On one side are the berm proponents, those who think it will be just fine to have the Sounder train climb from Freighthouse Square to a bridge over Pacific Avenue via an earthen berm.

On the other side are those who prefer a post-and-beam structure – essentially a viduct – to do the same work.

Tacoma cartoonist R.R. Anderson weighs in with his perspective.

Apparently, the K-9 units have been taught how to dial the cell phone number, then they follow the sound of the ringing and chew through the prison inmate's mattress until they find the phone. But the search dogs have to use Jitterbugs because their paws are too big to use the keypad on conventional cell phones.
(OK. Maybe not.)

MEDIA ADVISORY July 21, 2009

DOC to Host K-9 Demonstration for News Media to Show How Prisons Search for Contraband Cell Phones

OLYMPIA – Members of the news media are invited to a demonstration on July 30 at Monroe Correctional Complex to see how K-9 units have been trained to search for contraband cell phones in prisons.

The issue of contraband cell phones is in the news after Washington became one of more than two dozen states to petition the Federal Communications Commission to allow prisons to scramble cell-phone reception.

Inside an empty prison unit, two Department of Corrections K-9 officers will demonstrate how specially trained dogs search for cell phones. Officers and administrators will be available for interviews to explain why cell phones are dangerous to prison security and what the agency is doing to keep them out.

=> Read more!

The Pierce County Council voted today to send some advice to County Executive Pat McCarthy regarding next year's budget – don't cut sheriff's deputies, don't spend any more from the savings account, keep the polls open, don't reduce county lobbying efforts and keep fee increases at inflation or less.

This isn't the usual line-item-by-line item resolution. The council decided that given the troubled budget times, it should allow the executive flexibility in dealing with changing economics. The county has already altered its current spending plan twice, voting on March 31 and June 16 to close seperate $8 million funding gaps.

“We recognize that the executive’s budget staff will need flexibility in how they address the challenges of next year, since economic conditions could rapidly change,” Council Chairman Roger Bush said in a prepared statement. “What doesn’t change is our Charter-mandated duty to appropriate revenue and adopt a budget that delivers the core services that our county’s taxpayers expect.”

McCarthy will send her budget to the council by September 22 and the council will likely adopt a final budget before Thanksgiving.

A copy of the resolution can be found here.

A public records request made by Timothy Smith – a spokesman for the local Bill of Rights Defense Committee, which has been fighting the expansion (and existence) of the Northwest Detention Center on the Tideflats – shook loose several years worth of Homeland Security meeting minutes from the Tacoma Police Department.

The .pdf file is 256-pages long and too big to post here. And, honestly, I only read through the last 50 pages or so, which cover 2007 and 2008.

The meeting minutes note various events and situations that caught the interest of the cops. What they don't say is what they did with that information – a subject for another reporter (as this is my last day at the paper).

Take this entry from September 2007:

"On September 18, there was a derogatory article published on the Seattle Indymedia website that summarized some of the complaint findings against TPD personnel stemming from the Port of Tacoma protests. The article mentions that in each case, the police were exonerated.

The article listed the phone number to TPD Internal Affairs and the e-mail address of City Manager Eric Anderson, so citizens can 'let them know how happy you are that we have a rubber stamp committee to oversee the police and approve of everything they do!' '...tell [Eric Anderson] how proud you are to live in a city where the police can get away with anything.'"

Maybe I'm paranoid (or not paranoid enough), but last time I checked it was still legal to write (non-threatening) derogatory statements about the police and their internal affairs process on a Web site; to republish the phone number of a subsection of a local government agency (253-591-5283 – according to CityofTacoma.org); and to send e-mails to the city manager expressing your grievances or disagreements (and/or encouraging others to do so).

Maybe Tacoma Police were simply making note of the article, but again, it begs the question: to what end.

More excerpts after the jump.

=> Read more!

In Friday's report from the Tacoma City Manager to the City Council, I noticed a small item. The city has applied for a Paul Coverdell Forensic Science Improvement grant.

"Funds (would be used) to eliminate a backlog in the analysis of forensic evidence. Funds would be used to hire a contract latent print examiner for cases from 2008."

I searched our clips using key words like "backlog", "forensic," "fingerprint" and "Tacoma." Everything that comes up is several years old.

