are arrested much more frequently.

According to court records:

Officers were conducting an undercover sting and saw a young woman performing oral sex on a driver at an apartment complex parking lot.

The girl, who officers learned was 16, told police she lived with a man called "J-Bone" and was his "bottom b----," which is slang for "main girl." She said three other girls worked for him too. Her services were advertised on Craigslist.org, police confirmed.

The girl told police she gave J-Bone, later identified as Mayfield, all the money she made and in return she got crack cocaine, food and clothing. She said J-Bone had been her pimp since January -- when she would have been 15.

The girl "stated that the defendant beats her if she smokes more crack than she makes as a prostitute ... (She) stated that the defendant apologizes the next day and give her more crack cocaine."

Mayfield said he knew girls came to the apartment and got drugs, but denied providing them or pimping out the girls, court records say.

The defendant stated that if “a girl goes out and sells her body, then that’s her business.” The defendant had $945 in cash on his person and stated that it came from his disability payments. The defendant stated that his payments were a lot less than the amount he had.

Police also said he was in possession of a gun he was not supposed to have as a felon.

Mayfield remained in the Pierce County jail Wednesday night, charged with first-degree promoting prostitution and being a felon in possession of a fire arm. In their affidavit, prosecutors noted they are reserving the right to file additional charges after searching Mayfield's computers and camera.

Jail records show the husband of Eva Poe was released from the hospital this evening and booked into the Pierce County jail on suspicion of killing her.

King County prosecutors announced today that they have filed a second-degree murder charge against a man in a 1980 Des Moines homicide case.

James Maynard Blair, 54, was linked to the unsolved crime by DNA. He is currently in prison on another charge and was scheduled for release in November -- instead he will be arraigned at the regional justice center in Kent on Aug. 26.

According to charging documents:

Authorities did a welfare check on Kirk Parker on Feb. 27, 1980. He was founded dead in his trailer. He had been strangled and beaten. Cigarette butts, beer cans and other items in the trailer were seized as evidence.

The case was reopened in January 2006. Investigators hoped that new technologies would help them close the case.

Detectives interviewed Blair in prison earlier this year. Shown a picture of the victim, he said he'd never seen him before. He said he didn't recognize the victim's truck or trailer.

He spoke to detectives again in June. At that time, he confessed to the crime, according to court records.

Blair said he had been hitchhiking from Seattle to Tacoma. Parker stopped and offered him a ride. Blair was drunk. Parker offered to take him home and let him dry his wet clothes in his dryer.

Blair fell asleep and when he awoke Parker, who had been living a secretly gay life, was giving him oral sex. Parker offered Blair a brown bottle containing an inhalant, perhaps Amyl Nitrite. They went to the bedroom. Both men were naked.

Blair said he thought Parker was making fun of him for not being able to get an erection. He said he then strangled Parker with a tie.

A woman who was sexually abused as a child has filed a lawsuit against Pierce County, the City of Tacoma and a retired Tacoma police officer after videotapes of her abuse were found in the officer's home.

In the suit, the woman, identified by the initials K.W., alleges two videotapes of her abuse were not destroyed despite a 1994 court order. The tapes ended up at the home of retired Tacoma police officer Lee William Giles Jr.

They were found by Tacoma police detectives while searching Giles home in August 2006 in connection with an unrelated child sex case.

Giles, who retired from Tacoma police in 2000 after a 30-year career, was sentenced to 19 years in prison in January after he pleaded guilty to first-degree child rape, second-degree child rape, first-degree child molestation and third-degree assault. The victims were relatives of Giles and his longtime girlfriend, Maureen Wear, who was also convicted in the case.

K.W.'s lawsuit, which was filed Aug. 1 in King County Superior Court, states the discovery of the videotapes caused "substantial embarrassment, humiliation, infliction of emotional distress." She is being represented by Jack Connelly.

When she was a child, K.W. was sexually abused by her stepfather, her lawsuit states. He videotaped some of the incidents and was arrested by Astoria police after he mentioned to an undercover officer that he had a pornographic videotape of a child that he made when the girl's mother was not home.

Two videotapes were confiscated as part of the investigation and placed into the Pierce County Sheriff's Department's property room as evidence in January 1991, the lawsuit states. The stepfather was later convicted of sexual exploitation of a minor and second-degree child molestation and sentenced.

At the end of the court case, a judge ordered the videotapes and other visual evidence destroyed.

The lawsuit claims the destruction of the tapes was "extremely important" to the K.W. and allowed her to "move forward secure in the knowledge that the images of these events were behind her and had been destroyed."

Except that the tapes were not destroyed and somehow ended up with Giles.

The lawsuit alleges there was no system in place to make sure the court order was followed or that "police officers employed by the City of Tacoma could not simply take the pornographic images home for their viewing."

Giles is the only officer named in the suit.

"No systems, procedures or protocols were in place or followed to protect victims of child sexual abuse from having these images viewed by others or brought back at later dates," the lawsuit states.

The failure to destroy the tapes and to make sure they were guarded "was unreasonable and negligent," the suit states.

Calls to the Tacoma City Attorney's Office and Pierce County Risk Management office have not yet been returned. No responses to the lawsuit have been filed in King County.

Giles is currently serving his sentence at the Stafford Creek Corrections Center in Aberdeen.

UPDATE: Tacoma City Attorney Elizabeth Pauli said the city has not yet been served with the lawsuit and could not comment on its claims.

UPDATE 2: After the tapes were discovered in Giles' home, investigators looked into how Giles got them.

The videotapes were taken from a locked storage room at the Pierce County Sheriff's Department where items set for destruction are kept, sheriff's spokesman Ed Troyer said.

For a time during his law enforcement career, Giles shared an office with a sheriff's deputy that was next to the storage room. They had keys to the room because they kept their confidential files and other items in the room, Troyer said.

"He managed to get in there and cherry pick what he wanted," Troyer said of Giles. "He's the issue, he's the problem."

The property in the room is routinely destroyed.

"In the past, we've not had a problem," Troyer said. "It's a locked, secure facility."

Here are some extended interviews with three McNeil Island inmates talking about why they have declared multiple faiths. They accompany a story in Wednesday's paper.

Readers may remember McNeil's chaplain, Father Tom Suss, who resigned earlier this year because a new rule allowing multiple faiths created the possibility of seemingly contradictory combinations, such as Catholic/pagan.

You can follow this link to an audio slideshow giving an overview of the story.

Arlen Lopez, Catholic/Pentacostal

Mark Misiak, Buddhist/Wiccan

Maceo "Mace" Wiles, Catholic/Protestant

The link above goes to a follow-up story about Suss' resignation. You can read my original story after the jump.

=> Read more!

About once a week or so I check YouTube for new Tacoma-related content.

This video, which was posted today, purports to capture Tacoma rapper "K Sleezy" shooting a rapid-fire smiley face into a tree. Of course the unblemished tree isn't shown beforehand.

