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TACOMA, Wash. -- Among the jittery seniors waiting to walk out at Tacoma's Lincoln high school's graduation, is a 19 year old who is small in stature but big in achievement. Duc Nguyen moved to the U.S. with his family from Vietnam 4 years ago and didn't speak a word of English. He remembers kids making fun of him and thinking he'd never make it. But tonight he graduates with a 3.97 GPA and as class valedictorian. He insists his gift isn't intellect. He says he's a slow learner. But he makes up for it by working hard. His parents...

A 16-year-old boy and a 14-year-old believed to be his brother were arrested on first-degree murder charges Friday after their mother told police she found her sons standing over a young man's body in their Tacoma house when she came home. The relationship, if any, between the unidentified victim and the teenage boys was not immediately disclosed. Tacoma police spokesman Mark Fulghum did not say how the man died, except to say there were "signs of trauma to the body."   According to Fulghum, the boys' mother drove to a police substation and told police she arrived home at 847 E....

Authorities say a Washington mother repeatedly put bleach into her toddler daughter's eyes, causing permanent vision loss in child's right eye, Q13 Fox reports. 29-year-old Jennifer Mothershead pled not guilty to charges of first-degree child assault Monday. Authorities say Mothershead was given antibiotics and eye drops in March 2011 for her toddler daughter after the child came to a local hospital with an eye issue. Mothershead told doctors her daughter had scratched her eye while playing in a barn, according to Q13 Fox. Authorities claim Mothershead's then-14-month-old daughter was airlifted to the hospital with a serious head injury in May...

GIG HARBOR — Tacoma Narrows Bridge tolls were always going to increase. Bond payments were set up that way. The questions are when and how much. Preliminary answers from a workshop Wednesday night are July 1 and a lot. Department of Transportation experts kicked off the toll-raising process by updating the bridge's citizen advisory committee with the latest traffic and revenue numbers. They also provided four toll scenarios. In them, the electronic rate would jump from $2.75 to $4.25 or $4.50, the manual rate from $4 to $5.50 or $6, and the photo tolling rate from $5.50 to $7 or...

By all accounts, Jaime Villicana-Campos is a wonderful husband and a beloved father to his children. He held two physically demanding jobs and worked seven days a week to support his large family. He somehow still made time to spend with his little girls, especially 6-year-old Angelica who suffers from epilepsy. She is particularly close to her doting father and is known in the family as “Daddy’s girl.” But because of the nation’s sometimes vexing immigration laws, Villicana-Campos is sitting in a Tacoma federal detention facility. He was nabbed by immigration officials in June, a month before his fifth daughter...

Tacoma Teachers Defy Court Order, Vote To Continue Strike By Patrick Oppmann, CNN September 15, 2011 A judge ruled Wednesday afternoon that teachers must halt their strike Since Monday, some 28,000 kids have been forced to stay home from school. Teachers in Tacoma, Washington, have voted to continue their strike, in defiance of a a court order to stop. Rich Wood, the spokesman for the Tacoma teachers union, said teachers voted Thursday to continue their strike despite a judge's Wednesday order. At a union meeting Thursday afternoon, 1,478 teachers voted to keep striking, Wood said, adding that 107 voted "no"...

SNIPPET: "KEY PENINSULA, Wash. -- A man who was fatally shot by Tacoma police during a traffic stop early Wednesday morning pointed a gun loaded with armor-piercing bullets at the officer who stopped him and was carrying a large amount of ammunition in his truck, the Tacoma Police Department said. Wednesday afternoon, the Medical Examiner's Office identified the man as Brooks Papineau of Gig Harbor." SNIPPET: "When police searched Papineau's truck, they found a large amount of ammunition and additional ammunition magazines.They also said they found a Koran and several books on converting to Islam. Police said Papineau went home...

<p>OLYMPIA, Wash. (AP) — Authorities say The Olympian and one of the newspaper’s photographers were targets of vandalism that included anarchist graffiti and an acidic substance.</p> <p>Police said Friday graffiti was painted at the Tumwater, Wash., home of photographer Tony Overman. The words “Overman snitch” were painted on a newspaper delivery truck and an apparently acidic substance was thrown on the exterior of The Olympian’s building.</p>

Congressman Norm Dicks: 17-term incumbent Democrat in Washington. Chairman of the House Interior and Environment Appropriations Subcommittee. Represents a D+5 district that includes parts of Tacoma and Bremerton and Port Angeles. Barack Obama carried 57 percent of the vote; Dicks usually wins with 60some percent of the vote and hit above 70 percent a few times. Doug Cloud is deputy prosecutor of Kitsap County. As of October 13, Dicks had more than $511,000 cash on hand. Cloud has $2,909 cash on hand. And yet, here is this poll, suggesting the race stands at Cloud 48 percent, Dicks 44 percent.

The Federal Government announced charges today against a ring of foreign corporations and executives who conspired to bring antibiotic-laden Chinese honey illegally into the US, in an attempt to avoid paying millions in fees. A federal grand jury in Chicago indicted top executives of German food conglomerate Alfred L Wolff GmbH, and several of its affiliated companies for allegedly importing more than $US40 million in Chinese honey, but saying it originated elsewhere in order to avoid paying duties of nearly $US80 million that were levied on Chinese honey.

