The News Tribune from Tacoma, Washington • 1

I A VALENTINE CELEBRATION OF RED FOOD REASON TO RETHINK LOW-FAT DIETS? THE NEWSPAPER FOR THE SOUTH SOUND WEDNESDAY FEBRUARY 8 2006 TACOMA WASH THENEWSTRIBUNECOM 35 I ELECTION AT A GLANCE Partial returns as of T1 pm Tuesday Passing Failing School bonds failing in Tacoma Bethel Federal Way Sumner $45 million face-lift falling short so Tacoma Dome must regroup Promises of more restrooms more comfortable seats and bigger and better shows fail to persuade voters to pay for a $45 million Tacoma Dome renovation BY KMS SHERMAN The News Tribune A $45 million bond issue to remodel the 23-ycar-old Tfccoma Dome to make it more comfortable and competitive playing well with voters Tuesday The measure was falling short of the 60 percent yes vote needed for passage Although the showing could improve in coming days as more mailed ballots are tallied disappointed backers conceded it was unlikely they'd win going to regroup" Dome director Mike Combs said Tfccoma Dome is not shutting its But instead of working on final design plans for a major renovation Dome staff and other city officials will be looking for lots of little ways to improve the facility Combs said too soon to say if and when voters might be asked to consider another bond issue he added is not an anli-Dome or an antischool Combs said pointing out that all three measures on the Tacoma ballot Tuesday were approved by more than 50 percent of voters is a tax Combs said Pteasc see DOME page A7 the region after the first night of ballot counting 1iesday Sumner and White River voters were rejecting both bond and levy requests But in Clover Park North Thurston and Orting all which have INSIDE struggled to pass bond More measures in recent years school voters were approving con- results plus struction measures Puyal- eariy vote lup was easily passing its totals A7 levy And the University Place district was passing operations and technology levies and a construction bond measure Close results might change in coming days as straggler absentee ballots are Please sec BONOS page A7 I SHE SPOKE AMERICANS LISTENED Initial election remits look bad for school district bonds and levies in Tacoma Bethel Sumner and White River Bond also trail in Federal Way and Dieringer News Tribune stiff Three of the South Sound's largest school districts Ifccoma Bethel and Federal Way appear to have lost multi-million-dollar bond requests for school construction and repair projects And Tacoma and defeats are compounded by the apparent failure of their operations and maintenance levies raising the possibility of major budget cuts if districts can't pass follow-up requests this spring Results were mixed in other districts in The Rev Bernice King preaches Tuesday JASON REEDGetty Imaps King The service was at New Birth Missionary Baptist Church in Uthonia Ga PUBLIC MEETINGS PLANNED 11 schools still possible for closure in Tacoma Going by the Tacoma School Districts attendance zona a an advisory group prepares two listi of schools to consider for closure it picks throughout the city BYDEBBYABE The Newt Tribune A Ifccoma School District advisory committee Tuesday narrowed the list of elementary schools facing closure to 1 1 Asked to choose one school from each of the regional attendance zones committee members voted for the following schools to be given first consideration for closure: Bryant in central Tacoma Downing in the West End Lyon in the South End McKinley on the East Side Wainwright in the South Ihcoma-Fircrest area and Washington-Hoyt in the North End Committee members will meet next week for the final time to choose three or four schools to recommend for closure If members settle on schools from the priority list they can turn to a second round of schools also named Tuesday night: DeLong in Central Thcoma Skyline in the West End Roosevelt in the East Side Arlington in the South Taco-ma-Fircrest area and Grant in the North End The committee members voted from a list of 16 they had developed last week The district plans to close two schools next fall due to declining enrollment which has contributed to budget shortfalls in recent years After next meeting the district plans to hold at least two community forums on the issue Then Superintendent Jim Shoemake will take into account the committee recommendations the forums and com- Pteaee fee SCHOOLS back page and brought to their field camp Describing a apparently never visited by humans members of the team said Tuesday that they also saw large mammals that have been hunted to nearextinction elsewhere and discovered dozens of exotic new species of frogs butterflies and palms a spectacularly beautiful Garden of said Bruce Beehlcr a co-leader of the monthlong trip to the Foja Mountains an area in the eastern province of Papua with roughly 2 million Please see lOST WORLD' back page Thousands salute Coretta Scott King More than three dozen speakers at the funeral took turns remembering the widow of the Rev Martin Luther Kingjr who worked to realize her dream of equality for nearly 40 years after his assassination She died jan 30 at age 78 after battling ovarian cancer and the effects of a stroke The president ordered flags flown at half-staff Phase sm KING back page Presidents civil rights leaders and thousands of others crowd a church in Uthonia Ga to honor and bid farewell to Coretta Scott King the widow of Martin Luther King Jr BY ERRIN HAINES woman who worked to make our nation The Associated Pies UTHONIA GA- About 10000 mourners including The crowd filled the New Birth Missionary Bap- four US presidents numerous members of Con- tist Church an arena-style mcgachurch in a sub-Contta gross and many gray-haired veterans of the civil urban Atlanta county that once was a stronghold Scott Kky rights movement said goodbye Tuesday to Coret- of the Ku Klux Klan but today has one of the most ta Scott King with President Bush praising her as affluent black populations in the country at the funeral of her mother Coretta Scott Washington State Peniten-tiary in Walla Walla Rupe 51 who long had (NOW suffered from terminal liver fej disease advanced cirrhosis and hepatitis died short- I ly after noon at the hospital KBksC'U inside the prison grounds Rupe spokeswoman Lori Sca-mahom said He had been in the hospital since jan 3 Please see INMATE back page i I 2 MILLION ACRES OF UNTOUCHED FOREST No dinosaurs but lost seems to have everything else NO SIGNS OF FOUL PLAY Inmate too heavy to hang dies in Walla Walla prison KY like a Michael Crichton plot Scientists explore the remote mountains of Indonesia and discover a of Eden of strange and fascinating creatures BY ROSIN MCDOWELL The Associated Pihs JAKARTA INDONESIA -Soon after scientists landed by helicopter in the mist-shrouded mountains of one of Indonesia's most remote provinces they stumbled upon a primitive egg-laying mammal that allowed itself to be picked up Mitchell Rupc who escaped a death sentence because he was too obese to hang dies in prison After his case the state changed Its preferred method of execution I BY KAREN HUCKS Hie News Tribune Mitchell Rupc whose death row argument that he was too fat to hang led lawmakers to change the state's preferred method of execution died Tuesday at the Courtesy of Conservation ktemitanil Kris Helgan holds a goiden-mantted tree kangaroo December in Indonesia WEATHER NICE DAY FOR A BRISK WALK: Looks like clouds but no rain High: 52 Low: 34 I Details Cl i II HH I mil1 04240 35 it Bgaagac.