A Special Forces soldier and father of five from Fort Lewis was killed Tuesday in a vehicle accident in Mosul, Iraq, the U.S. military announced Thursday. Read more...

A Pierce County judge declined to release Semaj Booker from juvenile detention Thursday following a 90-minute hearing in which he extensively questioned the 11-year-old boy’s mother about her decision-making. Read more...

Great weather. Crushing gas prices. “Staycations.” All that, and the Thunderbirds. Circumstances appear to have aligned for what will likely be a huge turnout this weekend for the first air show at McChord Air Force Base in three years. Read more...

Sumner schools will start charging students to play sports to help defray rising costs for athletics staff and transportation. Read more...

Jim Walker will be back at the microphone Saturday, where he’s been every summer since 1975 when the first handcar races were run in Wilkeson and possibly the country. Read more...

V isitors to Point Defiance Zoo & Aquarium’s new Animal Avenue can now meet the exhibit’s newest residents: 10 meerkats (eight males and two females). The sociable African mammals moved into their “manor” this week, after spending several months in quarantine and awaiting proper permitting. The $4.2 million Animal Avenue area opened last month and features kid-friendly activities and creatures, from lemurs to insects. Note: The zoo will be closed today to prepare for the annual Zoobilee fundraiser. Read more...

WASHINGTON – U.S. Sen. Maria Cantwell is blocking three nominations to the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, saying that the federal agency has failed to regulate oil markets even as the price of gasoline hits new highs almost daily. Read more...

Michelle Obama urged a Democratic crowd in Seattle on Thursday to elect leaders who will fight “for the world the way that it should be,” and said that the choices for voters are clear. Read more...

Some aircraft worth seeing at this weekend's air show at McChord Air Force Base.Read more...

The Air Force Thunderbirds will fly a private show beginning around 2 p.m. today for about 1,200 special-needs children and their families.Read more...

For centuries, Indians across the Pacific Northwest navigated the area’s waterways on canoes. And while much has changed for the dozens of tribes in the region, a two-week event hopes to keep the tradition alive. Read more...

WASHINGTON – European leaders personally lobbied President Bush to favor their aerospace consortium over Boeing in the fierce competition for the $35 billion aerial refueling tanker contract. Read more...

The sale of high-alcohol wine and beer will be banned in much of Tacoma’s South End and East Side as of Oct. 1. Read more...

Public Lands Commissioner Doug Sutherland acknowledged violating his agency’s harassment policy in 2005 after an employee complained that Sutherland made inappropriate remarks and touched her back, state records show. Read more...

Passers-by might have mistaken Debby Spevak’s office for an ice cream truck Wednesday, were it not for the U.S. Postal Service’s red-and-blue logo. Read more...

A student from the University of Washington Tacoma is sitting on the UW Board of Regents for the first time in history. Read more...

Two Special Forces soldiers from Fort Lewis were decorated Wednesday for their actions during a four-hour engagement with insurgents last summer in the southern Iraq city of Ad Diwaniyah. Read more...

The Pierce County Medical Examiner’s Office has identified a man killed Sunday in a one-car crash near Orting as Matthew Fyalka, 28, of Bonney Lake. Read more...

The Legislative Ethics Board has dismissed a complaint against state Sen. Mike Carrell, saying that while true, the offense was “inadvertent and minor.” Read more...

Investigators were treating a fire at a Summit-area home Wednesday as a likely suicide attempt. Read more...

The Pierce County Medical Examiner’s Office on Wednesday identified a 6-year-old boy who died in an apparent drowning at Horseshoe Lake on Tuesday as Malachi Dewalt of Bremerton. Read more...

Opponents of minicasinos turned in petitions with more than 4,000 signatures Tuesday to the Lakewood City Clerk’s Office, and representatives from the city’s Korean community added another 1,200 signatures. Read more...

South Sound residents don’t have to visit Washington’s old-growth rain forests to get a glimpse of the state’s living history. It’s in the lustrous leaves and rugged branches of surviving Oregon white oaks, which once dominated South Sound prairies and still loom over some neighborhoods in Tacoma, Lakewood, Parkland and points south. Read more...

Pierce County wants him off the ballot. The City of Tacoma wants him to behave. Yet Robert “The Traveller” Hill seemed unfazed Tuesday, if not oblivious, to the fact that if he keeps doing what he’s been doing, he might go to jail. Read more...

Tacoma City Manager Eric Anderson won praise for his role in trying to keep Russell Investments from leaving town in his latest performance evaluation, and council members continue to give him high marks for his conservative management of the city budget. Read more...

Doug Scheppe’s 11-year-old daughter and 9-year-old son never want to go down to the Carbon River again. Read more...

A state appeals court has reinstated a wrongful death lawsuit filed against the City of Tacoma by a woman whose husband died after crashing his motorcycle into a car stopped by a traffic flagger working for Tacoma Power. Read more...

A 6-year-old boy died in an apparent drowning Tuesday afternoon at Horseshoe Lake County Park, the Kitsap County Sheriff’s Office said. Read more...

The Tacoma City Council approved a resolution Tuesday clearing the way for City Manager Eric Anderson to negotiate an agreement with the town of Ruston to provide its building and land-use planning services. Read more...

A 33-year-old man was being held Tuesday in the King County Jail in lieu of $50,000 bail for investigation of first-degree assault after a fellow golfer was struck on the head with a 6-iron during a fight on the Auburn Golf Course, court records say. Read more...