The description that accompanies the video says K Sleezy is merely "showin ya'll how we get down in Tacoma Washington." Mr. Sleezy's MySpace page refers to him as a "Gangsta Rapper/Pimp."

(Warning: the video contains bad language.)

Also: does anyone recognize the locale where this was shot? It looks like it might be a public park.

Fife police were investigating whether a 2-month-old baby's death was related to drug activity in his home.

Officers were called to the home in the 1200 block of 46th Avenue East just after 8 a.m. Monday, the department reported. They found Trevor Pritchard not breathing and unresponsive.

Efforts to revive him were unsuccessful and Trevor died, police reported.

While at the home, officers saw "obvious signs of drug activity." They got a warrant to search the home and returned there later Monday.

Investigators removed a large amount of drugs and drug paraphernalia.

"A connection between the drug activity and the infant's death is not conclusive at this point," the police department reported.

On Tuesday, the Pierce County Medical Examiner's Office reported the cause and manner of Trevor’s death were pending further tests.

The police investigation was continuing. No arrests have been reported.

Here's the press release from the Washington State Patrol:

The man credited with bringing the Washington State Patrol into the modern era of policing has died. Retired Chief Will Bachofner, 92, succumbed this morning to injuries received yesterday in an Olympia-area car accident.

Bachofner was the longest-serving chief in the patrol’s history, serving two separate terms under three different governors. But he is best known for changing the hiring standards to allow women and minorities to become state troopers.

“He was really the father of the modern Washington State Patrol,” said current WSP Chief John R. Batiste. “Will Bachofner understood long before other chiefs that a police agency must reflect the community it serves.”

“He was a man ahead of his time, and a chief for all time,” Batiste added.

=> Read more!

Pierce County sheriff's deputies were investigating the report of a plane down near Thun Field.

Deputies were talking on the phone with the pilot, who said he went down in the brush about two miles southeast of the airstrip on South Hill, sheriff's spokesman Ed Troyer said.

The pilot is not injured and said he was the only one on the plane. The plane went down around 10:45 a.m.

Deputies were responding to the scene and looking for the plane, which is described as a blue-and-white RV 6 single engine, Troyer said.

UPDATE: With the help of a news helicopter, deputies have located the pilot, Troyer said.

He was in a wooded area near a water tower in the 13800 block of 176th Street East.

A paramedic and deputies were with the man. He sustained "very minor" injuries, Troyer said.

Deputies were continuing to interview the pilot about what happened.

UPDATE 2: Here is a screen shot of the downed plane from the web site of our news partners, KIRO TV.

There apparently was some police activity at the Armory this morning in Tacoma.

There was a report of a suspicious package.

It turned out to be a sleeping bag rolled up in a bag, police spokesman Mark Fulghum said.

Tacoma police have arrested the husband of a woman found slain in her South End home last week.

Here's the story on the homepage.

The couple was married in late December. They rented the home in the 1800 block of South 37th Street.

Tacoma police investigators believe Poe was killed after a heated argument. A close friend told me yesterday that Poe worked her Wednesday night nursing shift at North Auburn Rehabilitation and Health Center.

At the end, she got into a heated argument over the phone with her husband, the friend said.

I have a story in today's paper about Eva Poe, the woman found slain inside her South End home on Friday after a fire.

The Pierce County Medical Examiner's Office has ruled she was stabbed to death. Her case is being investigated as a homicide by Tacoma police.

Dr. Chad Krilich, the assistant medical director for Community Health Care's Downtown Family Medical Clinic, knew Eva. He sent me this e-mail about her last night.

Prior to Eva's stint at the plasma center, Eva worked for Community Health Care at the Downtown Family Medical Clinic. She was an excellent nurse. She assisted the care of the patients in the Hilltop community. Her attention to details was impeccable and our patients loved her.

She was the type of nurse who spent countless hours on the phone to make sure patients got their medicine, took their medicine, and made their appointments.

As for her spirit, spunky is an understatement. She was a firecracker. By that, if a patient's care was being compromised for any given reason (insurance denial, etc); it was her personal mission to make it right.

It was a sad day when Eva left our clinic to move on.

I still remember when Eva moved to the plasma center her writing little notes on patients (people who just dontated) who were coming in for follow-up at the Downtown Family Medical Clinic. She had no reason to write anything. But, she made a point on documenting all their medicines to help our patients get better care, even when she did not work for us anymore. That is the kind of human being Eva was.

It is hard to understand why she was taken from us. She was a beautiful person, whom provided excellent care to our patients.

She had a heart of gold and will be greatly missed in our community.

Gov. Chris Gregoire and Washington State Patrol Chief John Batiste will be in Tacoma today for a press conference.

The two, along with the president of the International Association of Chiefs of Police, will be announcing a "major award" being given to the State Patrol by the IACP.

The press conference will be held at 11 a.m. at the District 1 office in Summit.

"This honor builds on last year's IACP designation of WSP as the best state police agency of its size," a press release about the event states.

Ruston Police used a credit card receipt and surveillance video to identify two men suspected of robbing a would-be drug buyer Aug. 2, according to Pierce County Superior Court records.

Terrance Lee Spikes Williams and Paul Alexader Cigarruista were both charged Monday with kidnapping, robbery and assault.

Here's what prosecutors contend happened:

The duo were drinking with a third man at the Unicorn Tavern in Ruston.

At about 1:30 a.m. the three drove to a near by casino where the third man withdrew cash so he could buy marijuana from Williams. When he returned to the car, Cigarruista punched him in the face and Williams pulled out a gun. They took his money.

They also made him withdraw $200 more dollars. They took his cell phone, shoes and wallet. Eventually they dropped him off, warning him to be silent or be killed.

But the duo weren't very smart about covering their own tracks, according to the police account.

They appeared on surveillance video at the Unicorn with the victim and Cigarruista paid his tab with a credit card. They also appeared with the victim on surveillance video from the casino. Williams also appears in video from the second ATM withdraw.

Both were being held Monday night at the Pierce County jail.

No charges were filed today against two women arrested in connection with a Parkland dog mauling case. The investigation is continuing and charges may be filed later.

The women were arrested after a sick man who was not able to care for himself was taken to a hospital, where dog bites were discovered. Twenty five dogs were taken from the house.

Update from King County ...

Adam is back up in Seattle today for the ongoing civil trial of Barbara Corey vs. Pierce County. The former deputy prosecutor is suing the county for wrongful termination and defamation.

When last we left this case, the county had asked the judge to dismiss the case.

A ruling on that motion hadn't been made this morning.

The county was calling witnesses today.

Law enforcement officers have arrested a man suspected of robbing a Bank of America branch last month.

A warrant had been issued for the arrest of Stefano Andolini. He was booked into Pierce County Jail on Friday evening, according to the online jail roster.

