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May 2008
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March 2008I was an embedded reporter in Iraq during April and May of 2003. While I was assigned to the U.S. Army's 555th Combat Engineer Group, I spent most of my time with one of its subordinate units, the 14th Combat engineers. It's hard to believe that five years have gone by. I was back out at Ft. Lewis today, and the 14th engineers are going back to Iraq, for their third tour. But because of the way the military moves people around, and so... Just imagine if kids as young as six-years-old were allowed to beat up on each other, and their parents encouraged it. The past few weeks have brought a deluge of ugly news reports about Bethel High School in Spanaway. Thirty-five years ago, King County passed the "One Percent for Art" Ordinance which says one percent of the budget for many projects must go to public art. The FBI in Seattle is looking for local experts to step forward to help analyze a parachute unearthed in a field. There's a new website that has got Marysville-Pilchuck High School talking, and it raises plenty of questions about right and wrong, libel, and how far a school district should go to crack down on such a thing. The gossip website allows students to post things anonymously about others students, and rate their personality, looks, and how they are "in bed". The district says the comments, concerning Marysville-Pilchuck students, ... You go to work, do your job, get paid, go home. For most of us, it's that simple. But in reading daily police reports, I'm struck at the risk of violence and other dangers officers face just going to work everyday. Two recent incident reports document one officer being punched in the face and another being openly threatened with death. ...By now, most of you have heard the latest backlash from the battle for the Democratic presidential nomination. Former vice-presidential candidate Geraldine Ferraro quit her post with the Hillary Clinton campaign on Wednesday after she gave a speech in which she said the following in regards to Barack Obama: Olympic lugers could be flirting with 100 miles per hour speeds on the new track constructed for 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, B.C. may be the fastest ever built, according to a new report on USALuge.org. What may have been a conversational gaffe triggered a four-month odyssey for 70-year-old George Stray. There are some stories we cover that simply hold no joy for the reporter assigned to the task. The story of the 10 year old Everett boy who was buried head down in a sandbox is definitely one of those. Not only did a child who's been repeatedly described as bright and imaginative end up in critical condition after being buried by his playmates (many of them young relatives of his) but it's hard to pin down the exact lesson learned. ...It's a website that allows citizens to rate specific police officers on things like "authority" and "fairness." It also lets them post a comment about the officer. We found a range of postings from "Great officer," to "He uses brute force on people & lies & manipulates paperwork." There were other postings that clearly had nothing to do with job performance, i.e. "This officer is so hot." "Good to know, good to know." Some office... We now know it as the "red phone" ad -- Hillary Clinton's commercial aired in Texas that suggests Barack Obama is too inexperienced to handle a national crisis. At least one Oklahoma City TV news Web site isn't waiting for the NBA or a judge to decide if the Sonics can move there. It's already claiming the green and gold as one of its local teams. At the dinner table last night, my 7 year old daughter asked a question that was a mouthful. "Dad, are you a vegtrinarian?" I chuckled and struggled to keep from choking on the chicken my wife had prepared us for our evening meal. Vegtrinarian? Was this some radical environmental movement aimed at providing botanical care to crop fields that had been damaged by the onslaught of urban sprawl? Or simply a hybrid of the old fashioned v... The answer to that question, according the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), is when they become barren of surface sea life. And the agency warns those areas are getting larger. For those of you like me who regularly skip the Page 2 section on ESPN.com, check it out.. Bill Simmons has been devoting a lot of space the past week to the Sonics dilemma and he clearly is not happy about the potential move. ...Whole Foods is known for its more upscale merchandise and generally higher prices, thus the nickname: Whole Paycheck. Several shoppers this weekend apparently brought just half a paycheck but still wanted to take home everything on their wish list. ...If the fires at the "Street of Dreams" were indeed set by the Earth Liberation Front, what do you think? Is ELF helping or hurting their cause? How do you feel about their assertion that "Built Green" standards used for the project are not green? ... |