Devin Topps leaned over to Alex Tyson, his best friend and Kentridge High School football teammate. So many people congratulated them after one of their victories that Topps wanted to put the moment in perspective.
"Alex, we're all-stars," Topps said.
Tyson told that story as he joined a church full of friends and family Thursday to turn a funeral service into an emotional celebration for their fallen all-star. They honored the 18-year-old with a tribute of music, poems and stories.
Eight children ages 13-17 were taken into protective custody Nov. 5-7 in Kent as part of an FBI-organized nationwide sting to recover youngsters involved in the sex-trafficking trade.
Kent Police joined with other local and federal law enforcement officers to target the adults and children involved in child sex trafficking and exploitation, according to a Kent Police media release.
Jim Funston tossed a few peanuts at a squirrel on a recent afternoon last week, as he stood in his driveway along a quiet Auburn residential street. One of Funston's cats peers at the squirrel from underneath the back of a pickup.
"They get along; they never bother each other," Funston said.
That also goes for the neighbors along D Street Northwest.
"It's very quiet around here," said Mike Nelson, an eight-year resident of the neighborhood as he stands in his doorway. "People watch out for each other."
But nobody saw or heard anything on a Friday evening nearly six months ago.
When Heather Klosterman performs as Tinker Bell for Disney on Ice, she points to her wings and to the wings of the little girls dressed just like her in the audience.
"It's always fun to see all of the girls dress up as Tinker Bell," Klosterman said during a phone interview Monday from a hotel in Everett, where she performs this weekend prior to a Nov. 10-14 stop at the ShoWare Center in Kent. "
Starting quarterback Charles McCullum plans to return next season to the Kent Predators of the professional Indoor Football League.
McCullum is one of more than a dozen players who recently signed with Kent. The Predators open their IFL second season Feb. 25 at the ShoWare Center.
A King County Superior Court jury in Kent found Edward Earl Cobb guilty Nov. 4 of first-degree murder for shooting a Renton teen in 2008 at a Kent fast-food restaurant.
Large catering dinners have started to bring a much-needed revenue boost to the ShoWare Center in Kent, but the city-owned arena continues to lose money during its second year of operation due to low attendance and a lack of events.
Many questions still remain as the Kent Police try to figure out what led to an argument, fight and the shooting death early Sunday of Devin Topps, 18, a former Kentridge High School student-athlete.
But police do not believe whoever shot Topps went after him specifically.
The murder trial of a Seattle man accused of shooting a Renton teenager in 2008 at a Kent fast-food restaurant continues this week at the Norm Maleng Regional Justice Center in Kent.
King County prosecutors rested their case Oct. 26 against Edward Earl Cobb, 20. Cobb is charged with first-degree murder for shooting Chezaray Bacchus, 17, on July 12, 2008 at the Arby's restaurant along East Smith Street.
It frustrates Doug Hill as he walks along the shoulder of the Green River Road in south Kent to see blackberries growing through the guardrail.
That’s one of the reasons Hill wants to help out the city of Kent by joining its new volunteer Green Kent program that starts up in December.
“There are not enough people to see all of these places much less take care of it,” said Hill as he uses a machete to slash away blackberry vines along a shoulder overseen by the city of Kent public works department under the South 277th Street overpass.
Hill fits the type of person Kent park officials want to become Green Kent stewards. In that capacity, stewards will help restore more than 1,100 acres of public lands over the next 20 years. The program, developed in a city partnership with the Cascade Land Conservancy, kicks off with an orientation meeting Dec. 4 for anyone interested in becoming a steward.
Barbara Ferguson initially hand-crafted stuffed bunnies for a bazaar at work. But her bunnies became so popular that the Kent resident decided to start a business out of her home.
Now her holiday-decor bunnies and "snow friends" are among the many handcrafted items for sale at this year's Kent Holiday Craft Market.
More than 70 vendors will sell goods at the 24th annual event from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Nov. 5 and from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Nov. 6, at the Kent Senior Activity Center, 600 E. Smith St. Admission is free.
Kent resident Doug Scharnhorst thinks the city needs to fund a railroad crossing construction project so train engineers no longer have to blow their horns as the locomotive speeds through downtown.
Scharnhorst has lived 15 years in the Mill Creek neighborhood, just east of the Burlington Northern Santa Fe tracks.
“They go through town all hours of the day and night,” Scharnhorst said. “It’s loud.”
Scharnhorst wants the city to include what’s known as the railroad quiet zone project in the 2011 budget. He testified before the Council at a Sept. 21 public hearing and shared the reasons he supports the project during a phone interview.
The City Council has a second public hearing for comments about the budget at 5 p.m. Nov. 2 at City Hall.
The murder trial of a Seattle man accused of shooting a Renton teenager in 2008 at a Kent fast-food restaurant continues this week at the Norm Maleng Regional Justice Center in Kent.
King County prosecutors rested their case Oct. 26 against Edward Earl Cobb, 20. Cobb is charged with first-degree murder for shooting Chezaray Bacchus, 17, on July 12, 2008 at the Arby's restaurant along East Smith Street.
Kent Police are investigating the circumstances surrounding an early Tuesday morning disturbance at an East Hill home where officers arrived to find three residents detaining a 31-year-old Kent man, who was seriously injured in a fight with the residents.
Kent Police are investigating the circumstances surrounding an early Tuesday morning disturbance at an East Hill home where officers arrived to find three residents detaining a 31-year-old Kent man, who was injured in a fight with the residents.
Officers were called at about 2:11 a.m. to a house in the 22800 block of 103rd Avenue Southeast, according to a Kent Police media release.
A U.S. District Court judge Oct. 22 sentenced a 39-year-old Kent man to nine years in prison for conspiracy to distribute heroin.
Ben Hunlock, of Kent, and Victory Hugo Gutama, 45, of Seattle, were arrested March 15 in north Seattle while engaged in a 2-pound heroin deal.
Expect to see electric vehicle-charging stations popping up next year in Kent and throughout the central Puget Sound area and Olympia.
The stations are part of a public-private partnership backed by the federal government to create infrastructure to accommodate the 2011 Nissan Leaf and other new electric vehicles hitting the market later this year and over the next few years.
At Doug and Maria Nelson's Kent home, the debate is on over who will get to drive their as-yet-undelivered 2011 Nissan Leaf electric vehicle.
"We'll charge it at night and I'll let Doug borrow it," Maria Nelson said during a recent interview at their home. "We both want the car."
The Nelsons are pumped about the first all-electric car made by a major auto company. They paid a $99 deposit last spring to reserve the five-door hatchback and placed an order this fall. They hope to have the car by the end of the year.
Five months after Seth Frankel’s death, the Auburn Police investigation to solve his murder remains at a standstill.
Frankel, 41, who worked for the city of Kent, was found dead May 22 lying on the floor of his Auburn home. He died May 21 from stab wounds to the arms and neck, according to the King County Medical Examiner’s Office.
“There is no update; there is no movement at all,” said Auburn Police Sgt. David Colglazier during an Oct. 19 phone interview.
Kent Police continued Wednesday to investigate the cause of a two-car collision Oct. 16 that claimed the life of an 81-year-old woman and sent four people to the hospital.
