BELLEVUE
REPORTER
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BUSINESS | Wayback Burgers another fast-food first for city [10]
Sports | Bellevue water polo team is striving for fourth state championship in a row [14]
A&E | Eastside native returns home to tell his own ‘Christmas Story’ [11]
FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 7, 2014
Incumbents lead in 41st, 48th legislative districts BY BRANDON MACZ BELLEVUE REPORTER
King County election numbers as of Wednesday showed strong support for incumbent candidates in Washington’s 41st and 48th legislative districts. Statewide voters have approved a measure for stronger background checks for
firearms purchases and another that would limit class sizes across the state was too close to call Wednesday.
House Position 1, 41st District Incumbent Tana Senn, D-Mercer Island, maintained a strong lead against 21-year-old Bellevue
Republican Bill Stinson, with 62.69 percent of votes and 30,649 ballots counted Wednesday. Senn was appointed to the position last year after the seat was vacated by Marcie Maxwell.
House Position 2, 41st District Rep. Judy Clibborn, D-Mercer
Island, held a strong lead against Independent Alex O’Neil, who was a no-show during the campaign season, with 74.65 percent of votes. Clibborn, a six-term representative, plans to continue chairing the House Transportation Committee if reelected, which appears likely.
House Position 1, 48th District It appears Medina Democrat Ross Hunter will be back in Olympia come January to attempt to balance the state’s 2015-16 biennium budget, taking in 69.02 SEE LEGISLATIVE, 17
Interim Chief Montgomery explains need for more police
Bob Jones spent six years fighting Nazis throughout Europe as part of the U.S. 82nd Airborne and 504th Parachute Infantry Regiment. At 94, Jones remembers the fight, but says he’s doesn’t linger on it.
2015-16 budget to hire officers for high-priority crime trends BY BRANDON MACZ BELLEVUE REPORTER
Photos by Brandon Macz, Bellevue Reporter
WWII a short tour in life for Bellevue veteran BY BRANDON MACZ
VETERAN’S DAY SPECIALS: PG. 18
BELLEVUE REPORTER
Bob Jones was ready to serve his country in 1939 and did so for six years, but the Bellevue veteran says that was just a brief tour in his 94 years of life, and not one that defines him now. Jones and his childhood friend, Tommy, were working as seasonal park rangers near Bellevue, awaiting a decla-
ration of war. When the radio broadcast Nazis had invaded Poland on Sept. 1, 1939, Jones and Tommy borrowed a car and drove to Fort Lewis, now Joint Base Lewis-McChord. “As soon as we heard that Germany had invaded Poland, we said, ‘That’s it,
we’re enlisting,’ ” said Jones. “Tommy and I stayed together for the whole doggone war.” Jones and Tommy were stationed at Fort Bragg for field artillery training, but SEE VETERAN, 18
Bellevue’s interim police chief Jim Montgomery presented the City Council Monday with a 2015-16 budget proposal with cautious optimism proposed staffing increases will be enough to ensure public safety. Montgomery acknowledged he too is aware of residents’ concerns about rising property crimes, but the most pressing issues facing the city require adding two detectives, one working in vice and the other on special assault cases, and a digital forensics specialist. “They are the highest priorities,” he said. Prostitution continues to be a problem for Bellevue, and includes cases of human trafficking and minors, Montgomery said, due in part to the economic vitality of the city. The city is also seeing a rise in electronic fraud, but prosecutors require evidence that is time-consuming to gather, as is prosecuting SEE POLICE, 17
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