Ship carrying Stryker vehicles leaves for Iraq
Published 9:00 pm Thursday, March 15, 2007
TACOMA – A ship carrying 300 Stryker vehicles and other military equipment has left the Port of Tacoma bound for Iraq after more than a week of anti-war demonstrations.
Port operations are back to normal after the ship left Wednesday, Tacoma police detective Brad Graham said.
The eight-wheeled Strykers, along with 700 other vehicles and equipment, are being shipped to Iraq in advance of the 4th Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division, a Fort Lewis-based Stryker Combat Team heading to the country next month.
War foes protested while the equipment was loaded onto the USNS Soderman, resulting in the arrest of 37 people since March 5, including 23 arrested Sunday for crossing a barricade or bringing backpacks into a security area.
Olympia: Lawmakers may cancel ‘08 primary
State lawmakers may cancel Washington’s 2008 presidential primary, an election that some say is expensive and meaningless since the state’s parties rely heavily on caucuses in deciding whom to support as presidential nominees.
The state’s presidential primary was created in 1989 through an initiative to the Legislature. State Democrats have ignored it; state Republicans have used its results in varying degrees in allocating delegates who support a particular candidate.
Rep. Sam Hunt, D-Olympia and main sponsor of the bill to cancel the primary in 2008, said he’s not opposed to the idea of the primary, but doesn’t see its merits in its current form – especially since there is a $9.7 million price tag attached to it.
Vancouver: Harding displays erratic behavior
Former Olympic skater Tonya Harding told sheriff’s deputies she thought people were trying to break into her home and had followed her to a towing station, behavior that her agent attributed to an adverse reaction to allergy medication.
The incident, which did not generate an official police report, was outlined in a Clark County sheriff’s dispatch log detailing two separate calls relating to Harding’s erratic behavior early Sunday.
The log did not indicate that Harding was on any medication, Sgt. Tim Bieber said Thursday.
“I don’t know from the call whether she was hallucinating,” he said, noting that if that had been the case, deputies typically take people to the hospital involuntarily.
“There’s no indication in the log that she was on any medication,” he added.
Harding called authorities around 4:50 a.m. Sunday from Yacolt Towing to report that there were possibly four men and a woman trying to break into her residence northeast of Vancouver, Bieber said. She also said they were trying to stash weapons on her property.
Associated Press