Tacoma police investigators believe the 45-year-old Andolini robbed the bank branch in the 3400 block of South 23rd Street about 3:30 p.m. July 17. He gave a teller a note that demanded cash, grabbed the money and ran out of the bank.

The Pierce County Medical Examiner's Office still has not identified a woman found slain in a South End home on Friday.

Tacoma firefighters found the woman's remains in a bag after dousing flames inside the home in the 1800 block of South 37th Street on Friday morning.

Tacoma Deputy Fire Chief Jolene Davis reported this morning the fire investigator continues to look into a cause for the fire. She anticipated the cause might be known later today.

No arrests have been made in the case.

I was looking at the jail roster today and saw that a man had been arrested by the Washington State Patrol and was being held for the US Marshals on a theft of government property charge. Curious, I looked up the federal file.

It's nothing too outrageous -- allegations of the theft of nearly $800 worth of accommodations from a naval air station in 2006 -- but it seemed interesting enough to post here.

Readers may remember a pit bull attack in Northeast Tacoma we wrote about in late July.

Two dogs attacked Jorgann Simonsen and Gallagher, the yellow Labrador, while they were out for a walk. Her husband Lind rode up on his bike and was able to help fight them off. All three of the Simonsen clan were injured.

The update is that everyone is on the mend -- Gallagher got her stitches out, Jorgann had hand surgery and Lind is still in a cast. But the pit bulls have still not been located, Lind told me tonight, despite impressive efforts by animal control officers.

He said they're still looking for a man on a motorcycle and a woman who helped out the night of the attack -- they may have additional details about where the dogs went.

The following warning about a flasher at Puget Park appeared on tacomamama.com:

"Yesterday, I took my two toddlers to Puget Park, it was about 1:30pm and within 5 minutes of being there I spotted a man, completely naked, except for his socks and running shoes, at the wooden fence next to the trailhead. A moment later he started to masturbate. I immediately contacted the Tacoma Police, who were out there within 10 minutes, eventually there were three patrol cars, they remained for nearly an hour, but I did not see any of them return with the flasher. At that moment in time, I was completely alone in the park (what are the odds?) but I did stay to talk with the officers and warn other parents. I am writing this to ensure we parents remain alert and keep our guards up!"

You can read more here.

I've got some calls out about the dead woman found in a bag at a south Tacoma house fire, but no new information to pass on.

The Pierce County Medical Examiner isn't releasing the woman's name or information about how she died.

An 84-year-old driver overshot her parking stall and rammed the wall and front door of a building in Lakewood this morning.

There were no injuries, but if she'd broken a bone, she'd have been in the right place: the accident occurred at TRA Medial Imaging (formerly Tacoma Radiology), 5919 100th St. S.W., Lakewood Police spokeswoman Heidi Hoffman said.

There was no word on whether her 2000 Buick LeSabre four-door might need a car doctor after the collision.

The accident didn't appear terribly serious, Hoffman said.

There was nothing in the initial reports to indicate there were issues with the structural integrity of the building, Hoffman said.

No estimate on hurt to the building, but TRA Medical Imaging CEO Dennis Carter said he'd "be shocked" if the damage was more than a couple thousand dollars.

The accident didn't disrupt the routine at the facility, which is one of TRA's busier, "high volume" facilities, Carter said.

"We were still performing procedures," he added.

The facility manager quickly contacted the property owner of the leased building and it was arranged for a crew to come in tonight to do whatever work is needed to secure the building, Carter said.

"Nobody was hurt, and that's obviously what was most important," he added.

(Submitted to Lights & Sirens by reporter Kris Sherman.)

I've got a call into Tacoma fire about a house this morning in the 1800 block of South 37th Street.

According to tv reports, smoke was visible to commuters on Interstate 5.

UPDATE: Here's what I know at this hour.

Tacoma firefighters doused flames at a house this morning and while investigating the cause of the fire discovered a body inside.

Tacoma police are now on the scene in the 1800 block of South 37th Street, investigating the death, Tacoma police and fire officials said.

Tacoma firefighters rescued one person from the burning house, deputy fire chief Jolene Davis said this morning. That person’s condition has not been released.

Firefighters responded to the house about 5:45 a.m. and saw flames piercing through the roof. Crews started to attack the fire and searched the home for occupants, Davis said.

Firefighters found one person inside and brought them outside. Davis declined to say more about that person’s condition.

When the flames were out, fire investigators started their work to determine a cause. While inside the home, they found a body in a bag, Davis said.

Investigators left the house and turned the scene over to Tacoma police officers.

“It’s now a crime scene,” Davis said. “Police are in there taking a look at it.”

Stay tuned to thenewstribune.com for further developments in this story.

UPDATE 2: Here's the latest version of the story that's posted on the homepage.

Investigators will be at this crime scene for hours today.

The location of this incident is just off Interstate 5 and across the street from the backside of Jennie Reed Elementary School.

There's a for sale sign out front that I believe might be for this house but I haven't gotten that confirmed.

The house is a two-story and has a basement. The family - a woman, man and young boy - had been renting the house for a year or so.

Deputy fire chief Jolene Davis summed this one up best when she said, "We have more questions than we have answers."

That seems to cover the police AND fire perspectives so far since it's fairly early in this investigation.

UPDATE 3: I just got off the phone with detective Thomas Williams. There's nothing new to report from the homicide scene.

Detectives were still waiting for the search warrant.

Power was restored across Fort Lewis earlier this evening after being off in different parts of the base since about 10:30 a.m.

Apparently, a part at a substation failed, said post spokesman Joe Jimenez.

There was some disruption to daily activities, but no major problems, he said.

Charges were filed this week against a woman suspected in a driveby shooting Aug. 4 on South Yakima Avenue.

Prosecutors allege Judy Marlene Beaty, 40, drove down an alleyway in the 4800 block of South Yakima Avenue. Her path was blocked by another vehicle.

Beaty fired a shot from a handgun at the other driver, then fled, court documents state.

A neighbor witnessed the shooting and contacted police. The neighbor described Beaty's vehicle and handgun. Another neighbor heard the shot and saw pickup trucks chasing each other. Yet another neighbor indicated that she had ongoing issues with Beaty, court documents state.

Prosecutors charged Beaty with drive-by shooting, first-degree unlawful possession of a firearm and driving with a suspended license.

Beaty remains in Pierce County Jail in lieu of $200,000 bail.

Here's the press release from the U.S. Attorney's office -- I'm told reporter Steve Maynard is working on a story about it:

FBI agents arrested GRANT G. GASPARD, 51, of Olympia, Washington, today on charges that he defrauded South King Fire and Rescue through an elaborate scheme that used false invoices and misuse of his government credit card. Until he resigned effective July 31, 2008, GASPARD was as assistant chief of South King Fire and Rescue, which also is known as King County Fire Protection District No. 39. According to an FBI agent’s affidavit supporting a criminal complaint that was filed in U.S. District Court in Seattle and unsealed today, the evidence the agent reviewed showed that Gaspard had fraudulently obtained more than $500,000 from the fire district over several years.

