The Internal Revenue Service is sending economic-stimulus checks to more than 130 million households. Even with plenty of taxpayers using direct deposit, the checks and envelopes to send the payouts still likely requires a forest’s worth of paper.

Maybe Ella Herron is just following the IRS’ lead.

The 74-year-old Tacoma woman is using her payment to remove a 40-foot maple tree in her yard. Neither she nor her husband can chop it down and haul it away, so the money will go toward the landscaping bill.

“I don’t need two trees,” Herron said Wednesday. “I only need one. But it’s gonna cost a lot more than that check to cut it down.”

The IRS began depositing the payouts, part of a $152 billion economic-stimulus plan, on Monday. Individuals will receive up to $600 and married couples up to $1,200. Parents will receive extra payments based on the number of children younger than 17 they have, according to the IRS’ Web site. The last two digits of one's Social Security number dictate when taxpayers will receive their checks.

Many South Sound residents already had decided on what they’ll spend the windfall.

=> Read more!

The final opportunity to volunteer for this summer’s Tall Ships Tacoma festival is tomorrow.

Organizers say about 1,500 people have signed up to work the July 3-7 event, but 500 more are still needed. Available jobs range from assisting in security to working directly with the ships’ crews.

The final recruitment fair begins at 5:30 p.m. Thursday at the Washington State History Museum at 1911 Pacific Avenue in Tacoma. Volunteers can also sign up at tallshipstacoma.com.

Volunteers must be at least 16 and commit to a minimum of two, five-hour shifts during the festival.

Downtown resident Laura Hannan has posted a video of what she says is illegal activity near the Brick City building:

Today I’m working on something kinda fun: I’m talking to people about what they’re spending their economic-stimulus checks on. (I’m resisting buying a Playstation3 and Grand Theft Auto IV.)

Wanna join in? E-mail or call me. My contact info is on the right rail.

Donna Siler loves the newly-opened Yakima Avenue overpass. But there’s one major problem: If she’s traveling from the north, she feels she imperils her life every time she crosses it.

Siler, a 58-year-old Tacoma resident, uses an electric wheelchair to get around after suffering a stroke last October. There aren’t any sidewalk ramps at the corner of South 28th Street and Yakima Avenue. That means if she wants to use the bridge, she has to use the traffic lane.

I’m waiting to hear from the city on this, but Siler said she talked to someone last week.

“They told me it might be a couple of years,” she said. “If I keep going across that bridge in my electric wheelchair for a couple of years, the odds are that I’ll get hit.”

The sidewalks on the bridge wrap down to South Tacoma Way, but Siler says there are no ramps there either. Her chair can’t just pop up on the 10-inch curb.

She crosses the overpass several times a week now but said she’ll want to go across it every day during the summer. She lives near the corner of South 25th and South G streets but purchases groceries at Safeway, buys medicine at Lincoln Pharmacy and eats at the burger shacks that line South 38th Street.

“I love this bridge. It’s beautiful,” Siler said. “But they just need to fix the problems.”

We didn't cover this weekend's protest targeting the Northwest Detention Center, but since I mentioned it last week, I should pass along links to a story about the march and photos from it.

I just received an email from Tom Shearer. He was the principal at Mount Tahoma during its move to the new building (and an alumnus – Class of 1975). He is the superintendent of the American International School in Lagos, Nigeria.

I asked him about his thoughts of moving the school’s iconic rock, blasting it, slicing it, etc.

Here’s his response:

Although the rock has a lot of sentimental value to us who graduated from Mt. Tahoma, however as principal it was a constant chore to keep clean and graffiti free. When the new building was under construction, we had worked with the contractor and a parent who was willing to help move it to the new site because of the historical significance. But to coordinate that was difficult. I tried for the entire year the school first opened and had no luck.

Maybe it is time to move on and let history be. It was a unique feature to the old school, but now the students there at the new site can create their own. I trust that the principal will know what is best!

I’m going to dive back into the ramp issue near the Yakima Avenue overpass and see what’s going on there.

Fifteen-year-old Hannah Branch relished in watching Mr. Woo run around the artificial-turf field while bouncing the soccer ball on his head. Her friend, 14-year-old Kaylee Garvey, enjoyed the various ways he juggled the ball with his legs.

Two 12-year-olds from Kent, Desirae Woodford and Kendra Wallace, compared their favorites of the routine: Desirae liked the times Mr. Woo twisted his torso while keeping the ball balanced on his head. Kendra said the highlight was when Mr. Woo took his warm-up shirt off while still managing to keep the ball in place on his back.

