This from The News Tribune: A Stryker soldier facing charges that he assaulted a private who blew the whistle on drug use in their platoon during its deployment to Afghanistan this year chose to skip a pretrial hearing scheduled for today and move on directly to a court-martial.

Spc. Corey Moore of Redondo Beach, Calif., is one of a dozen soldiers in the 5th Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division who await proceedings at Joint Base Lewis-McChord for alleged misconduct at Forward Operating Base Ramrod. Five of them stand accused of murdering civilians.

Moore could have used his Article 32 hearing today to gather evidence for his defense. At least two of his co-defendants have elected to waive their Article 32 hearings as well. They're focusing on negotiating plea deals with Army prosecutors.

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