Here's another dispatch about longboarder Ben Warner and his crew, who are making their way across America.

I wrote about them in February. (Here is the photo that ran with the story)

The Boys & Girls Clubs of South Puget Sound reports that the team is halfway across the country. Here is the letter Marketing and Events Associate Carissa Batka sent us regarding the team's progress.

On March 21, 2009 Ben Warner along with his four teammates departed on a longboarding journey that would take them over 2,500 miles across the United States. Armed with their longboards, a 1990 navy-blue Chevy van and tent trailer in tow the 5 teammates took off on an adventure that is now nearly half way over.

=> Read more!

If it can happen in Ohio, it can happen anywhere.

If you think bikini baristas are in poor taste, how would you feel about a bikini mannequin attracting customers to a BBQ restaurant? (No pulled pork jokes, please.)

I saw a post about just such a thing on Consumerist today.

The store manager said the promotion has boosted business by 30 percent.

Remember the Charles Wright Academy students who met former Harlem Globetrotter Curly Neal as part of their history project?

They're taking that project to the next level.

Charles Wright freshmen Koby Deitz and Alex Nielsen placed second at the state National History Day competition Saturday and will go to Baltimore to compete nationally in June.

They'll compete in the group exhibits category with their project on Harlem Globetrotters founder Abe Saperstein.

Also headed to the national competition are Bethel High School students Shelby Woods, Emily Molstad, Manny Estacio and Michael Gant. The team won first place in the group exhibit category for their project on Roger Baldwin and the American Civil Liberties Union.

The first- and second-place winners in each category at the state level go forward to the national competition.

That means the students will have some tough competition at the national contest, which will be held at the University of Maryland campus June 14-18.

Keith Beaton’s hands shifted from gauge to gauge today as he leaned inside the 12-ton monument to pre-World War II Dupont.

The 51-year-old Stryker mechanic played doctor, tapping the insides of the small, rusty locomotive used in the old DuPont Explosive Co. powder works.

“Fire in the hole!” he yelled. And with some turning and tweaking of a few switches, the locomotive rumbled, and a piece of the city’s history came to life.

After moving to DuPont in March, Beaton has worked almost daily to breath air into the antique train’s lungs.

The 1941 locomotive, which the Army delivered to the city two years ago, is now running. My former colleague, Rob Tucker, wrote about its homecoming.

Some parts still need tweaking, such as a whistle that’s more of a whisper among the engine noise. (Above is a video lifetime DuPont native Fred Foreman made of the narrow gauge train running on its own for the first time)

Still, it’s a far cry from when the machine came to the city two years ago. Beaton, along with Foreman, are working to restore it 100 percent.

=> Read more!

Steilacoom Historical School District spokeswoman Nancy Covert sent word of when the community can hear from the two finalists for interim school superintendent.

Community forums are scheduled at 6:30 p.m., Tuesday and Wednesday, at the Pioneer Middle School cafeteria, 511 Chambers St., Steilacoom.

Last Saturday, the Steilacoom Historical School board met with five semi-finalists before whittling the field down to two: Barry Gourley and Cathy Davidson.

=> Read more!

The U.S. Coast Guard will honor the crew of the M/V Christine Anderson, a Pierce County vessel on the Anderson Island ferry run, for its quick thinking that saved a kayaker last year.

Coast Guard Capt. Suzanne Englebert will grace the Pierce County Council meeting with her nautical presence and lead the ceremony. The meeting starts 5:30 p.m., at Steilacoom Town Hall, 1717 Lafayette St.

Here is the county's full press release:

The United States Coast Guard will present official commendations to the crew of the Pierce County ferry during Tuesday’s in-district meeting of the County Council.

Coast Guard Capt. Suzanne Englebert will preside over the ceremony, which recognizes the crew of the Christine Anderson for life-saving actions last summer. Tuesday’s Council meeting will be held in District 6 at 5:30 p.m. at Steilacoom Town Hall.

“A true mariner knows the dangers, a professional mariner prevents the dangers, and a lifesaver is a professional mariner who responds to save others from danger. With these awards we salute both professional mariners and lifesavers," said Capt. Englebert, who serves as the USCG Commander Sector Seattle and Captain of the Port for the entire Puget Sound region.

=> Read more!

We knew Tacoma had talent. But who could have guessed it has dancing nuns, prancing mimes and enough singers and musicians to fill several concert halls?

The breadth of the South Sound’s talent was evident this morning as hundreds of people auditioned for the television show “America’s Got Talent” at the Greater Tacoma Convention & Trade Center.

The lure of becoming the country’s next entertainment sensation – think YouTube phenomenon Susan Boyle of “Britain’s Got Talent” – drew people from across the Northwest and as far away as Tampa, Fla. The line stretched several blocks as the talented awaited their 90-second chance to show their stuff and advance to a Wednesday audition for celebrity judges David Hasselhoff, Piers Morgan and Sharon Osbourne.

“We love to dance and we think we’re American’s next great talent,” proclaimed Sara Gray of Edgewood, one of seven local “Dancing Divas” waiting in line early this morning.

The Divas – dressed as nuns and prepared to sing a medley from “Sister Act” –made a great time of it. Diane Eklund of Edgewood showed off the yellow polka-dotted bloomers beneath her nun’s outfit.

“I’m not very quiet and very shy,” she said.

=> Read more!

South Tacoma's Edison Neighborhood will hold its fourth annual cleanup from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday, April 25.

This is cause for tons of rejoicing among activists who have coordinated the event with the City of Tacoma. The city will provide the containers and haul them away for free.

Here's how it works: Residents of single-family homes or duplexes between South 56th and 66th streets between Oakes and Washington streets can bring their pesky junk to Edison Elementary School, 5830 S, Pine St., and have it hauled away for free. They must also bring a proof of residence. A driver's license or utility bill will do the trick.

Volunteers will help recycle, and Tacoma Goodwill will be there to rescue items that still have life in them. Goodwill also can recycle televisions and computers.

Some stuff can't be accepted: Cars, motorcycles, boats, campers, canopies, trailers, RVs, whole or in pieces. Business materials. Household garbage. Liquids, paints, hazardous waste, dead animals riding mowers and oil-based products.

Volunteers are welcome to go on trash patrol and help haul for folks who are physically unable to do so. Andy Mordhorst is coordinating the assistance. Call him at 253-475-8416.

