That’s what the Pierce County Council is considering.

A proposed ordinance that says candidates for Pierce County Sheriff would not have to identify a political party passed out of committee by a 5-0 vote Tuesday.

The proposal now moves on to the full council.

“It only makes sense that the best person should win regardless of what party affiliation they may have,” said the ordinance’s prime sponsor, Councilmember Dick Muri (District 6), in a press release. “Law enforcement should rise above politics.”

Pierce County voters decided last year to change the county charter so that they

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Pierce County Sheriff Paul Pastor, Lakewood Police Chief Larry Sanders and state Attorney General Rob McKenna will be among those testifying this afternoon in Olympia on proposed crime bills.

They’ll be testifying before the Senate Judiciary Committee, which meets at 3:30 p.m.

The sheriff will be offering his support of Senate Bill 6103, which creates a pilot program for enforcement of financial fraud and identity theft laws.

Also before the Senate committee is SB 5987. McKenna requested the legislation, which would create the crime of tagging/gang graffiti, clearly define "criminal gangs" and provide longer sentences

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This tidbit comes to us from reporter Kris Sherman…

Northwest Trek, the popular wildlife attraction near Eatonville, was closed Wednesday after about 4 inches of snow fell on the park by 9 a.m.

The snow rendered the tram route and pathways unsafe, spokeswoman Cherilyn Williams said in a news release.

Visitors to the 723-acre park ride trams through the 435-acre free-roaming area to view moose, bighorn sheep, bison, deer, elk and other animals in their habitat.

Other animals can be seen as visitors roam a series of pathways that meander through the woods.

Trek is

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We’ve got a story this morning about 18-year-old Gabriel Indelicio Nevarez, who’s been charged with first-degree murder in last week’s death of 21-year-old Kyle Grinnell outside a house in the 5600 block of South Tyler Street.

Nevarez (pictured below) remains on the loose Wednesday morning.

He’s one of three men who’ve been charged with murder in Tacoma homicides and who remains on the loose.

The three men – Nevarez, Danny Cherm and Jesus Mederos – are all listed on the police department’s Tip 10 Most Wanted list.

Television news is a twitter this morning about snow showers in the greater Puget Sound region.

I think I might have seen a few rain/snow flakes this morning before 6 a.m. but haven’t seen anything since.

A Washington State Patrol dispatcher said he was seeing some snowfall on their cameras in the Tacoma area.

Anybody see any of the white stuff this morning?

UPDATE: It’s 7:52 a.m. and it’s snowing outside the doors of The News Tribune. I walked by the doors and felt a gust of chilly air. The temperature must have dropped a

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Man, it’s a strange, strange world.

A 24-year-old Parkland man spit on a sidewalk and now he’s under arrest in the home-intrusion rape of an 11-year-old Olympia girl earlier this month.

The man was arrested Monday night outside his parents’ home in Olympia.

We had a brief in today’s paper but to read a more complete account, read the Olympian’s story.

The U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments yesterday on the use of the PIT maneuver by law enforcement agencies.

Officers often use the maneuver in high-speed pursuits to stop drivers that are fleeing from them. In the maneuver, a patrol car bumps and spins the suspect car in an attempt to stop it. (Lakewood police attempted this technique just last week to stop a man who fled from then. The attempt was unsuccessful and the man crashed his car, then hid in a hot tub until police found him two hours later.)

In a case before the U.S.

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