By JOSH FARLEY, Scripps Howard News Service

BELFAIR, Wash. - For a small cadre of inmates at Mission Creek Corrections Center, raising a delicate species of butterfly has implications for the nation's defense.

PORT ORCHARD, Wash. - The gun used by a Utah fugitive to shoot two sheriff's deputies, kill a 13-year-old girl and commit suicide, was originally owned by a man who became a cop.

BREMERTON, Wash. - The history of an addict's drug use is told in the scarring on the arms, legs and feet.

The arms of a 52-year-old woman in Suquamish, Wash., show trails of discolored and depressed veins. The large infection on her leg might be from staph bacteria resistant to antibiotics, doctors say. A fresh bandage on her hand shows where she recently pushed melted oxycodone.

BREMERTON, Wash. - The Washington State Patrol got a report of a man impersonating a police officer after a woman said that someone flashing a "Sheriff" sign had motioned for her to get off her cell phone while driving. It turns out the "impersonator" was a fire investigator.

BAINBRIDGE ISLAND, Wash. - Ed Gonda and his family moved to Bainbridge Island upon hearing it was a pastoral "laid back, forgiving" kind of place.

After finding a rental, he and his wife enrolled their daughter in school. As Christians, they found a local church they liked. They made friends with neighbors and island residents.

But eventually, word got out.

PORT ORCHARD, Wash. - A stop for ice cream and a few groceries landed a 79-year-old Washington woman back in jail on $1 million bond on charges of killing her husband.

The undercover detectives had been expecting $600 worth of Ecstasy, the euphoria-inducing club drug, when a confidential informant returned from a meeting with a suspected drug dealer in November.

GORST, Wash. -- A steady stream of vehicles with a common ailment have been cycling through the shop at the Kitsap Muffler shop these past few weeks, manager Kim Rumion said.A quick peek underneath such vehicles reveals a missing catalytic converter -- an easy, yet sometimes costly fix. The device reduces a car's toxic emissions.

BREMERTON, Wash. -- At the end of life, Bainbridge Island, Wash., resident Ron Erickson points out, "There's only one door."In Initiative 1000, the state's voters have an opportunity to decide how quickly they reach it.

SILVERDALE,Wash. -- At some point, Karen Wall stopped going to the doctor for pain and started going for the pills.An achy lower back began to hamper her work as a professional house cleaner, so the 33-year-old Bremerton, Wash. woman scheduled a doctor's appointment.The doctor gave her a diagnosis and 90 tablets of Percocet, an opiate-based prescription painkiller.