The Federal Aviation Adimistration just released its database on bird strikes.

Washington saw more than 1,400 since 1990. There were 134 last year.

The FAA cautions, however, that they think only about 20 percent are being reported.

That would mean there were really about 7,000 in the last 19 years.

Addendum:

Another reporter on a listserv for computer-geek journalists spotted this description deep in the national data:

"Gotta love the 5 green iguana strikes, like INDEX_ID=114998: “REPTD BY PILOT WHO WAS NOT INVOLVED IN STRIKE. BUT RAN OVER THE CARCASS”."

Puyallup Arts Downtown leaders were hopeful that their casual jazz fundraiser last Saturday would attract more people than the semi-formal galas they've had in years past.

It worked, organizers told me earlier this week.

While in years past the group has only had about 170 people come to their auction event, they had more like 220 to 230 come this year, said Judy White, the new chair of the organization.

Part of that is because this year they were able to book the Pioneer Park Pavilion, which can hold more people than the Activity Center where the event was held last year.

There was soul food, jazz and a lower ticket price. While White was reluctant to share what the group's profits were from this year's event, she said the group made money. Many years when the group has put on the semi-formal gala they've struggled just to break even, she said.

Arts Downtown is responsible for the outdoor art in Puyallup. There are several new pieces in and around Pioneer Park this year. Take a look when you're in town.

The Point Defiance Zoo just announced that Beethoven, the zoo's remaining beluga whale, will be leaving after the recent death of Qannik.

Here's the press release:

TACOMA – Point Defiance Zoo & Aquarium’s beluga whale Beethoven will return to his home at Sea World in San Antonio, Texas to participate in a cooperative whale breeding program, zoo officials announced today.

A date for Beethoven’s relocation has not been determined but could be as early as April 29, according to zoo officials. With no whales available to replace Beethoven in the short-term, zoo staff are making plans to move California sea lions into the vacated whale pool during the summer months.

=> Read more!

Tonight's the big night for South End and East Side residents who've yearned for celebrity treatment from the City of Tacoma.

The city will roll out its Community Based Services program at 6 p.m. Wednesday, April 22,at Stewart Middle School, 5010 Pacific Ave. The new CBS area will stretch from Interstate 5 to 68th Street between Sheridan and McKinley avenues.

Tacoma Police community liaison officers Don Williams and Bert Hayes have been spreading the word (and the e-mails, and the flyers) that everyone is welcome to come and help set the program's priorities.

The CBS program aims to cut crime and blight and to encourage residents' involvement. To do that, it dedicates a community liaison officer, a code enforcement officer and a program development specialist to the neighborhood.

It promises residents "full support from the City of Tacoma as a whole."

City officials will be there this evening to listen to the problems that most concern residents. Street repairs? Gangs? Drug houses? Overgrown lots? Dangerous dogs? Speeders? Burglaries? Noise? Tagging?

The aim is to set preliminary priorities, and to give people the tools to join the partnership.

One more incentive: There will be snacks.

Morgan Alexander was expecting maybe a dozen people to show up for a meeting about whether there's a chance to convert nine surplus Tacoma Power substations into parks or community gardens.

He had the chairs all set up in a circle.

Instead, close to 40 people came to the meeting Monday night at the main Tacoma Public Library.

They showed up not because they liked the concept of preserving public property for public use. They came because they want a stake in specific sites. They want a say in what happens at 1009 S. 35th near Lincoln Park, 3008 N. 16th, 543 N. Stadium Way, 1920 N. Adams and 3404 S. 45th.

The sites have been empty for years, and Tacoma Power has maintained most of them as attractive, though fenced, assets to the neighborhoods. The water-view lot on Stadium Way is lush, unfenced lawn.

Rose Perino, a Safe Streets organizer, says people in South Tacoma are hungry, literally, for community gardens. The South 45th Street site has a cement pad and gravel that could support raised bed veggie plots accessible even to people in wheelchairs.

The site near Lincoln Park drew the most people, neighbors who said they're eager to use a community garden as a way to grow food as well as a healthy community.

=> Read more!

At just 11 years old, Brooke Bowman already is a hall-of-famer.

The Evergreen Elementary School fifth-grader is among a distinguished group of 10 kids statewide who have been inducted into the AAA Washington Safety Patrol Hall of Fame for their safety patrol prowess.

Brooke is a safety patrol captain at Evergreen, a Clover Park School District school on Fort Lewis. She’s the daughter of Sgt. 1st Class Mark and Jennifer Bowman. She’s the third Evergreen student inducted into the Hall of Fame, following in the steps of Oralia Rodriguez in 2007 and Dylan Rochan in 2006.

“Brooke is a wonderful advocate and role model for Evergreen students,” said safety patrol advisor Dawnise Johnson, who nominated Brooke for the award. “She has boundless energy and a strong commitment to safety and community service. Her organizational skills, leadership and dedication make her very deserving of this honor.”

Johnson says Brooke is so organized, she created a contingency plan in case she’s ever late for safety patrol duty.

Besides holding the patrol flag across the crosswalk for pedestrians, safety patrol kids also watch the kindergartners as they line up outside classrooms before school starts. That's one of the duties Brooke enjoys the most because it allows her to see what kids of different ages like to do.

“We try to entertain them while they’re waiting for their teacher to come get them,” Brooke said in an interview. “We try to interact with them so they don’t get too wild or crazy.”

But there’s more to Brooke than safety patrol. She practices ice skating every morning before she comes to school. She’s also a wheelchair driver – a trained student who helps classmates in wheelchairs navigate Evergreen’s hallways and playground. Many special needs students attend Evergreen, which is near Madigan Army Medical Center.

To become a driver, Bowman passed a written test and driving test developed by the school.

Not everyone can be on safety patrol. Students must be recommended by a teacher. Three squads of 12 students each serve on the safety patrol team, which promotes leadership and responsibility.

Brooke and her fellow inductees will be honored at a Mariners game against the Oakland Athletics on May 1.

But unlike those baseball heroes batting in the .300s in the Cooperstown version of the Hall of Fame, Brooke has a perfect record.

She’s never missed a day of safety patrol duty in two years, Johnson said.

“I enjoy helping younger kids at my school and making sure they are safe,” Brooke said. “Contributing my time and talents to help others is very important to me.”