The highlight of Saturday’s SoccerPalooza, a daylong youth soccer fair at the Greater Tacoma Convention and Trade Center, was watching the South Korean freestyle artist perform feats of soccer skill.

=> Read more!

When Mount Tahoma High School’s campus moved in 2004 it left behind a boulder-sized symbol of school pride.

Now school Principal Greg Eisnaugle is working on a way to finally bring at least a piece of that school tradition to the new campus.

For decades, a massive rock sat in front of the school’s old building at 6229 S. Tyler St. It was a meeting place. Students sat upon it to eat lunch. Every once in a while, someone would paint a message on it; birthday wishes were a popular choice, but gang graffiti also began to creep in.

When the school moved to its new digs at 4634 S. 74th St., the rock remained at the old site. Today it sits among construction debris as crews renovate the building to become the new site of Gray Middle School.

Some Mount Tahoma boosters wanted the rock moved to the new location, but Eisnaugle opposes that for several reasons. A plan to demolish the rock and sell the pieces sparked blowback and fell through because neither the school nor the booster club wanted to front the $1,000 it would cost to break it up.

Eisnaugle believes he has arrived at a good compromise.

=> Read more!

It's Woo time today.

OK, I actually just discovered who Mr. Woo is. But he seems pretty cool, and he's at the Greater Tacoma Convention and Trade Center today.

I'll have video later.

There will be another anti-Northwest Detention Center protest this weekend. From Infoshop News:

This coming Saturday there will be a rally starting in People's Park at 12 PM in the Hilltop district of Tacoma. At 1 PM we will leave the park and head down the hill.

As it stands right now, no one even knows about the existence of the Northwest Detention Center. The families affected by the raids and those who support them are aware of its existence. But the general population does not know.

This blackout and secrecy has gone on for too long. Those of us with the privilege and ability to do something have done nothing. Those of us least affected by the raids have sat by for too long while the process of detention, removal and terror continues unabated.

Do not let this concentration camp remain a secret. Come to Tacoma on Saturday and help us bring the simple KNOWLEDGE of its existence to the public and show the city, ICE and the Department of Homeland Security that we will not stand for the Detention Center's presence any longer.

Remember, the path of the good German was easy to take. Time is running out. We will not end the raids tomorrow. But we will certainly not end them doing nothing.

We've put together a video of the history of the Proctor District. It's cool stuff. Check it out here.

Apparently it's not always great to be adopted and living in Tacoma.

Or so says the girl who sought Dear Abby's help, "Real Sister in Tacoma."

One of our readers saw the story about Tall Ships Tacoma and has some pretty interesting memories of the Eagle.

Here's her letter:

I was born and lived in New London, Conn., where the ship’s home is, at the Coast Guard Academy. I lived close enough to walk there, almost every day, and went to a private girls school, across the street on the campus of Connecticut College.

My dad was stationed at the Academy and was a member of the Coast Guard Band, and I spent a lot of my time there. He retired in 1958 after 24 years of service in the United States Coast Guard. We moved away, but the ship was, and still is, flowing through the blood in my veins like it flows across the oceans of the world, showing its beauty for all to see.

As a kid I was all over that ship, climbing the masts, and in the galley, and everybody knew me, and my younger brothers and sisters, at the Academy and on the ship. I will never forget my life there, and never forget that ship as long as I live.

It is especially meaningful to me because my father was the person who went to Germany with the United States Officials to do the translating between the United States officials and the German officials when the ship was handed over to our country on May 15, 1946. He also helped sail the ship back from Germany and was the translator between the German and American sailors.

He said he made a lot of friends on that trip – as he always did everywhere. He said they had to go through a hurricane crossing the Atlantic Ocean.

People in Miami are always stunned to hear a blond hair, blue eyed German/American speak Spanish better than a native. My dad was born in New York, but his mother died right after he was born and he was raised by his German grandparents. He learned German as a child, and was fluent in both English and German and then went on to study more languages and become the manager of the Linguistics Library at The University of California in La Jolla.

He currently is 92 years old, as of March 18, and retired in an Alzheimer’s facility called "The Palace" in Kendall, Fla., close to Coral Gables. I saw him on his birthday, and he recognized me right away even though I hadn't seen him since his last birthday. I live in Nashville, Tenn., and it's difficult to get away as much as I'd like to. Connecticut is too cold for me, and Florida is too hot.

I visited Mobile, Ala., when the Eagle was there, and when the Eagle was in Miami several years ago, my dad was able to go and he was given special treatment when they found out who he was. I wish I could've been there, but with high blood pressure, summer in Florida is not a very good place for me.

Tacoma is just right. And I'm making arrangements to come to Tacoma this July. I love that area of Washington, and with all the ships being there that will make it even more special. I've been there 2 times already, and love riding the ferries. I've been almost everywhere, but will enjoy seeing it all again.