=> Read more!

The capacity hearing this afternoon for Semaj Booker has been continued until mid-September.

Officials were waiting for a report from a man who evaluated Semaj last week, reports our reporter Sean Robinson.

The 11-year-old Semaj, who first made headlines for stealing a car, leading officers on a chase and then making it through Sea-Tac Airport security, is now accused of residential burglary.

The capacity hearing is to determine whether Semaj knew right from wrong when he broke into a Tacoma apartment last month.

Here's The News Tribune's most recent story about Semaj's (and his mother's) troubles.

The cross examination continued today of Barbara Corey in her wrongful termination and defamation lawsuit against Pierce County.

The former deputy prosecutor took the stand in her suit Tuesday afternoon. She has been on the witness stand since.

During this morning's session, Pierce County's attorney, John Miller, questioned Corey.

He pointed out inconsistencies in statements Corey made to different people at different times regarding the transfer of deputy prosecutor John Neeb.

Corey will be back on the stand after the lunch break.

Here is Adam's story in today's paper about Corey's testimony yesterday.

The Associated Ministries will hold a short, spiritual ceremony Friday afternoon for a 1-year-old girl who was killed last month.

The Moment of Blessing ceremony for Aaliyah Kahalewai begins at 2 p.m. at the Parkland apartment in the 2400 block of 96th Street South where she died July 25. The site will be marked by bamboo poles laced with red and purple ribbons.

Pierce County prosecutors have charged Aaliyah's mother's boyfriend with second-degree murder in the death.

The Associated Ministries started the Moment of Blessing ceremony several years ago as a way to cleanse the places in Pierce County where homicides occur.

The brief ceremonies are intended to provide comfort and support to the victim's family and friends as well as the neighborhood where the crime happened.

The events are open to the public.

Traffic was being diverted around an accident on Marine View Drive this morning.

A hauler lost his load of cars in the roadway. A crane is being brought in to remove the cars, Tacoma police spokesman Thomas Williams said.

Just a reminder firefighters, police officials and others will gather this afternoon for the memorial service of East Pierce County Fire & Rescue Chief Dan Packer.

The Washington State Patrol estimates more than 200 fire and police vehicles will participate in a motorcade from the Puyallup Fair Grounds to the Christian Faith Center in Federal Way, where the service is set to begin at 2 p.m.

The procession from the fairgrounds begins at 11:30 a.m. Here's information from the State Patrol about the route.

They will leave the blue gate parking lot of the fairgrounds and go eastbound on Meridian to State Route (SR) 512. From SR 512 they will head north on SR 167 exiting at 15th Street. From 15th they will go onto W. Valley Highway taking SR 18 to Weyerhaeuser Way. They will turn onto WB 336th Street and then left on 20th Avenue South ending at the Christian Faith Center.

During this precession roadways will be blocked and lanes closed to allow safe travel. We are asking the public to avoid these areas during this time if they do not wish to be a part of the event, as there will be a lot of traffic congestion and slow downs.

UPDATE: The Federal Way Police Department has released some information this morning about specific road closures and times for this procession. The procession is expected to be two miles long.

Here's what the department provided.

Road Closure Times

-West from HWY 18 Weyerhaeuser Way exit to CFC from -1200-1330;

-20th Ave South from S. 330th to S. 336th from -1200-1330

-Eastbound S. 336th from PHS from -1200- 1330

-East bound CFC S. 336th to Weyerhaeuser Way/HWY 18 exit

The chief of the Pacific Police Department was arrested last night on suspicion of DUI in Bonney Lake.

One issue that's come up - the chief is a throat cancer survivor and the breath test might not have been administered properly.

Here's our story that's up on the homepage.

I got this e-mail last night from Laura Hanan, a resident and business owner in downtown Tacoma.

According to Patrick Coyne, owner of downtown Tacoma's Paddy Coyne's Pub, the police tonight issued a ticket to two occupants of a Winthrop Hotel apartment for shooting bb gun(s), one of which hit a woman customer and another that shattered one of his restaurant windows on Pacific Ave.

The police told Patrick that they found targets laid out in the apartment. There was an estimate of $1,000. damage to Patrick's front window. A woman having a beer on his patio was hit in the leg.

Apparently the males began shooting again and also hit a cat. I watched one of the officers put one of the guns in the trunk of the patrol car after they had gone into the Winthrop.

Patrick said that he initially saw the guys at the Winthrop window and watched them pull back when they realized he was watching. He said the police did not believe him initially when he insisted that the shots were coming from the Wintthrop. After the men started shooting again and hit the cat and a car, the police realized that the shots were in fact coming from what looks like it was a fourth or fifth story corner apartment of the Winthrop Hotel. "I would have bet every penny in my till that the shots were coming from there," Coyne said.

Tacoma police Lt. Shawn Gustason reports that patrons were sitting at the restaurant when a window blew out last night. They investigated and found a BB possibly caused the damage.

An off-duty Tacoma police officer who was working nearby responded to the call. The patrons had left the restaurant.

The owner saw an open window at the Winthrop Hotel. The officer went to investigate.

The officer found two men in an apartment at the Winthrop. They were target practicing with a bb gun.

They had the window open. The target they were aiming at was nearby, Gustason said.

The men said not all of their shots had hit the target. They assumed they were going no further than a large tree just outside the window.

The men were cooperative and said it was most likely one of their BBs that hit the restaurant.

The officer cited the man for vandalism and confiscated the BB gun, Gustason said.

Barbara Corey continued to testify this morning in her wrongful termination and defamation lawsuit against Pierce County.

Under questioning by her attorney, Jack Connelly, Corey told a King County jury her version of events that lead up to her dismissal in January 2004.

Corey testified that the decision to transfer deputy prosecutor John Neeb was hers, but she thought the move was supported by Prosecuting Attorney Gerald Horne and his chief administrative deputy Dawn Farina.

When the move proved unpopular with members of the prosecutor's guild, Corey testified, Horne and Farina abandoned their support for the move and left Corey to take all the blame.

"I thought I was on an island by myself," she said.

Corey said she later was shocked when Horne decided to dismiss her from the office.

"I'd done nothing wrong," she said. "I was crying and I was upset and I was shocked."

Corey had just begun to talk about an investigation into some missing money when the lunch break was called.

She will resume testifying at 1:30 p.m. in the King County.

Here is Adam's story in today's paper that has the first part of Corey's testimony.

The Pierce County Sheriff's Department is investigating the shooting Tuesday afternoon involving a Department of Corrections officer.

The officer fired at and wounded a fugitive during an encounter in unincorporated Pierce County about 2:20 p.m. The fugitive, Lawrence R. Steele, had reportedly tried to run over the officer.

The officer fired and Steele fled. He was later found hiding in a Tacoma restaurant.