Debby Abe: 253-597-8694

Brooke Bowman stands outside Evergreen Elementary School on Fort Lewis. Photo credit: Clover Park School District

You might have caught this news update about Lakewood leading a $500,000 effort to improve Interstate traffic near Fort Lewis.

Given its proximity and relationship with the installation, the city is the ideal candidate to take the lead on the project. The Lakewood City Council started the process Monday night by approving $500,000 worth of studies to the corridor.

City officials say Fort Lewis is somewhat unique from other installations in that it’s located next to an urban area. I-5 gets nasty in the morning and afternoon when traffic from the post, along with McChord Air Force Base, floods nearby roads.

=> Read more!

It turns out art displays in Puyallup aren't only of the outdoor variety.

The new Puyallup City Hall also features a rotating gallery, which displays works provided by Valley Arts United.

The City Gallery's second-ever exhibit begins today. It consists of watercolors, acrylics and pastels by local artist Mary Johnson.

A reception for Johnson's exhibit will be held on the fifth floor of the Puyallup City Hall from 5:30 to 7 p.m. tonight, just before the Puyallup City Council meets.

Puyallup spokeswoman Glenda Carino said that the gallery exhibit will change about every three months.

She said city officials wanted to make the interior of its recently completed city hall as artistic as the outdoor portion of its campus, which features sculptural and architectural touches that mimic the geography of the Puyallup Valley.

The city also wanted to carry the spirit of its renowned downtown sculpture gallery, run by the nonprofit Arts Downtown, into the building, Carino said.

"Mostly we wanted to make sure a lot of visitors come in and they see the art and know that we support the local artists," Carino said. "We wanted have two dimensional art on the inside that showed the artistic qualities of our valley residents."

Earth-friendly activists are trying to stop the sale of nine lots that once housed power substations.

They'd like to see the lots, which are fenced and, in most cases, nicely landscaped, remain as public property. Some would make sweet pocket parks. Some could be lush community gardens. The chances for either will evaporate if they go on the market, as they are poised to do.

Tacoma Power, the city-owned utility, no longer uses them. Since the lots were bought with ratepayers' money, Tacoma power is obligated to sell them at a reasonable price.

Activist Morgan Alexander is mobilizing residents who'd like the city or Metro Parks to offer that price for lots that have recreation, relaxation or green value to the public.

To plug into the campaign, get to the meeting Alexander has organized for 7 p.m. tonight, (Monday, April 20) at the main Tacoma Public Library, 1102 Tacoma Ave. S.
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Despite a children’s ride accident that injured six people at the Spring Fair in Puyallup Friday night, the event saw a record number of visitors throughout the weekend.

A total of 118,557 guests showed up to the fair during its four-day run, an increase of 33,291 people over last year. The number of guests was 477 more than came in 2006, which was previously the Spring Fair's highest attended year.

“People just wanted to come out during the nice weather,” said fair spokeswoman Karen LaFlamme. “They were sick of being inside all the time.”

Attendance remained high even after the Lolly Swing ride tipped over Friday night, sending six people to the hospital with minor injuries.

All were released later that evening.

An independent inspector is investigating the incident and is expected to release findings to the state Department of Labor and Industries this week, said department spokeswoman Elaine Fischer.

The ride operator, Portland-based Funtastic Rides Inc., has managed rides at the Puyallup Fair for decades, LaFlamme said.

LaFlame said that in more than 20 years she’s worked for the fair, incidents have been few and far between.

“I can count them on one hand and not even use all the fingers,” LaFlamme said. “This happens very, very seldom.”

Taking a page out of blogmaster Ian Demsky's book, I want to end your workweek on a cheerful note. Here is a light-hearted YouTube post from T-town. I know St. Patrick's Day was last month, but enjoy:

Have an aggressive or dangerous dog? It’s not welcome in Orting.

The Orting City Council unanimously voted this month to ban all dangerous dogs from the city.

The approach is stricter than in neighboring Puyallup, Sumner or unincorporated Pierce County, which all allow dangerous dogs as long as they’re securely muzzled or penned and their owners pay for a $500 permit.

Orting’s new rules follow the other jurisdictions’ processes for declaring a dog dangerous: the dog has to severely injure or kill a human without provocation, or injure or kill livestock on private property.

Orting council members didn’t see any reason why a dog that would do those things should be allowed to stay in Orting, Orting Mayor Cheryl Temple said this week.

“We think it will just help with people feeling safer,” Temple said.

City officials revisited the rules in part because they were concerned about dogs that had been declared dangerous in another city coming to Orting and getting a free pass, Temple said.

Orting’s new rules state that a dog that has been declared dangerous in any jurisdiction isn’t welcome.

Rogers High School senior Carl Spencer didn’t have to take the math WASL this week thanks to a state law that he helped get passed.

He took the test anyway.

“I figured I didn’t want to be known as the kid who didn’t pass the math WASL,” said Spencer, student body president of the Puyallup school. “I said I may as well just take it and pass it.”

Spencer testified before the Legislature in February in support of a bill that would end the graduation requirement for teens who failed the math test in 10th grade to keep retaking it in 11th and 12th grades.

Under the previous requirement, high school students had to meet standard on the math, reading and writing on the 10th-grade WASL or a state-approved alternative as one of their graduation requirements. If they didn’t pass the math section – the hardest part for most teens – they could still graduate IF they continued to earn math class credits and retake the math WASL till they graduated.
They didn’t have to pass the math test; just keep retaking it.

Spencer met the WASL reading and writing requirements when he was a sophomore, but not the math section.

In 11th grade, he thought he’d be safe since he was passing geometry class. Like many other juniors statewide last year, he didn’t realize he also had to attempt the math test again.

“After I didn’t take it an on-time graduation specialist (at his school) said this year I needed to take it and PASS it to graduate,” he said. “If by some chance I didn’t pass this test, it could possibly stop me from graduating, which could drop my acceptance from college and scholarships I might receive.”

That would be bad. Spencer plans to attend Brigham Young University’s branch in Idaho.
The 18-year-old says he's on track to meet his other graduation requirements, and he’s passing second-year algebra.

On March 30, Gov. Chris Gregoire signed House Bill 1562 into law, allowing Spencer and others in the same boat to skip the math retake as long as they keep passing math classes.

Teachers say it’s still a good idea for 11th- and 12th-graders to keep attempting the test. Students statewide who meet standard on all three WASL sections receive a special “Certificate of Academic Achievement.”