I'll be tying up some loose ends while trying to battle a nasty cold today.

The neon-orange, five-foot wooden letters read "BOMB OK."

And that was downright confusing for some students at the University of Puget Sound.

I stood outside the modern-art exhibit on the Tacoma school's campus and asked a few passers-by what they thought it meant.

Junior Elaine Maden ventured a guess.

"I think it has something to do with the juxtaposition of the 'BOMB' and the 'OK,'" she said.

Robert Brand, a Seattle resident who was visiting a friend on campus, ventured a guess that it was directed at Seattle SuperSonics owner Clay Bennett.

"Someone must be (ticked) about the Sonics leaving for Oklahoma City," he said.

Joanna King, a psychology major, admitted she hadn't given it much thought.

"The first time they thought it up, it said, 'BOOB,' and I thought that's what it still said until I just walked by," she said. "So I really haven't paid that much attention to it."

So what does it actually mean? The artist, Matthew Bogdanovitch, said the art means whatever you interpret it as.

So what does it mean to him? Perhaps not what you think: When you translate his initials into the Wingdings format, you get a picture of a bomb and a hand giving the OK sign.

This weekend: come for the public service, stay for the city manager and police chief in their role of “VIP cheerleaders.”

Seriously.

Hundreds of schoolchildren and other community volunteers will help clean the areas around 10 schools on the Eastside as part of the Community Clean Sweep Project on Saturday, the larger of two cleanup projects on tap in Tacoma this weekend.

The Community Clean Sweep Project begins at 9 a.m. at various schools in the area. The cleanups will end shortly before noon, when volunteers can head to Portland Avenue Community Center for lunch, entertainment and awards.

“It’s a huge deal,” Councilman Rick Talbert, whose district includes the Eastside, said Thursday. “I’m incredibly impressed with how well organized it is. Every school will have folks cleaning up. It’s big.”

=> Read more!

Like most blogging software, we can check out search-domain searches that led to particular pages. I’m always amazed with the searches that lead to my page.

Here is a sampling from yesterday:

■ I'm about to get thrown out of my home, legal help, Washington State, Tacoma
■ animals that crap when they are frightened
■ ukrainian kids at school
■ is ruston a word
■ cheap vodka 1.75
■ TOPLEES IN THE STREET
■ hardwood flooring companies Mildenhall england
■ are there street hookers in tacoma washington
■ topless coffee + tacoma, wa
■ earthquake april 21, 2008 midland island 2008
■ Nicaragua word writin
■ Book Nation of Wusses
■ from see level words tallest place
■ "sex-starved prison girls"

Thank you, readers, for the unintentional humor.

I'm still trying to get in touch with some folks at Mount Tahoma High School about the rock.

Also, I'm chasing down a call about ADA-compliant ramps on pedestrian overpasses.

Shortly after I published my story about Tacoma School of the Arts’ robotics team’s trip to the national tournament, I received an e-mail from Sheri Ahlheim. She’s a math teacher at Peninsula High School in Gig Harbor. The school had a team in Botball, another robotics league.

The team was about to travel to the University of Santa Clara to compete in the Northern California regional tournament. I asked her to e-mail me an update when she got back, and here it is:

Traveling is tough! Getting the robots through security was an issue (but not as much of one as the couple with baby formula in front of us…), and somewhere along the way a sonar sensor was dislodged.

We placed 9th of 27 teams in the seeding round, 13th in the double elimination (the sonar fell off and we were never able to recalibrate it), and 6th in documentation, giving us an overall 11th place finish. Not bad for our second year! And we received Judges’ Choice awards for best on-site presentation, and best sportsmanship.

Lots of fun, and lots of learning! The kids are already plotting strategies for next year…

Anti-gentrification activists demonstrated outside the Greater Tacoma Convention and Trade Center this weekend. The demonstrators were targeting what they believe is an unjust displacement of the working poor because of the budding condo market and opposed (in the words of one organizer) “people who drive Subarus and can't afford rent in Belltown.”

I’m writing several days later because the aforementioned organizer sent me this shot of a giant inflatable rat that sat outside the convention center.

It’s likely you’ll see it again. Demonstrators upset with the MLK homeless shelter's doubtful future plan to make a statement at the May 6 Tacoma city council meeting.

Thought I'd share this photo I snapped from my car yesterday. It's just hanging out in the parking lot:

From Justin:

“I saw it at the logging exhibit out at Point Defiance this weekend. Sorry it's not the best picture; I drove up to take the picture and had planned to get out of the car to do so, but then saw the guy working the place hanging out in front of the office and didn't want to embarrass him by being too obvious about photographing the sign he probably made. So I shot surreptitiously through my windshield.”

