The images of police in body armor and ballistic helmets clashing with protesters in Ferguson, Mo., in recent weeks have raised concerns about the militarization of law enforcement.
Locally, the Southwest Washington Regional SWAT team can arrive on scene in a massive show of force, with officers spilling from Lenco Bearcat and Gage Peacekeeper armored personnel vehicles.
“Our equipment is not designed to scare or intimidate. It’s protective,” said Cmdr. Mike McCabe of the Clark County Sheriff’s Office. “SWAT exists because there are those calls that are greater danger to the community and to the officer. Some calls, a patrol officer shouldn’t be asked to respond to.”
SWAT commanders say they are well aware that the team’s response has the power to either quell or inflame volatile situations, and they work hard to deploy judiciously. Over the past 10 years, SWAT has activated about three times a month, 70 percent of the time to execute search and arrest warrants. That increasing use of SWAT for routine matters is what worries civil libertarians, who argue it pits police against the citizens they are supposed to protect.
To be sure, SWAT action can save the day, as it did on March 14, when officers shot and killed one of Washington’s most wanted fugitives, who was armed and barricaded in a Ridgefield home. But SWAT also has the potential to escalate tensions, as a Ridgefield woman alleges in a federal civil-rights lawsuit against SWAT for shooting her when she was suicidal.
Nancy Youlden has watched every step of Washington State University Vancouver’s growth from its beginning on an old dairy farm to the fast-growing campus it is today.
Youlden, the campus’s vice chancellor for student affairs, is one of the few WSU employees who have been working for the campus ever since the Washington Legislature established the university’s branch campus system in 1989. On Saturday afternoon, she joined droves of staff, faculty, students, alumni and future Cougs in celebrating the campus’s 25th birthday.
Dozens crowded around the Firstenburg Family Fountain at the heart of campus, lining the sidewalks with displays about campus history, culture and academics. Classic rock played from loudspeakers as groups toured the campus, grabbing samples of Cougar Gold cheese, free cupcakes and chances to pose for a picture with Butch T. Cougar.
The festivities continued into the night with a concert and numerous exhibits on campus programs. For Youlden and many others, it was a chance to look back on how WSU Vancouver has changed over the years.
“Southwest Washington was starving for higher ed, for WSU,” Youlden said, thinking back on WSU Vancouver’s origin. “So, people are so appreciative that for many of our students the fact that we’re here allows them to finish a degree or get a degree.”
WSUV’s first graduating class, in 1990, had 38 students.
In 20 years, a larger economy and a larger population figure to put an even bigger strain on Washington’s highways, roads and rails.
An ongoing update to a statewide transportation plan aims to help answer the question: How will the state’s already-aging infrastructure keep up? The Washington Transportation Plan 2035, now the subject of public review, is the latest version of the state’s long-term vision.
“This document that is going out for public comment is going to be the blueprint for how we look at transportation in the state of Washington for the next 20 years,” said state transportation commission member Roy Jennings.
The Washington State Transportation Commission will host an open house on the 2035 plan Monday in Vancouver, part of a series of outreach events planned for this month. The agency is asking for public comments to be submitted by Sept. 25.
The statewide plan isn’t designed to outline specific projects for any particular region. Rather, the document is created as a “30,000-foot” vision with guiding policies and recommendations, said Paul Parker, deputy director of the transportation commission. Suggested actions fall under one of six categories: economic vitality, preservation, safety, mobility, environment and stewardship.
Parker admits that that kind of high-level, long-range policy doesn’t resonate strongly with a lot of people. But the conversation now will affect everyone, including many Washington residents currently not old enough to drive, he said.
“We’re really talking about the transportation system for that generation coming up,” Parker said.
Dawn Darington would like to see her thriving medical marijuana dispensary business shuttered.
“Please put me out of business,” Darington, sporting a black shirt with “marijuana is safer than alcohol” emblazoned on it, told Sen. Ann Rivers, R-La Center, on Friday afternoon.
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“There are legitimate uses of medical marijuana,” Rivers said. “I want to make sure only true patients are using it, that it’s the highest quality, and that it stays out of the hands of children.”
This won’t be the first time Rivers introduces a bill to rein in what she’s deemed the “Wild West” of the state’s medical marijuana system, but this time she believes she has the support and the political landscape for it to pass. Darington is one of the medical marijuana advocates Rivers has consulted while crafting the latest version of the measure.
“For every good business, there are 1,000 bad ones,” Darington said. It’s time to scrap and rebuild the system, she said.
The language of Rivers’ proposed legislation has yet to be finalized, but the key components would charge the Department of Health with overseeing and creating standards deeming whether a type of cannabis could be considered medical grade. And, perhaps most controversially, there would be a registry of medical marijuana patients.
Previously, advocates decried a registry, worrying it could hurt patients and make them possible targets of the federal government.
Tom Lauerman, a local licensed medical and recreational marijuana grower, said “it’s totally an invasion of privacy.” He said he doesn’t see the need for a registry, particularly because the product is now legal.
“It should be a private thing,” Lauerman said. Tracking use would ultimately drive up costs for the many low-income patients who depend on the product, he said.
Rivers said a registry would be crucial to regulate the system, which right now operates in a legal gray zone.
Vancouver’s warmest summer on record has brought good news to local farmers.
Temperatures have found a sweet spot — warm, but not too warm, producing good yields for fruits and vegetables grown in Clark County.
“Virtually everything we have has been doing really well this year,” said Bill Zimmerman, co-owner of Bi-Zi Farms in the Glenwood area north of Vancouver.
That’s because while temperatures have been consistently high, they haven’t reached extremes. Vancouver has recorded 15 days above 90 degrees so far this year, but none above 100, according to the National Weather Service. Conditions have often landed in an ideal range for many crops, Zimmerman and other growers say.
“This 85-degree, 90-degree kind of weather is just about perfect,” Zimmerman said.
This year’s yields were also boosted by a favorable spring, said Charles Brun, horticulture adviser with Washington State University’s Clark County Extension. Warm conditions and near-average precipitation helped keep many crops on track early in the season, he said.
Too much rain in May, for example, can delay planting or introduce mold and other problems, Brun said. That’s been a big challenge for Northwest growers in past years. But not this year.
“If you have a really good month of May, that sets the stage for the rest of the year,” Brun said. “And we had a really good May.”
