Auburn Reporter

1 week ago | auburn-reporter.com | Robert Whale

At this moment, many of our distracted countrymen glare at each other over a rigid barrier of hardened suspicion and hate. Men and women who, regardless of political persuasion, so prize their own rigidity and unwillingness to bend, they raise it the level of a virtue, and clap others on the back for being just as stiff. Some even compete to be the most fanatically unmovable of all, as if that were a badge of honor. Look around.

1 week ago | auburn-reporter.com | Robert Whale

In 2023, the Auburn Police Department pursued 17 fleeing vehicles, a small number owing to a state requirement that restricted officers’ ability to pursue escaping vehicles whose occupants were suspected of lesser crimes like car theft. Police everywhere chafed under the restrictions. But in June 2024, Initiative 2113 became law as the state Legislature relaxed the requirement — restoring to police the autonomy to pursue fleeing vehicles for less violent offenses such as car thefts.

1 week ago | auburn-reporter.com | Joshua Solorzano

Former Auburn Police Department officer Jeffrey Nelson, who was convicted of murder in June 2024, has been moved to a prison out of state. According to the Washington statewide automated victim notification network (VINE), Nelson is in the Washington State Department of Corrections, but on May 1, he was moved to an out-of-state prison. Despite his status saying he’s out of state, he still remains in WSDOC custody. The Reporter has requested information on the prison where Nelson now resides.

1 week ago | auburn-reporter.com | Joshua Solorzano

An Auburn woman is charged with vehicular homicide after she allegedly crashed her vehicle while driving 118 mph on a 45 mph road in Enumclaw while under the influence, resulting in the death of her child, who was a passenger. On April 30, the King County Prosecutor’s Office charged Savannah Lynn Hopper, 38, whose last known address was in Auburn, with vehicular homicide and violation of ignition interlock after she allegedly crashed and killed her child.

2 weeks ago | auburn-reporter.com | Robert Whale

Ever since it invented the skid steer loader in 1960, the Bobcat Company claims on its website, it has “helped tackle the most difficult jobs in landscaping, agriculture, forestry, snow removal and more.”Sixty-five years on, I’m sure that’s still true, but for the addition of one teensy-weensy caveat: beware of entrusting the “most difficult jobs” to greenhorns unsuited to the job by temperament and skill sets. We’ve all seen what happens when we fail to do that.