The Sheriff's Department's officer-involved shooting team responded to the scene to conduct witness interviews and gather evidence.

Steele was treated for his injuries and booked into Pierce County Jail at 7:35 p.m. Tuesday on a U.S. Marshal hold.

Firefighters remain at the scene this morning of a large blaze at a wood recycling facility in Covington.

The cause of the fire remains under investigation and won't be known until the flames are extinguished.

The fire broke out at 10:30 p.m. Tuesday at the center, which is near Highway 18 and the Covington-Sawyer Road.

When firefighters arrived, they found a wood debris pile measuring 175 feet by 50 feet fully engulfed in flames, Kent Fire Capt. Kyle Ohashi said today.

Flames shot more than 100 feet in the air and could be seen for miles. Firefighters tried to douse the blaze with more than 2,000 gallons of water per minute but it had little effect.

Firefighters changed tactics and tried to keep the fire from spreading to the unburned portions of the pile. That wood was then separated from the burning pile, Ohashi said.

The fire is still burning this morning but is starting to die down. The blaze might continue to burn for the next four to six hours.

Firefighters warns drivers that traffic could be delayed on Covington-Sawyer Road because of the incident.

Officials also say anyone concerned about the smoke should consider leaving the area for the next six hours or close all windows and doors to keep the smoke out.

Anyone who has breathing problems because of the smoke should call 911 immediately.

(Photos are courtesy of Kent fire Capt. Kyle Ohashi)

I had a post on Monday about Washington State Patrol Chief John Batiste ticketing a Puyallup man for driving while talking on his cell phone.

The man had the phone to his ear as he was clocked going 80 mph south on Interstate 5 in the Burien area.

A new state law, as you will recall, requires drivers to go hands free if they are chatting on the phone and driving at the same time.

The State Patrol has provided updated numbers of warnings and tickets given to drivers in Pierce and Thurston counties under the new law.

As of July 31, troopers in those counties had stopped 66 people who were hands-on the cell phone while committing another traffic violation.

Of those, 25 got citations and 41 received verbal warnings.

State Patrol spokesman Bob Calkins explained troopers start with education. Their goal is to write tickets to 55 percent of the people who are stopped.

We're gathering information about an incident that happened near Lakewood earlier this afternoon.

What we've heard so far is that a US Marshal fired at a suspect, who was later captured nearby. When I talked to the Marshal's office, they were still gathering information about what happened. According to radio traffic, the incident may have also involved a hit-and-run.

Our news partners at KIRO-TV have just posted a story about the incident.

Update: The Associated Press moved the following item, saying it was a Department of Corrections officer, not a US Marshal.

Wash. Corrections officer shoots, wounds fugitive
Eds: APNewsNow.
TACOMA, Wash. (AP) — A state Department of Corrections officer has shot and wounded a fugitive wanted on a federal warrant.
DOC spokesman Chad Lewis says details are sketchy, but the shooting occurred in Pierce County. The fugitive then drove away and was eventually arrested in Tacoma.
The identities of the officer and the fugitive have not been released.

Update 2: Here's the updated information put out by the Department of Corrections:

Federal Fugitive Arrested After Trying to Run Over Officer with Car

TACOMA – A fugitive wanted for a federal parole violation is custody after trying to run over a Department of Corrections community corrections officer with a car in Pierce County. Fearing for his life, the community corrections officer fired at the fugitive, apparently striking him.

The fugitive, Lawrence R. Steele, was taken to a local hospital with minor injuries. The community corrections officer was not injured.

The community corrections officer is part of a Community Response Unit that includes the U.S. Marshals Service and local law enforcement which unit searches for offenders who have warrants issued for their arrest.

Here's the press release from South King Fire & Rescue:

Federal Way - Just before 9:00 a.m. this morning, South King Fire responded to an apartment fire at 1300 SW Campus Drive in Federal Way.

Firefighters had the fire under control and put out within 18 minutes. The fire was contained in a bedroom with heavy smoke damage to the rest of the unit.

The cause of the fire indicates a 4 year old playing with a lighter and fireworks started the fire. Damage estimates are not available at this time.

The Red Cross is caring for the family.

South King Fire & Rescue recommends calling 9-1-1 from outside a burning building, or from a neighbor’s house. We also recommend keeping matches and lighters high and away from children and remind citizens that fireworks are banned in the cities of Des Moines and Federal Way.

We're working on a wrap up on the anti-war protests that have been going on at the Port of Tacoma since Wednesday night.

By our count, a total of 14 protesters were arrested by Tacoma and Lakewood police at the port and near Ft. Lewis. The Port Militarization Resistance group is claiming 15 arrests.

The protesters have said they're going to be at the Tacoma City Council meeting tonight and have a "Unity Rally" planned for Saturday afternoon.

A press release they sent out today is after the jump.

=> Read more!

Tacoma-Pierce County Crime Stoppers appears to have struck a cord.

On July 11, the non-profit organization launched a gas card giveaway targeting the county's 50 most wanted felons - from gangsters and accused killers to domestic violence violators to convicted sex offenders.

The deal: You provide information about one of the 50 offenders and if that person is located and arrested, you receive a $250 gas card and up to $1,000 cash.

Just shy of a month into the promotion, Crime Stoppers released the following update.

* 10 of the Most Wanted offenders have been arrested.

* 3 people were caught by officers working the streets.

* 1 person contacted authorities after seeing their mug shot and information on the Internet.

* 2 people are believed to be out of state. Crime Stoppers has forwarded information about them to the appropriate law enforcement agencies.

* 1 of the offenders has been confirmed as deceased.

* 5 of the $250 gas cards have been given to people who's anonymous tips led to arrests. In addition, those tipsters also received cash rewards.

* Investigators are actively working 16 other tips (nine of which were e-mailed into Crime Stoppers).

To see the offenders, got to Crime Stoppers' web site.

Barbara Corey's wrongful termination and defamation lawsuit against Pierce County continued this morning in Seattle with two deputy prosecutors taking the stand.

Mary Robnett, who supervises the sexual assault unit, testified for most of the morning.

Robnett said that Corey told her more than once that the idea to move a seasoned trial attorney out of her unit originated with Prosecuting Attorney Gerald Horne.

What's more, Robnett testified, Corey told her she would try to talk Horne out of moving John Neeb to a position at juvenile hall.

"She never, ever told me it was a good idea or that it was her idea," Robnett said.

Horne and the county claim the move was Corey's decision and that she tried to put it on Horne when it led to hard feelings in the office.

Corey claims she was simply doing Horne's bidding and unfairly was made a scapegoat for the unpopular decision to move Neeb.

It was a memorandum that Robnett wrote to Horne protesting the move of Neeb that ultimately prompted a confrontation between Corey and Horne.

Horne forced Corey out of the office as a result of that confrontation, saying he could not longer trust her. Corey sued.

Her attorney, Jack Connelly, suggested during his questioning of Robnett that she wasn't made privy to all the information regarding the transfer, including that Horne had instructed Corey to put "a positive spin" on the move.

