Police ask for help in identifying the Burlington mall shooter

Posted on September 24, 2016 by brucesmith49

Update 10 pm, 9. 24. 16

A suspect has been taken into custody for the mall shooting in Burlington. Local media are reporting that the individual is Arcan Cetin, 20-year-old resident of Oak Harbor. No other details were immediately available.

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By Bruce A. Smith

Law Enforcement is asking for help in finding the Burlington mall shooter.

The young man who shot and killed five people on Friday night, September 23 is still at large, and the police are asking all media to distribute his picture so that the public might be able to provide clues to his identity or whereabouts. Continue reading →

Posted in Cops and courts, Events | Leave a comment

GKCC WELCOMES NEW BUSINESS IN GRAHAM

Posted on September 16, 2016 by brucesmith49

By Paula Morris

The Graham-Kapowsin Community Council is a non-profit, community service organization, and as such does not usually endorse individual businesses.

But there’s always an exception.

Though the GKCC wishes success to all the small businesses in the Graham area, the new Graham Auto Repair at 22217 Meridian Ave E holds a special place.

Co-owners Troy and Kori Vaninetti have provided invaluable help and support to the GKCC over the years, and are considered friends.

The business broke ground in February, with the official Grand Opening held August 1st. Continue reading →

Posted in Business, Graham News, Newbie in Graham, Paula Morris | 2 Comments

Eatonville man killed in Graham traffic accident

Posted on September 11, 2016 by brucesmith49

By Bruce A. Smith

An Eatonville man was killed in a traffic accident at the intersection of Mountain Hwy (SR7) and 304th Street in Graham early Sunday morning, the Washington State Patrol (WSP) announced today. Continue reading →

Posted in Cops and courts, Eatonville News, Graham News | Leave a comment

Life Lessons Learned in a Temp Agency

Posted on August 26, 2016 by brucesmith49

By Gayle Tice

If it should be mandatory to work retail to find out how to be civil with every variation of irritated humanity, it should also be mandatory to work as a parking attendant for a large event taking over a major commercial zone. I found myself working as a parking attendant for an art fair in Bellevue this past July 28 to 31, on assignment from a Staffing agency. Continue reading →

Posted in Business, Culture, Gayle Tice | 1 Comment

Graham Self-Reliant group to deepen its discussion on earthquake preparedness

Posted on August 24, 2016 by brucesmith49

By Bruce A. Smith

The Graham Self-Reliant Community will be taking a deeper look at regional and local earthquake preparation at its monthly meeting on September 7, 2016.

In particular, area representatives will be discussing exactly what occurred during the Cascadian Rising Exercise in June, how local fire departments and county agencies participated, and what was learned.

The Cascadia Rising Exercise was the federal-state-local training project to prepare the Puget Sound Region to survive a 9.0 earthquake. Continue reading →

Posted in Environment, Graham News, Nature, Science and Technology | 2 Comments

Puyallup Library to host an evening of DB Cooper discussion

Posted on August 2, 2016 by brucesmith49

by Bruce A. Smith

If you crave more DB Cooper – even after the History Channel broadcasted their four-hour documentary and the FBI closed the case last month – you can partake in another Cooper fete at the Puyallup Library next week.

I am the author of DB Cooper and the FBI –  A Case Study of America’s Only Unsolved Skyjacking, and on Tuesday, August 9, 2016, I will be speaking on DB Cooper as part of their local author series. The conversation will begin at 6:30 pm, and is free.

To begin, I will give a brief overview of the case for those unfamiliar with this internationally gripping whodunit that is also very local – DB Cooper flew right over our homes on his getaway flight on November 24, 1971.

But I’ll focus more sharply on the topics the History Channel skimmed over and the FBI has avoided steadfastly over the past four decades – the evidence. Continue reading →

Posted in DB Cooper, Events, Politics, Puyallup | 24 Comments

Don’t Feed the Ghosts

Posted on July 24, 2016 by brucesmith49

Editor’s Note:

The following article is controversial, disturbing, and thought-provoking, for it explores deeper levels of consciousness. Specifically, it examines how our thoughts interact with a greater reality, and asks if our negative thoughts attract negative beings, such as disturbed ghosts. Would these unseen entities require our negatives energies to feed their energetic bodies? If so, they may be motivated to keep us having more negative thoughts so that their appetites continue to be satiated.

