Free Republic

FEDERAL WAY, Wash. -- An electronic sign out front welcomes visitors to Sunnycrest Elementary School in the Federal Way School District; what it doesn't mention is that next week is "Teacher Appreciation Week" - and that this year's effort's aren't exactly getting an A grade from parents in the neighborhood. "Wow. You're kidding, right?" asked Karissa Edwards, as she strolled through the neighborhood with her daughter Tuesday. "That's not appropriate for school, whether it be elementary or high school - any of it." Edwards was looking at an email sent from the school's PTA to local parents outlining next week's...

FEDERAL WAY, Wash. — Police are checking surveillance video as they try to identify people who beat a man at the Federal Way Transit Center. The 32-year-old Kent man was waiting for a bus Tuesday night when he asked another man to quiet down. The Kent man was knocked down and beaten. He was treated for a broken jaw and other facial bones at Harborview Medical Center in Seattle.

A group of young men severely beat a Kent man late Tuesday at the Federal Way Transit Center after he told one of them to lower his voice, police said Wednesday. The Kent man, 32, was waiting for a bus about 11 p.m. when he asked a loud youth to quiet down, police said. In response, several males in their teens or early 20s walked up to the man and one hit him in the face. The two began to fight and others in the group joined in. After the Kent man was knocked to the ground, the attackers ran...

This week in Federal Way schools, it got a lot more inconvenient to show one of the top-grossing documentaries in U.S. history, the global-warming alert "An Inconvenient Truth." After a parent who supports the teaching of creationism and opposes sex education complained about the film, the Federal Way School Board on Tuesday placed what it labeled a moratorium on showing the film. The movie consists largely of a computer presentation by former Vice President Al Gore recounting scientists' findings.

A rape suspect who was shot by Federal Way police last week while fleeing an apartment where he allegedly assaulted two teenage sisters has been released from Seattle's Harborview Medical Center and booked into jail. Though Anthony Casper Dias, 26, has been charged in King County with two counts of first-degree rape and three other felonies, he was booked into the Pierce County Jail on Saturday afternoon, said Maj. William Hayes, a spokesman for the King County Department of Adult and Juvenile Detention. The decision was made because at least one of Dias' alleged victims is related to a King...

Court battle resumes between tribes, scientists over ancient remainsWILLIAM MCCALL; The Associated Press PORTLAND - The definition of "Native American" is at stake in deciding whether the 9,300-year-old skeleton known as Kennewick Man belongs to scientists or Indian tribes, lawyers for both sides told a federal appeals court Wednesday. The Interior Department has fought with scientists since the bones were discovered in 1996 along the banks of the Columbia River near Kennewick. A group of eight anthropologists who want to do research on the skeleton went to court to seek permission. But then-Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt ruled three years ago...