At Rogers, student government representatives also encouraged classmates to keep giving the math test a try, Rogers said.

“If you passed it, it creates a lot of options,” he said. “If you don’t pass it you still need to take a math class. If you do pass it, then juniors are free to not take a math class” in their senior year.

Spencer thinks he did well on the math test that he took with Rogers classmates on Monday and Tuesday. It seemed easier than the ACT, a college entrance exam that covered higher level math and more questions than the WASL, he says.

“It felt like a walk in the park compared to the ACT.”

Spencer should find out his test result before the end of the school year.

UPDATE: UP Mayor Linda Bird told me a few minutes ago that although the city and library pushed back the opening to 2011, UP still expects a new library in 2010. Find out more in my story for Saturday's print paper.

No really. This is the last time.

At least that’s what the Pierce County Library System and University Place are saying after the two sides again pushed back the opening of the future branch at the city’s Town Center project.

Now, the library’s projected opening date is early 2011, some six months after the new branch was originally scheduled to open.

The country’s economic woes, along with a shortage of some $10 million, forced the two sides to negotiate the opening of the branch, which will share a building with the future City Hall.

UP also has failed to sign an agreement with a developer to build the $250 million project's other components.

The news is disappointing for Mary Denzer, who was checking out magazines at the temporary branch of the UP library today. It has operated out of a former auto parts store on 27th Street West since mid-2006, when the plan was to operate there two years.

=> Read more!

Britney fans waiting for their moment at the Dome, courtesy of The Stranger.

Lakewood police have a new home, and they couldn’t be happier about it.

The city christened its $12.6 million station today, opening the 42,000-square-foot building to the public.
Construction took a little more than a year – a turnaround time that allowed the project to stay within budget, officials say.

Now, the police department’s officers will work under one roof, instead of being spread out over four locations like before.

(Pictured right are visitors and police checking out Lakewood's basement firing range today. It was shot by TNT photographer Peter Haley)

The station — located at 9401 Lakewood Drive SW —offered a new building-smell once the public was allowed inside. Officials began the day with a ribbon-cutting ceremony that about 150 people attended.

City Manager Andrew Neiditz and Mayor Doug Richardson addressed the crowd and reminded them that the city didn’t raise taxes for construction.

=> Read more!

The Rev. David Alger, executive director of Associated Ministries, has won the 2009 Greater Tacoma Peace Prize.

He’s honored, he said, to be considered in the same group as past winners, including George F. Russell, Jr., the Rev. Ron Pierre Vignec, David Corner and the founders of the Conflict Resolution, Research and Resource Institute.

He and his wife, Sally, are looking forward to going to Oslo in December for the Nobel Peace Prize ceremony. His trip is part of the prize awarded by sponsors Norden Lodge #2, Sons of Norway, and Embla Lodge #2, Daughters of Norway.

And he is trying to work out his schedule for May 30, the day he will accept the prize, and the day he will bid his official farewell to his job of nearly 30 years.

Alger came to Tacoma in 1980 with the expectation that he would act as a “metropolitan minister,” promote dialogue among churches, and facilitate their service programs.

It did not work out quite that way.

=> Read more!

Today marks the third and final day of the spiritual ceremony that Tibet’s Drepung Loseling Monastery is performing in the South Sound.

The monks, collectively known as the Mystical Arts of Tibet, have worked continuously creating a mandala (circular and cosmic) painting of colored sand at the University of Puget Sound.

On Thursday, the monks started the ceremony with chanting and mantas. They then poured millions of gallons of sand into place on the flat platform via a chakkpur, or metal funnel that trickles sand out when rubbed with a metal rod.

By 10:45 a.m., today at the Collins Memorial Library, two monks worked seemingly in unison as they put the final touches on the ancient, intricate design.

Around them, some 50 people watched and took pictures of their intricate, almost painstaking work. It’s the same design the monks created outside shortly after Sept. 11, 2001 at Ground Zero in New York.

The scene today was perfect. The library’s reading room was serene, as traditional chanting music played in the background. A shrine to the Dalai Lama, as well as books and other merchandise were seen throughout the library’s reading room.

It’s 11 a.m., now, and we’re a few minutes away from the mandala’s completion. It’s aesthetic beauty will be short-lived, however, as the monks will ceremoniously destroy the painting later today to symbolize impermanence, according to Tenzin Phentsok, a monk and the group’s spokesman.

Visitors to downtown Puyallup will notice a few new sculptural sights around
Pioneer Park starting this weekend.

Workers with Arts Downtown, the volunteer organization in charge of
Puyallup's outdoor art gallery, finished installing 11 new pieces throughout
the city's downtown Friday.

One of the most visible of the new pieces is called Butterfly Ball, a large purple installation visible on Meridian near the Pioneer Park Pavilion.

Arts Downtown's outdoor gallery now consists of 34 pieces owned by the organization and 29
rotating pieces on loan from artists around the country.

That's far more pieces than Arts Downtown had on display when it first
started the outdoor gallery 14 years ago, said Pat Bryant, who chairs the
organization. The group's first gallery had 15 pieces.

"I don't think anyone dreamed it would grow like this," Bryant said.
Still, this year organizers have been making changes to cope with funding
cuts and rising costs.

=> Read more!

About 60 people walked through the streets of downtown Tacoma Friday, reading Scriptures, praying and reflecting on the suffering of Christ and the community.

The group stopped on Good Friday near a half-dozen spots, including a homeless shelter, a needle exchange van and a detention center.

Nora Leider pushed her 2-year-old daughter Maggi in a jogger.

Leider said the Stations of the Cross walking tour is "a meaningful way of relating the events of Easter to the life of the community."

Dotti Krist-Sterbick, Maggi's godmother, prayed at the first stop outside the St. Leo Food Connection and the Hospitality Kitchen on Tacoma's Hilltop.

"Gracious God, fill the stomachs of the hungry with good things and bless our land and our people with an abundance of your bounty," Krist-Sterbick prayed.

The group responded, "Jesus Christ, son of God, have mercy on us."

Krist-Sterbick said the walk enables people "to enter more deeply into solidarity with Christ's love."

The Stations of the Cross recall the steps in Christ's life leading to his crucifixion. The walking tour has been linking those events to places of pain in the community for 25 years.

Sponsors included Urban Grace Church, Guadalupe House and St. Leo Catholic Church, where the tour began.

