Meadowdale, Everett off to 3A tourney final C1 Will the Bumblebee Special chug again? A3
WEDNESDAY, 05.20.2015
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Retrial set for November John Alan Whitaker was among eight people charged and convicted of kidnapping and killing Rachel Burkheimer. By Diana Hefley Herald Writer
EVERETT — A man serving a life sentence for the kidnapping and killing of Rachel Burkheimer
is back in the Snohomish County Jail and scheduled to be retried later this year. Burkheimer was shot to death in 2002 by a band of young criminals led by her ex-boyfriend,
John Phillip “Diggy” Anderson. She was lured to a south Everett duplex, bound and beaten. Burkheimer, 18, was stuffed into a duffle bag and driven out to Reiter Road in east Snohomish County. Anderson forced her to lie down in the grave the kidnappers had dug and then shot her. Anderson is serving a life
sentence. Another man, John Alan Whitaker, also was sentenced to life behind bars after being convicted of murder in 2004. Nine years later the state Court of Appeals overturned Whitaker’s conviction and granted him a new trial, citing new case law See WHITAKER, Page A10
Living the American Dream Binh Mach, who fled post-war Vietnam, runs thriving RB Enterprises
Work moving ahead in bits Several projects are under way in Lynnwood, from new roads to turning the old high school into a retail and housing complex. By Rikki King Herald Writer
Herald Writer
MUKILTEO — Binh Mach’s story is as much about turning around a struggling company as it is about the American Dream. The 50-year-old Vietnam native came here as a teenage refugee, learned a trade and business, and turned a nearly
bankrupt machining company, RB Enterprises, into one of Boeing’s top suppliers. Mach grew up in Soc Trang, a city in the Mekong Delta southwest of Ho Chi Minh City. He was 11 when communist North Vietnam took over South Vietnam in 1975. His father buried his discharge papers from South Vietnam’s
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army. Ladies scraped off their nail polish, worried that communist troops would consider that to be bourgeoisie, he said. “Everybody was afraid.” Fear became the new normal after the war ended, Mach said. His family saved enough money so that Mach could bribe his way out of the country in 1982. After a couple of
A victory, of sorts Let me just say this about that: Crowds of protesters at the Port of Seattle, who are hoping to drive off an oil-drilling rig, forced U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry to move a planned speech on trade Tuesday from the Seattle port to the Boeing plant in Renton. Port Dear Abby. . . .D5 Good Life . . . .D1
abortive attempts, he made it onto a boat packed with other refugees. The boat was about 20 feet long and crammed with 147 people, he said. Mach was part of a mass exodus that saw hundreds of thousands of people flee the
officials said they had their hands full as it was (Page A13). So, while the protesters haven’t been able to force out an oil rig, they did keep a drone out of Seattle. Say good night, Dave: Talk show veteran David Letterman steps away from his desk as “Late Night with
Horoscope . . . B6 Lottery . . . . . .A2
Obituaries. . . .A5 Opinion. . . . .A15
See DREAM, Page A10
David Letterman” draws to a close tonight at 11:30 on CBS. (The Clicker, Page D6). In tribute we offer the top 5 things we liked about Dave’s show: 5: It kept bandleader Paul Schaffer from playing ’80s hits in the lounge of a Holiday Inn near you. 4: Stupid Pet Tricks supShort Takes . . .D6 Sports . . . . . . . C1
See WORK, Page A2
ported the nation’s dog-treat industry. 3. Stupid Human Tricks made us feel better about ourselves, because we weren’t “that guy.” 2. He wasn’t Jay Leno. And the No. 1 thing we liked about Dave’s show: I have no joke here; I just want to say, “Thanks, Dave.”
— Jon Bauer, Herald staff
Fair 72/53, C6
DAILY
IAN TERRY / THE HERALD
Binh Mach fled Vietnam with his family in the 1980s and is now president of RB Enterprises in Mukilteo, a manufacturer specializing in aerospace and commercial parts. Shown is a nearly 30-pound tungsten part manufactured for Boeing.
LYNNWOOD — The northern end of Lynnwood is growing. So is the south. That keeps city leaders busy-busy as they work out ways to connect arterials and keep traffic moving. Construction continues on the former Lynnwood High School campus along 184th Street SW, just north of Alderwood mall. Crews are building a new stretch of 33rd Avenue W. between the mall and Maple Road. The road is expected to be completed in July to ease traffic around a new Costco store. The store is rumored to be opening before the end of summer, but the wholesale company won’t say when. A company spokeswoman last week cited a policy of “not commenting on specific locations.” Costco generally claims that it can build a store in 120 days. Either way, the city is moving ahead with the road project it started last year. The southern part of the former high school property is planned to become “Lynnwood Place,” a 330-unit apartment complex with retail on the bottom floor, plus parking garages. Lynnwood Place is set to open next year, according to a realestate listing. The new stretch of 33rd is being built as a two-lane road with a turn lane and bike lanes, but it was designed with later expansion in mind, up to four lanes, City Engineer Jeff Elekes said. Having another route from the mall will help with holiday shopping traffic, he said. Without the new 33rd, the city would have had to widen both 184th and Alderwood Mall Parkway, Elekes said. Eventually, the new road is expected to connect with the existing 33rd, running west of the main mall campus. The current road project costs $10 million, a mix of private money, grants and about $1.2 million from the city. Someday 33rd might hook up
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