Infamous guardrail, no charges in trooper’s death among TNT’s top stories

From an infamous guardrail that keeps getting hit to a $125,000 settlement over tribal regalia, Pierce County news Tuesday spans road safety, tragedy, food inspections and civil rights. Here’s a rundown of the local stories drawing attention.

• A guardrail on state Route 302 between mileposts 13.9 and 14 has been repaired 21 times since 2020 at a cost of about $84,886, with Key Peninsula residents naming it, writing songs about it and debating it in Facebook groups, as detailed in a News Tribune feature on the “Wauna curves” barrier. The Washington State Department of Transportation says the section carries about 24,000 vehicles a day and attributes most collisions to speeding, distracted driving and impaired driving rather than road design, according to WSDOT spokesperson Cara Mitchell.
• The Pierce County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office declined to file charges against two drivers who struck Washington State Patrol trooper Tara-Marysa Guting, 29, minutes apart on a State Route 509 on-ramp on Dec. 19, 2025, as explained in a prosecutors’ memo obtained by The News Tribune. Prosecutors said the first driver was not intoxicated and was under the speed limit in rainy, low-visibility conditions, while the second driver told police he thought he had hit a pothole or garbage bag. The medical examiner could not determine which collision caused Guting’s fatal blunt-force injuries, per the prosecutors’ decision memo.
• Eight Pierce County food establishments received 35 or more red points during Tacoma-Pierce County Health Department inspections the week of June 22, with Poke Pop in Gig Harbor topping the list at 60 red points for improper cooling and adding a Bingsu menu item without plan review approval, in weekly inspection results published by The News Tribune. Other flagged establishments included Emerald City Dawgs, Pho Saigon House, The Float/Flotation Device, Domo Sushi, Taqueria Veronica’s and Redd Dog Brewing, with violations ranging from improper hot holding of hot dogs at 115-122 degrees to a lack of a certified food protection manager, as documented in the health department reports.
• Tacoma Public Schools agreed to pay $125,000 to settle a lawsuit brought by Gracie Belle Ray, a member of the Central Council of the Tlingit and Haida Tribes of Alaska, who was barred from wearing a sacred button blanket to receive her diploma at Lincoln High School in 2024, according to the May 5 settlement agreement. The district denied liability and blamed “misunderstandings and miscommunications,” while state law since 2020 has prohibited schools from barring students of federally recognized tribes from wearing Native American cultural regalia at graduation, as reported in court records reviewed by The News Tribune.

The summary points above were compiled with the help of AI tools and edited by journalists. The source reporting referenced above was written and edited entirely by journalists.