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."

The fire chief in Orting lost his job Thursday amid charges he misappropriated funds, misled the fire district’s board of commissioners and had “anger issues.”

Randy Shelton, chief of Orting Valley Fire and Rescue, was terminated by the fire district’s Board of Commissioners Thursday after a closed-door meeting to discuss allegations against him.

Shelton wouldn’t comment Thursday but denied all the charges.

Shelton was placed on leave in late May pending the results of an investigation into undisclosed complaints.

Late last month, the fire district’s Board of Commissioners laid out seven formal charges against Shelton and sent the chief a notice of intent to discipline him.

The district’s investigation found that Shelton did the following:

-Overpaid himself by $16,000, plus six unauthorized hours of vacation pay.

-Harassed fire district employees, showing “anger issues.”

-Implemented new operations policies without approval from the Board of Commissioners.

-Falsified information to gain access to confidential fire district files and read commissioners’ e-mails.

-Suspended an employee without issuing prior written warnings.

-Falsified information to the board during the hiring of a new medical service officer, at one point telling the board the applicant was certified as a firefighter when he was not.

-Manipulated the hiring process for two new lieutenant positions to exclude certain applicants, ultimately hiring two people who failed the lieutenant’s exam.

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For Lenny Shearer, Orting’s Wild Rose Quilt Shop was the 22nd quilt shop she’d visited in two days.

She and her husband stopped there Thursday as part of a four-day “Quilt Shop Hop,” which is taking place at 57 shops in Western Washington through Sunday.

Upon entering the Orting city limits, Shearer and other quilters were greeted by a sign saying, “Welcome Shop Hoppers.”

Shearer, who lives in Lynnwood, said the event is a great way for quilters to find new materials and see different shops.

“That’s what makes it exciting, when you see the different designs at each shop,” said Shearer, 59.

About 2,500 quilters participate in the Western Washington Quilt Shop Hop every year, said Stephanie Pratt, who is coordinating the event throughout the region.

Local businesses get a boost from extra visitors, Pratt said, while quilters get to visit new shops and see different fabric offerings. Each shop gives away special fabrics produced especially for the event, along with kits to create a unique quilt block.

“It’s just an event to build interest and get people out to see what new fabrics are out there,” Pratt said. “It’s kind of this huge hidden industry you don’t think about.”

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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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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."

Orting officials approved an inattentive driving ordinance last week that prohibits people from multitasking while driving or otherwise failing to attend to the road.

But don’t expect “inattentive driving” to show up on a ticket you receive while cruising through the East Pierce County community.

Police aren’t able to issue tickets under the new ordinance, Orting City Administrator Mark Bethune said.

Instead, Orting’s city prosecutor can amend a more serious driving offense, such as negligent driving, to inattentive driving during court negotiations.

That benefits citizens because this isn’t an offense that will go on their state driving record, Bethune said.

Should the city prosecutor review a driver’s record and conclude the person deserves a break, the prosecutor can file a charge of inattentive driving and help the person keep a clean record.

“The only purpose of all of this is it gives the prosecutor the tool to basically plea bargain negligent driving down to the lesser offense,” Orting City Councilman Joachim Pestinger said.

The Orting City Council approved the ordinance unanimously Wednesday. The law will go into effect May 25.

Unlike city officials thought initially – and was reflected in a May 11 article in The News Tribune – the ordinance won’t affect how much ticket revenue stays in the city.

Bethune said the city received false information that implementing a local inattentive driving ordinance would let the city keep all of the money from the resulting citations.

Typically, a portion of all local ticket revenues goes toward the state.

That won’t change with the inattentive driving ordinance, Bethune said Friday.

Why the confusion?

“We keep learning about this,” Bethune said simply.

Other cities in Pierce County also have ordinances against inattentive driving. They include Puyallup and Lakewood.

The fee attached to Orting’s law has yet to be determined, Bethune said. The city’s municipal judge will determine the penalty at a later date, he said.

Kim Whitlock started to lose weight as a personal mission. But her success ended up inspiring an entire town.

The 46-year-old Orting woman has lost 166 pounds since about 2005. When Whitlock’s neighbors heard that she was going on The Oprah Winfrey Show to talk about her experience, they not only decided to throw a party around the broadcast – they started a town-wide fitness campaign.

Whitlock and more than 30 other Orting residents gathered at DeSanto’s Restaurant and Pub Tuesday to watch her TV appearance and launch a campaign called “Get Fit Orting.”

City officials came to tell residents how the local Foothills Trail system could help them reach their fitness goals, while local gyms offered free workout opportunities for residents participating in the fitness challenge.

Meanwhile, friends and former congratulated Whitlock on her progress and showered her with goodies like a $115 gift certificate for a local hair salon and free Zumba classes through the city parks department.

Whitlock said it was Dr. Mehmet Oz on the Oprah Winfrey Show who inspired to her to start losing weight.

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City officials in Orting are considering an ordinance prohibiting inattentive driving, but they’re worried citizens will see it as a money-grubbing move.

The ordinance would be similar to municipal laws in Gig Harbor, Puyallup, Sumner and Lakewood that punish drivers who multitask or otherwise fail to pay full attention while driving.

But a separate benefit for the city is that all the revenue from inattentive driving citations would go toward the city, instead of partly going toward the state.

Orting officials expressed concern last week that citizens will think that money is the main drive behind the ordinance, rather than a desire to make roads safer.

“It’s a safety issue,” said Councilman Dick Ford. “The public needs to know it’s not intended as a revenue generator.”

Orting City Prosecutor Virginia Amato said that citizens stand to gain from the ordinance more than city officials.

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The Orting School District’s spring lahar drill, which typically takes place the first week of May, will be delayed this year.

Orting City Manager Mark Bethune said that although the drill was originally scheduled for Tuesday, it probably will take place a couple of weeks from now instead.

City and school district officials had difficulty coordinating this year's spring drill in part because they're still figuring out whether they have the ability to activate the city’s five lahar sirens themselves, Bethune said.

During many past drills, the state or the county has activated the sirens.

The city will run its own silent test of the warning system on Monday to see if it works, Bethune said. The customary live drill involving students evacuating the Orting Valley on foot will most likely occur sometime later this month. Another will occur as usual in fall.

Officials will give citizens advance notice of when the spring drill is to be rescheduled, Bethune said.

A long, ascending ramp that could be seen throughout the Orting Valley is among the latest proposals for a pedestrian bridge to take Orting school children out of the path of a lahar.

An engineering firm is completing initial design work for the proposed Bridge For Kids, which would guide students from four Orting schools across the Carbon River and to higher ground.

The Bridge For Kids group has been working for almost 10 years to secure funding and complete studies for the evacuation route, which they say is necessary to get students and other Orting residents off the valley floor in the event of a volcanic mudflow from Mt. Rainier. Bridge for Kids volunteers say too many cars would flood the roadways for citizens to safely evacuate in the 40 minutes it would take the debris to reach the city.

Volunteers working on the project presented a few rough design options to the Orting City Council Wednesday night.

“At this point, we’re going through the engineering process of just saying, ‘What are the options?’” said Chris Fowler, president of the Bridge for Kids group.

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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.