Robnett admitted that she did not have that information.

She also testified, under cross examination by attorney Sandra Bobrick, that she'd never known Horne to ask one of his employees to lie. Robnett has worked in the office for 14 years.

Deputy prosecutor Lisa Wagner took the stand just before the lunch break.

Wagner testified about a conversation she had with Corey about Neeb's transfer back in 2004.

She told the jury that during that discussion Corey "blurted out" that Horne had told her to say something that wasn't true, specifically that the new head of the juvenile unit had requested that Neeb be transferred to juvenile hall.

Ed Murphy, who was the head of the juvenile unit at the time, testified early in the trial that he never requested Neeb.

Wagner is set to resume her testimony at 1:30 p.m.

Corey is next on the witness list.

We've gotten word this morning that all of the military vehicles have been offloaded and moved out of the Port of Tacoma.

Our military reporter Mike Gilbert has the details from the Fort Lewis folks on his blog here.

The vehicle's return was met with some protesters the past six nights as you might have read in The News Tribune and on this blog. Tacoma police report they arrested three people over the six nights.

Residents in nearly 100 Pierce County neighborhoods plan to head outside tonight and interact with each other for the 25th annual National Night Out.

The goal for the nationwide event is to connect neighbors and unite them in fighting crime in their neighborhoods.

Pierce County residents have participated in the activity for years.

Tonight, neighborhoods have planned barbecues, visits from local police officers and firefighters and other activities.

Most of the parties begin during the late afternoon or early evening.

A list of the parties registered with Safe Streets can be found on the organization's web site here.

In addition, the Fircrest Police Department will host its annual event at the city's community center, 555 Contra Costa Ave., from 5:30 to 9:00 p.m. Activities will include a "Dunk A Cop" booth, sidewalk drawing contest, face painting, vehicle displays and a fireworks show.

A man was killed early Sunday in a car crash in unincorporated King County, west of Enumclaw.

The King County Medical Examiner’s Office has not released the man’s name.

According to the King County Sheriff’s Office, the car crash occurred just before 2 a.m. at the intersection of Southeast 416th Street and 236th Avenue Southeast.

The man’s Toyota Tercel was hit by a 2001 Chrysler 300. The man died at the scene, sheriff’s spokesman John Urquhart said.

Two men and a woman in the Chrysler were slightly injured and treated at nearby Enumclaw General Hospital.

No arrests have been made and the investigation was ongoing, Urquhart said.

Alcohol does appear to have contributed to the crash.

Ian wrote up a post about the Port of Tacoma protest activity from Sunday night. One person was shocked with a Taser but he couldn't get a hold of a Tacoma police official to hear their take on what happened.

Tacoma police spokesman Tom Williams provided the following information today about that incident.

The officer was parked in his patrol car about 100 yards west of 11th Street and Port of Tacoma Road, monitoring a group of 15 to 20 protesters.

About 10 of the protesters walked toward the officer's car and surrounded it while yelling obscenities at the officer, according to the report.

The protesters continued walking, then came back toward the officer's car. One of the protesters had a broken clipboard, another carried a flag pole.

The man with the flag pole approached the officer's car.

Protesters again surrounded the officer's car and taunted him. One of them covered his face with his black T-shirt. He had his hands rolled up in his shirt and resting at waist level.

According to the report, the officer could not see the protester's hands.

The officer couldn't move his vehicle or get out because the protesters had surrounded him. The officer ordered the protesters to get back.

It appeared to the officer that the crowd was escalating. He was not able to safely leave the area and gave orders to disperse, according to the report.

The officer gave once last order and when it wasn't followed, Tasered one of the protesters, a 20-year-old man. The man was hit in the chest with the prongs and fell to the ground.

The crowd then moved back, the protester with the clipboard dropped the item and other officers arrived to assist.

The 20-year-old complained of chest pain. Tacoma firefighters responded to the scene to treat him. The man was taken to Tacoma General Hospital to be examined, then was booked into Pierce County Jail on suspicion of third-degree assault, Williams said.

Washington State Patrol Chief John Batiste likes to get out on the road every once in a while and do some old-fashioned police work.

Last weekend, he snared a driver and cited him for one of the state's newest traffic laws - violating the "hands free" cell phone law.

Batiste was out Saturday at Seafair with other troopers. On his way back to Pierce County, a speeding driver zipped past the chief's unmarked patrol car.

Batiste said he followed the car as it changed lanes and determined the driver was going about 80 mph south on Interstate 5 in the Burien area.

The chief stopped the driver about 5:10 p.m. near Highway 516.

"I stopped the kid for speeding and improper lane travel," Batiste said. "Of course, he's talking on his cell phone."

Batiste said the driver instantly knew he was in the wrong.

"He couldn't stay in his lane because he was talking on his cell phone," the chief said. "He was paying more attention to his conversation than his driving."

The man told Batiste he got a phone call while he was driving and answered it.

"He didn't offer any excuses," Batiste said. "I ended up citing him for the cell phone violation and told him to get a Bluetooth."

Through July 15, troopers in Pierce and Thurston counties had contacted 37 drivers who were talking on their cell phones and driving.

Of those, 18 received tickets and 19 received verbal warnings.

Central Pierce Fire and Rescue crews had a busy night.

They responded to a mobile home fire around 1:30 a.m. near 30th Avenue East and 255th Street East, the department reported.

The older mobile home, which was empty at the time, was engulfed in flames. Firefighters were hampered by a lack of water in the area.

The fire was under control within 30 minutes, the department reported.

The Pierce County Fire Marshal's Office is investigating.

A fire heavily damaged a Gig Harbor home late Sunday.

Key Peninsula firefighters were called to the home in the 1900 block of 45th Street Court Northwest just after 11:45 p.m. Sunday, battalion chief Steve Nixon said.

The residents got out safely before firefighters arrived. The blaze spread into the attic before firefighters doused the flames in the two-story, wood home, Nixon said.

No injuries were reported, Nixon said.

The Pierce County Fire Marshal's Office is investigating.

Preliminarily, investigators suspect oily rags in a confined space sparked the fire, Nixon said.

"Spontaneous combustion," Nixon said.

"Make sure that you store those types of things (oily rags) and ashes away from any combustibles," he added. "You don't want to throw them in the garbage."

If you're commute on Interstate 5 through Tacoma was a bit sluggish this morning, here's why.

Two separate crashes blocked the center and left lane of southbound I-5 near the curve at Highway 16 for a short time (like 5 minutes), the state Department of Transportation reported.

The crashes were cleared and all lanes open to drivers by 7:40 a.m.

A group of about 20 protesters gathered at the Port of Tacoma on Sunday afternoon, once again demonstrating against the military's use of the facility to bring Stryker vehicles back from Iraq.

The demonstrations have been smaller than past protests at the ports in Tacoma and Olympia. But, to the group, that's not necessarily a bad thing.

