Kitsap Sun
A CLASSIC CRUISE
Cyclists pedal underneath the colorful leaves of a maple tree as they cruise through Port Gamble while taking part in Cascade Bicycle Club’s Kitsap Color Classic on Oct. 11.
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Hub of special moments
SILVERDALE — Running any bridal shop means a busy schedule, but being near a few military bases can put an owner in unique positions at times. Preparing women for their important days means looking for the right dress among hundreds of options, wiping...
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REBRANDING NICOTINE
An ironic development emerging alongside the “Make America Healthy Again” movement is the portrayal of nicotine as a wellness and performance-enhancing product. Across social media, podcasts, wellness communities and tech startups, prominent wellness...
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‘Taking Care of What We Have’
South Kitsap School District created a motto for its three-year, $72.6 million capital projects levy: “Taking Care of What We Have.” That’s not to say some of what the district has won’t look somewhat different — or better — should the levy pass, and...
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Cornell investigation draws expert criticism
Cornell University, campus police and the local prosecutor’s office are all facing intense scrutiny over their investigation into 2024 gang rape allegations, and experts say key changes early in the case could have had a big impact on the...
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Suspect in Georgia charged for impersonating Bremerton man online
Criminal charges were filed against a Georgia man on Oct. 2 for allegedly impersonating a Kitsap man online, which led to a video-recorded confrontation outside the man’s Bremerton home based on false accusations. According to a probable cause...
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USS Wyoming moved to Bangor base by Navy
The Bangor submarine base just welcomed the USS Wyoming (SSBN 742) to its new home, and said goodbye to USS Pennsylvania (SSBN 735), a switch of homeport between two of the nation’s Ohio-class ballistic missile submarines. The Navy said it’s part of a...
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Workers union pushes back against WSF staffing shortage
The union representing nearly two dozen Washington State Ferries workers who called out sick on Oct. 5, which led to cancelled routes and left only five of the agency’s 18 boats sailing, says it did not coordinate the mass call-out and learned of the...
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New apartment project in Poulsbo aimed at workforce
POULSBO – A new apartment complex is taking shape along Highway 305, marking the latest housing project adding density near the downtown corridor. Visible from the highway just south of the Hostmark intersection, near Greens Your Way and Mezcalito’s,...
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Dog park on city’s east side likely coming in ’27
Bremerton’s Stephenson Canyon will soon be the home to a new dog park, with construction expected to begin as soon as spring 2027. The Bremerton Parks & Recreation Commission first announced plans to explore turning an empty lot into an off-leash dog...
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A FORCE FOR FIVE DECADES, BILL AUSTIN DIES AT 91
Bill Austin, the English transplant to Poulsbo credited for the picturesque look of Front Street’s downtown core and numerous significant projects in the community, died Tuesday morning at 91 years old, in the midst of doing what he did best. Austin...
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PUMPING PRICES
President Donald Trump’s move to reduce the sticker shock on new cars by rolling back federal economy rules could end up costing most drivers more money in fuel costs than they would save on new vehicles, according to analysis from Trump’s own Highway...
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Justices agree to rule on migrant detention policy
WASHINGTON − The Supreme Court will decide whether the Trump administration can detain millions of immigrants without giving them a chance to seek bond, even if they have lived in the United States for years without criminal records. The court agreed...
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New trail completes a decades-long vision
BAINBRIDGE ISLAND — What was once densely wooded and bordered with invasive species has been transformed. The Lost Valley Trail, nestled in the middle of Bainbridge Island, is a 30year project now ready for hikers. Opening in October, the trail...
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State workers retain benefits, but no pay raises
In a closely watched decision, Washington’s largest union of state government workers has ratified a new twoyear contract that provides no pay raises but avoids takeaways on health care and other benefits. Members of the Washington Federation of State...
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Staff vote no confidence in Kitsap library director
Kitsap Regional Library Director Jason Driver is facing a series of criticism from the library’s non-management staff, who have voted no confidence in him and urged the library’s Board of Trustees to remove Driver from the leadership role. A...
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Priorities for Trump, voters seem to differ
WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump’s threeday visit with Chinese President Xi Jinping was filled with pomp and circumstance: a red-carpet arrival, a tour of the National Archives and a state dinner of yellow squash velouté and sesame-crusted sea...