Until a few years ago, Jesse Miller’s past kept her from voting, let alone running for office. But the hip-hop producer from Tacoma is now running for the Legislature, and she’s not hiding the drug conviction that dogged her for years after she had served her time. “I think I’m an example of what a felon is. It’s a person who made a mistake, and has done the best they can with that stigma, and continued to be a law-abiding and respectable citizen,” Miller said. Felons running for office could become more common under a state law Miller championed that...

A King County jury unanimously agreed Wednesday that a Seattle police officer was facing "an imminent threat of death" or serious injury when he shot and killed Maurice Clemmons, a man wanted for the slayings of four Lakewood police officers. Clemmons approached Officer Ben Kelly about 2:40 a.m. Dec. 1 in the 4400 block of South Kenyon Street while the officer was checking out a stolen car. Kelly testified that he recognized Clemmons, who was the subject of two-day manhunt, by the large mole on his left cheek.

TACOMA -- A female teacher was shot and killed at Birney Elementary school Friday morning. The shooting happened outside the schoole at 1202 S. 76th St. just before 8 a.m., which was before students arrived for the day. Mark Fulghum with Tacoma police says the shooter and the victim knew each other, and the shooting was domestic-violence related. The Tacoma School District would only say the teacher was a special-education teacher. After the shooting, the gunman fled, but Pierce County Sheriff's deputies tracked him down at 166th and Canyon Road East. Fulghum says shots were fired and the suspect was...

(edit)Closed after a 2005 state law banned public indoor smoking, the cigar lounge at Tacoma’s upscale El Gaucho steakhouse has reopened.Smoking a Dominica-wrapped Romeo y Julieta Habana Reserve inside the newly branded “VIP Lounge” on Monday, El Gaucho owner Paul Mackay said that he and a trio of Cohiba-loving cohorts have met state regulations and now welcome certain cigar smokers to puff away four nights a week.The lounge has been open for nearly two weeks without complaint to the Tacoma-Pierce County Health Department.For Mackay, the decision to refurbish and open the room was as much a matter of principle as...

Thousands participated Tuesday in a procession to the memorial for four murdered Washington state police officers, which about 20,000 mourners were expected to attend. Pierce County officials said 2,000 police and fire vehicles from more than 150 agencies joined the procession to the Tacoma Dome service for the victims of a coffee shop shooting. Vehicles left McChord Air Force Base at 10 a.m. Tuesday on a route past the Lakewood Police Department to be joined by Lakewood police and families of the murdered Lakewood officers. Maurice Clemmons — who gunned down Sgt. Mark Renninger, 39, Ronald Owens, 37, Tina Griswold,...

Four Police Officers Fatally Shot Near Seattle Authorities call the attack an ambush on the officers, who were meeting in a coffee shop before their shift. At least one returned fire and may have injured the lone gunman. No one else was hurt. [Pics in URL] The four slain officers, from left: Greg Richards, Tina Griswold, Ronald Owens and Mark Renninger. (From the Associated Press / November 29, 2009) By Kim Murphy November 30, 2009 Four Seattle-area police officers were shot to death Sunday morning in a coffee shop in what officials called a brazen ambush by a lone gunman....

Maurice Clemmons, the 37-year-old Tacoma man being sought for questioning in the killing of four Lakewood police officers this morning, has a long criminal record punctuated by violence, erratic behavior and concerns about his mental health. Nine years ago, then-Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee granted clemency to Clemmons, commuting his lengthy prison sentence over the protestations of prosecutors. "This is the day I've been dreading for a long time," Larry Jegley, prosecuting attorney for Arkansas' Pulaski County said Sunday night when informed that Clemmons was being sought in connection to the killings. Clemmons' criminal history includes at least five felony convictions...

A 37-year-old Tacoma man, Maurice Clemmons, is being sought for questioning in the execution-style shooting of four Lakewood police officers this morning, according to two law-enforcement sources. Clemmons, who was recently released from jail, has an extensive criminal record in Pierce County and Arkansas, court records show. Clemmons is wanted in Arkansas and faces eight criminal charges in Washington state.

comments Four Lakewood Police Officers murdered on Sunday may have been the target of gangs on the east side of Tacoma. Previous attacks on officers have been reported. On Sunday, Nov. 29, four Lakewood officers were gunned down in a coffee shop ambush before the start of their shift in Parkland. There are no suspects in custody. The police have recently started a crack down on Mexican gangs in the state. In July 2009, after the gang crackdown was announced. On July 30, 2009 a Lakewood police officer's personal car was spray painted with gang tags and set on fire,...

PARKLAND, Wash. - Four Lakewood Police officers were shot and killed Sunday morning in what authorities called a targeted ambush at a coffee shop. Pierce County Sheriff's spokesman Ed Troyer says the officers - four male and one female - were in full uniform and wearing bulletproof vests, sitting in Forza coffee shop near 116th Street and Steele Street on the east side of the Air Force base at about 8:30 a.m. Troyer says the officers were preparing for their shift when a suspect or suspects "walked in with a handgun, opened fire multiple times and then fled the scene,"...