Local boy makes bad: A 38-year-old staff sergeant from Joint Base Lewis-McChord reportedly went home to home in southern Afghanistan yesterday, killing 16 civilians, including 9 children, before turning himself in.
Local base makes bad: Lewis-McChord was also the home to four soldiers convicted of deliberately killing Afghan civilians in 2010, prompting Stars and Stripes to dub it "the most troubled base in the military."
Israel 23, Gazans 0: A weekend of Israeli airstrikes has killed 23 Palestinians in the Gaza strip, including 18 militants. Meanwhile rocket attacks from Gaza have injured two Israelis, with Israel's "Iron Dome" missile defense system earning praise for intercepting over 190 rockets.
Japan's new normal: One year after the Fukushima Daiichi meltdown, 52 of Japan's 54 nuclear reactors remain shut down.
Our legislators are special: The Washington State Legislature begins a special session today as Democrats and Republicans vie to see who can best save education by not spending money on it.
Because guns make us safer: The seven-year-old daughter of a Marysville police officer died yesterday after being shot by a sibling with a gun found inside their parents' van.
Fact check: The Seattle Times will run a series of Doonesbury cartoons regarding abortion in its news section rather than its comics section, but only after researching "to verify that cartoonist Garry Trudeau's take on the Texas law was essentially accurate." Now if only they'd start researching to verify that their own editorials are essentially accurate.
Richard Nixon had a "sensitive side": Who knew?
Ishtar on Mars? Paul Constant loved John Carter. Audiences, not so much, the $360 million sci-fi blockbuster hauling in only $30 million at the box office.
Why God created elevators: Montana firefighter Andrew Drobeck set a new record at yesterdays annual Scott Firefighter Stairclimb, climbing 69 floors and 1,311 steps of Seattle's Columbia Tower, in full gear, in 10 minutes, 38.3 seconds. The event raised almost a million dollars for charity.