This article begs further: are our habits, addictions, and unconscious behaviors more than just the sum of our neural nets of memory triggering feel-good receptors? Also, from the religious perspective, exactly what is a “guardian angel?” Or conversely, when “the devil made me do it,” how does that work? Continue reading →

Posted in Health, Science and Technology, Spirituality, The New Physics | 6 Comments

DB Cooper case closed – but not abandoned

Posted on July 12, 2016 by brucesmith49

by Bruce A. Smith

DB Cooper World is in a tizzy this week, as the FBI announced late Monday that they have “administratively closed” their investigation. After 45 years of trying to solve America’s only unsolved skyjacking they are giving up, although if someone finds a twenty-dollar bill from the ransom or Cooper’s parachute the FBI wants to know about it.

But the FBI’s actions come at a very curious time – this week the History Channel released an epic four-hour documentary series on Norjak, as the DB Cooper case is known. This documentary is also veiled in mystery, as it is chock-full of testimony from retired FBI agents who formed what they call a “Cold Case Team.”

Continue reading →

Posted in DB Cooper, Politics | 217 Comments

Eatonville Prepares for 4th of July Celebrations

Posted on June 30, 2016 by brucesmith49

 

By Alana Smith

There’s something enchanting about enjoying Independence Day the same way people have for decades, even if past generations weren’t able to Facebook their celebration “selfies.” It’s hard to beat spreading out a blanket and taking in some America the beautiful. 

Here in Eatonville, we’ll be celebrating our nation’s independence with dazzling fireworks displays. Though it might seem like a modern development, the origin of fireworks on the 4th of July dates back to 1777, when Philadelphia commemorated the one-year anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence with a parade, live music, and, you guessed it, fireworks. More than 200 years later, the Independence Day tradition is alive and well, with pyrotechnic shows that get bigger and better every year thanks to awe-inspiring technological advances. Continue reading →

Posted in Eatonville News, Entertainment, Events, Family | 4 Comments

Sex abuse, the Spotlight movie, and my Catholic high school

Posted on June 25, 2016 by brucesmith49

by Bruce A. Smith

I just saw the movie “Spotlight” on Netflix, and it brings related issues to the surface, such as the Mauck murders in Graham in 2007 and on-going sexual abuse by Catholic clergy.

To begin, “Spotlight” is a great film, and it won the Academy Award for Best Picture last year, 2015. It is the story of how the Boston Globe broke the story on the rampant sexual abuse by clergy in Boston, and how insidiously the Catholic Church covered up the raping by compromising law enforcement agencies, and manipulating the Massachusetts legislature and judiciary. But more importantly, the culture of unquestioning acceptance fostered by the Church was even more widespread and compelled journalists, attorneys, families, and victims to remain silent.

Father John Geoghan (pronounced “Gaygan”) was the Boston Archdiocese pedophile who got the Spotlight story going. He was later arrested, convicted, and incarcerated in the Souza-Baranowski Correctional Center in Worcester County, Massachusetts, according to published accounts.

Geoghan was murdered in 2003 while in prison, and a Massachusetts criminal named Daniel T. Tavares – but soon to become a Graham, Washington resident – was rumored to be implicated in the murder by allegedly allowing access to Geoghan by leaving a door open. Tavares was released for “Good Behavior” in June 2007 despite his 120 Department of Corrections (DOC) citations for violence while in custody, along with two outstanding warrants for his arrest stemming from assaults on prison guards. After his release, Tavares took a flight to Sea-Tac, married a Graham woman, and then six months later killed his Graham neighbors, Brian and Beverly Mauck. Continue reading →

Posted in Back East, Cops and courts, Family, Graham News, Politics | 2 Comments