MLT jazz band wins honor in New York City

Mountlake Terrace High School won honorable mention and $750 at New York City’s Essentially Ellington High School Jazz Band Competition, considered one of the nation’s most prestigious events of its kind.

"The things we learned in this process are about life, not just music," said Mountlake Terrace student Mat Montgomery, who played a solo on "Concerto for Cootie."

At Monday evening’s awards concert, Mountlake Terrace also won for outstanding reed section. Out of 15 finalists, Roosevelt High School placed first and Garfield High School second. Both are in Seattle.

Darin Faul, band director at Mountlake Terrace, speculated that the Seattle area might do well because of its stylistic bias for traditional blues feeling and swing, which fits the festival’s criteria.

"This is one of the years I’m going to remember," said festival director Wynton Marsalis, who added that it was "the most difficult year to judge."

Since 1999, the Seattle area has had multiple finalists. Prizes are $2,000 for first place and $1,500 for second.

Whidbey Island

Nothing found: Two Israelis who allegedly overstayed their visas were held for a week at the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service’s detention center in Seattle. The two were taken into custody after being stopped for speeding last week near the Whidbey Island Naval Air Station in Oak Harbor.

"They didn’t have valid documents," said Garrison Courtney, a spokesman for INS.

Reports that the men’s vehicle contained traces of TNT and plastic explosives were incorrect, Courtney said.

"It turned out to not be the case," he said. "The FBI found there wasn’t any explosive materials."

The Naval Criminal Investigative Service also looked into the incident, but handed it off to the FBI, said Ed Kunigonis, supervisory special agent.

The men’s visas had expired and their behavior was suspicious, but there was no evidence of criminal activity, he said.

Everett

Man charged with kidnapping: A 28-year-old Everett man was charged Tuesday with first-degree kidnapping after allegedly accosting a 45-year-old woman walking through a Lynnwood park to work.

Steven Eugene Newberg was being held on $100,000 bail.

The woman identified Newberg as the man who approached her May 5 in Scriber Lake Park, tried to kiss her and threatened her with a knife, court documents say. Although he threatened her and for a time held a knife to her throat, the woman managed to yell for help to another couple that came along, said an affidavit filed by deputy prosecutor John Stansell.

The assailant ran away, but was arrested a short time later near a Safeway store in the 19700 block of Highway 99.

Monroe

Escape avoided: A 26-year-old prison inmate sneaked out of the Monroe Correctional Complex’s Special Offender Unit, but was caught before coming close to escaping from the prison grounds.

Prison officials are investigating to determine how the Lynnwood man got out, but believe he may have crawled into ventilation ducts after slipping past prison personnel, said Capt. Ron Ingram, a Special Offender Center duty officer.

The prisoner now faces a disciplinary hearing, as well as possible new charges. The escape attempt occurred about 1:35 p.m. Saturday.

Prison staff discovered him missing when he didn’t show up to receive medication. Search teams checked all the interior prison buildings.

"He got out of the living unit and was in the compound in an area that’s out of bounds for him," Ingram said. "He hadn’t gotten very far … Once he was spotted, he was totally cooperative with our staff."

There have been four previous attempted escapes from the SOC since it opened in 1980, Ingram said. The Lynnwood inmate is the first to get out of the building.

From Herald staff reports and news services

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