Will beautiful weather continue through the weekend? Check our local weather coverage.
In case you missed it, here are some of the top stories of the week:
The Cowlitz Tribe is bristling at Clark County’s threats to arrest construction workers who are installing a stormwater line on a portion of county road that runs across the Cowlitz Reservation.
In his letter Tuesday to the Clark County council, Tribal Chairman Bill Iyall said the county has no legal jurisdiction over the tribe’s federally protected reservation, and that the tribal government has full authority to develop its property and manage the existing rights-of-way that run across it.
Read more about construction for the new casino.
As Clark County grapples with how to handle conflicting allegations made by Councilor David Madore and Community Planning staff, a third party has accused the councilor of wrongdoing.
Public service employee union AFSCME in November alleged that Madore, a Republican, violated state labor laws by doing work on the Comprehensive Growth Management Plan update that should have been performed by union employees, according to public records obtained from the county.
Learn more about the accusations.
This month, C-Tran received its first two of 10 60-foot-long New Flyer Xcelsiors articulated hybrid buses that will be used exclusively on The Vine, the transit agency’s new bus rapid transit system.
Each of the New Flyers is built one at a time. C-Tran expects the remaining eight buses to arrive by late summer or early fall. The Vine is expected to go live around November.
Learn more about the new buses.
With the Port of Vancouver’s staff recommending against a proposed lease change for Vancouver Energy’s rail-to-marine oil terminal — and no guarantee on how the port’s three commissioners might vote on it — the threat of derailment for what would be the nation’s largest oil terminal is suddenly very real.
Much is at stake as the project comes up on its third anniversary while it continues to slog through the state permitting process that could result in the project’s eventual rejection anyway. Whatever the outcome, the Port of Vancouver and Vancouver Energy stand to make — or lose — millions of dollars.
Read more about the vote to renew the oil terminal lease.
State Sen. Don Benton, R-Vancouver, missed arguably the most important vote of the 2016 legislative session.
In total, he missed 25 votes this session, topping the list for the most missed votes out of Clark County’s delegation. One of the final votes he missed was on the much-negotiated supplemental operating budget. Benton did not return a call seeking comment.
See how many votes other area lawmakers missed this session.