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THE NEXT PHASE
The sprawling development along Highway 303 between Silverdale and Brownsville is likely to accommodate more density, possibly more than 600 housing units total, after the Kitsap County Hearing Examiner in September approved an appeal for some changes...
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Trump, Xi exchange toasts at state dinner
Wild mushrooms are in their peak season across the United States in late September – and for a second time, Chinese President Xi Jinping and his wife, Peng Liyuan, were treated to the fungi at the White House. On the menu for the state dinner hosted...
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Volunteers help track marine health on coast
MANCHESTER – Greg and Barb Shippie spend one day a month on the beach of Manchester State Park searching for bird carcasses. Sounds bizarre, but it’s not just some hobby – it’s actually an essential piece of marine conservation research. The Shippie...
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GOP senator demands probe into Trump’s son
WASHINGTON – A Republican senator is demanding a congressional investigation into one of President Donald Trump’s sons after a Russian oligarch bankrolled his private island wedding party in the Bahamas in May. The blistering criticism from Sen. John...
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President Trump threatens to ‘annihilate’ Iran
UNITED NATIONS – President Donald Trump urged world leaders to join the United States in isolating Iran, using an address before the United Nations General Assembly to justify the war that’s unpopular with most Americans, talk up his tariffs and...
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Plan for NK fields, YMCA revived after rezone denial
A potential recreation complex including a new YMCA and other athletic fields on nearly 100 acres of forestland off Bond Road in North Kitsap is moving forward again, after the county denied an application for the original concept a year ago. North...
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Potential for growth
Nearly two years after the former Harrison Hospital building was demolished, early plans have emerged for a new 238-unit residential development on the 9.48-acre site in Bremerton along Cherry Avenue. According to a preliminary site plan submitted to...
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President Trump to face skeptical world leaders
WASHINGTON – When President Donald Trump addressed the United Nations a year ago, he touted the U.S. bombing of Iran’s nuclear sites just months earlier as “totally obliterating everything” and said he had brought peace between Israel and...
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SCENES FROM ’76
A regular headline in the Bremerton Sun during 1976 included the word “MacArthur,” a Universal Studios movie about the WWII general that generated local anticipation in the run up to filming a scene aboard the USS Missouri in Bremerton. The film hired...
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Child center to address Navy family waitlists
BANGOR A new, larger Child Development Center (CDC) at Naval Base Kitsap-Bangor will open this fall after two years of construction. The center, along with other childcare facility upgrades on base, is expected to ease the childcare demands in the next...
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Downtown Port Orchard grocery focuses on real food, local roots
PORT ORCHARD — Good Stuff Grocery is selling exactly what you’d expect from its name — locally sourced, high quality goods, with made-from-scratch pastries, soups and sandwiches fresh from their back-of-house kitchen at 715 Bay Street. Open seven days...
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‘It was a complete surprise to us’
Twelve-year-old Quincy Oelker had a lot to celebrate after the 2026 Kitsap County Fair and Stampede, when the member of the Heritage 4H club had two of her entries, a Champion Heritage Turkey and Reserve Champion Ameraucana chicken, ranked highly...
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25th anniversary of 9/11 commemorated
First responders salute during an observance ceremony in Washington, DC, marking the 25th anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, attack on the Pentagon. NEW YORK – As the United States marked 25 years since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks,...
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A GENERATION OF AFTERSHOCK
Aquarter-century later, 9/11 still echoes. h The worst terrorist attack in U.S. history has been followed by other seismic events, from a once-in-a-century global pandemic to the rise of artificial intelligence that is transforming commerce, education...
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Bartiromo out at Fox after 12 years
Maria Bartiromo’s abrupt departure from Fox News Media is raising questions about what led to the shocking move. Fox News Media announced it was cutting ties with the prominent anchor effective immediately in a Sept. 3 news release. Bartiromo, who was...
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PRESERVING MILLER
The Navy may name its fourth Gerald R. Fordclass aircraft carrier after President Donald Trump instead of a black World War II sailor with ties to Bremerton who heroically saved lives during the attack on Pearl Harbor. CNN and NBC News reported the...
