What’s on tap for this week’s weather? Check our local weather coverage.
In case you missed them, here are some of the top stories of the weekend:
Results from Tuesday’s election won’t be certified until Aug. 16, but November’s general election match-ups are now clear. At least one key figure who has dominated the news will be out at the start of the year, and another tight legislative race proves voter turnout will be crucial to victory, no matter who wins.
The first of our five takeaways from the primary election is about how voters and candidates alike countywide appeared to disproportionately celebrate David Madore’s loss rather than their own candidates’ victories. They flooded social media with jubilant posts celebrating the pending end of Madore’s term in December.
At the election night party for 49th Legislative District candidate Alishia Topper, she and her volunteers whooped and cheered when they saw the news of Madore’s loss — even before the Democrat saw that she was moving on to the general election.
Other takeaways are that Clark County leaders will be younger and more educated after a changing of the guard; about the likely connection between the governor’s role in approving or rejecting the proposed oil terminal in Vancouver and his much stronger showing in Clark County this year, when compared to in 2012; a glimpse inside the numbers to show how turnout matters; and the contribution of millennials to the political discourse.
Read each of our five takeaways from last week’s primary election.
RIDGEFIELD — Sixty-five years after he died in North Korea, Billy Butz is finally coming home.
“He’s been MIA all this time,” said Gary Hein, the soldier’s brother-in-law.
The 18-year-old Vancouver man was killed in 1950 during fighting around the Chosin Reservoir, and he was listed as missing in action — MIA. As the Heins would learn, the remains of their soldier had been in American hands since 1954, but were designated only as X-15726.
The Heins knew that Butz was among the missing service personnel the Department of Defense had been hoping to identify, and they learned of the successful identification in April. The Department of Defense announced it Friday.
The remains of Pfc. Butz will arrive on Tuesday and will be taken to Vancouver Funeral Chapel. There will be a grave-side service with full military honors at 11 a.m. on Friday at Evergreen Memorial Gardens, in the Arlington West section.
Read more about the Korean War soldier MIA coming home.
Connecting Clark County’s work here is done — for now.
The political action committee launched to oppose Republican Clark County Councilor David Madore’s re-election bid is disbanding, its founder and primary donor David Nierenberg said Friday.
“We feel that our continued active existence is no longer necessary,” said Nierenberg, a Camas investor and philanthropist.
Connecting Clark County opposed Madore’s campaign in District 3, as well as Republican Eileen Quiring’s candidacy in District 4. The political action committee also supported Republicans John Blom in District 3 and Jennifer McDaniel in District 4.
The effort succeeded in part. Madore lost his race, finishing behind Blom and Democrat Tanisha Harris with a little less than 25 percent of the vote. Quiring, however, ran first in District 4, attracting more than 39 percent of the votes. McDaniel finished third, so Quiring and Democrat Roman Battan advanced to the November general election.
Read the full story about Connecting Clark County disbanding.
So what still needs fixing now that retail marijuana is a thriving business in the state?
The Washington State Institute for Public Policy won’t release its first Legislature-mandated report until September 2017, since it wrote last year that “not enough time has passed … to draw any cause-and-effect conclusions.”
Next year’s study will look at substance use, health, traffic safety, criminal justice, education and workplace safety and productivity. Until then: “Effects of the law will not be detectable until several years after implementation, and it may take longer for any effects to stabilize.”
Roffman, a co-sponsor of recreational marijuana legalization, agreed with that sentiment.
“Some impacts, for example, a possible increased demand for cannabis dependence treatment, may not become evident for five or 10 years,” he wrote in January’s Society for the Study of Addiction journal.
Still, experts say a few immediate effects are becoming clear as the initial high of legalization wears off.
It his second major reorganization of the year, Clark County Manager Mark McCauley announced Friday that he will be consolidating the county manager’s office, the Clark County council and the county’s public information and outreach department.
Peter Silliman, a policy analyst controversially appointed in 2014, will be laid off in the reorganization, McCauley said.
McCauley estimates the total reorganization will save the county about $250,000 a year.
“I needed to cut 10 percent of my budget, and this is how I got there,” McCauley said.
Silliman, a former Clark County freeholder who opposed the charter and one-time Republican legislative candidate, was appointed to the research assistant and policy analyst position about two years ago. Then Commissioners David Madore and Tom Mielke, Republicans, and Democratic Commissioner Ed Barnes, approved the hire.
Read the full story about Clark County Manager Mark McCauley’s latest reorganization.