It appears there's some sort of forensic and fingerprinting backlog in Tacoma that we haven' written about. Good to know.

(Photo: multiple fragments of tissue)

Just a little record keeping here:

During his failed bid for Pierce County Sheriff, local gadfly and female masturbation activist Robert "The Traveller' Hill filed a complaint with the state Public Disclosure commission accusing Pastor of improperly appearing in blood bank billboards.

The complaint was dismissed in April, a PDC report from May 19 says.

Got this from the State Patrol. I deleted the name of the suspect because we generally don't name them when they are arrested. We wait until they are charged by prosecutors.

Olympia Man Arrested for Vehicular Assault and Hit and Run

A 4-year-old boy was airlifted to Harborview Hospital yesterday with serious injuries to his face after an Olympia man lost control of his wagon striking the SUV the young boy was a passenger in. The man fled the scene.

At approximately 7:30 p.m. last night 34 year-old (name deleted) of Olympia was driving his 1999 Subaru Legacy Wagon eastbound on Yelm Highway in Thurston County at Normandy Road when he lost control of his vehicle.

He was driving in the center turn lane when he lost control and went into the eastbound lane of traffic hitting a 1992 Isuzu Amigo driven by 30 year-old Jeffrey M. Carroll of Olympia. Carroll’s vehicle left the road hitting a metal fence and rolled coming to rest on its roof. (The suspect's) vehicle crossed into westbound lanes, left the road and struck a fence coming to rest in a parking lot.

(The suspect) left the scene, running up the Chehalis Western Trail and was found minutes later at the Mountain View Vet Clinic. Carroll had two young passengers in his Isuzu, a 10-year-old male of Olympia and a 4 year-old male, also from Olympia.

The 4 year-old male was airlifted to Harborview Medical Center with serious injuries. Carroll and the 10-year-old male were transported to St. Peter Hospital with minor injuries. All were wearing proper safety restraints. (The suspect) was treated for injuries at the scene and booked into the Thurston County Jail on suspicion of Vehicular Assault and Felony Hit and Run.

The roadway was closed for 4 ½ hours during investigation of the scene. Drugs and/or alcohol may have been a factor in this preventable collision.

The State Patrol will continue to focus on keeping our roadways safe from aggressive drivers and drunk or drugged drivers by getting them off the road and arresting them. You can also help keep our roadways safe; if you observe someone driving erratically or think they may be under the influence, call 9-1-1 right away.

This quick and very important phone could allow us to get that driver off the road and prevent roads from being closed for hours and ultimately could save a life.

There is $212,000 in the state budget for 2009-11 to pay for a 23rd Superior Court judgeship in Pierce County. That's $106,000 a year for each of two years to pay the state's half of salary and benefits for the new judge.

It's up to the Pierce County Council to decide whether it wants to pony up it half of salary and benefits, but if they don't make a decision sometime soon the state money will go away.

I'm assuming the County Council at some point wanted the option to create a position. Otherwise, the money wouldn't be in the state budget. But all levels of government are having money problems, and the County Council may have had second thoughts.

UPDATE: (2:32 p.m.) Pierce County lobbyist George Walk called me back to say he's not sure how the money for another judge got into the 2009-11 state budget. It might be a carryover from the 2007-09 budget because back then the county did want the option of adding another judge.
On the other hand, it could just be a mistake. In the Agency Detail budget notes (another document that seeks to elaborate on stuff in the actual state budget document) there is no money for Pierce, but there is a $212,000 appropriation to the state Administrative Office of the Courts for King County to add a 53rd Superior Court judgeship.
Sounds like it's just a mix-up.
King County is having its own budget problems. At any rate, if push comes to shove, the money belongs to Pierce County because it was the budget bill that was signed into law, not the budget footnotes.

If Pierce County were to create the position, Gov. Chris Gregoire would be making the initial appointment. Perhaps another woman to break up the still predominantly good ol' white boys on the Pierce County bench.

This should be required viewing in Pierce County, considering how much of a presence DOC has in our county. I'm sure county Prosecutor Gerry Horne will be watching. He's a big fan of the state Department of Corrections. No, really. He is!

The show is on at 7 p.m. tonight, and again at 10 p.m.

