TACOMA — A convicted killer and reputed gang member from Tacoma faces eight years and four months in federal prison after being caught in a drug sting.
U.S. District Judge Marsha J. Pechman sentenced Ronald Flemings, 38, on Friday, more than three months after he pleaded guilty to possession of oxycodone with intent to distribute.
According to court filings, Flemings agreed to sell a confidential source 200 Oxycontin pills of 80 milligrams each for $7,000. He was arrested after making the delivery in a Federal Way parking lot.
Flemings previously served 11 years in prison for murder and was convicted of cocaine possession and second-degree assault in an attack on his girlfriend. He also has been linked by investigators to the Black Gangster Disciples and a motorcycle gang called the Drama Boyz.
Dead whale turns up in Tacoma waterway
A dead whale has turned up in a Commencement Bay waterway and Port of Tacoma officials are working with marine mammal experts to determine what killed it.
Port spokeswoman Tara Mattina says a port security officer spotted the whale, estimated to be 30 to 35 feet long, on Friday at the south end of the Blair Waterway. It is believed to be a fin or sei whale.
It wasn’t immediately clear whether the whale came in with a container ship.
Marine mammal experts say the whale appeared to have a throat injury, which might indicate an attack by a killer whale or other animal.
The port is having the carcass towed to a secure location, where wildlife biologists can examine it today.
Aberdeen: Kurt Cobain monument gets bleeped
Three letters in a four-letter word have been replaced with asterisks on a Kurt Cobain monument near an Aberdeen bridge where the late Nirvana frontman spent time when he was growing up.
The donated granite monument in the unofficial park in Cobain’s honor features quotes from lyrics. One was an unedited version of “drugs are bad for you, they will (blank) you up.”
KBKW reported City Councilwoman Kathy Hoder and Tori Kovach, who shares the right-of-way where the monument sits, agreed to block out three letters of the offending word.
Mayor Bill Simpson said he plans to ask the City Council Wednesday to accept the changes.
Seattle: Securities scam sends Bellevue woman to prison
A Bellevue woman has been sentenced to 7½ years in prison for her part in a stock-trading scam in which federal prosecutors say more than 3,300 investors lost more than $2.4 million.
U.S. District Judge Richard Jones sentenced Beverlee Kamerling, 65, on Friday in Seattle. She also was ordered to pay more than $2.4 million in restitution.
Authorities say 10 people connected to the case have been convicted of various crimes.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office said the defendants sold stock in companies they had secretly acquired. They sent out news releases and “junk faxes” to pump up interest in the stock before they sold it. It’s called a “pump and dump” scheme.
Morton: No logging trucks in loggers’ parade
A sign of the times in the timber industry: There will be no loaded logging trucks in today’s Loggers’ Jubilee parade in Morton.
Parade organizer Kathy Simonis told KITI many of the usual participants can’t afford to take time off jobs or the expense of preparing trucks for the parade.
Years ago, Simonis, says most of the parade was made up of logging trucks and equipment like log loaders.
This year’s parade will consist of traditional entries like floats.
Spokane: Grant County men charged with killing grizzly bear
Two Grant County men have been charged in federal court in Spokane with killing a grizzly bear.
U.S. Fish and Wildlife officials say Brandon Rodeback of Moses Lake and Kurtis Cox of Warden killed the bear in 2007, thinking it was a black bear.
They are charged with possessing an unlawfully killed endangered species and transporting it. The Columbia Basin Herald reported they are summoned to appear in court Tuesday.
Court documents say another hunter spotted the two men moving the bear from one truck to another in a motel parking lot in Ione and recognized it as a grizzly bear. After he told them it was a grizzly they became nervous and left.
Longview: Heat, pests doom two hatcheries’ steelhead
Last week’s heat is blamed for conditions that allowed a parasite to wipe out steelhead at two southwest Washington fish hatcheries.
The Fish and Wildlife Department said the Fallert Creek hatchery on the Kalama River lost 135,000 summer and winter steelhead last weekend and the Washougal hatchery in Clark County lost about 138,00 steelhead.
The warm water allowed a parasite known as ich to reproduce rapidly.
Idaho: Police seek help in two racial attacks
Police in northern Idaho and Eastern Washington are asking the public for help in solving two recent attacks that appear racially motivated and may be related.
Police in Spokane released details of a crime that required one victim to spend three days in the hospital for brain swelling. Detectives say the attack occurred July 22 when two Native American men were beaten by five other men.
Investigators say those assaults resemble details of an attack Aug. 1 in Coeur d’Alene when two 15-year-old boys, one of them black, were beaten by at least five men outside the Coeur d’Alene Resort. Police say one of the assailants made a slur about black people.
Oregon: Ex-school chief pleads guilty in sex sting
A school superintendent who resigned following his arrest in a Springfield police prostitution sting has pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor that will be removed from his record if he doesn’t reoffend over the next year.
Court documents say Rolla Weber signed a diversion agreement in Springfield Municipal Court and agreed to pay a $1,000 fine.
The 62-year-old Weber was one of 13 men arrested in a sting the weekend of July 10. He resigned from the Marcola School District the following Monday.
NOAA signs lease with Newport for new base
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration on Friday signed a 20-year lease with the Port of Newport, Ore., for the new home of its West Coast marine operations center.
NOAA announced earlier this week that it would move the center and the ships assigned to it from Seattle to the city on the central Oregon coast. The move will involve about 175 jobs.
Mouse builds nest egg in ATM with $20 bills
An employee at the Gem Stop Chevron in La Grande got the surprise of her life when she opened up the automatic teller machine and found a mouse inside a nest lined with $20 bills.
The ATM continued to work just fine, despite the mouse discovered on Thursday.
The mouse had chewed up two bills and damaged another 14 to make his nest, but the bank replaced all the money that wasn’t extensively damaged.
The mouse also got a reprieve: He was evicted from his nest but set free outside.
The store’s employees are still mystified about how the mouse got into the ATM.
Suspect refuses attorney in triple slaying trial
An Oregon man accused of a triple killing has refused to be represented by an attorney.
Gregory Alvin Cook, a self-employed La Grande house painter, is charged with aggravated murder in the deaths of two men and a woman in the Elgin area last month.
Union County District Attorney Tim Thompson said Cook repeatedly refused to consult a lawyer at his arraignment Thursday.
Cook has admitted he is responsible for the killings in two separate encounters with reporters, saying he was high on meth when he did it.
Cook also told Judge Phillip Mendiguren he has cooperated with investigators and he denied being insane or suicidal.
The judge appointed Ken Hadley, a former Baker County district attorney qualified to represent people in death penalty cases, to represent Cook, despite his refusal.
Elderly Klamath Falls man dies in house fire
An 84-year-old Klamath Falls man died early Friday when his bed ignited.
Klamath County Fire District No. 1 says it appears Robert Thomas Licek was smoking in bed while using oxygen.
The home’s co-owner, Mark Carpenter, tried to save the man, but was overcome by flames and smoke and had to leave. By the time fire crews arrived, it was too late. There were no working smoke detectors in the home.
The fire caused an estimated $35,000 damage.
Associated Press
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