OLYMPIA — Four people charged with felonies for violence at a February concert at The Evergreen State College have been accepted into a diversion program.

Charges will be reduced to misdemeanors if they complete the program and pay $45,000 for destroying a patrol car.

Thurston County court papers say criminal charges against a fifth person who hid a seat stolen from the car will be dropped if he completes the diversion program and pays $541.

Read the story here.

I figured one of the super sleuths like Emmett would have scooped this by now, but since no one else has, here you are for your reading enjoyment.

Olympia Files Criminal Charges Against Three Individuals

(Olympia, WA) The City of Olympia Prosecutor’s Office has filed criminal charges against the following people for their actions in November 2007 relating to the transport of military equipment from the Port of Olympia:

Shyam P. Khanna has been charged by complaint #2008072 with Obstructing an Officer pursuant to OMC 9.08.020 and Resisting Arrest pursuant to OMC 9.08.040 for actions alleged to have been committed on November 8, 2007.

Kathleen K. Hutchison has been charged by complaint #2008074 with Obstructing an Officer pursuant to OMC 9.08.020 for actions alleged to have been committed on November 10, 2007.

Patricia O. Hutchison has been charged by complaint #2008075 with Obstructing an Officer pursuant to OMC 9.08.020 for actions alleged to have been committed on November 10, 2007.

Obstructing an Officer and Resisting Arrest are misdemeanor crimes. The maximum penalty for each crime is 90 days in jail and a $1,000 fine.

This is the next installment of our Alpine hiking experiance in Western Washington. This hike is on Mt. Rainier, called Comet Falls, just a little West of the Skyline trail.

Comet Falls trailhead is located on the drive up to Paradise from the West entrance to Mt. Rainier National Park. Parking is pretty limited at the trailhead, so on busy weekends you will want to get there early. The hike itself is pretty steep and the view not all that good, compared to the Skyline trail, until you get up towards the end at the top. Once at the end, you are surrounded by alpine meadows, and a great view of the Cascades and of course Mt. Rainier.

Near the end of the trail, about 1/4 mile from the end, was a small spur trail that went off to the East. We walked down that trail and it ended about 150 yards from the main trail. But there was a nice little open area with some logs to sit on and surrounded by scrub fir trees. We set there took in the fresh air, enjoyed the view, all the while sipping some Cabernet and eating some cheese.

A very nice hike, rewards with a good workout and wonderful scenery, even though you have to wait until the end to see much.

A fair amount of stuff posted about Oly May Day at the Seattle Indymedia site, most of it is pretty angry stuff.

I found this post particularly interesting.

EDIT: Oops, wrong one, this is the post I was talking about.

A couple weeks ago I was on a call where the calling party was an elderly female.  She later told me 93 years old, but you would have never guessed she was that old.  She neither acted like she was that old nor did she look it. 

Now I had never met this woman before.  But as I talked with her first about the reason she called, and later when we were just shootin' the breeze, she reminded me of someone, but I just couldn't put my finger on it.  But as she and I talked it finally came to me.  The smile was the same and the eyes carried the same look.  This was Opera Girl, OG at 93.

Now those of you that haven't been blessed with meeting OG, you have to know she has a very imposing presence.  Along with that presence is the Cage Fighting physique, that would have Randy Couture cowering in the corner.  This lady had the same physique and presence.

So OG, I have seen the future and you look pretty good at 93.  ;)

We enjoy Alpine hiking and I thought I would post a few pics from our hike last year on the Skyline trail.

We missed the peak of the mountain flower bloom (approx mid July) by about 3 weeks. But it was a beautiful hike never the less. The Skyline trail leaves right from the Paradise parking lot and loops around and back to the starting point. It's a pretty good climb, with a elevation change of 4200 feet in about 7 miles, 2100 feet up and 2100 feet back down. If you walk the trail in a clockwise direction you get the steep part going up. The decent in this direction is spread out over about 2/3 of the total distance. So if you want an easier climb, do it counterclockwise.

We took about 80 pictures, but here are a few I thought you all might enjoy.

Read a review of this hike here.

I owe you, my fellow bloggers an apology for my latest pi$$ing contest with Mike.

Mike and I have history, and it’s long and ugly. Mike and I are like oil and water, and I don’t see that ever changing.

Most recently I commented on Mikes’ blog and shouldn’t, but clearly I was the one to start the latest firestorm, even though I didn’t think it would go the way it did. Our little tantrums took away from his post, which was a good post, and was a bit of a history lesson as well.

So, much like Gug and his self recusal on gun threads, I’m recusing myself on all of Mike’s blogs and comments. I will not respond to him in anyway, unless he makes personal attacks on me, like he has done in the past. Feel free to remind me of this post if I stray from it.

When a bicyclist is on the roadway, they are under the rules of the road for vehicles. When they are on the sidewalk or in a crosswalk they are under the rules for pedestrian traffic.

Lately, with better weather probably, more and more bicyclists are frequently and rapidly changing from one to another, and violating laws in the process. I have given out a dozen warnings, and thought I would try a public reminder here as well.

It isn't illegal to go from the street to the sidewalk and back to the street. You can even do it repetitively and quickly, but you have to obey the laws. I don't believe it's safe to do so, but I'm not your daddy, so you ride as you please as long as you obey the laws and aren't negligent/reckless, endangering both vehicular traffic and pedestrian traffic.

Off my soapbox now, carry on.

Olympia is now accepting applications for entry level police officer.

Instead of sitting on the sidelines and complaining, (pun intended), become an officer, work your way through the ranks and change the way things are done.

Job announcement here

More info here

In another thread, that has now been closed, I made a post calling Anon Larry out about "talking shitty" about Christians.  Larry said he had not, and a check through archives appears he was correct, he has not.  I did confuse Larry with some of his more anti-christian secular humanists, who have been a bit more venomous.

So Larry, my apologies!  All you secular progressive humanists run together..... ;-)