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In case you missed it, here are some of the top stories of the week:
John McKibbin’s aircraft was lifted out of the Columbia River near Astoria, Ore., on Tuesday morning.
According to Clatsop County Sheriff Tom Bergin, Bergerson Construction and AvTech Services used divers and floating cranes to pull McKibbin’s fragmented plane out from a depth of about 17 feet.
“We started at about 7 a.m. and most of the lifting was done before noon,” he said.
The plane came out of the river in several large pieces of twisted metal. Much of the aluminum body was stripped from the frame. The most intact piece was the rear of the fuselage, with its bright red tail and a short section of polished aluminum bearing World War II-era aircraft insignia on both sides.
Linda Spieth was arriving at a softball tournament near Denver with her daughter Mo, chatting on the phone with friend John Gay. Spieth and Gay had coached the Vancouver Patriots girls fastpitch team together for five summers. Gay had moved to Kansas City, and hadn’t seen the Spieths for some time.
“We came over the hill and he was standing there. He drove all the way from Kansas City to Denver to watch Mo play,” Spieth recalled. “That’s just the way John was.”
Considered one of the best fastpitch softball pitching coaches in the nation, Gay died on March 11 at his Battle Ground home. He was 75.
Less than a year after joining a regional records management system that gives deputies access to reports of more than 40 police agencies, Clark County Sheriff’s Office is looking for an alternative.
While there are potential benefits of the Portland-based Regional Justice Information Network, called RegJIN for short, Undersheriff Mike Cooke said that they don’t outweigh the many problems with the system.
“RegJIN is a disaster,” Cooke said. “The system is so needlessly complicated. … It’s really an unusable system.”
Eight months ago, Rey was shivering in an outdoor cage at a South Korean dog meat farm, fated to be killed and eaten.
Today, the sleek, brown large-breed dog lives in a Vancouver foster home, learning the ways of American pets as he waits for someone to adopt him.
Rey, a Tosa, or Japanese mastiff, is among the 102 dogs Humane Society International rescued in August after convincing the owner of one of South Korea’s 17,000 dog meat farms to switch to growing crops.
Vancouver’s Sweet Tomatoes restaurant on Wednesday became a test kitchen for the California-based chain’s trial run of new meat sandwich and entree options aimed at attracting more new and repeat customers to the all-you-can-eat venue.
The company’s one-day offer of free food brought out a large crowd of eager diners. Customers lined up along the salad bar brimming with broccoli, shredded cheese, assorted greens and more just 15 minutes after doors opened at 11 a.m.
Known for its offerings of fresh fruit and vegetables, Sweet Tomatoes is studying how its customers will respond to meat options.
