Councilman Reagan Dunn urges protections for crime victims
February 23, 2011
King County Councilman Reagan Dunn has introduced a measure to urge state legislators to shield the victims of sex crimes in the courtroom.
The measure Dunn introduced aims to generate King County Council support for a bill in the Legislature. The bill is meant to protect sex crime victims from defendants representing themselves in court, or pro se defendants.
“It is an extremely scary prospect for victims to tell their story in court,” Dunn said in a statement released Jan. 27. “Imagine how much more difficult it is to be questioned by an attacker directly. To get victims to come forward, the criminal justice system must offer them some protection, while balancing the rights of the accused.”
House Bill 1001 declares the state has a compelling interest in the physical and psychological well-being of sex-offense victims, especially related to questioning from pro se defendants.
The legislation calls on the state Supreme Court to adopt rules by July 31 to reduce the risk of trauma to victim-witnesses.
The rules aim to place restrictions on defendants who act as their own attorney questioning victims. The arrangement could allow the court to ask questions prepared by the defendant or to allow questioning via videoconference.
Police Blotter
February 23, 2011
Snoqualmie police
Big night for car prowls
At 5:15 a.m. Feb. 11, police arrived at the 36000 block of Southeast Gravenstein Court. A woman told police her 2007 Toyota van had been broken into. Her purse was missing, the contents of the glove box were all over the floor and papers lay strewn.
This was the first of 14 vehicle prowls in the area. A police dog followed a scent inside the vehicle to a park, where the woman’s cellphone charger was found. A plastic bag with modeling clay was later found. Police used the bag to lift prints.
Smoker needed change
At 6:56 a.m. Feb. 11, police responded to a call in the 36700 block of Southeast Gravenstein Court regarding a vehicle prowl. A man had parked his car on the driveway the night before and he noticed on his way to work that the ashtray was missing along with $3 worth of change.
New county regulations limit electronic cigarettes
February 23, 2011
The King County Board of Health recently passed regulations to protect King County youth from electronic smoking devices and unregulated nicotine delivery devices.
The board voted unanimously to:
- restrict the sales of e-cigarettes or any other unapproved nicotine delivery devices only to people 18 and older;
- prohibit free or highly discounted electronic smoking devices or unapproved nicotine delivery products;
- prohibit the use of e-cigarette devices in places where smoking is prohibited by law.
Electronic smoking devices, commonly known as “e-cigarettes,” are battery-operated devices designed to look like and to be used in the same manner as conventional cigarettes.
E-cigarettes use cartridges to deliver vaporized nicotine, the same drug that’s in tobacco.
The FDA is investigating e-cigarettes, but the products are currently unregulated at the federal level.
E-cigarettes have a high appeal to youth. They are sold in convenience stores and mall kiosks and come in candy flavors, including chocolate, vanilla and mint.
Part-time rancher raises a herd of cattle in Snoqualmie Valley
February 23, 2011
By day Steve Rockow owns a construction business. But what he really loves is his cattle.
The Snoqualmie resident is a part-time rancher; he owns 55 cattle that he keeps in Snoqualmie Valley.
“It’s my tranquility,” Rockow said, after heaving bails of hay over a wire fence and into a pasture where he keeps several cows.
The thick-haired cattle contentedly chewed the hay.
Steve Rockow heaves a bale of hay into the pasture where he keeps some of his 55 cattle outside North Bend. Rockow, who owns a construction company, took up ranching as a hobby 17 years ago. By Dan Catchpole
He got into ranching by accident. Born in upstate New York, he had never been around cows very much. But friends invited him and his wife down to Toppenish, where a cattle auction was taking place.
Rockow quickly fell in love with the ranching lifestyle. “I said I gotta try this,” he recalled.
Not long after, he went to an auction and came back with four calves.
Relay For Life seeks out youth in 10th anniversary
February 23, 2011
Lisa Newell looked at the candy and smiled.
“I have kids,” she said. “I know how it is.”
She held a bowl full of lollipops, which on Feb. 17 weren’t as much a snack as they were bait.
Newell and American Cancer Society staffer Emily Senff showed up at Mount Si High School to get students hooked on Relay For Life, the cancer awareness fundraiser that turns 10 this year.
It worked.
Emily Senff, right, community relationship manager for the American Cancer Society’s Great West Division, speaks to students at Mount Si High, enticing them to participate in this summer’s Relay For Life. By Sebastian Moraga
At lunch, students swung by their table and asked for a lollipop.
That was all the opening Newell and Senff needed.
By the end of lunch hour almost 10 students had signed up for this year’s relay, July 9 at Centennial Fields from 2 p.m. until 8 a.m. the next day.
Some signed up because it meant something to do. Some signed because it meant something.
