Focus
Monday, December 7 - Pearl Harbor Day I spend most of the day with First Sergeant Henry Ortega of Headquarters and Headquarters Company (HHC), 402nd Brigade Support Battalion (BSB), 5th Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division. A quiet but strong and very intelligent leader, Ortega outlined for me what the BSB's mission is as
Archives
Your whole life you’ve been forced to make tough decisions: Dasani or Arrowhead? Paper or plastic? Duh, neither. Consider yourself liberated. Bottled water is the single largest growth area among all beverages, including alcohol, juices and soft drinks. According to the Beverage Marketing Corporation, per capita consumption has more than
Focus
Updated Christmas Eve To Mark & Debbi Mullenioux: Happy Anniversary and Happy Holidays. Spc. Kasey Mullenioux To Phil & Rosi Holden: Merry Christmas. I love you very much. How's my swoop? Pfc. Jayson Holden To Sue Hall & Nia Offerman: Merry Christmas and Happy New Year. I love you. SFC Brandy Offerman To Family
Focus
In the social networking age of blogs, Facebook and Twitter, Chief Master Sgt. Greg Warren, the 62nd Airlift Wing's new command chief, is straight old school. "I don't enjoy computers," said the 45-year-old Warren. "I know just enough (about computers) to be dangerous. I'm kind of old school - typewriters and
Focus
Ed Shadle never sleeps too soundly. Ideas are always popping into his head, rousing him from bed at all hours of the night and forcing him to jot them down and hammer out a plan for the day. "My mind is always running," said Shadle, who lives in Spanaway. "I'm always thinking
Focus
A group of local retired Rangers is leading the way in an effort to build a new memorial for 2nd Battalion, 75th Ranger Regiment (2/75) Soldiers. The Pointe du Hoc Foundation (PDHF), named after the pivotal D-Day Ranger mission in Normandy in 1944, began work just five months ago. Though its
Health
Babies are on the brain and in utero here at the Hopkins house. While we had been trying for Baby #2 for months now, I felt the same shock and disbelief as I did the first go-round when I found out I was pregnant. Ecstatic, I called my husband, broke the
Health
Jackson Dennis picked up a toy hammer and began to bang away at plastic play pegs. "He was born at 28 weeks and weighed only one-and-a-half pounds a birth," his grandfather Dan Dennis said. "He spent the next 93 days in intensive care at Mary Bridge." Today, the little guy attends A
Focus
Listening to historical illustrator Alan Archambault talk about a period of history is akin to reliving the event. "I picked up on the vibes of history when I was a boy," Archambault said as we recently sat and talked in one of the four remaining quarters of Fort Steilacoom. Born in Warwick,
Music
Tonight, Tacoma’s legendary Girl Trouble will celebrate Christmas a little early in the City of Destiny, with a show at The New Frontier Lounge – joined on the bill by the always swanky and cool Lushy, not to mention The Dignitaries (a band I secretly love more than creamy peanut
Operation Family Support
"This isn't about the war and about whether we should be there or not ... this is about helping families," explained Den Gardner, executive director of the Minnesota-based nonprofit group Project Evergreen. "The bottom line is that we all support military families, and if we can help them in some
Music
The first time I was able to control my functions after having all but the most essential nub of my rectum yanked out as a result of a bout with col-rectal cancer was at a show the Cult played at the Showbox Market in March 2008. It wasn't fully clear
Music
In 1999 the band I was playing with — New American Shame — was selected by the Cult to be the support act on a tour of The States. This will be the first of many stories from those 10 weeks — and spill over encounters that continue to this
Music
In the local music ecosystem, all-ages venues are invaluable. I think that a lot of under-agers are agonized by being under 21, not because they’re unable to drink in bars, but because they’re constantly being deprived of the opportunity to see amazing shows. Tacoma understands this, but it has always
Focus
Biologists at Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife, The Northwest Zoo Alliance, The Evergreen State College, Cedar Creek Correctional Center and Fort Lewis Fish and Wildlife are involved in a five-year-long Oregon spotted frog species reintroduction pilot project at the post's remote 40-acre Dailman Lake. Last month members from the agencies
Concert Alert
Kitty, Daisy and Lewis may be the three coolest kids in music right now. The group may be comprised of the three Durham siblings, aged 16, 21 and 19 respectively, but their self-titled debut album is nothing kiddish. In fact the album sounds like it was stolen from some old