A late South Kitsap resident’s wish to aid those who once cared for him was fulfilled in grand fashion July 23 with SK Fire and Rescue ceremoniously unveiling a state-of-the-art addition to its EMT fleet purchased entirely through donated assets.

Ron Johnson’s appreciation for SKF&R had already been strong, his brother Jerry having served as a volunteer firefighter in the 70s and his family demonstrating decades of support before that. That appreciation would grow substantially when he took a nasty fall in December 2006, prompting his life partner Robert Roblee to call 911.

His gratitude for the service rendered to him went beyond words, going so far as to bequeath some of his own property to be transferred to and sold by SKF&R upon his death in order to fund a new ambulance. Following Johnson’s passing on May 7, 2021, the sale rose roughly $450,000 according to SKF&R chief Jeff Faucett, with just under $369,000 being used to acquire said ambulance and the associated equipment.

Roblee returned to Pilgrim Firs to celebrate the awaited fulfillment of the shared agreement with SKF&R and his late partner just two days short of the three-year mark of Johnson’s celebration of life at that very site. With the on-site Pride Garden created in Johnson’s memory behind him and the new ambulance to his left, Roblee declared to the attendees of a brief ceremony, “South Kitsap Fire and Rescue gave Ron 15 more years of life…and for me 15 more years of love.”

A late South Kitsap resident’s wish to aid those who once cared for him was fulfilled in grand fashion July 23 with SK Fire and Rescue ceremoniously unveiling a state-of-the-art addition to its EMT fleet purchased entirely through donated assets.

Ron Johnson’s appreciation for SKF&R had already been strong, his brother Jerry having served as a volunteer firefighter in the 70s and his family demonstrating decades of support before that. That appreciation would grow substantially when he took a nasty fall in December 2006, prompting his life partner Robert Roblee to call 911.

His gratitude for the service rendered to him went beyond words, going so far as to bequeath some of his own property to be transferred to and sold by SKF&R upon his death in order to fund a new ambulance. Following Johnson’s passing on May 7, 2021, the sale rose roughly $450,000 according to SKF&R chief Jeff Faucett, with just under $369,000 being used to acquire said ambulance and the associated equipment.

Roblee returned to Pilgrim Firs to celebrate the awaited fulfillment of the shared agreement with SKF&R and his late partner just two days short of the three-year mark of Johnson’s celebration of life at that very site. With the on-site Pride Garden created in Johnson’s memory behind him and the new ambulance to his left, Roblee declared to the attendees of a brief ceremony, “South Kitsap Fire and Rescue gave Ron 15 more years of life…and for me 15 more years of love.”

Rank-and-file Seattle police officers voted in favor of a new, partial three-year contract that, if approved by the Seattle City Council, will give them immediate retroactive raises totaling 23%.

The agreement, announced by Mayor Bruce Harrell on Monday, will make Seattle officers the highest paid in the state, leapfrogging them from 29th. A starting officer will make $103,000 a year, up from $83,000.

Negotiations are not finished, however. The agreement covers 2021, when the previous contract expired, through 2023. City negotiators and the Seattle Police Officers Guild left 2024 unresolved and called in a mediator with the Public Employment Relations Commission to help.

But I thought the police were defunded!! /s

But what could have turned into a coronation now has the looks of a competitive race, with three veteran state officials vying for the seat representing the Olympic and Kitsap peninsulas in the U.S. House.

Franz, a Democrat, has opened up an early fundraising lead. But state Sen. Emily Randall, also a Democrat, has collected more high-profile endorsements from the state’s congressional delegation, indicating a split among the Democratic establishment. Republican state Sen. Drew MacEwen lags in fundraising but says he’s confident he can flip the seat, just as he previously won open state House and state Senate seats that had been held by Democrats.

In the week since a line of Japanese health supplements began being recalled, five people have died and more than 100 people were hospitalized as of Friday.

Osaka-based Kobayashi Pharmaceutical Co. came under fire for not going public quickly with problems known internally as early as January. The first public announcement came March 22.

Company officials said 114 people were being treated in hospitals after taking products, including Benikoji Choleste Help meant to lower cholesterol, that contain an ingredient called benikoji, a red species of mold. Earlier in the week, the number of deaths stood at two people.

Some people developed kidney problems after taking the supplements, but the exact cause was still under investigation in cooperation with government laboratories, according to the manufacturer.

I think it's finally upgrade time. While I love my Neptune 2, it definitely has its issues.

Ideally, my next printer would have:

• Built-in auto leveling, so I don't have to install a BL Touch
• An enclosure
• Be slightly larger than the Neptune 2
• Open source firmware
• OctoPrint support

I was looking at the Prusa MK4, but it seems like a high price for what you get. Any recommendations?

Republicans are entering a months-long stretch of legislating with their smallest House majority in decades. And the margin is about to tighten even more.

Departures from the House have whittled down the Republican caucus from 222 to 219, meaning the party can only afford to lose two members and still pass legislation when everyone is attending and voting.

Another Republican, Rep. Ken Buck (Colo.), announced Tuesday that he would vacate his seat at the end of next week.

Meanwhile, Congress is staring down a deadline next Friday to fund about 70 percent of the government — including the Defense, State and Homeland Security departments. It could further complicate a stalled border security bill and aid package for Ukraine and Israel.