"So far it's been a pretty good victory," said Chris Grande, 19, of Olympia.

"It's been really positive," he said, noting the vast amount of police resources that were being dedicated to monitor the group's actions.

Grande said he participated in a road blockade early Sunday near Ft. Lewis that held up a Stryker military vehicle for 10-20 minutes -- though he wasn't among the three who were arrested, according to the Olympia Port Militarization Resistance Web site.

The three who were named on the site were booked into the Pierce County jail on suspicion of disorderly conduct, records show. A call to a Lakewood Police spokeswoman was not returned Sunday afternoon.

According to the protesters:

A group of 25-30 demonstrators met the first convoy at Exit 122 at 11:45 p.m. A soft blockade on the overpass disrupted the transport for approximately 15 minutes. Estimates counted 20 police cars, including WA State Patrol, Pierce County Sheriff, Tacoma and Lakewood PD. Just before midnight three demonstrators were arrested--two females and one male--and were charged with obstruction and failure to obey a police officer. At 2:45 a.m. a soft blockade at Exit 124 on the overpass disrupted the transport for approximately 10 minutes.

One protester told me an anecdote about shouting to a News Tribune van that they were being detained by police. But at that time of night, I told him, no reporters were working -- only delivery people.

Covering the protests several times over the past week got me thinking. According to CNN/Opinion Research Corporation polling, between roughtly 65 percent of Americans have been opposed to the war since the beginning of 2007.

But these protests at the port have drawn very little support beyond a small, hardcore group. Granted, the tactic of trying to impede military vehicles doesn't play well in a town like Tacoma, but the greater question is what kind of civic disobedience/action/protest/march/etc. might the greater public care about? Or are the majority of people content to be discontent with the war, but uninterested in action beyond the ballot box?

Update: Just after 7 p.m., a call was put out over the scanner that one of the protesters was Tasered by police. The circumstances are unclear right now.

Update 2: Still waiting to hear back from the Tacoma Police spokesman about the Taser incident. Meantime, here's a YouTube video posted by the protesters.

Update 3: I just spoke with Josh Simpson, 26, of Olympia. He was with the protesters when his friend was Tasered.

According to him: one of the officers drove his patrol car into an area police had designated as a "free speech zone" for the protesters. That made them uncomfortable and they went over to his car to ask him why he was parked there. Simpson said he was on the passenger side of the car and was warned by the officer to back up or he would be Tasered. He complied.

But other people, including the man who got Tasered, were still standing near the car on the driver's side. The man was standing with his arms crossed and was not threatening the officer either by word or deed, Simpson said. Simpson estimated his friend was three to five feet from the car.

Then, without warning anyone on the driver's side of the car, the officer fired the Taser through the window, he said. The man fell to the ground in agony.

"I didn't think he was OK," Simpson said. "None of us can understand why they Tasered him."

His friend was Tasered again why lying on the ground, Simpson said.

I called and paged the fill-in police spokesman and still haven't heard back.

According to police radio traffic, the man who was Tasered was taken to a hospital.

A train hit a pedestrian at a crossing near North Meridian and West Steward Ave around 3 p.m., Puyallup Police are reporting.

The preliminary investigation indicates the woman was a likely suicide, Lt. Dave McDonald said.

Meridian was closed, but because it's Sunday, traffic hasn't been snarled up too bad, he said.

Two motorcyclists killed Saturday afternoon after they collided on East 56th Street in Tacoma were identified Sunday by the Pierce County Medical Examiner’s Office.

They are Foiatu Timali Jr, 32, of Tacoma, and Dale Brintley Jr., 29, also of Tacoma.

The accident occurred about 4:30 p.m. at East B Street as both motorcyclists rode eastbound on East 56th Street, police said.

The wreck shut down East 56th Street between East B and East E streets for several hours while police investigated the accident.

Police believe the motorcycles were going very fast when they collided. It was not clear if they were racing.

A man was killed in a single-car crash near Eatonville early Sunday morning, the Washington State Patrol reported.

Driver, who was not identified, was headed south on Highway 161 when he lost control of his 2000 Mercury, according to a news release. The car left the road, rolled and caught fire.

The cause of the crash is under investigation.

The following two items come to L & S via Brent Champaco, our Lakewood reporter. He pulled them from City Manager Andrew Neiditz's Aug. 1 weekly bulletin to Lakewood City Council members.

* 50th Search Warrant for Drugs in Tillicum: Officer Waller authored the 50th search warrant in Tillicum since the inception of the LPD. SWAT and Special Ops served the warrant on July 31st resulting in Heroin and cash being seized.

* Street Light Copper Wire Theft: Public Works crews have uncovered 3 separate copper wire thefts in our street light system. Two of the areas were on Steilacoom Blvd between Clover Park Technical College and South Tacoma Way. The third area was on Tacoma Mall Blvd from 80th south to the casinos. Public Works is in the process of welding shut the street light lids where possible. Although this may slow the thieves down, it may not completely stop the problem. Public Works and Police have been coordinating efforts to work both ends of the problem ­ the thieves that are taking the wire, and the recyclers who illegally pay cash for the salvaged copper wire.

It's about that time of year again.

Residents and neighborhoods are gearing up for parties to take back their streets during National Night Out events.

This year's Night Out is Tuesday.

Typically, South Sounders hit the streets in force for barbecues, games and good times with their neighbors. As of July 29, 92 block parties were registered with Safe Streets. More than 10,000 people were expected to attend the parties.

Here's a file of the registered events.

Click here to download.

Last year, more than 100 events were planned in Pierce County communities.

Among the events scheduled for this year:

* Fircrest Police will hold its 25th annual event from 5:30 to 9 p.m. Tuesday at the Fircrest Community Center, 555 Contra Costa Ave. Activities will include displays of a Washington National Guard Humvee, "Dunk A Cop," a sidewalk drawing contest, face painting and visits by Ronald McDonald, McGruff and Scruff, Big Foot Clown Alley, Vince and Larry. The event will conclude with a fireworks show.

Last year, more than 1,800 people attended the Fircrest event.

* A night of music aimed at youth. "A Show at the Brick" starts at 7 p.m. (with doors opening at 6:30 p.m.) at Brick City, 754 Pacific Ave. The bands New Heights, Ghost Runner on Third, Robots vs. Humans and Verzatile @ A-P are expected to play.

The event is free.

Pierce County Superior Court Judge Katherine Stolz has been admonished by the state Commission on Judicial Conduct.

The punishment was announced this afternoon. The decision is posted on the commission's web site here.

The disciplinary action came after a 2007 incident in which the judge made a criminal defendant remove a head piece he was wearing. He said he was wearing the head piece for religious purposes.

Adam will have a more complete report in Saturday's News Tribune.

Looks like Thomas Shane O'Hagan might be tried for murder after all.

