UPDATE as of 2:35 p.m.: The driver has been identified as William R. Barnes Jr., a 35-year-old Olympia resident.

ORIGINAL POST:

Washington State Patrol investigators are looking for anyone who witnessed the events leading up to a fatal crash late Wednesday in the northbound lanes of Interstate 5 near Nisqually.

A man driving a stolen pickup truck was speeding north on I-5 about 11:10 p.m. A trooper watched as the driver used the shoulder to pass a semi truck.

The driver then cut in front of the truck at Marvin Road, forcing the semi truck driver to brake to …

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There will be a prescribed burn at Joint Base Lewis-McChord beginning at 1 p.m. today.

The base advises that smoke will be visible from Eighth Avenue South.

A state investigation of the Pierce County Sheriff’s Department found no health or safety violations after a dive team member fell ill from two days of work on the effort to raise a sunken sheriff’s boat in July.

No citations were issued or penalties were assessed. The Sheriff’s Department, which oversees the Pierce County Metro Dive Team, received the results of the Department of Labor & Industries’ investigation earlier this month.  The team is comprised of officers from the Tacoma police and Pierce County Sheriff’s departments.

Members of the dive team were helping with the salvage operation of The Reliance …

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UPDATED at 2:35 p.m.

A young man who spent nine hours in a tree overnight trying to escape a Washington State Patrol trooper was taken for a mental health evaluation Friday.

The man, believed to be in his early 20s, could eventually face charges of felony eluding, obstruction of justice, criminal trespass and making false statements to a public servant for the ordeal, the State Patrol reported.

A trooper had tried to stop a car for speeding on state Route 16 just before 11 p.m. Thursday, trooper Guy Gill said Friday. Initially, the car stopped. Once the trooper got out …

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Four Puyallup men today pleaded guilty to charges that they rolled back the odometers on a combined 75 vehicles so they could sell them at higher rates.

Plea agreements were reached for Ricky Ristick, 23; his father, Robert Ristick, 42; Miller Stevens, 32; and his brother, Stanley Stevens, 28. All four men pleaded guilty to conspiracy for selling used cars after tampering with odometers.

U.S. District Judge Ronald B. Leighton will sentence the men Jan. 27.

Prosecutors said they would recommend no more than two years in prison. The defendants will collectively pay $100,000 toward restitution.

The Risticks admitted to …

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A Pierce County  judge pro-tem ordered Buckley City Council member Randy R. Reed jailed today after Reed pleaded not guilty to charges he sexually abused a 7-year-old girl.

Reed was expected to post $20,000 bail and be released from jail about 10 p.m.

Pierce County prosecutors earlier this month charged Reed, 54, with first-degree child rape and first-degree child molestation. They allege he inappropriately touched the girl and had the girl touch him, according to court records.

The girl is the daughter of a woman Reed knows.

He has denied wrongdoing.

Reed was summoned to court today to answer the …

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A 24-year-old Tacoma man was sentenced to nine years in prison today for human trafficking.

U.S. District Judge Robert J. Bryan also sentenced Lashad Alexander to three years of supervised release and imposed a $130,000 restitution fee.

Alexander pleaded guilty in February to forcing a 17-year-old girl to work for him as a prostitute.

He recruited the teen in 2005 and she worked for him until Lakewood police arrested Alexander in March 2010 after the girl called her brother for help, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.

Alexander occasionally hit the teen, forced her to hand over her earnings, helped …

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A burn ban covering unincorporated Pierce County will be lifted Friday morning.

The state Department of Natural Resources, Pierce County Fire Chiefs Association and fire marshals from Pierce, King and Mason counties decided to lift the ban, which began Aug. 8, as of 8 a.m. tomorrow. The recent rainfall and lower temperatures have decreased the danger of wild fires, a state Department of Natural Resources press release states.

The lifting of the ban does not impact the areas of Pierce County where burning is prohibited because of environmental or pollution laws or where the local fire districts  limit or prohibit …

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