Walkers took turns leading the group, carrying a 5-foot-tall wooden cross. The group sang "Oh Lord hear my prayer" as they walked.

Dave Hillis said the walk remembers Christ's death while acknowledging "the pain of the community."

On Good Friday, Hillis said, "This whole exercise puts him in the middle of the suffering."

Lincoln High School senior Christney Kpodo was honored by Gov. Chris Gregoire as Washington State Youth of the Year in a ceremony this morning at the Governor's Mansion in Olympia.

We introduced you to 17-year-old Kpodo in a TNT article last month, after she was named Youth of the Year for the Boys & Girls Clubs of South Puget Sound.

She then went on to face 13 other Boys & Girls Club members from across the state Thursday at Qwest Field in Seattle where, instead of soccer balls and footballs, the competitors were tested in rounds of interviews and speechmaking in front of a panel of judges. Later that evening, all 14 finalists gave their speeches one last time in front of family, friends, Boys & Girls Club staff and supporters.

Not until this morning did Kpodo find out, in front of an audience of state VIPs, that she was the statewide winner. She was presented a $1,000 scholarship from the Reader’s Digest Foundation and $1,000 from the Washington State Alliance of the Boys & Girls Clubs. All told, she has received $5,500 in scholarship money since the process began.

Kpodo is a four-year member of the Boys & Girl South End Branch in Tacoma. She has completed 600 volunteer hours, organized many community service projects and received the Gates Achievers Scholarship Award for her academic success and extracurricular involvement. She plans to attend Pacific Lutheran University and work toward a law degree.

Next up she will represent Washington at the regional level, with a berth in the national competition in Washington, D.C. at stake.

Kpodo told the TNT last month that she credits a strong Christian faith as well as perseverance gained after a serious ankle injury about four years ago led to eight surgeries and other procedures.

"I believe the Boys & Girls Club is what gave me the confidence to speak out and to be comfortable in my own skin," Kpodo told a TNT reporter.

The Boys & Girls Clubs of South Puget Sound benefits 13,150 children and teens at eight branches and 14 outreach sites in Pierce, Mason, and Kitsap counties. For more information, call (253) 502-4600 or go to the organization's website.

I can think of plenty of places to get a decent coffee here in T-town, and I could probably figure out where to get a cigar without too much effort. But I must admit I'm coming up short on suggestions for the other items that Twitter user Ben Dobyns seeks.

Is there anybody out there who can help out?

And while you're at it, if you have any idea what this all means -- well, maybe I don't want to know.

Pierce County’s Department of Community Services released the results of its 2009 Homeless Survey today.

The results show that on Jan. 29 and 30, 2,083 men, women and children identified themselves as being without permanent housing.

The total is up 19 percent over last year’s survey. That means an added 336 people, most of whom are living in transitional housing.

The number of families also is up by 111, or 43 percent, over 2008. Included in those families are 113 children, a rise of 21 percent.
The survey is required by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. By H.U.D.’s definition, people who sleep outside or in shelters or live in emergency or transitional housing are counted among the homeless.

The people who fan out through the county with brief questionnaires are the first to say that this survey is just a snapshot. They are missing families who are bunking with relatives, or living in recreational vehicles, cars and tents and trying not to be noticed. They are missing

=> Read more!

On Tuesday, the City of Lakewood distributed letters to the B&I Market Place’s 60 or so businesses warning against selling knockoff merchandise.

Here were some of their responses:

- Mike Cook, a clerk at the B&I Coin Shop, said he doesn’t think unlicensed merchandise is a problem among the legitimate owners with a spot at the famous shopping center.

He said it’s coming more from people who try to sell merchandise in the parking lot, out of the trunks of their cars.

“I think everybody’s been mindful of what they’re supposed to do,” Cook said. “It’s more of an issue of people coming and selling their stuff in the parking lot.”

- Yong Koch, owner of Smile Accessories handbag and luggage store some 13 years now, said it’s difficult to stop knockoff trafficking because there will always be a demand for it.

“People like to buy those things because they’re cheap,” she said, shaking her head.

Still, she commended the city for trying to crack down on knockoff dealers and says the letters are good.

- Mark Baumann, assistant store manager at Scamp’s pet store, said there’s been rumors of people selling knockoffs, and he’s always wondered how some of the B&I’s merchants can sell their merchandise so cheap.

As for his store, he says it’s unlikely that anyone even makes a knockoff dog collar or fish-tank cleaner.

“It’d be kind of hard to do that here,” he said.

Look for my story for the print paper in the coming days.

The ivy trembled before them.

The ratty recliners bade goodbye to their alley homes.

The creatures living under scores of spare tires found themselves homeless.

If it was blight on First Creek or McKinley Hill, 100 volunteers put it in peril Saturday, thanks to two work parties, the Puyallup Tribe and the city of Tacoma.

Joyce Glass reported that the Dome Top Clean Up crew saturated the neighborhood around Gault Middle School and sent four truckloads of junk to the dump. Allyson Griffith of the Tacoma's Community Based Services program provided safety vests, gloves, garbage bags and the coveted dump passes.

DomeToppers distributed 240 door hangers inviting neighbors to join the group. The also made a list of neighbors who need help with maintenance, abatement or getting rid of gang tagging.

Space is cheap on the internet. Let's name the local heroes: Matthew Williams, Joyce Glass, Bill Mattox, Vern Freeman, John Culhane, Jonathan Zold, Mike, Michael and Jennie Agnew, Lynnette and Larry Scheidt, Marcus Mulligan, Chris Skelton, Kali Kucera, and Mary Young and her grandson.

Joyce sent special thanks to the crew from The Crossing Church, who arrived in their distinctive green bus and pitched in: Brenda Bacon, Dennis Stewart, Paul Bergin, Jim Oliver, Scott Murray, Ruth Beard, Ellen and Vincent Prather, Nikki Nicholson and John Sparks.

Down the hill, Dan Fear deployed two teams to attack trash and invasive plants in the First Creek Watershed. People,including kids fresh for the World Vision egg hunt, dropped in to help, so there were likes more than the 53 volunteers who signed in. I'll get that list from Dan, and add those folks to the blog.

