Missing in McCleary

Missing in McCleary, originally uploaded by jonesdaily.

I am spending the afternoon in McCLeary as authorities continue searching for a missing 10-year-old girl. This is the command center.

Out to the ballgame

Out to the ballgame, originally uploaded by jonesdaily.

The fam is watching the Spokane Indians.

One more time with feeling

I spent most of today working with the editors and Martin, our IT guy, to get our new public safety “On the Scanner” blog up and running online.

We tried this last summer and it went down in flames.

So we’re going to give it another shot. It seems to be doing well so far, but Martin has been chasing bugs most of the day. And this time we’ve included a goofy mug of me from last fall when my beard was first coming in, so that’s nice.

Keep you’re fingers crossed.

Steel, stairs and a couple toys

Meet Ron Johnson, 59, metal worker from outside Porter.

Nice guy, talented. And I got the chance to spring a Profile story on him at the last minute. I’m pretty pleased with how it turned out except we didn’t have space to run a bunch of photos that I thought were pretty cool — so here you go.

And here’s the story

Under the high ceilings of a converted hay barn west of Porter, Ron Johnson rests against a chipped and worn metal tabletop criss-crossed with chalk outlines for steel yet unshaped.

Johnson, a longtime contract welder and ornamental metalworker, says the current project is simple — a straight metal handrail, stretching several feet.

“We just drew this thing out,” he says.

White chalk lines striped over deep gouges in the surface of the battered metal workbench, mark the dimensions and fitting of the railing. The handrail, like much of Johnson’s work, will decorate a luxury home on the shores of the Puget Sound.

For more than 20 years, the Skagit County native has spun steel staircases, intricate metal gates and shaped steel into a wide variety of applications and artwork from his shop near Porter.

Johnson now runs RJ Equipment Service and Ornamental Design. His work has gone into luxury homes throughout Western Washington. He put railings in the new Aberdeen High School and the Bishop Center. He created a free-standing curved staircase for a regional car dealer. But he has also fabricated roll-cages for race cars and ornate kitchen racks for hanging cooking pots.

Hoquiam gets bike justice

So here’s a fun little story on how the Hoquiam Police Department has started using bike patrols. I did a quick ridealong (in a car) to snap some photos of the officers peddling their beat. Enjoy.

Homemade hops-pitality

Homemade hops-pitality, originally uploaded by jonesdaily.

So playing the pub this weekend resulted in a nice conversation with a couple from Sequim who brew their own beer. They just gave me some.

A little more Irish ink

Landen winches a bit when James starts in on his new four-leaf clover tattoo. Nice enough guy, patient, which is always good in a tattoo artist. Though Landen did not enjoy his time in the chair.

For the Record: Apparently the elbow hurts.

Yeah, I got one too. See below:

That’s a lot of kite

The Ocean Shores International Kite Challenge featuring 80-foot Octopus kites.

Brief court quotes

“Please somebody stop the madness.” - Deputy prosecutor

“It would be better if the defense team was all cracked on meth.” - Deputy prosecutor

Short day at court. Sorry.

HPD can be hard on doors

Newly-promoted Sgt. Krohn with the HPD tries to kick in a door after a domestic violence call. They tried to get this woman to open the door for at least 10 minutes. You should have heard the words coming out of her mouth when they finally resorted to forcing the door.