Seattle Mardi Gras victim gets lifesaving award

SEATTLE — When Kristopher Kime stopped to help a woman being attacked during the city’s downtown Mardi Gras celebration, "he didn’t give it a second thought," his mother says.

But the decision may have cost the 20-year-old Auburn man his life.

As he stopped to help the woman to her feet, someone smashed a bottle on the back of his head. Kime went down, and a group of people set upon him in a flurry of violence, kicking his head and then moving on.

For his bravery, he is being honored posthumously with the state Department of Labor and Industries’ Special Lifesaving Award.

His mother, Kim Kime-Parks, will accept the award at an L&I conference Wednesday.

"It’s great," Kime-Parks said. "I’m just thrilled. It’s a great honor for Kris.

"But I think he’d be embarrassed by it," she said.

"He did the right thing. It wasn’t his job, but I’m sure he didn’t think twice about what he did."

She also expressed pride in her son’s organ donations, which saved or improved the lives of at least seven people.

Panel ready with redistricting maps: A citizen panel on Monday begins the politically sensitive job of carving Washington into new congressional and legislative districts. All four voting members of the Redistricting Commission — two Republicans and two Democrats — are releasing their proposed maps for the public and affected politicians to see. It’s the first major step in negotiations aimed at producing new districts by Dec. 15, in time for use in the 2002 elections. Three of the four commissioners will have to agree on a single compromise plan. The boundary changes are required so that Washington’s nine congressional districts are nearly identical in population, with about 650,000 apiece. The 49 legislative districts must be drawn with about 120,000 people each. Democratic Chairman Paul Berendt said recently that it’s "nearly unavoidable to go through this process without someone’s ox getting gored," meaning some incumbents will lose big chunks of their districts or even be thrown into another incumbent’s territory.

Loggers sculpt New York firefighters: Loggers with chainsaws sculpted wood stumps Sunday into images of New York City firefighters raising a U.S. flag over World Trade Center rubble. "It’s emotional," chainsaw carver Bill Bruzas told KIRO-TV News. "It’s a big bunch of loggers with a tear in their eyes, basically. It’s just an emotional thing." The loggers, working in front of crowds of fairgoers on the last day of the Puyallup Fair, completed a 2-foot statue and were trying to finish a larger 5-foot sculpture, both of the same image. One early bidder offered $7,000 for the smaller piece. Proceeds from sales were headed for the East Coast to help firefighters and their families. Others competing in the chainsaw art contest sculpted images of the fallen World Trade Center towers that were destroyed in terrorist attacks, as well as American eagles, a more traditional subject. Elsewhere at the fair, firefighters held out yellow boots to collect bills and coins for an aid fund for New York firefighters. The 101-year-old Pierce County fair draws about a million visitors yearly to enjoy a mix of prize-winning farm animals, wild rides, concerts and scones with raspberry jam.

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