It began with fanfare: An employee jogged past animals and visitors while carrying a faux torch – really, just white posterboard scribbled with orange marker and taped to a dowel.

Forget those events in Beijing next month. The real games to watch were Tuesday’s Zookeeper Olympics at Point Defiance Zoo & Aquarium.

OK, cutthroat competition it was not. But that didn’t stop a few from playing the role of the prima donna athlete.

“This was rigged!” Lisa Triggs yelled before giving in to bouts of hearty laughter. “We totally won the animal chat competition.”

She doubled over with giggles for a few seconds before adding, “I think the fix is in.”

Her suspicions were on alert after her team, Point Defiance’s zookeepers, won only three of the seven events against the non-zookeepers. About 75 people participated in the games, held on a grassy area near the zoo’s entrance, and dozens of visitors stopped to watch the competition.

The first event set the tone that this wasn’t a typical discus-and-javelin competition. Five members on each team took turns trying to guess which photos of droppings came from which animal in a competition called “Whose Scat is That?”

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Tacoma makes an appearance on CargonewsAsia.com.

It's got gems like this:

The port of Tacoma has been working for the past 30 years building a niche in the business of intermodal cargo.

Finally, intermodal cargo gets some love in the international press.

A reader sent this little ditty last week from one of the Seattle TV stations:

TACOMA, Wash. -- The owners of a downtown market are calling it swift justice. A regular customer thwarted an armed robbery and put the man in the hospital with just one punch.

All too often the folks in the heart of downtown see robbers take the money and run. But at the D-Town Market, the robber didn't get to run too far before he ran into a regular customer who took matters into his own hands- er, make that fist.

Downtown dwellers: Do y'all see robberies/muggings "all too often?"

Also, I e-mailed police spokesman Mark Fulghum about the incident. Here's what he said: "These things do happen occasionally but they don’t usually have the traumatic results this one had. I just heard about it and according to the detective the suspect is in very bad shape."

Remember the photos taken of teens apparently vandalizing Stewart Heights Park? The local neighborhood patrol group had photos of one of the teens spraypainting one of the buildings but were worried the punishment wouldn't be more than a slap on the wrist.

Metro Parks Tacoma estimated damages at $50. What was the punishment?

Apparently more parole for someone who had earlier run afoul of the law.

This is an e-mail from one of the group's organizers:

I went to the court case this past Friday and was very disappointed with the results of the case. The defendant was already on parole from a previous case in which she was guilty. So the Judge added 6 more months of parole to her current parole.

So I ask you: Does the punishment fit the crime?

I received a press release from Click!¹ Cable TV touting a free party at Thursday's Tacoma Farmers Market. There will be music, prizes and other good stuff. It all kicks off at 11:30 a.m.

Click below to read the press release:

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I'm back after some vacation and a week of being the reader rep. Today I'm heading over to Point Defiance Zoo & Aquarium for the Zookeeper Olympics.