It's still sitting near the site of the old school. Here's a photo I snapped of it:

Still waiting to get the latest on its movement or destruction.

I received a flyer in my inbox this morning about the Eastside Clean Sweep on Saturday. Ten schools and a bunch of adult volunteers will pick up trash in public right-of-ways.

It sounds like it’s gonna be big. Hundreds of volunteers. Plenty of entertainment already lined up.

But here’s something that might really pique your interest. One of the flyers listed a group of “VIP cheerleaders.” Check out the names:

City Manager- Eric Anderson
City Councilwoman-Connie Ladenburg
City Councilwoman-Marilyn Strickland
City Councilman-Rick Talbert
Police Chief-Don Ramsdell
Community Liaison Officer-Don Williams
Police Lieutenant-Shawn Stringer
Police Lieutenant-Kathy McAlpine
Community Based Services Director-Lisa Wojtanowicz

Sounds like fun.

I'm hoping to get in touch with some Mount Tahoma High School grads today. Remember the rock outside that classes painted each year? I've still got to verify some stuff, but instead of moving it to its new location, the plans are to break it up and sell the smaller pieces.

If you want to chime in on this, e-mail or call me!

Heidi Radunzel’s work area glowed softly in candlelight and smelled like vanilla. She scribbled in a notebook with a pen instead of typing on her keyboard. The noise of computers humming and florescent lights buzzing was peacefully absent.

The ambiance, while relaxing and inviting, also had its practical purposes. The staff at Point Defiance Zoo & Aquarium in Tacoma celebrated Earth Day on Tuesday by taking steps to save energy and reduce its carbon footprint – or, as the staff said, its carbon paw-print.

Radunzel’s desk sits farthest away from the window in the zoo’s public relations office, prompting her to bring in several candles from home to allow her to take notes in her job as the group sales coordinator.

“It’s very romantic setting,” she said. “It’s too bad it has to be wasted on daytime office work.”

The carbon-reducing exercises began with a larger-than-usual number of employees carpooling to work. In the zoo’s wooden office building, employees operated without lights and computers. They swept out the animals’ pens instead of power-washing them, and maintenance crews didn’t use power tools. The staff walked in shifts through Point Defiance Park to Owen Beach for lunch.

The admissions gate, food-service stands and gift shop used full electricity, as did the veterinarian staff.

“We had a rule of common sense,” zoo deputy director John Houck said. “We weren’t going to compromise hygiene (of the animals).”

=> Read more!

We've been following the ongoing saga at Country Aire Manor manufactured-home park in South Hill.

Homeowners association Dean Webber sends along this photo of the sign planted in front of the leafy park.

The residents are also going to hold a rally Friday from 3:30-6 p.m.

It's the disappointment of first-time barhoppers everywhere. When you order a vodka-soda and a gin and tonic, the bartender doesn't reach for the Grey Goose and Bombay Sapphire. (Then again, if you're a first-time bar patron, you're probably ordering a Fruitopia and rum or something.)

Bars, though, sell plenty of well drinks. College kids, too, often want something cheap and powerful for the weekend.

So it shouldn't be much of a surprise that some boozes that aren't exactly on par with Johnnie Walker Blue Label lead the list of largest sale by volume.

The top seller, Monarch 80-proof, runs $9.95 for a fifth, according to the Liquor Control Board's Web site. A 1.75-liter big boy runs you $16.21.

That's a pretty cheap way to get drunk.

The volume of liquor in each case varies, according to several distributors' Web sites. Still, the chart below should give a pretty good idea of what the best sellers are.

A ranked table is below:

=> Read more!

Maybe it's because we border British Columbia. Or maybe it's the thousands of residents of Upper Queen Anne who want to maintain a certain public image. Or, heck, maybe someone wants to knit a smoking jacket from all the purple-velvet bags.

Whatever the reason, Washingtonians love to purchase Crown Royal.

The State Liquor Control Board, which has a monopoly on sales in Washington, sent me the top-selling spirits at their stores from March 2007-February 2008. Crown, a Canadian whiskey, took the top spot with $26.8 million in sales. The others near the top are familiar: Jack, Jag and Jose.

I compiled the top 25 best-selling liquors by sales into this fun little graph that shows the proportions of sales. Click below to check it out.

I'm gone for the past 10 days, but no worries: I bring back liquor statistics.

Fighting back the spread of blackberries and other unwanted foliage can be a tough battle. So a group arrived at Wapato Park prepared for the work.

