Album available

Album available, originally uploaded by jonesdaily.

“Last Harbor Light” now out.

Dylan at bumbershoot

Dylan at bumbershoot, originally uploaded by jonesdaily.

Old photo from nosebleeds

Frank Turner at mfnw

Frank Turner at mfnw, originally uploaded by jonesdaily.

Horse feathers

Horse feathers, originally uploaded by jonesdaily.

Outstanding performance

New website and dead links

Hey. So The Daily World launched a redesigned website Monday. It seems to work much better, but it has killed all of the links to my old stories on this blog.

So that sucks. Enjoy.

Baum still missing after one year

Again, meet Melissa Baum, who is still searching. Her whole life has turned upside down in the past year. No clues have surfaced. Here’s the unfortunate anniversary story:

High-pitched shrieks and laugher from children playing in the Heritage Park fountain carried across the grass to the nearby picnic table where Melissa Baum sat earlier this week.

Melissa brushed her hair from her eyes and squinted into the sun. Traffic rolled past the Olympia park as dozens of young boys and girls ran through the streams of water, giggling and smiling.

“I’ve always been overprotective of my children,” she said. “They never went outside without me.”

When Melissa and her two children lived in Tennessee, she worried about snakes. She said she wouldn’t let the little Lindsey and Josh outside unless the lawn had been mowed. When she moved to Olympia, she warned them not to talk to strangers and worried they might wander into traffic.

Now again living in Olympia with her sister, Melissa, 38, ran her fingers over a flier on the picnic table. The stained flier was filled with pictures of missing children, infants and teens lost throughout the years. One faded photo matched the smiling young face printed on Melissa’s well-worn shirt.

McCleary, the East County town of just 1,500 people, seemed a sanctuary from the big city worries. Melissa and her two children moved there about three years ago for the small town simplicity and the lower cost of living.

“I was able to find a house down there for the same price I was paying for an apartment here,” she said. “I thought it was a nice, small, safe town. My kids would have a yard to play in and I thought truly in my heart that that would be the best place for my kids.”

She paused a moment, shaking her head.

“Crucial mistake.”

The rest of the story.

Landen’s homecoming

He got back last month, but I figured I’d post these for the folks who missed the Facebook updates. Just a few.

Weekend fishing

Weekend fishing, originally uploaded by jonesdaily.

Landen on the Humptulips.

Caught in filler photo

Another reporter at the paper, Steven, called me over to his desk this morning as he was going through the draft Environmental Impact Statement for the upcoming pontoon construction project. He wanted to point out the goofy, red-haired reporter depicted in one of the filler photos the Department of Transportation used to illustrate the public input process. So that was creepy, but at least I’m rocking that awesome backpack.

And if anyone wants to read the 200-plus page EIS on the Highway 520 project, knock yourself out: www.wsdot.wa.gov/projects/sr520/pontoons/deis.

Trooper survives shooting to tell tale

Meet Trooper Scott Johnson, 47, of Pacific County. He got shot in the head three months ago and shared his story with The Daily World last week. I wrote a massive story about his shooting and recovery. Enjoy.

LONG BEACH — Along a dimly lit stretch of Highway 103 in Long Beach, veteran State Patrol Trooper Scott Johnson stood with clipboard in hand as he inventoried a vehicle for impound.

After working more than nine hours on the late shift, Johnson felt ready to knock off at 1 a.m., just 20 minutes away. Processing the minivan was his last task for the night. The nearby storefronts sat dark in both directions, the highway clear.

Another trooper had arrested the driver of the minivan shortly after midnight on Feb. 13 for allegedly driving under the influence. Johnson let the other trooper take the woman in for booking while he took care of her vehicle.

“That’s a very routine thing that we do all the time,” Johnson said. “We always assist each other if we’re close by.”

The other trooper drove away. Johnson remained, checking through his inventory. He had to nearly shout to the tow truck driver over the wind and the roar of the winch as it lifted the minivan into place.

As Johnson filled out the paperwork, an upset man wandered out of the darkness, muttered a few questions and angrily ignored the trooper’s offer for assistance. Despite his concerns, Johnson watched the man walk down the sidewalk and out of sight. He turned back to his clipboard.

“I’ve filled out that form many hundreds, if not thousands, of times,” he said. “It was time to go home. I was holding the clipboard and I noticed there was a woman’s wallet in the vehicle.”

As the 47-year-old trooper and father of four leaned over the vehicle to inspect the contents of the wallet, he felt a push from behind and the hard barrel of a gun against the back of his head. No sound. No warning.

“It was just boom, boom, right together, but I didn’t hear a gunshot,” he said, now three months later. “I just knew that I had this terribly loud ring in my head. I was sure I had seconds, at most, to live.”

Continue reading here.