For years, school officials have been lamenting the state's underfunding of transportation.

Without adequate funding from the state, they say, districts must devote more and more of their local levy dollars to get kids to school.

One of their loudest charges: the state doesn't reimburse districts for transporting students whose homes or daycares lie outside a one-mile radius from school. And instead of calculating the actual route mileage, the distance is measured as a direct line from school to home or daycare. Or, in the colloquial, "as the crow flies."

Actually, says Allan Jones with the state Superintendent of Public Instruction, the state does provide some money to bus kids within the one-mile radius. But not much.

Jones, director of pupil transportation, says the state gives districts some funding based on the total number of kids in kindergarten through through fifth grade within the one-mile radius.

The original intent was to help districts defray the cost of transporting youngsters who faced hazardous walking conditions, even though they lived close to school.

But it's a lower rate than what the state funds for students living outside the one-mile minimum. And the districts don't have to have hazardous walking conditions to get the money. They don't even have to use the money to transport kids within that radius.

Here's how Jones explains it, and the "crow flies" business in an e-mail to The News Tribune.

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Kevin Cavanagh with Pierce County Information Technology points out that the link we published in the printed paper for the weather tracker system left off one symbol.

The correct link is http://www.co.pierce.wa.us/PC/

If you can't bring it up, click here.

On the left side, it's titled "How hot is it?"

It's pretty cool. According to the site, "Eleven weather stations around the county record temperature, wind speed, relative humidity and more. Data is updated every 15 minutes."

Candidates for three Puyallup City Council positions will appear at a candidate forum from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. tonight at the Puyallup Public Library.

The library is located at 324 South Meridian Street, on the west side of Pioneer Park.

Each council position has attracted three candidates, meaning each race will be on the August 18 primary ballot. The two candidates who receive the most votes in the primary will advance to the November general election.

At the forum, audience members will be able to ask the candidates questions directly as well as hear where candidates stand on city issues.

The forum is sponsored by the Puyallup Public Library and the League of Women Voters of Tacoma-Pierce County. More information can be found at the library Web site here.

A Puyallup city councilman has filed a court petition against the Puyallup city manager and Puyallup city attorney alleging they’ve withheld city records he needs to do his job.

John Knutsen, a first-term Puyallup councilman, is seeking a court order requiring City Manager Gary McLean and City Attorney Cheryl Carlson to give him unfettered access to city records.

Lawyers representing McLean and Carlson say Knutsen is requesting special treatment not given to anyone, councilman or otherwise.

In the petition Knutsen filed Monday in Pierce County Superior Court, he says he has asked for numerous city records since November that have been given to him only after being significantly redacted or edited.

Knutsen also says that when he has sought information about issues the city council is reviewing, he’s been forced to submit public records requests as a private citizen to get it.

“In order to perform my duties as a City Councilmember, I must be able to access information and records of the city,” Knutsen’s filings say. “The law does not vest authority in the unelected City Manager and City Attorney to be the ultimate gatekeepers for all information pertaining to the City business.”

Knutsen's court filings name Carlson and McLean only in their official capacity, not as private citizens.

Milton Rowland, a lawyer speaking on McLean and Carlson’s behalf, said that Knutsen is requesting special access not given to any council member or member of the public.

Knutsen is asking city officials “to treat him differently than they treat anyone else who makes public records requests, and differently than any other City Council member,” Rowland said in an e-mail statement.

The city will ask the judge to dismiss Knutsen’s petition, Rowland said.

“We are disappointed that he chose to act in a way calculated to drain public resources by filing a lawsuit,” Rowland wrote, adding that Knutsen could have proposed instead that the City Council members vote to change how they receive information.

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We didn't run a picture of the actual roadside sign advertising "Nearly Naked Fireworks" in the story we ran on the business today. The sign, not the scantily-clad women inside the tent, is what's got neighbors really ticked off, said one resident, Annie Starwich Claeys.

What do you think? Take a look.

Claeys posed the following question this morning: "Is this something you want in your neighborhood?"

Doris Jairala has been a faithful bus rider the past five years, taking the 53 route a few times a week to get to her housekeeping jobs.

Driving isn't an option for the 62-year-old University Place resident. She suffers from seizures and isn't allowed to get behind the wheel.

(To the left: Doris Jairala, of University Place, rides the Number 53 bus to her job as a housekeeper last month. The route will be eliminated in July as Pierce Transit reduces less-used routes such as hers. Joe Barrentine/The News Tribune)

So that means for her job, she hops on the bus to Lakewood, Steilacoom, UP and any other community in which her work takes her.

But she will be one of the thousands of riders who will have to find a new bus beginning July 12. Pierce Transit, squeezed by the economic downturn, opted to eliminate or reduce service on routes throughout the county that don't have a high ridership.

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A proposal to end school-versus-school sports competition among Puyallup junior high schools appears dead, at least for next school year.

A news item on the Puyallup School District Web site says the district found $80,000 in savings elsewhere in the 2009-10 district budget, which will allow seventh- and eighth-grade interscholastic competition to remain.

