Those hot days are just a memory. Check our local weather coverage.
In case you missed them, here are some of the top stories of the weekend:
For armchair politicos with an eye on this year’s heated election season, the Clark County Council races are arguably the local contests to watch.
And if it’s any indication from the recent chattering of bloggers, wonks and gadflies of all kinds, the races for Clark County Council District 3 and District 4 are about the personalities. Do voters want to see more of the leadership style of Republican Councilors David Madore and Tom Mielke? Or are they ready for a change?
District 4 Councilor Mielke, 74, will retire at the end of this year after eight years on the dais. Republicans Eileen Quiring and Jennifer McDaniel, as well as Democrat Roman Battan, are running to succeed him.
District 3 incumbent Madore announced his bid for a second term at the Clark County Republican Party Convention earlier this year. Republican John Blom and Democrat Tanisha Harris are running to take his seat.
The Washington State Department of Transportation is upgrading state Highway 502 to make the busy road safer for motorists, but some residents living along the road worry their own safety is being compromised.
To make the highway safer for vehicles, WSDOT added two extra lanes, added a highway shoulder and installed a centerline barrier between the two directions of traffic on the road linking Interstate 5 with Battle Ground.
Lois Beard has lived up a private road off Highway 502 a few miles east of I-5 since the late 1980s. Until recently, her mailbox and those of her nine residents were about 10 feet up their road and away from the highway traffic — and even then, wayward vehicles crashed into them three times.
Now the mailboxes are along the highway, and she says getting her mail has become a harrowing experience as cars blow past her turned back.
“I just won’t go out there until the (traffic) light has changed,” she said.
Incurable disease and an apparent immigration dead-end are forcing the incoming lead teacher at the Emil Fries School of Piano Technology for the Blind to drop her plans and head back to Canada later this month.
The U.S. government’s refusal to grant Lori Amstutz the legal permanent resident status she once enjoyed — known as a green card — appears to be the result of her American husband’s inability to work due to accelerating multiple sclerosis. Because he can’t earn an income, he can’t be her American-citizen sponsor here. Without sponsorship, she can’t legally earn an income here either.
There is no health- or disability-based exception to these immigration rules, according to Vancouver immigration attorney Mercedes Riggs, who has counseled the couple. Riggs said their only option appears to be to find yet another co-sponsor who can guarantee that Lori Amstutz won’t become a burden on American taxpayers.
Always review your ABCs before you hop on your bicycle. ABCs means air, brakes and chain.
What, you forgot that starter lesson from years or decades ago? Or never had any bicycle safety instruction? Or grew up without a bike?
All of that is what Bike Clark County wants to remedy. The homegrown nonprofit agency aims to make bikes and helmets available to children who can’t afford them — sometimes by learning their way to earning a bike — and to provide their earliest lessons in the rules of the road.
They’ll use those rules for the rest of their lives, said Bike Clark County board member Peter Van Tilburg. It’s a strong point to make when you’re selling too-cool-for-school kids on taking bike safety in health-physical education classes: Just consider it the start of driver education. What middle-schooler isn’t eager for that?
The new corporate headquarters for Banfield Pet Hospital is twice the size of the event center at the Clark County Fairgrounds, consumes only half the energy of a typical office building, and is immeasurably more dog-friendly than just about any other workplace.
The building — designed as three structures that merge into a central core of common areas for employees, pets and visitors — is a world-class addition to Clark County’s urban fabric. At the new workplace for hundreds of “associates” who will relocate this week from Portland, the eye-pleasing headquarters raises the bar regionally for creative and functional design of office space in an era where casual, collaborative and downright fun work environments are the calling card for attracting top-notch employees.
“This building is where the future is headed,” said Kelly Roth, Portland-based project executive for Skanska, the general contractor for the three-floor headquarters. “It’s really a good environment.”