About 150 people, most Samoan and representing a Tacoma ward of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, cut back and tore out the weeds with hedge clippers and machetes. Other tasks including raking the field that sits beside the lake and spreading mulch by the trees.

“We’re just helping out,” said Joe Pale, a 41-year-old volunteer from Tacoma.

It’s the fourth year the Allenmore Ward has participated in Earth Day. Last year was their first time at Wapato, in Tacoma’s South End.

Volunteers cut down the bushes, others raked it up, and another group pushed the clippings in a wheelbarrow up the hill that serves as an entrance to the field to a dumping point. By noon, a pile of branches, bushes and leaves stretched several feet high and about 15 feet long.

“It’s been a lot of fun, but it’s been pretty cold,” said Junior Lui, a 14-year-old freshman at Mount Tahoma High School. “And windy. But the sun’s shining now, and it’s gotten a lot better. We’re trying to help the park look good.”

Adults withstood snow and pushed wheelbarrows among the bushes in Tacoma’s Blueberry Park. Children with rakes spread mulch on top of cardboard boxes. It was an unlikely birthday party.

“I’ve like to help the earth on Earth Day, because it’s also my birthday,” said Fircrest’s Ethan Streun, who turns 9 on Tuesday. The third-grader at Whittier Elementary School invited his friends to a party that included fresh air and hard work – but also snacks and cake.

About 50 people, ages ranging from 2 to 80, attended the event. Many wore green shirts donated by outdoor-gear store REI, and many children handled rakes that stood taller than they were.

Ethan, who performs some eco-friendly task each year for his birthday, chose the park because he enjoys picking and eating the blueberries each summer.

But it wasn’t all hard work for the kids. Many took breaks from raking to chat about school. Three girls – a 4-, 5- and 6-year old – sat inside one of the boxes and snacked on cheese and crackers from a Tupperware container of. Laughter and smile abounded. The snow stopped, and the sun burst through the clouds. Metro Parks Tacoma brought a personalized cake.

And Ethan’s mother, Jennifer Streun, was taking the kids to Cloverleaf Pizza for lunch after their work was done.

A Chuck E. Cheese party it was not – and it proved a big hit with some.

“At first, this felt like a birthday party, and then it kind of felt like a public-service project,” said 8-year-old Madison McCann, a third-grader at St. Charles Borromeo. “But it feels like a birthday party again. It’s one of the best parties I’ve been to. This is so much fun.”

Dana Fugere leaned against a rake in the waning moments of Parks Appreciation Day in Bonney Lake. Fugere, the parks crew leader for the eastern Pierce County city, was taking shelter against the snow flurries that pelted the participants throughout Saturday’s events.

“It’s been going on like this all day,” he said. “But we had a pretty good turnout and got a lot done.”

About 40 people took part in the activities, which included raking a new layer of bark on the ground, dedicating the area behind Bonney Lake Elementary School as Viking Park and installing two green, metal picnic tables.

A Cub Scout pack also planted trees, and a crew of volunteers helped spruce up the area near the sign welcoming drivers to the city.

Parks Appreciation Day encompasses Earth Day, Arbor Day and other environment-related holidays, said volunteer Lillian McGinnis, who helped others spread the bark.

“It’s all about the volunteers on a day like this,” Fugere said.

City leaders also handed out several awards for volunteerism. Fred Jacobsen, who serves on the city’s park board, won the second-annual Robert Ceola Memorial Arbor Day Award.

Minutes later, though, Jacobsen was back at work helping to construct the picnic tables.

“The weather wasn’t perfect,” laughed Jacobsen, wearing a soaked blue raincoat, “but we’re out here to help make a difference.”

Photog Dean Koepfler and I are driving around, looking for good snow photos/stories. Any ideas? Call me at 253-320-4758.

I might be in Berkeley, Calif., but I still managed to tweak the look of my reporting map. Check it out here.

(And, yes, I know, I have to update it with my most recent assignments...)

I know I've been gone the past few days -- I was soaking up the sun in beautiful Columbus, Ind. -- and I'll be gone again this week. This time, I'll be in Berkeley, Calif., at a workshop.

If I get any neat e-mails or see any cool links, I'll post them. Until then, I'll leave you with this story:

Word on the Street special correspondent Liz Shaw and I are flying from Detroit to Sea-Tac tonight. A man who I guess is in his late 50s collapses in the aisle. Dude is out cold. Some people rush to his aid, flight attendant gets on the intercom and asks if there's a doctor on board (there is, as well as a physician's assistant), and they administer first aid on him.