One group started just above the Emerald Queen, hauling out junk that generations of the environmentally unaware have tossed over the creek banks. They specialized in rescuing trees engulfed by ivy. The trick is to cut the ivy vines as high as you can reach up the trunk, peel them down to the ground and then roll them away from the tree. All the ivy up the tree starves to death. The stuff on the ground lives, but doesn't produce seeds for a while.

The second team rescued the sidewalk over the creek's culvert on Fairbanks Street. It was twice as wide as anyone thought, and the overgrowth concealed an intriguing array of bottles.

Quote of the site: "There's nothing easy about ivy," David Whited.

Whited works for the Puyallup Tribe, volunteers with the neighbors and organized the celebratory lunch for DomeTopper and First Creek teams at the Portland Avenue Community Center.

Dish of the lunch: Too Busy to Cook's baked beans with hamburger, adapted from a railroad man's recipe. It's worth a few hours of pulling ivy and hauling sofas to get a big helping of it to enjoy with equally muddy friends.

As I wrote in my previous B&I blog post, Lakewood staffers checked the licenses and reiterated against selling knockoff merchandise to some 60 businesses today.

In a letter that was distributed to B&I’s tenants, Lakewood City Manager Andrew Neiditz writes that the city “continues to have challenges with the sales of consumer goods which violate trademarks,” and that “much of this activity currently centers along South Tacoma Way.”

“Lakewood appears to be the center for the distribution and sales (of) ‘knock-offs’ in the South Puget Sound,” Neidtiz writes.

Assistant City Manager Dave Bugher told me that the city also plans to distribute letters to two other businesses with ongoing reports of unlicensed goods: Star Lite Swap Meet and Tacoma Discount World.

The counterfeit merchandise ranges from clothing, shoes, handbags, watches and other types of consumer goods.

In Neiditz’s letter, which isn’t dated, the city issues a stern warning to businesses that sell knockoffs, an approach reminiscent of when it targeted problem motels:

This letter is a warning; it serves to advise property owners and businesses that the distribution and sales of illegal counterfeit goods, where trademarks have been imitated, will no longer be condoned. In the future, should additional federal, state or local investigations uncover illegal sales, the City will take action to revoke business licenses and thereby suspend or close businesses. Those who engage in such practices – including property owners, store managers and employees – may be charged with a crime. Further, property owners and business owners may be subject to civil litigation, in addition to asset forfeiture under state and federal statutes.

If you are aware of these products in your store it is important to voluntarily remove them and discontinue sales of these products.

When the B&I opened today, city workers could be seen handing out letters and checking business licenses.

I’ll write about some of the responses I got from business owners soon.

I can remember when my auntie and uncle took me to the B&I Market Place some 20 years ago.

As a youth, my infatuation that day was focused on the candy and other cool vending machines I could reach. My favorite was one of a chicken that laid plastic eggs.

My uncle tried one of those test-your-love machines. (He scored a “hot” on the love meter, or maybe it was “hemorrhaging.” I can’t remember)

But like generations of other visitors to the historic center on South Tacoma Way, my clearest memory was of Ivan, B&I’s famed gorilla. Looking through a shield of glass, I remember thinking to myself how large he looked up close.

I recall buying some snacks and toys that day, but the highlight was the attraction one notch down on the evolutionary scale.

Now, as a journalist, I’ve been called to the B&I once more, this time for a story. The City of Lakewood swept through the complex today to check business licenses and warn owners against the dangers of hawking unlicensed merchandise, a.k.a. knockoffs.

I was there at 10 a.m., when it opened, to talk to owners and scope out the scene. My, how things have changed under B&I’s big top. Ivan’s gone, he’s new home an Atlanta zoo.

Many of the shops that I most likely walked by two decades ago are gone, their spaces occupied by three, four, maybe five tenants since.

(To the right is a picture TNT photographer Peter Haley shot for the newspaper’s award-winning series on South Tacoma Way in 2007)

There’s an eclectic mix of shops and spots to eat, from clothing to music to hobby shops to a pet store. Lakewood Assistant City Manager Dave Bugher says this center, along with two others in the South Tacoma Way-Pacific Highway Southwest area, is where the city hears of a lot of unlicensed merchandise being sold.

B&I has also had issues with drugs and gangs recently, evidenced by a sign on one store today that read “No gangs,” and that anyone wearing gang colors would be kicked out.

Still, there are honest owners and shoppers at the B&I who realize its significance and want to enjoy it.

Maybe it doesn’t have the same stuff it offered twenty years ago, but few businesses do. And guess what, I found that vending machine with the plastic eggs.

Maybe some things never change.

Stay tuned to find out how business owners took the city’s warning against knockoffs.

I set up a camera to make a photo every 30 seconds. I then turned it into a short video in case you weren't able to be at the parade. Enjoy!

Susan McGuire, the vice president for public relations for the Daffodil Festival, is gushing. She just e-mailed this report.

The crowd in Orting is as large or larger then last year at 8,000 - 10,000. Not sure how they get that many people into town, but they do and they have been waiting all day for the Parade!!

This has been an amazing day for the Daffodil Festival...the Tradition seems to be alive, the crowds in every city have been awesome and the enthusiasm has been tremendous...it makes one feel good to know that all of our hard work has been appreciated.

The sidewalks are filled to capacity along Main Street today, and in a small garden nearby there was a small ceremony as the City of Roses paid respect to the Land of Daffodils.
A group of 14 Rosarians (the Portland equivalent of Daffodilians) planted an Oregon Celebration rosebush beside the Ryan House Museum.
The
Rosarians had earlier ridden through Tacoma and Puyallup to show their colors (cream and red) to the people of Pierce County.
Daffodilians, by the way, have already offered the Rosarians a selection of daffodil bulbs.
"We think your parade was wonderrful," said "Lord High Sheriff" Rosarian Carla Stenberg. "Who could have asked for a better day."
Meanwhile, as the parade leaves Sumner, Pastor Lori Bunkoski of Christ the King Lutheran Church smiles at the profits from today's bake sale.
She estimates her church choir earned $300 from sales of popcorn and baked goods at a stand on Maion Street.
The biggest seller?
Chocolate chip.

And now, on to Orting.