The plan is subject to approval by the coaches' association and the School Board.

Meanwhile, the district will launch a comprehensive review of all the district's secondary athletic programs next year.

Earlier this year, the district proposed making junior high sports "intramural," meaning schools would have athletics but students would compete against teams within their own school.

The proposal drew loud complaints from parents and community members, who said competing against other schools was a big part of athletics.

To read the Puyallup District Web news item, click here.

The Puyallup Tribe won't participate in policy discussions organized by the newly formed Pierce County River Revitalization Task Force, tribal officials said in a letter Thursday.

The task force of one citizen and three city council members -- one each from Sumner, Orting and Puyallup -- invited tribal officials to participate in a policy summit July 8 to discuss flooding issues throughout Pierce County.

But tribal officials wrote the group June 4 and said they don't want to undermine the work of the Lower Puyallup River Executive Task Force by taking part in the new task force.

The letter also criticized the Pierce County River Revitalization Task Force's apparent focus on sediment removal -- or dredging -- as a solution to flooding problems.

"While dredging may, arguably, provide for a short term temporary solution in select areas, as we have discussed in the larger task force, dredging will not provide a long term solution due to the sediment loads naturally occurring within the watershed," wrote Puyallup Tribe Vice Chairman Henry John.

John also asked the group to stop what it's doing, saying the presence of too many flooding task forces in Pierce County could deter federal funding for solutions.

"The Tribe would like to ask the 'Revitalization Task Force' to reconsider attempting to forge ahead alone on a short sighted path that may limit the chance that a true comprehensive solution be reached," John wrote. "The Tribe is concerned that the true solution can never be realistically reached without federal funding support, and such support will not be forthcoming if we are divided among ourselves."

Puyallup officials are still considering a November ballot measure that would ask citizens how they want to elect their city council members in the future.

The Puyallup City Council is moving forward with a proposed ballot item asking whether city council members should represent certain geographic districts of town, or be elected by all Puyallup residents and and represent the entire city.

The council now consists of six members elected by three distinct council districts, and one at-large member who is elected citywide. The proposed ballot measure would make all seven council positions at-large.

Council members directed staff Tuesday to prepare a resolution to put the at-large measure on the ballot. Council members will still have to approve the resolution at an upcoming meeting for it for it to move forward.

Officials must submit the ballot measure to the Pierce County Auditor's Office by August 11 for it to make appear on the ballot Nov. 3.

Also in Puyallup news Tuesday, Standard and Poor's Rating Agency upgraded the city's credit rating from A+ to AA-.

City officials said the rating reflects their efforts to maintain a reserve fund of 12 percent and save money throughout 2008.

The result: the city will get lower interest rates on future councilmatic bonds, saving taxpayer money, City Manager Gary McLean said.

The City of Puyallup is one of nine Washington jurisdictions to be honored this year with a "Smart Communities" award.

The awards, announced today by Gov. Chris Gregoire's office, celebrate cities and counties that succeed at creating "livable communities" and complying with the state Growth Management Act (the anti-sprawl law).

Puyallup is the only Pierce County city to receive an award. The award specifically celebrates Puyallup's Civic Center project.

Puyallup completed a new city hall building in August 2008, the latest in a series of building projects surrounding Pioneer Park in the heart of downtown.

Read on to see the full press release from the governor's office.

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Update: Zach's brother, Almanza, called me to say that he received the bronze in the 25-meter-assisted walk, not the softball throw. Sorry about the mix-up.

Of all the shirts people donned at today's Special Olympics Summer Games at Fort Lewis, the ones that read "Team Zack," were the some of the loudest.

The family of Zach Mendes of Everett made the shirts to show their support. Unfortunately, the company that printed the shirts spelled his name with a "k," rather than an "h."

but the misspelling didn't stop the 12 members of his family from Everett and South Hill to cheer their lungs out at every chance.

Danny Almanza, Zach's brother from South Hill, said every Special Olympics in which his brother competes is special.

At 9 months old, doctors discovered Zach had gotten spinal meningitis and didn't give him long to live. Today, he is deaf and developmentally impaired, but he's walking and winning medals at the Special Olympics.

Zach even has his own slogan, which was splashed in bright letters across the backs of his family's t-shirts: "Zack Attack."

"Yeah, go Zach!" Almanza screamed as his brother picked up a bronze in the 25-meter assisted walk. "Zach Attack!"

Puyallup officials have aspirations to make their city more walkable – particularly in South Hill, where the South Hill Mall and adjacent strip malls line traffic-plagued Meridian Avenue.

Thursday city officials invited citizens, health department officials and a national expert on pedestrian-friendly communities to point out what they’ve been doing wrong.

The “walkability” assessment, sponsored by the city and the Tacoma Pierce-County Health Department, took a group of citizens, elected officials and city staff on a tour of downtown Puyallup and South Hill.

Their mission: figure out what street and building improvements could encourage people to get out of their cars and walk from place to place.

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