Democrats are likely to add another lawmaker to their ranks after a special election in a deep-blue, Buffalo-area district in late April. The next special election in a red district isn’t until May 21.

American oil and natural gas wells, pipelines and compressors are spewing three times the amount of the potent heat-trapping gas methane as the government thinks, causing $9.3 billion in yearly climate damage, a new comprehensive study calculates.

But because more than half of these methane emissions are coming from a tiny number of oil and gas sites, 1% or less, this means the problem is both worse than the government thought but also fairly fixable, said the lead author of a study in Wednesday's journal Nature.

The same issue is happening globally. Large methane emissions events around the world detected by satellites grew 50% in 2023 compared to 2022 with more than 5 million metric tons spotted in major fossil fuel leaks, the International Energy Agency reported Wednesday in their Global Methane Tracker 2024. World methane emissions rose slightly in 2023 to 120 million metric tons, the report said.

"This is really an opportunity to cut emissions quite rapidly with targeted efforts at these highest emitting sites," said lead author Evan Sherwin, an energy and policy analyst at the U.S. Department of Energy's Lawrence Berkeley National Lab who wrote the study while at Stanford University. "If we can get this roughly 1% of sites under control, then we're halfway there because that's about half of the emissions in most cases."

Sherwin said the fugitive emissions come throughout the oil and gas production and delivery system, starting with gas flaring. That's when firms release natural gas to the air or burn it instead of capturing the gas that comes out of energy extraction. There's also substantial leaks throughout the rest of the system, including tanks, compressors and pipelines, he said.

The Massachusetts governor, Maura Healey, announced plans to pardon all simple marijuana possession charges from the state, which could affect “hundreds of thousands” who have faced charges.

“We believe this is the most sweeping cannabis pardon announced by any governor in the United States. The reason we do this is simple: justice requires it,” Healey said at a press conference on Wednesday.

Though the state does not have exact numbers of how many people the pardon will affect, Healey said it could be “hundreds of thousands” in Massachusetts.

The pardon does not cover other marijuana-related charges, including those related to distribution or driving under the influence. Without the pardon, simple marijuana possession charges can show up on people’s criminal records, affecting their ability to obtain a job or housing.

Laurynn Evans is resigning as superintendent of North Kitsap School District, according to the district's school board agenda updated Tuesday morning.

Evans' resignation is listed among personnel recommendations that will be reviewed by board directors as a consent agenda item during Thursday's regularly-scheduled meeting.

Evans, who became North Kitsap's superintendent in 2017 and signed a three-year contract with NKSD in 2023, was put on paid leave by the board after she was named as the suspect in a Jan. 26 theft of signs opposing the district's February bond measure, which failed. Evans entered into a pretrial diversion agreement Feb. 28 while appearing at Kitsap County District Court over a misdemeanor charge of removing or defacing political advertising.

Kohberger’s public defenders had argued that a grand jury seated by prosecutors improperly indicted him on four counts of first-degree murder and one count of felony burglary. They contended that Idaho law left open the idea that grand jurors must reach the higher legal standard of beyond a reasonable doubt — the same as at trial to convict a defendant — rather than the longstanding threshold of probable cause to indict.

In the one-page Supreme Court ruling issued Tuesday afternoon, the justices offered no legal rationale for their denial of the motion to appeal from Kohberger’s attorneys. The document was signed by Melanie Gagnepain, clerk of the Idaho Supreme Court.

The King County Prosecutor’s Office said Officer Noah Zech, 40, was justified in firing a single round from his patrol rifle, striking Shaun Fuhr in the back of the head as Fuhr fled through a construction site in the 4100 block of 37th Avenue South after police responded to a report of domestic violence and child abduction.

The city’s civilian-run Office of Police Accountability previously found Zech’s actions fell within the department’s policies. The office also dismissed complaints of biased policing — Zech is white and Fuhr was Black — and failure to de-escalate the situation before resorting to deadly force.

King County Prosecutor Leesa Manion met with Fuhr’s family and their attorneys before publicly releasing her office’s findings. A federal civil-rights lawsuit from Fuhr’s family is pending against the city and Zech in U.S. District Court in Seattle.

In addition to an internal investigation by OPA, the city in a rare move had asked the King County Sheriff’s Office to investigate the shooting, along with the SPD’s Force Investigation Team and Firearms Review Board.

Zech, a member of SPD’s SWAT team and longtime department veteran, was among a large number of officers who had responded to a frantic 911 call from a woman who said she had been beaten by her boyfriend, who fired a shot at her and had taken their 1-year-old daughter, according to police. The woman reported her boyfriend, Fuhr, had assaulted her throughout the day, and police said she had significant injuries.

The police department released a copy of the woman’s frantic 911 call and a clip of body-camera video from another officer who was pursuing Fuhr.

The lawsuit — filed by Fuhr’s father on behalf of his granddaughter — alleges she wasn’t in danger and that police, when they caught up with Fuhr about a half hour after the initial call, could see he was not armed, was not threatening officers, and was complying with their commands.

The body-camera video shows several officers chasing Fuhr through a small parking lot and down the side of a building, where they confront him. Fuhr was holding the child when he was shot, and another officer ran and picked up the child. Police said the infant wasn’t physically injured.

The department said a handgun was found “nearby.”

“At the time Shaun was shot, he was unarmed and cradling his infant daughter in his arms,” the family’s lawsuit said.