Living on a parade route is not everyone’s idea of paradise, but Bonnie Lambert loves it.
Lambert owns a house in Puyallup, a few blocks south of the fairgrounds, and on Saturday afternoon her street was jam-packed with clowns, marching bands, fire engines, vintage cars and daffodil bedecked floats.
“We like it,” Lambert said,watching from her front yard. “We’ve lived here 15 years, and we really look forward to this.”
A second story deck gives her family and friends a unsurpassed vantage point, she said.
Lambert also volunteers for the Puyallup Police department and makes herself useful during the parade, letting people rest unside, offering first aid and sometimes blankets.
“As long as I can get in and out of my driveway, it’s fine,” she said.

Taking part in four parades in a single day means a lot of coordination – and a lot of waiting, too.
Puyallup’s 5th St. SW was one of the feeder streets where floats and bands and cheerleaders waited their turn to merge with the main stream of the parade, heading down 7th Avenue SW and then onto Meridian.
One of the groups parked on the side was the SeaFair Pirates, with their rolling vessel, the Moby Duck.
Captain Walter “Tattoo” Taucher and his crew of 24 mean-looking pirates killed time waiting their turn by snoozing in the sun, pretending to terrorize passersby and sucking down ice cold bottled water.
Taucher looks tough, but inside the Shogun helmet and behind the long curved saber is the nicest pirate you’d ever want to meet.
“The Daffodil Parade is a really good parade, and it brings out the best in the pirates,” Taucher said.
“This is a part of Americana,” he said. “A lot of people think it’s being lost, but I think it’s getting better and better.”
“Americans are rediscovering events such as this,” Taucher said. “Sometimes it takes a bad economy to make it happen. It gets people thinking about what’s really important.”

Ten minutes from the start of the Sumner leg of the Grand Floral Parade, families are waiting three- and four-deep along the Main Street sidewalk.
Some have had their places planted since before dawn, reserving spots with lawn chairs, dining room chairs and just plain blankets
Susan Byersdorf and husband Landon have Grocery. While Landon waxes his new pickup truck, Susan lounges in a garden chair in the bed of their. truck.
They're looking forward to seeing their son, Dylan, who will be marching in the Sumner High School band.
And if the weather gets too hot - I'd say it's around 60 in the sun - Susan is ready with sunscreen. She has not excluded the possibility of some ice cream from the grocery.
Meanwhile, at Ryan House Museum on Main Street, Julie Moltke - president of the Sumner Historical Society - is showing guests a collection of momentoes from festivals past.
Vicki Connor, curator of the museum, notes that the festival had its beginnings in Sumner.
It began around 1922, she says, with something called the Trout Banquet.
The Bulb Banquet followed, and soon came the Daffodil Festival.
Incidentally, a display of queen's robes andphotos from long ago will be on displayh at the museum - at 1228 Main - for the next few months.
And now, bagpipes are playing.
The parade has begun.

The parade didn’t start in Puyallup until 12:45 a.m., but the downtown was packed by noon.
Parking was nearly as hard to find as it is on fair days, and the streets within blocks of the parade route were lined with cars.
Meridian was so crowded with kids, dogs, strollers and people in folding chairs, it was impossible to walk on the sidewalks
“The good weather is what brings them out,” said Randol Brookshier, a Shriner clown decked out in a red fright wig and lime green pants. “If it’s rainy you might get people lined up one or two deep on the sidewalks. This kind of weather, they’re lined up four or five deep.”
Brookshier, stopped for a moment astride a bicycle with tiny wheels, said he’s been a clown at Daffodil Parades for 40 years. This year was one of the best in years, he said.
“The weather makes all the difference.”

The Tacoma leg of the parade ended at noon, and the floats - along with busloads of drill teams and bands - made their way toward Puyallup along
River Road.
As she was walking from Tacoma's Pacific Avenue up 11th Street, 82-year-old Evelyn Larsen recalled parades past. She's been attending since she was a girl.

She stood along Broadway and named the stores that once graced the street: Rhodes, Fisher's, Woolworth. Her late husband was a bellhop at the nearby Winthrop Hotel, she said.
And Saturday's parade?
"It was nice," she said.

Here's how floats and other entries fared in the judging.

Major Float Awards

Grand Sweepstakes
Best in Parade – Highest overall Point Score: # 95 Clover Park School District

President’s Award
Sweepstakes Runner-up – 2nd highest Score: # 88 Capital Lakefair - Olympia

=> Read more!

Shriners in tassled and sequined fezes pass by, clowns ride bikes, a calliope plays and pirates offer their friendly menace.
A tractor carries a cargo of a duck, chicken and pig.
Julie Marsh of Puyallup sits on the sidewalk near 11th Street with her 1-year-old daughter Olivia.
"She loves it," Marsh says.
Sitting nearby, Sarah Keller of Gig Harbor watches the parade with her 2-year-old, A
bby.
"We're having a great time," Keller says. "Abby thinks it's a little loud. This is her first parade. I'm impressed with the amount of people here, and you couldn't ask for a better day."

Parade marshal Wayne Severson - one of several marshals with the Seafair Festival in Seattle - estimates the crowd along Pacific Avenue in Tacoma at 8,000.
"It's a great turnout," he said. "This is the largest turnout in a number of years."
Severson said he marshals parades from March to December, maybe 22 each year. The Puyallup Valley Daffodil Festival Grand Floral Parade is his second in 2009.
"Look how cheerful everyone is," he said, smiling and cheerful himself.

Only nine minutes behind schedule, the 76th Annual Grand Floral Parade has begun under sunny, if chilly skies.
As he prepared to take his place in the line of floats, bands, princesses and other dignitaries, Puyallup Valley Daffodil President Brad Stevens said he was up at 4:30 this morning - and his first thought concerned the weather.
"I hoped it was going to be like they said it was. It was," he said.
Stevens' wife, Sherry, stood near him, and near the float that would carry the 22 princesses and one queen selected to represent the festival today and throughout the remaining year.
Sherry herself was a princess - representing Tacoma's Lincoln HIgh School - in 1978,
This year's queen, Melanie Stambaugh, 18 from Emerald Ridge High School, adjusted her white silk dress.
"I'm so excited," she said. "Today's been great. I've been meeting royalty from other cities. The sun is out, and I'm with the whole court. You can't have a dull time."
In a queen's handbasket she carries the parade necessities: Kleenex, lip gloss, festival buttons.
Stambaugh has marched in the previous six parades as a drummer in marching hbands, first from Ferrucci Junior High and then Emerald Ridge. This time she's riding high atop a flower-strewn float.
Sherry Stevens warns that she should look out for sunburn.