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August jobs report unexpectedly strong
The U.S. economy added a surprising 162,000 jobs in August, the Labor Department estimated Sept. 4, even as economists said a “low-hire, low-fire” dynamic made it difficult for unemployed Americans to find work. The 162,000 estimate for August far...
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Thousands of WA ballots marked ‘late’ by USPS
SEATTLE – Over 20,000 ballots in Washington’s primary election last month were rejected because they came in too late, thousands more than in 2024. This comes as election officials have raised the alarm over the U.S. Postal Service not postmarking...
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CLEARED FOR TAKEOFF
A belted kingfisher takes flight from the railing of the Illahee State Park pier as people make their way down it on Aug. 31.
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BACK AT IT
First-grader Liam Walster, 6, peeks through the window of a school bus balloon as his parents snap photos during the first day of school at View Ridge Elementary School in Bremerton on Aug. 31. First-grader Juniper Barrett works on a first day of...
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Model shows design of new U.S. dry dock
As the Navy plans to build a new dry dock at Puget Sound Naval Shipyard, the surrounding area of PSNS is going to get busier at some point during the next 12-year construction period. More data and images that could describe the scope of this...
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KICKING THINGS OFF
Bareback rider Bryce Eck, of Refield, Kan, rides a horse named Willy Jack during the opening night go the Kitsap County Fair & Stampede on Aug. 26. RIGHT: The Kitsap Stampede Starlets professional rodeo drill team ride through Thunderbird arena...
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Iran urges opposition to new sanctions
DUBAI – Iran condemned the United States’ new economic sanctions on Aug. 28 as “state terrorism” and said other countries were legally obliged not to implement them. The Iranian foreign ministry’s statement came as mediators stepped up efforts to...
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‘Coyote vs. Acme’ editor plans special screening
A special screening of “Coyote vs. Acme” is coming to the historic Lynwood Theatre on Bainbridge Island on Aug. 30, following its national release on Aug. 28. The 7 p.m. event will feature a live Q&A with Bainbridge native Ned Thorne, who served as the...
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Kitsap County Fair & Stampede underway
The annual fair returns to the Kitsap County Fairgrounds in Central Kitsap this week, with many of the staples returning to this celebration of summer. Come out to watch professional rodeo and the Xteme Bulls, walk through the barn exhibits, check...
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New Mount St. Helens license plate available
Bored of the standard Mount Rainier license plate? Washington’s special license plate options are expanding this month, with a new Mount St. Helens design featuring the state’s landmark and a mountain goat. Last week, the Department of Licensing...
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Navy families irate at Trump comments
A senior Navy machinist aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln pinged a family group chat in early May, asking her sister and mother whether they’d taken time off to be at her son’s graduation at Morehouse College. Getting the 22-year-old kinesiology major...
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‘The Chick Fil Ain’t’
Often in life, the outcome doesn’t look like the original plan. A career path, relationships, maybe where “home” turns out to be. In this case, it’s a chicken sandwich that wasn’t originally created as a chicken sandwich. Even its name -- “The Chick...
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Above-average temps in fall forecast
The nation’s scorching summer – which featured the hottest July on record – is almost in the rearview mirror, and attention now turns to the season of pumpkin spice, falling leaves and (hopefully) mercifully cooler temperatures. However, it may take...
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Iran vows ‘devastating’ response to U.S. threat
DUBAI – Iran said on Aug. 21 that its response to any new U.S. threats would be “devastating” after Washington pledged to impose the toughest financial penalties in history with the aim of toppling the Iranian leadership. Washington prepared for...
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Firefighters lead prescribed burn on Bainbridge Island
BAINBRIDGE ISLAND – The Bainbridge Island Fire Department led a prescribed fire at the Bloedel Reserve on Monday afternoon, clearing thick brush to reduce the fire risk while also fostering greater biodiversity in the area. Around one acre of...
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CRUNCH TIME
A great blue heron flips a crab around in its beak before gulping it down off the shore of Oyster Plant Park in Poulsbo on Wednesday, Aug. 12.
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Longtime storefront along Silverdale Way gets a new look
A stucco building along Silverdale Way that dates back to the community’s former farming days, more recently home to Silverdale Antiques and before that Silverdale State Bank, will reopen this fall as a retail flooring store. The building at 9490...
