Controversial rocker Ted Nugent, known for his right-wing political views as much as his music, has been disinvited to the Clark County Fair.
Fair Manager John Morrison said Wednesday the cancellation of Nugent’s Aug. 5 concert was prompted by a contractual issue. He said feedback received since Nugent’s show was announced on April 28, which includes a petition urging fair organizers to nudge the Nuge from the lineup, weren’t factors in his decision.
“This is a completely separate issue,” Morrison said.
He explained that fair contracts signed with artists prohibit the performers from playing other shows within a certain distance and time of the fair. Nugent’s “Shut Up & Jam!” tour includes shows Aug. 2 and 3 at the Emerald Queen Casino in Tacoma. Morrison said he only learned of the Tacoma dates on May 1, when he went online to check ticket sales.
Had he known about the Tacoma shows, Morrison said, he would have never booked the “Cat Scratch Fever” singer.
U.S. Rep. Jaime Herrera Beutler, R-Camas, will not pursue federal legislation to transfer the Pearson Air Museum from the U.S. Park Service to the city of Vancouver.
On Tuesday morning, the Congresswoman learned the Vancouver City Council no longer supported the measure.
Casey Bowman, Herrera Beutler’s spokeswoman, said she is “extremely disappointed with the current situation.”
“Because the success of this bill hinges largely on the city’s willingness to assume ownership of the property, pursuing HR 716 without the City’s support makes no sense at this time,” Bowman wrote in an email.
The Fort Vancouver National Trust, which previously operated the museum, can’t go forward with plans to return to the site if the city decides it doesn’t want to own the property, said Steve Horenstein, chairman of the trust’s board.
“The property can’t be transferred to a private nonprofit like the trust,” Horenstein said. “It can only be transferred to the city or another government agency. So there’s nothing else the trust can do.”
Portland and a large swath of its Oregon suburbs are in the running for Google’s next wave of investment in its hyper-fast Google Fiber Internet service, a competition that grabs headlines for those cities that can race ahead of the competition on the cyber highway.
But even if some portions of the Portland metropolitan area win Google’s super-fast gigabit Internet service, Vancouver and Southwest Washington will be watching from the sidelines. Google has launched discussions with 34 cities in nine metropolitan areas, including Portland and its suburbs of Beaverton, Hillsboro, Gresham, Lake Oswego and Tigard. Portland is taking the lead on submitting the application to Google, and that application is headed to the Portland City Council for approval today. The service will not be available in all neighborhoods.
A Google Fiber spokeswoman told The Columbian that Vancouver was not considered to be part of that proposed fiber network.
“We have a lot of work to do, and we had to draw a line somewhere,” said Jenna Wandres, the Google Fiber spokeswoman. If Portland is selected, Google is not making any commitments about when the service might be extended north of the Columbia River, she said.
Google Fiber would offer speeds of 1,000 megabits per second — about 100 times faster than average speeds now available. That’s possible because fiber-optic networks, until now typically used for long-distance data traffic, can carry high volumes of data at the pulse of light. Google isn’t disclosing its costs for building the network.
PeaceHealth Southwest Medical Center and Clark County Public Health are conducting a joint investigation about a possible hepatitis C exposure involving patients.
According to a press release, some patients might have been exposed to the hepatitis C virus, a blood-borne liver disease, through the actions of a former PeaceHealth Southwest employee, who left the hospital in March 2014.
“Our caregivers work hard every day to heal and help patients,” said Sy Johnson, PeaceHealth Southwest Medical Center chief executive officer. “We are all deeply troubled by this discovery.”
PeaceHealth Southwest and Clark County Public Health are expected to complete the investigation by May 20. At that time, certified letters will be mailed to all patients who might have received care from the former employee. Those patients will be urged to receive hepatitis C testing at the expense of PeaceHealth Southwest.
Intertwined in each other’s arms, Jacob Linnell and Lydia Lynch slow danced. A corsage tied to her wrist, she wore a seafoam-green strapless gown. Under his suit jacket and tie, he wore a matching seafoam-green hospital gown.
After about a minute of dancing to “All of Me” by John Legend, Linnell had to sit down. It really did take all of him.
Linnell, 18, a senior at Battle Ground High School, had planned to escort Lynch, 18, his girlfriend, to her senior prom Saturday night at Hockinson High School. But his emergency appendectomy around 2 a.m. Saturday forced the couple to miss the dance, so hospital staff created a mini prom in Legacy Salmon Creek Medical Center’s sixth-floor conference room.
In the wee hours Saturday, Linnell’s appendix burst as his parents drove him to the emergency room. His mother, Michelle Linnell, texted Lynch: “We are on the way to emergency room. Jacob is in a lot of pain.” Lynch met them at the hospital.
With his blood pressure dangerously low, Jacob required immediate surgery.
