Here comes the deluge — check our local weather coverage.
In case you missed them, here are some of the top stories of the weekend:
Carter McCleary was 7 years old when McCleary v. Washington state was filed in 2007.
Five years later, Washington’s Supreme Court weighed in on the case, calling on lawmakers to meet their constitutional “paramount duty” and adequately fund the state’s public school system.
More recently, the state’s top court went further, holding the Legislature in contempt for failing to make adequate progress on its mandate in the so-called McCleary case. When that didn’t work, the court this summer resorted to a fine: $100,000 for each day the Legislature remains mired in partisanship, unable to solve the state’s school crisis.
“It feels like a standoff, with the kids in the middle,” said Stephanie McCleary, the plaintiff.
Lawmakers embarked on “listening tours,” traveling the state to hear from education leaders. The governor convened a task force and offered to call a special legislative session if there was a breakthrough.
Yet a deal that would satisfy both political parties and the state’s top justices, and, most importantly, amply fund the state’s public education system, appears as elusive as ever.
Washington’s review of major energy facilities is unlike that of any other state. It relies on an appointed body of government officials, called the Energy Facility Site Evaluation Council, to examine major proposals and produce environmental impact statements that are advisories to the governor. The process can be exhaustive, but it’s intended to minimize politics and provide a fair and balanced evaluation of major energy projects. While the public is invited to participate, the highly technical process is fertile ground for attorneys and advocacy organizations.
It’s in this context that the proposed oil terminal at the Port of Vancouver, controversial from the time it was first announced in 2013, will be in the news in a big way for the next two months. The evaluation council’s release on Nov. 24 of a draft Environmental Impact Statement on the proposed oil terminal launched a 60-day public review process that invites citizens to raise their voices about the giant project that would put Vancouver at the nexus of West Coast oil transport.
The environmental review examines the proposal by Tesoro Corp., a petroleum refiner, and Savage Cos., a transportation company, to build a terminal at the Port of Vancouver that would receive about 360,000 barrels of crude per day. The oil, coming from midcontinent oil fields in the U.S. and possibly Canada, would then be transferred to marine vessels and sent down the Columbia River en route to West Coast refineries.
Here’s a look at the state’s review process and how it will play out in the months ahead.
Thousands of Clark County residents donning rain jackets and boots hit the streets Saturday morning to collect donations for the county’s largest food drive.
About 3,700 people answered calls for help from Clark County Interservice Walk & Knock organizers and dedicated their Saturday to helping the county’s hungry. A few days ago, the event was still down about 1,000 volunteers. By Saturday morning, though, organizers had enough volunteers to cover all of their pick-up areas throughout the county, said Justin Wood, Walk & Knock president.
“So far, so good,” Wood said Saturday afternoon. “I’m cautiously optimistic that we’ll do better than last year.”
In 2014, the annual event collected 135 tons of food and about $20,000, Wood said. Food totals have been declining the last few years, but Wood is hoping to reverse that trend this year.
The Vancouver man whose property served as the ramp that sent a car airborne in a police pursuit Tuesday night said that after five other crashes on the road below his home, he’s tired of his requests that the city put in some kind of barrier falling on deaf ears.
The Vancouver Police Department said Douglas Atkins, 41, drove off after officers responded to a call about an assault on the 3300 block of Grand Boulevard.
He sped away south, and around the Washington School for the Deaf, his car crossed the centerline and up the embankment that leads to Morrison’s porch and front door at 503 Grand Blvd.
“I’ll never forget this, in all my life,” Morrison said.
Morrison said he’s been lobbying the city, unsuccessfully, to place some kind of barrier along the east side of the road below his house, where the crashes happened.
When he’s gone to the city in the past, officials have told him the city’s lawyers were concerned about liability concerns from drivers.
Other times, he said, officials expressed concerns about putting in the concrete slab-style Jersey barriers he’d prefer.
He’d even pay to make the improvements himself, he said. On one occasion, he said he spent $1,500 to hire an independent certified traffic engineer to look at the turn at the city’s recommendation. Still no help, he said.
In an era when an image can be a function of pixels, art forms that go back hundreds of years continue to dazzle.
A traditional art now on display at the Clark County Historical Museum is a result of needles, bits of colored glass and an abundance of patience.
The new exhibit is “Making Beauty: Native Beadwork of North America.” Items on display range from artifacts created in the mid-1800s up to contemporary Indian beadwork.
Displays explore themes of trade networks, materials and artistry, as well as cultural comparisons. One prominent type of beaded product developed from a difference in European and tribal clothing: Traditional Indian apparel didn’t have pockets, noted Steve Grafe, curator at the Maryhill Museum of Art.
Grafe and tribally certified artisan Angela Swedberg were the exhibit’s co-curators. One of the goals was to “show off the museum collection at its best,” Grafe said.
Another objective was to give people who may not be familiar with the medium a good understanding of beading as a prehistoric, historic and modern art form, said Grafe, who wrote the interpretive panels. Grafe also provided many of the archive photographs that are part of the exhibit.
