Morning Press: Crime count, cardrooms, Dick Hannah

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Here are some of the week’s top stories:

Agencies reflect on crime counts

If you ask Vancouver police Chief James McElvain why crime occurs, the overarching reason is clear: It’s human nature. You should be able to leave your wallet on a sidewalk and have nobody touch it, but that just isn’t going to happen.

“The more we’re around people the more opportunities there are for crime to occur,” McElvain said. “As long as you have laws, people are going to break them.”

Crime rates are one way to measure reported criminal activity in a given area. The Washington Association of Sheriffs and Police Chiefs recently released its annual report, analyzing certain crime rates in 2014. Violent crimes and property crimes make up the majority of their calculations.

But the introduction of a flashy new tribal casino doesn’t necessarily mean the end is on the horizon for everyone in the local cardroom industry. After all, La Center is still home to one of the most profitable cardrooms in the state: The Palace Casino.

Year in, year out for more than a decade, The Palace has ranked among the 10 most lucrative cardrooms in Washington. It’s the only Clark County cardroom with that caliber of sustained success, as all of the others have fallen deep into the red or even shut their doors at some point in recent years.

Read more about the cardrooms’ woes.

Dick Hannah eyes Value Village

The Dick Hannah Collision Center has filed a preliminary application to the city of Vancouver to expand into the building that now houses the Value Village thrift store at 7110 N.E. Fourth Plain Blvd.

The company said in its preliminary application that it would improve the building’s facade and possibly add a car wash to the east side of the commercial building, which it is in the process of purchasing. The renovated building would contain offices, a repair shop that includes an aluminum body shop, and welding section.

Hannah says it would install landscaping on the western right-of-way of Northeast 71st Avenue, which the building faces even though it has a Fourth Plain address.

Savers, the Bellevue-based for-profit thrift retailer that owns Value Village, did not respond to a request for information about future plans for a Value Village store in the area.

Learn more about Dick Hannah’s plans.

Christensen Shipyards likely to be sold to part-owner

The court-appointed receiver handling Christensen Shipyards, the financially troubled builder of yachts in Vancouver, wants to sell all or “substantially all” of the company’s assets to Henry Luken, the deep-pocketed Tennessee businessman who owns 50 percent of the company.

Court documents indicate the deal between the receiver, Miles Stover, founder and president of Turnaround Inc., and Luken may enable Christensen to avoid liquidation and to continue operations for the foreseeable future. Stover has restored operations at the company and re-hired more than 70 employees, according to documents filed with Clark County Superior Court.

Meanwhile, Ocean Alexander, a customer of Christensen’s, has won a court ruling that two unfinished hulls are not receivership property and that Ocean Alexander may remove them from Christensen’s site at 4400 S.E. Columbia Way.

Read more about the latest with Christensen Shipyards.

Vision can’t limit Joy of golf

Landon Joy pulls out his golf ball, places it on a tee at Broadmoor Golf Course and takes a few practice swings. Seconds later, the ball sails down the right side of the fairway.

But to him, it has disappeared entirely.

“I can tell by the feel if it’s gonna fade or draw,” Joy said while playing a practice round May 8. “Sometimes I’ll hit it and it’s like, ‘I don’t know where that’s going.’ “

Joy, 18, has eye disorders called cone/rod dystrophy and nystagmus, and is partially color blind. Despite playing golf with his eye condition, the senior was named 2A Greater St. Helens League First Team All-League and accepted a scholarship offer to Corban University, a Christian college in Salem, Ore., for this fall.

A talented golfer at Hudson’s Bay High School and a former Running Start student at Clark College, Joy will play in the WIAA Class 2A state tournament Wednesday and Thursday in Spokane.

Learn more about golfer Landon Joy.