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COLLECTIVE EFFORT
PORT ORCHARD — Twenty-seven aging boats — 21 of them that had been floating on the water — were handed to Kitsap County’s vessel turn-in program this summer, preventing them from becoming the next Dominion or Cairdeas, the two aging boats sank and...
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U.S. tells Iran it will step up the pressure
LONDON – Transit through the Strait of Hormuz appeared to grind to a near standstill on Aug. 14 after two more ships were attacked there and the United States said it could maintain a naval blockade of Iran indefinitely. A senior Iranian source said...
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Revenue forecast from WA income tax increases
A new analysis from the state Department of Revenue shows Washington’s high-earner income tax will be paid by thousands of additional households and produce hundreds of millions of dollars more than previously assumed – if voters don’t ditch it this...
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GPC pauses plan to demolish aging barn
Plans to demolish a historic barn on the Petersen Farm are now on pause, after pushback from some in Kitsap’s agriculture community. An online petition and planned rally outside the farm in Silverdale had been announced in protest of the aging barn’s...
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First in line
EAST BREMERTON — Norman Jaques and five of his buddies from Olympic High School got breakfast without paying for it on Tuesday morning, but it was hardly free. Over the weekend Jaques dropped $130 on inflatable cow suits for the crew, delivered by an...
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City weighs enhanced McCormick parks and open space
PORT ORCHARD — Residents can attend a hearing Aug. 11 on whether to waive city requirements to build multiple nearby smaller parks in the McCormick area, as larger regional parks have already been built or planned, and as mitigation work from the...
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ORCAS UP CLOSE
A pod of transient orcas swim past the onlookers on the Lemolo shoreline as they exit Poulsbo’s Liberty Bay on August 5.
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Reports: U.S. missile supply badly depleted
The war on Iran has severely depleted key U.S. missile stockpiles and left the nation and its allies in a vulnerable position for potentially years to come, several experts and reports say. U.S. missile stockpiles were low before President Donald...
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Bremerton-based film makes SXSW
A modern take on “carpe diem,” filmed entirely in Bremerton, is making the rounds at national film festivals and will next show at the Roxy Theater as part of the annual West Sound Film Festival the first weekend of August. The independent movie,...
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UNDER THE SEA
ABOVE: Sophie Harris, left, is reflected in the dressing room mirror surrounded by cast wigs as she gets her Ariel wig adjusted by volunteer Jessica Voigt prior to the CK PAC All-Youth Summer Musical rehearsal for The Little Mermaid. Performances of...
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HAZY DAYS AHEAD
Kitsap County will continue to see smoky and hazy skies in the next few days, and that will probably stay until Thursday due to the wildfires in Spokane and the northeast wind that brings the smoke to Kitsap Peninsula and the Seattle area, the National...
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Trump says he will hold off on new Iran attacks
CAIRO – President Donald Trump has said the United States will hold off on a fresh attack on Iran as long as a deal can be reached quickly to halt Iran’s nuclear ambitions and reopen the Strait of Hormuz. Trump said late Aug. 1 on his Truth Social...
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Embrancing song and dance
SILVERDALE – On the field beside Kitsap Regional Library on Thursday, July 30, parents and children set up their lawn chairs and blankets. In front of them, 10 drums were ready to be played while four performers from The School of TAIKO waited for...
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Tolls on some highways are dropping for some drivers, based on income
Drivers with low incomes will soon be able to pay less to travel on two of Washington’s newest tolled roadways. After months of conversation, the Washington State Transportation Commission approved a new program last week offering a 50% discount on...
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Whaling Days gets its gray whale
Silverdale got its whale tail, just in time. The Whaling Days parade on Saturday, July 25 had a new entry this year, one with a colorful backstory and, at least to one man, a legacy that goes all the way back to the community event’s origin. Frank...
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A WELCOME STOP
The Samish Indian Nation canoe, center, paddles for the shore as participants in the Paddle to Nisqually Medicine Creek Potlatch 2026 canoe journey land in Suquamish on Monday. The stop in Kitsap was for two days, as paddlers from tribes around the...
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