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Here are some of the stories that resonated with our columbian.com readers this week:
A Vancouver Public Schools employee who works through the counseling center at Thomas Jefferson Middle School made a first appearance Friday on allegations of possessing child pornography.
Alex J. Wright, 30, appeared in Clark County Superior Court on suspicion of nine counts of first-degree possessing depictions of a minor engaged in sexually explicit conduct and nine counts of attempted first-degree dealing in depictions of a minor engaged in sexually explicit conduct.
Clark County Deputy Prosecutor Randy St. Clair said law enforcement officers found “horrific” video files on Wright’s home computer that depicted children younger than 12 years old.
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Three men are being hailed as heroes after police say they intervened in a domestic assault at a Wal-Mart in Woodland.
A woman was assaulted by her boyfriend at the Wal-Mart, 1486 Dike Access Road, about 5 p.m. Thursday when three men who witnessed the event stepped in and detained the man, the Woodland Police Department reported. Officers arrived and arrested 33-year-old Owen Castonguay of Woodland.
“The Good Samaritans very likely prevented serious injury to the woman,” Woodland police said in a press release.
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Discontent rippled through the courtroom gallery as the judge handed down his sentence to Tanya Leffler on Monday — 7.75 years in prison, about a year short of the maximum.
The Amboy woman was driving high on methamphetamine when her 2010 Mitsubishi Galant struck and killed motorcyclist James Luden of Vancouver on April 14, 2014. Luden, 54, was stopped for traffic on Padden Parkway when the crash occurred.
Leffler, 35, pleaded guilty Monday in Clark County Superior Court to the original charge of vehicular homicide and faced a maximum sentence of 102 months, or 8.5 years, in prison.
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The Washington Fish and Wildlife Commission wants catch-and-release sturgeon fishing ended in the lower Columbia River to help protect the troubled population.
The nine-member panel voted unanimously in Vancouver on Saturday to direct the Department of Fish and Wildlife staff to begin talks with Oregon about a phase-out.
Ironically, the vote came at the end of a discussion on whether to talk with Oregon about having a small retention season in 2016 in the Columbia River estuary.
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Battle Ground Public Schools is discontinuing its alternative middle school at the end of the 2016-2017 school year.
Summit View Middle School currently serves 26 seventh- and eighth-grade students. Next school year, the school’s only students will be the 13 eighth-graders who are currently Summit View seventh-graders. The school will have one full-time teacher instead of two.
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A multipassenger brewery-and-sightseeing tour bike powered by the tourists who hop on board and pedal to and from their destination is coming to downtown Vancouver.
Michael Palensky and his wife, Maureen, plan to launch Couve Cycle in April. Palensky, a Vancouver native and former disc jockey, said he was inspired to bring the big bike to downtown Vancouver after seeing the city’s growth, from the expanded farmers market to the ever-increasing number of taprooms.
“It just seems to be a hub for new entertainment businesses,” he said.
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