Pierce County Judge Susan Serko signed an order earlier this week finding O'Hagan competent to stand trial in the stabbing death of Maria Flesher (seen here).

His trial date was set for Oct. 20.

O'Hagan's mental-health issues have stalled the legal proceedings against him since his arrest in October 2004.

He's been back and forth between the jail and Western State Hospital numerous times, and the first-degree murder charge against him was dismissed earlier this year when prosecutors ran out of chances to try to have his competency to stand trial restored.

They refiled in April when state mental health officials declined to civilly commit him to Western State Hospital.

Here's my last story on the case:

=> Read more!

Pierce County prosecutors have charged a 21-year-old man in a series of sexually-motivated attacks on Puyallup women.

Pleas of not guilty were entered on behalf of George Collin Applegate in Superior Court on Thursday. Applegate is charged with attempted first-degree rape, attempted first-degree kidnapping and two counts of fourth-degree assault with sexual motivation.

Applegate, who was arrested Wednesday, was being held in jail Friday.

Puyallup police believe Applegate inappropriately touched three women between May 8 and May 20, according to charging documents.

In one case, a woman reported she was walking home from work when a man hit her over the head, grabbed at her genitals and tried to remove her pants, the documents state.

Two other women reported being groped by a man who approached them on the street, according to charging papers.

Police released a composite sketch of the man (seen here) to the news media in late May and later received a tip that the attacker might be Applegate, the documents state. The alleged victims later were shown a photo montage that included Applegate's picture, and at least one of them identified him as her attacker, according to charging papers.

Puyallup detective Tamera Pihl interviewed Applegate last month. He denied sexually assaulting anyone but said the felt he was falling into "lustful sin," which gave him the strong urge to have sex, the documents state.

Applegate is next scheduled in court Aug. 19 for a pre-trial hearing.

A 33-year-old woman was killed this morning when her car crossed into oncoming traffic along Spanaway Loop Road and collided head on with a Pontiac Firebird.

The mother and her two young children who were in the Firebird suffered minor to moderate injuries, Pierce County sheriff's spokesman Ed Troyer said. All there were properly restrained.

The 33-year-old woman was driving south on Spanaway Loop Road shortly after 11 a.m. The roadway was wet and her Honda Civic slid across the road into oncoming traffic near 118th Street South, Troyer said.

"It was raining and she was going too fast for conditions, causing her to go into oncoming traffic," he said.

The Civic hit the Firebird. The Civic's driver was not wearing a seat belt and died of her injuries.

Part of the roadway was blocked this morning as deputies investigated the deadly accident.

A man killed in a car accident Thursday afternoon has been identified as a 36-year-old Tacoma man.

He was hit and killed by a car in the 3200 block of Pacific Avenue shortly before 4 p.m.

No other details were immediately available.

UPDATE: Police investigators suspect this was a suicide.

The minivan driver had little time to react, police spokesman Mark Fulghum said. She tried to swerve to avoid the man but was unsuccessful.

Pierce County Superior Court Judge Frank Cuthbertson's bombshell was the biggest news to come out of Semaj Booker's court hearing yesterday.

But the majority of the proceeding was dominated by a fight over whether the public, including members of the news media, should be able to attend an upcoming hearing to determine whether Pierce County's most infamous runaway had the capacity to understand right from wrong when he allegedly broke into a Tacoma apartment last month.

Semaj's defense team filed a motion earlier in the week asking Cuthbertson (seen here) to close the capacity hearing to the public.

That action prompted a protracted argument Thursday about competing interests: Semaj's right to privacy and the public's right to access its court system.

Public defender John Austin argued long and hard that closing the hearing was the right and legal thing to do.

Details about Semaj's life that in most cases are held in the strictest of confidence – the status of his mental health, medical treatments he's undergone, et cetera – likely will be divulged during the capacity hearing, Austin told Cuthbertson.

While the public has a legitimate right to know the outcome of the hearing and whether Semaj will be prosecuted, it does not have a right to know "the deepest, darkest secrets" of Semaj and his family, Austin said.

"I just don't see, from the respondent's perspective, the legitimate interest the public has in that information," the attorney argued.

Austin also took a shot at the news media and what he sees as its true motivation in challenging the closure of the hearing.

"I think the interveners' motivation stems more purely from the media's interest in sensationalizing this young man's life and less so the public's interest in the fair administration of justice," Austin said.

=> Read more!

A touching editorial in yesterday's Redding newspaper in honor of Dan Packer and Andy Palmer, firefighters who were killed battling wildland fires in California.

Here's a quick story on the firefighting news web site about a safety movement today.

Flags are being lowered at fire stations in California for Packer and Palmer, according to this story.

(Here's Ian's report from the Port of Tacoma protest overnight.)

The protester quote of the night was, “We’re out in the middle of nowhere surrounded by cops.”

The group started walking from a meeting point near Puyallup and D with about 40 people. But a chunk of the demonstrators turned back before they reached the streets near where the vehicles were leaving the port.

Marching up Thorne toward where a line of officers was assembled to guide them into the so-called Free Speech Zone, the group began to sing briefly, but soon petered out.

They chanted a bit – phases like “Our streets, our port.” But largely stood around, looking indecisive, seemingly outflanked by the highly organized police presence (which included officers on foot, bicycle, motorcycle and patrol car) and outnumbered.

Only a couple of people decided to go into the barricaded area set up for demonstrators on 11th.

One person asked what had happened to their freedom of assembly.

The protesters seemed to get a big kick out of posing in front of the line of police officers and snapping photos with their cell phone cameras.

At one point, the group was asked to move as a car came up the street. An officer directed them to get off the road and onto the sidewalk.

One girl said, “We’ll be over here, but we want you to know we’re still protesting.”

Around 11:30 p.m., the group saw the Strykers rolling out of the Port of Tacoma and ran down Ross toward them. Officers stopped them about half a block from the vehicles.

The demonstrators rallied briefly, singing and chanting a bit more, but not as a united group.

One youth, wearing a bandanna over his face, kept asking one officer for his badge number.

“What’s your badge number?” And when the officer didn’t answer, “Do you not have a badge number?” After a few minutes he gave up.

One person held up a sign that read “Stop the War.”

Another wave of Strykers rolled by just before midnight. At least one of the protesters got taken to the ground and arrested detained at the line of bicycle officers across Ross, but I didn’t see clearly what happened.

As the soldiers drove past, many held their fingers up making peace signs.

KOMO TV also had a crew there, but they left around midnight, about the same time we did.

A videographer accompanied the demonstrators and told myself and photographer Drew Perine that having coverage from traditional media outlets was less important these days because the group could post their actions on YouTube.

At the same time, information put on the Web by the group has turned out to be exaggerated in some cases.

For example, the night before, a blog post said one protester had been arrested on suspicion of trespassing and the cops said “’no bail’, but then again, they always do.”

The protester was placed in handcuffs, but he was given a warning, not arrested, he later told me.