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:
High school graduation season has begun. At high schools across Clark County, seniors are preparing to cross the stage to collect their diplomas and begin their next chapter. To mark this milestone, The Columbian is profiling six outstanding seniors from the Class of 2016 who have scaled significant obstacles, as recommended by their teachers, counselors and principals.
A train towing a highly volatile type of oil derailed Friday in the Columbia River Gorge near Mosier, Ore., igniting a fire that sent a plume of black smoke high into the sky and spurring evacuations and road closures.
Sixteen cars derailed in the 96-car Union Pacific train and several ignited, releasing oil alongside tracks that parallel the Columbia River, said Aaron Hunt, a spokesman for the railroad. All the cars were carrying Bakken oil, a type of oil that is more flammable because it has a higher gas content and vapor pressure, and lower flashpoint, than other varieties.
The derailment was quick to stir those opposed to the proposed Tesoro Corp. and Savage Cos. oil-by-rail terminal at the Port of Vancouver.
A catastrophic oil train derailment in the Vancouver area could cause roughly $5 billion to $6 billion in damage, and there isn’t insurance commercially available to cover it, according to expert testimony submitted in opposition to the Vancouver Energy oil terminal to the Energy Facility Site Evaluation Council.
Insurance expert Robert J. Blackburn was hired by the city of Vancouver to consider the financial risks and whether insurance or another financial tool was available to address the risks associated with moving Bakken crude-by-rail through town.
“There is no market to cover that entire risk at present,” he said in testimony.
Teams of fourth- and fifth-graders put their reading skills to the test when they went head to head in the Vancouver Public Schools district’s Battle of the Books competition held Saturday morning at the Vancouver Community Library.
“It keeps them reading, but also challenges them even further,” said Mary Vander Ploeg, teacher and librarian at Hazel Dell Elementary School and one of the organizers of the event.
Throughout the year, librarians at elementary schools across Vancouver put out a list of books. Interested students form teams and read the books, getting together to test their knowledge of the material. Librarians then form questions about the books and hold quiz show-style competitions, called battle of the books.
The PeaceHealth Southwest Caregivers United union was overwhelmingly voted into existence this week, with 211 licensed technical professionals voting for representation and 77 voting against.
“It’s overwhelming,” said CT technologist Eric Quinn. “We sent the message that we wanted to send. We didn’t just win — it was a blowout.”
The 313-member union, under the umbrella of the American Federation of Teachers and its Oregon Federation of Nurses and Health Professionals affiliate, is seeking better health care benefits and better staffing levels, among other workplace improvements.