We're sitting a few rows in front of all this, so we can hear most of the conversation. The flight attendants are asking the doctor if she thinks the plane should make an emergency landing. They're crunching the times in their head. We had just passed Spokane, and the crew decided it would be just as fast to land at Sea-Tac and take the guy out on an ambulance. (The guy was awake and seemed fine when we landed.)

But before they even made a decision about where to land, I had my laptop out and had already typed this:

SPOKANE - A Northwest Airlines flight bound from Detroit to Sea-Tac Airport made an emergency landing in Spokane on Monday after an elderly man collapsed during the five-hour flight.

Yep, reporters are a different breed of people.

Fourteen years have passed, but Carl Wilkens still remembers the sound of the crashing airplane that sparked the killing. He remembers the bands of Hutu militiamen roaming the streets of his neighborhood. He remembers the apprehension and tension he felt while driving through the streets of Rwanda’s capital during the 1994 genocide.

He wants to ensure no one forgets.

Wilkens, the only American to remain in the central African nation during the violence that led to almost 1 million deaths of Tutsis and moderate Hutus, is speaking Friday morning to students at Charles Wright Academy in University Place. Wilkens also will deliver a speech next Friday night at Pacific Lutheran University in Parkland. The latter is free and open to the public.

He first arrived in Rwanda with his wife and two children in 1990 to build schools and health centers for the Adventist Relief Development Agency. Six months later, a civil war between the government and the Rwandan Patriotic Front erupted, and Wilkens subsequently began working with internally displaced refugees.

“When the war ended with the ceasefire three years later, we were so optimistic with the prospect of a broad-based government,” Wilkens said last week on a cell phone from Memphis. “But then it was delayed and delayed and delayed.”

The optimism shattered the night of April 6, 1994. The airplane carrying Rwandan President Juvenal Habyarimana and Burindian President Cyprien Ntaryamira was shot down outside of the airport in Kigali as they returned from a round of peace talks in neighboring Tanzania.

The slaughter began within hours.

=> Read more!

Nick Miller had only 24 hours to spend with his family. His wife, Melissa, wanted to make the short stay memorable.

A Washington pizza restaurant helped make it unforgettable.

Nick and Melissa met when he was stationed at Fort Lewis from 2003-05. His unit from the Missouri National Guard was filling in for the 170th Military Police Company, which was in Iraq. She worked as a gate guard at the post. Some of their first dates were at the Farrelli’s Pizza restaurant in DuPont. The two liked the wood-fired pies and fell in love with each other.

The couple and their two kids live in Linneus, Mo., now. Nick’s unit is preparing to deploy to Kosovo. It trained during February and March at Camp Crowder outside Neosho, Mo., and the Guardsmen had 24 hours of leave before deploying on March 23 – Easter Sunday.

Melissa’s plan to make the short leave memorable began weeks before that. She called Farrelli’s in DuPont and asked if they shipped pizzas.

“I was more than willing to pay for the pizza and the shipping and all that,” she said. “I figured we’d be eating a $75 pizza. But I would do that for my husband.”

=> Read more!

I've been receiving some good feedback about today's military guard story. If you haven't checked out the audio slideshow Peter Haley and I put together, check it out. It's well worth the minute and a half.

Today I'm going to bring you stories that range from education to genocide to Tall Ships.

From crime reporter Stacey Mulick:

Midland-area residents are invited to a town hall meeting tonight at Franklin Pierce High School to talk about crime and public safety issues in their area.

The meeting begins at 6:30 p.m. in the cafeteria at the high school, 11002 18th Ave. E. Pierce County Council members Barbara Gelman and Calvin Goings, Pierce County Sheriff Paul Pastor, Prosecutor Gerald Horne and representatives from Safe Streets will be featured.

"Public feedback is needed to help strengthen our crime fighting efforts," a flier for the event states. "Please join us and fight out more about this important topic."

I just sat down with Alan Ingram, the No. 2 man at Oklahoma City Public Schools and one of four finalists for the Tacoma School District superintendent job.

He’s in the midst of a busy day – he had just finished answering questions from the district’s principals and was about to head into a 45-minute meeting with learning support group folks.

Still, he managed to carve out 15 minutes for me. (In fairness, I think it was the 15-minute break he was scheduled to have.) I managed to ask a few questions about his background and chat about things that parents, teachers, administrators and students care about.

First, though, we talked about his childhood. He grew up in a single-parent household and attended eight schools before graduating high school. One constant during high school was football and basketball.

Every year, I had the opportunity to go out and prove myself over again. It helped me in terms of becoming more resilient and not being hostage to my environment. It gave me the capacity to dream beyond the neighborhood and the school and to the future. And it did a lot for my self confidence: I believe that performance is what counts.

