Cop-killer Maurice Clemmons’ sister will get out of prison in July after serving two years of the five-year prison sentence she received for helping her brother’s getaway driver following the massacre of four Lakewood police officers in November 2009.<p/>The Lakewood Police Department issued a statement today saying it is “disappointed that LaTanya Clemmons is not being required to serve out the full term of her five-year sentence for her involvement in the case involving the murder of our four officers.”

The president of the union for Pierce County corrections deputies filed paperwork Thursday to challenge County Executive Pat McCarthy in her bid for a second term.</p> <p/>Bruce Minker, 52, a corrections deputy at the Pierce County Jail, chose to be listed on the ballot without a party preference. He has criticized McCarthy, a Democrat, and her staff for their handling of a labor dispute with the deputies.</p>

“Is college hard?” <p/>“Do you have lunch?”</p>

A Fircrest man charged with taking care of his girlfriend’s children this week did anything but, police say.</p> <p/>The youngest, an 18-month-old boy, is in critical condition at Mary Bridge Children’s Hospital with major head trauma and a severely bruised body. A 3-year-old boy who was reported missing for several hours Thursday also was treated for cuts and bruises.</p>

No one is sure precisely when, but there will come a long-awaited moment Saturday afternoon when the rising tide will lift a lovingly restored sailboat from its cradle in Gig Harbor.</p> <p/>Thunderbird #2 will be reborn.</p>

State auditors reviewing the city’s renovation of Cheney Stadium have recommended Tacoma to “strengthen internal controls” over the way changes are approved for contracted public works projects.<p/>The issue stems from $2.2 million of change orders added to a $23 million base contract that the City Council awarded to a design-build team led by Mortensen Construction in 2010.

An advertising and marketing executive has come up with the idea of putting floating billboards on Lake Union and Lake Washington in Seattle.<p/>Darren Bruce says he got the idea one day while driving across a floating bridge. He says, "I see scenery; I see beauty; I see opportunity."

Van Halen is postponing some dates on its summer concert tour.<p/>A source familiar with the tour who was not authorized to speak publicly confirmed to The Associated Press that some of the group's long-scheduled performances this summer are being postponed. The band's website lists active tour dates through June 26.

President Barack Obama is set to announce $3 billion in private sector pledges aimed at alleviating hunger in Africa and urge the world's biggest economies to make good on their own financial promises.<p/>Obama was to unveil the food security initiative in a speech Friday in Washington that kicks off four days of international summitry. World leaders are gathering at Camp David, the presidential retreat in the Maryland mountains, later in the day for a summit of the Group of Eight leading industrial nations. Obama heads to Chicago on Saturday evening for NATO meetings.

Police have arrested a suspect in two fatal highway shootings in Mississippi that prompted warnings a fake officer might be pulling over victims.<p/>Authorities said early Friday that the fears of an impostor turned out to be unfounded. Mississippi Department of Public Safety spokesman Warren Strain told The Associated Press that the suspect, James D. Willie, 28, had not been posing as a police officer in the shootings.