Assistant parade director Jim Bradley stands at the corner of 11th Street and Pacific Avenue in downtown Tacoma. Less than an hour remains before the first of 145 units begins the four-city, 76th annual Grand Floral Parade of the Puyallup Valley Daffodil Festival.
"It's a great day for a parade," he says.
Indeed it is, with the sun shining and daffodils in bloom, festooning the 30 floats and the lapels of officials.
Or make that 29 floats.
"There's one missing," Bradley says. "The Lions Club. But maybe they're somewhere in the back."
Still, he says, "The flowers are fresher than they've ever been."
Festival spokeswoman Susan McBride takes her station before the float on which the queen and her court will ride.
"There's a band from Kennewick. The Peach Festival from Pentictan B.C. is here for the first time. The Portland Rose Festival is here, We'll have more than a half-million daffodils."
Shriners on little tiny motorcycles drive in circles. A band practices. Folks find places to sit along the sidewalks.
We're a half-hour away.

Ron Miller, left, Warren Wotton, center, and Tom Farley judge floats prior to the 76th Daffodil Parade Saturday, April 4, 2009. The Parade is scheduled to start around 10:15 and lasty about an hour and a half.
Joe Barrentine/The News Tribune

Groups of volunteers are spending all day today putting the final touches on the floats that will appear in tomorrow's Daffodil Parade.

I went down to the Foss Waterway Seaport's Maritime Museum this afternoon to check out their progress. About four different floats were underway there about 1:30 p.m.

Below are some volunteers working on the City of Sumner's float.

Other groups of float-builders are setting up shop at the Active Construction, Inc., warehouse on River Road in Puyallup. Still more have their own storage areas.

In total, about 40 floats will appear in tomorrow's parade, along with about 80 other marching groups and dignitaries.

The parade starts at 10:15 in Tacoma, 12:45 in Puyallup, 2:30 in Sumner, and 5 p.m. in Orting.

Nearly 40 volunteers removed hundreds of pounds of garbage and belongings today from a vacant house in Federal Way.

Workers from Federal Way Police, South King Fire and Rescue and a dozen other groups cleaned up a blight in the Twin Lakes neighborhood.

The house was filled with old furniture, mattresses, paints, supplies and debris. Outside, it was surrounded with garbage.

The crews filled up two 30 cubic yard dumpsters. By 11:30 a.m., they finished cleaning up the outside and most of the inside.

In the morning, volunteer Carroll Fisher walked through the rooms with piles of debris.

“Junk galore,” Fisher said. “How could you make a mess so bad like this?”
The house at 2230 S.W. 330th Street is in foreclosure and couldn’t be sold because of all the garbage. It has been vacant for more than a year.

A woman, now in her 70s, purchased the home with her husband decades ago. After he died, she allowed her daughter and grandchildren to move in to help her. After the woman moved out into apartment, utilities were shut off due to nonpayment, police said. The house was left for over a year with hundreds of pounds of trash. The woman didn’t have the resources to clean up the house.

=> Read more!

Puyallup students weren't going to be marching in the Daffodil Festival's annual Grand Floral Parade this year.

That is, until Emerald Ridge High School's Melanie Stambaugh was named Daffodil Queen a few weeks ago.

School district officials decided they should figure something out to make sure Stambaugh was backed by a band from her home district. It is tradition for the band from the Queen's high school to lead the Festival Royalty float at the front of the parade.

So for the past two weeks, band leaders from Rogers, Emerald Ridge and Puyallup High have been working to pull together an composite band of students from the three schools.

"This was a district decision that we would support the queen," said Bruce Leonardy, band instructor at Rogers High School.

The group of about 100 students met for their first practice together today at Rogers.

=> Read more!

Remember summer?

Here's a chance to think back to a time when it didn't spit snot every other morning, and when white sails and cannon fire punctuated Commencement Bay.

Tall Ships Tacoma is hosting the theatrical premier of its official video with two gatherings at the Galaxy Theater Gig Harbor, 4649 Point Fosdick Drive N.W.

The events run from 6 to 8 p.m. Thursday, April 2, and Wednesday, April 8. Tickets are $20 a person, and the DVD sells for $15. You can order them at tallshipstacoma.com, or call (253)272-5650.

The evenings will begin with a reception with a cash bar, a welcome from Stan Selden, president of Tacoma Tall Ships Organization, and Les Bolton, executive director of Gray's Harbor Historical Seaport.

Expect Selden and Bolton to celebrate the fun, and the money, Tall Ships 2008 brought to Tacoma. The financial benefit includes $2.5 million in improvements to the Foss Waterway infrastructure, and the $20 million economic boost the festival generated in July.

Also expect Selden to encourage donations to cut the debt the festival still owes some of its vendors.

First it was dead raccoons, now someone has apparently shot and killed a fox at Point Defiance park. Here's the release from MetroParks:

Fox killed by wildlife assault at Point Defiance Park

Walkers in Point Defiance reported to Parks staff this morning that a fox which appeared to have been shot with a pellet gun was found across from Camp Six. The Department of Fish and Wildlife (DFW) responded conducting an onsite investigation of the scene and removing the animal for a determination as to the cause of death.

In early February, staff and park visitors encountered dead raccoons which were victimized by similar attacks along Point Defiance’s Five Mile Drive.

=> Read more!

Well, sort of.

What officials in flood-prone cities like Orting actually are looking for in the Puyallup River basin is something called scalping, gravel skimming, or -- to use an even milder term -- sediment management.

The difference? They only want debris to be removed from above the water line, not below. That approach is thought to be less damaging to fish habitat below the water. But local officials say it would still increase the capacity of the river, helping alleviate some of the major flooding Pierce County cities are starting to see on an annual basis.

Orting building official Ken Wolfe took me out today along one of the levees along the Puyallup River in Orting. He was trying to show me the extent of the sedimentation in the river, and how much the capacity of the river could improve just by skimming all that dirt off the top.

The topic has been a hot one among Orting citizens and business owners as well. Wolfe said if the gravel was removed from the river, it would take a more downpour for the river to flood surrounding housing communities.

This is some of the sedimentation he showed me today. In the foreground is the edge of a levy, while the gravel in the river and on the far side is all debris.

I'll be writing a story for next week on the issues surrounding dredging or scalping the river, and all the communities who are now asking for it. Besides Orting, there's also Sumner and plenty of private citizens and business owners.