Talent: Special performers lauded for grace, skills at show | Like kids in any talent show, the youngsters Saturday in Puyallup wore their prettiest dresses, their coolest shirts and their biggest smiles as they entered the spotlight. But these 60 performers on the Kalles Junior High School stage had extra-special talents to match their extra-special personalities.

One year: Some funds went out quickly, more will be spent in coming months – work and paperwork caused some of the delay | More than a year after the passage of the $787 billion federal stimulus package, state officials credit it with creating or saving thousands of jobs in Washington. Yet a look at the largest local projects in the South Sound shows that much of the biggest stimulus spending here still lies ahead.

Hot Shop emcee: A face of the federal stimulus package | Claire Yuckert has made much of her living the last two years talking to people about glass.

Health care: New plan will provide billable services | Tacoma’s Franciscan Health System is phasing out an award-winning program for dying patients that drew national acclaim when it was started 12 years ago.

Anthony ‘Tony’ McCane, 1976-2010: He opened doors, turned on lights | Everyone noticed at least three things about Tony McCane. His smile was so bright it could power a city. He was joyous of spirit and strong of faith. The one-time gang member and convicted felon, paralyzed by five gunshots in a 2002 drug incident, inspired and enlightened people from one end of Tacoma Community College to the other, English instructor Lynn Lewellen said.

Olympia: House burned to help firefighters learn | Members of the Olympia Fire Department burned a house to the ground Saturday in Olympia as part of live fire training for new and veteran firefighters as well as six students from Bates Technical College in Tacoma.

Washington, D.C.: Belfair Democrat brings new tone to powerful Appropriations subcommittee | As the new chairman of the House Appropriations Committee's defense subcommittee, Rep. Norm Dicks will write a $700 billion Pentagon funding bill that has traditionally been crammed with more earmarks than any of the other dozen annual spending measures.

Tacoma - $1.38 million: Pair cited inappropriate racial, sexual comments, touching; all 12 jurors agreed | A Pierce County jury awarded a $1.38 million judgment Friday to two former employees of the Tacoma-Pierce County Chamber.

Everett: Woman, man from Tacoma were killed in crash | A woman suspected of causing a wrong-way crash that killed two Tacoma residents told Everett police that she drank three glasses of wine at a friend's house before getting behind the wheel of her sport utility vehicle.

Tacoma - Help for jobless: Classes, résumé review and more | If you want a job, take down the Facebook photo of you sucking a joint on your birthday and delete that blog post about how you’d like to torch the house of your boss.

| If a health care bill passes Congress, U.S. Rep. Adam Smith says he worries that people will pick apart what it doesn’t do rather than what it does.

| Overheard remarks from the legislative session’s waning days:

| Legislators have agreed to create a process to remove some of the most dangerous patients from state hospitals where concerns have been raised about security.

| Jim Johnson won a seat on the state Supreme Court in 2004 on his second run for the high court. He announced last week that he will run for another six-year term.

| An independent candidate has emerged in Tacoma’s 27th Legislative District to replace outgoing Rep. Dennis Flannigan, who’s decided not to run again.

| Here are recent posts from The News Tribune&rsquo;s Political Buzz blog. For the inside scoop on government and politics, go online to <a href="http://blog.thenewstribune.com/politics">blog.thenewstribune.com/politics</a>.

Tacoma - | Tacoma firefighters battled a fire at a smoke shop in Fife late Saturday afternoon.

| Pierce County is hosting open houses at four locations this month to provide and collect information about updating its nearly 20-year-old River Flood Hazard Management Plan.