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:
Proponents of Clark County’s blanket fee waivers have made some big claims to tout the program’s success.
“The floodgates to local private jobs are open and Free Enterprise is choosing Clark County,” Republican Clark County Councilor David Madore recently wrote in a Facebook post touting the program. Madore introduced the program waiving traffic impact and application fees for all nonresidential development in unincorporated areas in 2013.
But experts at Clark County and in the private sector continue to say the program has played a small role — if any at all — in spurring growth and creating jobs in unincorporated areas. A new assessment is underway.
“I applaud Councilor Madore’s intention to promote economic activity in Clark County’s unincorporated area,” said Republican Auditor Greg Kimsey, a longtime critic of the program. “However, there is no evidence the ‘Job Creation’ resolution has achieved this.”
And indeed, mounting evidence points to the fact that the county’s fee-waiver program is less an economic driver than it is a political talking point.
When a convicted felon switched ID bracelets with a fellow inmate scheduled for release and walked out of the Clark County Jail on Thursday, no one immediately noticed. Nor did they notice when the men switched cells prior to the escape.
Michael Diontae Johnson simply put on the other inmate’s clothes, signed the other inmate’s name on the paperwork and was a free man, according to a probable cause affidavit filed in Clark County Superior Court.
Johnson, 30, was serving a 24-year sentence for kidnapping and aggravated assault in Arizona but had been transferred to Clark County to stand trial on a domestic violence case. He is now additionally facing a charge of second-degree escape, court records show.
Johnson tricked jailers into mistakenly discharging him after he swapped identities with a fellow inmate, 19-year-old LaQuon Carson Boggs of Portland, and walked out of the jail about 8:30 a.m Thursday. The affidavit does not say how or why Boggs got involved in Johnson’s escape.
Clark County postal employees and community volunteers collected an estimated 100,000 pounds of food during the annual letter carriers food drive Saturday.
James Fitzgerald, operations manager for the Clark County Food Bank, said that number is “down quite a bit from last year,” and organizers are unsure of why. Nearly 138,000 pounds of food was collected last year.
“We are all scratching our heads trying to find out why,” he said. “It’s still an amazing amount, and we are definitely thankful.”
It’s possible people didn’t want to leave their food in the rain, Fitzgerald said.
Perhaps signaling a solution to one of the most vexing problems surrounding the $510 million Cowlitz casino, Clark County’s public health officer is recommending the county allow the tribe to connect to La Center’s city sewer system.
Forced to find its own solution, the tribe has been working on a system that would inject treated wastewater into the ground above the aquifer that supplies Clark County’s drinking water.
Hooking up the casino to the city sewer line is “the safest thing to do” and a public health necessity, Dr. Alan Melnick said.
A man took cover under a log with his two boys, and one asked: “Daddy, are we going to live with Jesus?”
His father replied, “Well … maybe, but not now.”
They all survived. They also witnessed a historic event, and are among hundreds who shared their memories of May 18, 1980, with Richard Waitt. The U.S. Geological Survey scientist is the author of “In the Path of Destruction: Eyewitness Chronicles of Mount St. Helens.”
“It began as a few eyewitness accounts to aid geological research,” the Vancouver geologist said. “The original purpose was science.”
Vancouver isn’t recognized for contributing to the rise of craft beer. But it should be.
“If you have a beer in Portland, there’s an 80 percent chance it’s made with our malt,” said Mike O’Toole, president of Great Western Malting Co. at the Port of Vancouver.
Since 1934, Great Western’s grain silos and towers have been a part of Vancouver’s western skyline and a major source of malt for brewers around the country. Today, the company is growing — along with the bellies of all those craft-beer lovers.