AmeriCorps volunteers show their commitment in green and yellow
February 23, 2011
Young adults from across the country help out with weeding part of the Greenway in North Bend
It’s another mild mid-winter day in western Washington. Not so cold, not too wet, not so windy.
To which Texan Jenna Lamoreaux and Iowan Kristina Sturm say: Not so fast.
“I’m freezing and you’re probably not cold at all,” Lamoreaux said. Sturm confessed to wearing six layers of clothing.
Tor Bell, with the Mountains To Sound Greenway watches as AmeriCorps volunteers clean up weeds and ivy from trees in North Bend. By Sebastian Moraga
Lamoreaux, Sturm and 22 other young women and men spent the better part of last week in North Bend removing weeds and ivy from the trees just off Bendigo Boulevard, as part of their AmeriCorps’ National Civilian Community Corps commitment.
Dressed in rain gear, people ages 18-24 from places like Texas, New Hampshire, New York, North Carolina, Illinois, California and Iowa knelt in the mud for hours, picking ivy off trees so it doesn’t harm the trees or tempt birds.
Their backs ached and their hands were probably pink under their thick gloves.
“I have only one pair of gloves on but I have three other pairs in my pockets,” Sturm said.
Weather woes aside, this group proved hardy and committed, working in places like Preston and Tiger Mountain before moving on to their next project: California’s Catalina Island.
Willard Dean Stevens
February 23, 2011
Willard Dean Stevens, of Snoqualmie, died Feb. 17, 2011. He was 78.
Willard was born on Aug. 24, 1932, in Oso, Wash., the only child of Albert L. and Gladys F. (Main) Stevens. The family moved to Snoqualmie in 1941, where he completed his education, graduating from Mount Si High School in 1950. Following graduation, he worked for the Milwaukee Railroad as a telegraph operator and in 1951 he worked for the Weyerhaeuser Company as a logger.
Willard Dean Stevens
Willard entered the United States Air Force in 1952 as a flight engineer aboard a C-119.
He met Neva June Howell on a blind date and they were married on Dec. 26, 1952, in Snoqualmie. They lived in Memphis, Tenn., and Sulfur, Okla., where his squadron was stationed.
Willard was discharged in 1956 and they returned to Snoqualmie, where he returned to his job.
He retired in 1994 after 43 years of operating heavy equipment, and building and maintaining logging roads.
Joseph LaVelle German
February 23, 2011
Joseph LaVelle German, of Carnation, died Feb. 1, 2011. He was 85.
No service will be held.
Joseph LaVelle German
German was born in Bellingham on Jan. 25, 1926, to William and Ruth German. He grew up in Bellingham, graduating from Bellingham High School in 1943, and he joined the U.S. Navy the following January. He served in the Pacific Theater during World War II and was a radioman aboard the AGC (Auxiliary General Command) ship Panamint during the invasion and occupation of Okinawa and Ie Shima.
After his discharge from the Navy, he attended Western Washington University and Washington State University, graduating in 1952 with a Bachelor of Science in pharmacy.
He worked as a pharmacist in Concrete from 1953-1956. He purchased Conover’s Pharmacy in Carnation on July 1, 1956, and renamed it Carnation Drug Co. He operated the drug store until his retirement in 1991.
Snoqualmie looking for creative children to help with Arbor Day celebration
February 23, 2011
Snoqualmie is looking for some help from creative children with its Arbor Day celebration.
The city is looking for children in fourth and fifth grades to create posters with the theme “Trees are terrific in Snoqualmie.”
Details about the poster contest, such as poster size, materials and submission requirements, are posted on Snoqualmie’s website, www.cityofsnoqualmie.org, in the Special Events section. The deadline is March 15.
The Arbor Day celebration will start at 10 a.m. April 9 at the gazebo in Railroad Park in Snoqualmie.
Children will get a seedling to take home.
Following a short ceremony, there will be a tree planting event at Three Forks Park, 39912 S.E. Park St., across from Centennial Fields. The tree planting will begin at approximately 10:30 a.m.
Grade-schooler helps his father’s homeland
February 23, 2011
Charlie Lawrence and the country he so loves: Australia. The son of an Australian immigrant, Lawrence is raising money to help the victims of a flood in Queensland, on the northeast edge of that nation. By Sebastian Moraga
It’s hard to tell what pleases Guy Lawrence more. What his son is doing or how he is doing it.
Lawrence, head of marketing at the Summit At Snoqualmie, struggles to conceal his pride in his 10-year-old son’s campaign to help Guy’s native land of Australia.
Queensland, a state on that nation’s northeast edge, suffered terrible floods recently, and Charlie is using a leadership club project to raise money.