He joined the Air Force on a six-year enlistment after high school. He first worked with weapons, and then recruiting and then was an educator.

The Air Force gave me the opportunity to rise. I knew as long as I worked hard and did the right thing, there would be an opportunity to move forward. Becoming an Air Force chief (master sergeant) was a longtime career goal, and I worked very hard on that. I was able to be selected the first time eligible, which I’m very proud of.

=> Read more!

I'm going to be following around Alan Ingram, one of the finalists for the Tacoma School District superintendent job.

Remember Don White? He is the reserve airman who was honored for saving two lives after a car wreck on Highway 101 between Port Angeles and Sequim.

The Seattle Mariners also picked up on White's heroism and honored him at a recent home game at Safeco Field. I e-mailed Don about it, and here's what he said:

They had the wrong date in the paper. I was there on the 1st of April, Mariners day to salute the military. At the end of the ceremony and national anthem, I carried the game ball out to the pitchers mound and placed it there. They showed the picture you published and shot footage of me while I was walking. They announced the rescue event and said some kind words to honor me for the award of the Airman's Medal. They gave me and my family 8 seats in the Terrace Club to sit and enjoy the game. They also lavished my family with souvenirs and kindness. They have great hospitality.

Good job, M's.

This just came along from Sue Rothwell, the owner of Galloping Gerties whom I wrote about this weekend:

You are not going to believe this. Fellow came in, wanted to see me. He was very quietly sitting at the end of the counter. I wondered if he was gonna yell at me about the TNT article today. But no, he was really pleased with it. Retired Navy. Handed me a $100 bill and said this is for you - I said thank you, is it for the soldiers you mean, to buy their meals? No, he said, this is to tip out all your help. THIS is for the soldiers and he reached in his pocket and handed me a thick roll of bills, a hundred on top. I was so astounded. It was $2000 total. Can you believe that???

E-mails like that are a pretty good way to start the work week.

I'm going to hunker down today and finish writing my military honor guard story. That doesn't exactly translate into exciting blogging, but no worries: I've got other, good stuff coming too.

In a flash, the world turned white.

Snow covered Nick Gleim’s eyes, blinding him. It filled his ears, deafening him. And it forced its way down his throat and into his lungs, choking him.

Death, he knew, was a few seconds away.

“So I prayed,” he said this week, “and I fought like hell.”

Gleim’s extraordinary struggle for survival last month seems surreal to the 24-year-old Puyallup native and Iraq war veteran.

A friend, Luke Hoffman, and Gleim were enjoying a day of backcountry skiing in Chugach State Park near Eagle River, Alaska, on March 9 when they were caught in a massive avalanche that one mile long and 30-40 feet deep.

=> Read more!

Eric Salinas used to sit at the counter at Galloping Gerties Restaurant almost every morning. The Lakewood restaurant’s staff called him “Mr. Hot Sauce” because the Army specialist dumped so much of the red stuff on his omelet.

Gerties owner Susan Rothwell learned of Salinas’ death from a roadside bomb blast in Baghdad in August 2007 in the newspaper.

William Jared Crouch visited the restaurant for his last meal before deploying to Iraq. He died in Al Hadid in June 2007, another victim from a roadside bomb. The next month, she struck up a conversation with a group who had dropped in for lunch. It was Crouch’s family. They were eating at Gerties before attending his memorial service at Fort Lewis.

“They told me that their son loved to eat here and they thanked me,” she said. “I wasn’t sure what to say. I should be thanking them.”

The deaths – and every other death of Fort Lewis soldiers, coalition troops and Iraqi civilians – reaffirmed Rothwell’s belief that the invasion in Iraq was a mistake and that President Bush bungled the war.

=> Read more!

Point Defiance Zoo & Aquarium placed new three Asian small-clawed otters, a threatened species, on display to the public for the first time Thursday.

The three males, named Mac, Hank and Charlie, are the first such litter born at the Tacoma zoo.

More info and a video to come soon. Until then, click below for more photos:

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Carl Wilkens, who witnessed Rwanda’s 1994 genocide firsthand, will speak at Charles Wright Academy in University Place and Pacific Lutheran University in Tacoma on April 18.

Estimates of deaths from the ethnic-based violence range from 800,000 to 1 million. And it was carried out with rudimentary weapons: machetes, clubs, bare fists. This guy must have some astonishing (if heartbreaking) stories to tell.

Click below to read the press release:

=> Read more!

Back to Galloping Gerties this morning to chat with more soldiers.

Later today, I'm heading to Point Defiance Zoo & Aquarium to check out newborn Asian small-clawed otters. Check back later for cute animal photos -- everyone loves those things.