TVW is on Channel 18 for Click customers in Tacoma. (Sorry, Comcast. I don't know where Television Washington is on your digital dial.) I'd check the TV log in the paper, but, well....nevermind.

Jim King says it's Channel 23 on Comcast.

Secretary Vail to Discuss Budget Cuts, New Laws in TVW Interview

OLYMPIA – Secretary Eldon Vail will discuss how budget cuts and new laws will impact the Department of Corrections during an extensive interview on this week’s edition of “Inside Olympia” on TVW.

The interview with host Austin Jenkins will cover a wide range of topics, including staff layoffs, prison unit closures, a reduction in the number of offenders under community supervision and ways in which staff members are helping the agency find ways to reduce spending.

“Inside Olympia” airs at 7 and 10 p.m. Thursdays, 11 a.m. Saturdays and 11 a.m. and 6 p.m. Sundays on TVW, Washington state’s public policy network.

Here's a story I wrote for the print edition, but apparently there isn't room in the paper to run it Wednesday. It might appear later in the week. In the meantime....

BY Joseph Turner
The News Tribune

Washington prison officials are closing half of the women’s prison near Spokane and delaying the opening of a unit at a men’s prison north of Tri-Cities because of a smaller budget and fewer inmates.

The state Department of Corrections announced Tuesday that part of the Pine Lodge Corrections Center will close July 1, reducing capacity of the women’s prison to 187 from 359. A unit at the newly opened Coyote Ridge men’s prison which was scheduled to open in June now won’t open until September.

Both moves are in response to a declining state prison population, said DOC spokeswoman Maria Peterson. The prison system also is moving to live within the 2009-11 budget that was passed by the Legislature in late April, she said.

Lawmakers cut about $125 million from the $1.7 billion prison two-year prison budget.

Peterson said these two moves already were in the works. The Legislature still expects the prison system to close even more facilities following a study that is supposed to be done by the end of the year.

The prison on McNeil Island in Pierce County is one of the candidates for full or partial closure by the state because being on an island makes it so much more expensive to operate than mainland prisons. Legislative budget-writers assume the state will save an additional $12 million by closing some facilities.

=> Read more!

City of SeaTac firefighter Keven Rojecki, who is running for a seat on the Tacoma City Council, sent me some interesting stats after reading my recent article on (admittedly a sliver of) the woes of LESA, Pierce County's major 911 communications center.

First a little background:

LESA (the Law Enforcement Support Agency) admits it has a problem answering the phone quickly. It doesn't live up to the national standard of 90 percent of calls answered within 10 seconds. This is due to understaffing, which caused by funding constraints, officials say.

But unlike other nearby jurisdictions, LESA only dispatches law enforcement calls. If someone calls 911 needing medical aid or the fire department, LESA transfers the call. (This adds extra time and expense and is a thorny political issue given the various unions and municipal jurisdictions involved.)

Anyhow, Rojecki sent me this breakdown, which says it takes one minute to transfer 69 percent of the calls going to Tacoma Fire's dispatch center and at least two minutes for 25 percent of them. (In the document, LESA gives reasons for this: getting enough information from the caller, caller indecision about needing medical aid, reports of non-injury fight or accident later turn out to have injuries.)

Update: LESA's director, Tom Orr, sent me some stats that countervails that contention; he wrote:

In the case of Fire Calls, a one month sampling of all Fire Transfer calls (100 total calls) showed that LESA took 18 seconds (three rings) to first answer and then transfer a Fire/EMS call, and that it took Fire (13 seconds) to receive the transfer through phone equipment and to answer their telephone. Indeed, Fire’s average speed of answer was 7 seconds to answer Fire Transfers which compares to LESA’s average speed of answer of 6 seconds for all calls that it answered in 2008.

=> Read more!

Last Wednesday, four men and women who participated in anti-war demonstrations at the Port of Tacoma in March 2007 filed a federal lawsuit against the City of Tacoma and Pierce County claiming their civil liberties were violated.

According to the suit:

The four gathered with other protesters in the "designated protest zone" near the intersection of Thorne and East 11th Street. The four (along with others) at one point in the afternoon crossed beyond the designated area onto another part of the street that was not part of that zone.

"Shortly after crossing the fence, Plaintiffs were arrested by Tacoma Police Department agents, and handcuffed."

=> Read more!