The City of Tacoma has issued an operating permit to the organizers of the Friday and Saturday Night Feed, ending a yearlong impasse between public officials and the Christian Biker Tabernacle.

The permit for the Feed, at which volunteers gather the Interstate 705 overpass to distribute food and clothing to homeless and low-income people, was issued March 27 and is valid through Feb. 8, 2009. It is subject to several conditions, including assurances organizers will provide portable toilets, keep an active insurance policy and clean the area after the events.

Volunteers from schools and churches serve up to 400 people a night, Pastor Ed Wren said, and provide them with enough food for three or four days.

Read the permit here.

I've spent the past couple of hours at Galloping Gerties in Lakewood, talking to owner Susan Rothwell.

If you haven't been to Gertie's, understand that it's absolutely packed with soldiers during the breakfast and lunch rushes. Rothwell is adamantly pro-troops.

She's also a fierce opponent of the war in Iraq. Campaign signs for Hillary Clinton and John Kerry hang in Rothwell’s office near the lounge. She’s searching for a Barack Obama sign. She taped the message “Peace is Patriotic / We Support the Troops” on a bookcase.

“It was kind of like my mom’s karmic joke on me,” she laughed. “She took someone opposed to war, a child of the ’60s and gave me a restaurant serving the troops.”

I'll have more about this tomorrow, when I return to chat with some troops.

I'm (hopefully) going to Galloping Gertie's in Lakewood to chat with the owner. And I'm going to bring an extraordinary tale about a Puyallup native who survived an avalanche in Alaska.

For the record, Point Defiance Zoo & Aquarium doesn’t employ a Mr. Bear. Or a Mr. Lion. Or a Mr. Wolf.

That didn’t stop a dozens of people falling for an April Fool’s Day prank.

The Tacoma zoo’s offices received scores of calls from people searching for folks with animal last names. It’s something that happens every year, zoo spokeswoman Sheelah Medved said.

“I thought it was kids us calling and joking,” she said. “But I got some of the calls, and it turns out it’s working adults whose coworkers left a message saying, ‘Mr. Wolf called at this number. Please call him back.’ ”

The pranksters left messages with different extensions in the zoo’s office, and Medved put the total number of calls in the dozens. Someone called her line looking for a Mr. Lion.

“We then have to explain to them that no one by that name works here, reiterate the fact that they have called the zoo, and explain that it’s April Fool’s Day,” Medved said.

Want to check out more about Tacoma School of the Arts' robotics team? Here's a Flickr page.

By one estimate, robotics requires proficiency in mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, radio communications and computer programming.

Six weeks is more than enough for teenagers to learn and apply all those skills, right?

Apparently it was enough for the FIRST robotics team from Tacoma School of the Arts, which finished second at a regional competition in Tacoma last month and will compete in the international championship at the Georgia Dome on April 17-19.

“I’m so excited. It’s got me hooked on robotics,” sophomore Ken Ziebalmer-Logan said last week. “I’m psyched about going to Atlanta. I want to run up and down the halls and yell, ‘We’re going to Atlanta! We’re going to Atlanta!’ ”

The success surprised many team members, none of whom had dabbled heavily in robotics before January, when several students signed up for a three-week class. The course description was vague, team members said: They knew they would learn about robots, but not much else.

The kit from FIRST – For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology – arrived the day classes began. Confused faces abounded.

“When we first saw the box, we started sifting through the parts,” senior Brett Williams said. “For half of the stuff, we were like, ‘What is that?’

“But seeing it in action is pretty cool.”

=> Read more!

Remember the story about Vanessa Anderson and her goal to ship a container to a poor region of Ghana?

Well, she's in West Africa now and will be updating a blog while she's there. Check it out here.

Scottish author Alexander McCall Smith is coming to Tacoma at the end of the month as part of the Pierce County READS program. This, of course, isn’t news. But here’s what is: You can get your free tickets starting today. Go to the county library system’s home page to print them off.

McCall Smith is best known for “The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency,” a quirky novel about Botswana. That’s the book the library system is encouraging Pierce County folks to read and discuss ahead of the author’s visit. According to a release, more than 5,000 copies have been checked out since the program was launched Feb. 3.

(Full disclosure: The News Tribune is a sponsor of the program – but I’m just posting this because I’m a fan of all news/literature/etc. from sub-Saharan Africa.)

Click below to read the full press release:

=> Read more!

Here’s a good example of a TNT team effort. This audio slideshow is the work of four people: photogs Peter Haley and Janet Jensen, yours truly grabbing audio and Joe Barrentine, who put it all together and made it look good.

I'm going to write about the Tacoma School of the Arts robotics team today. Stay tuned.