Rain is expected to return this weekend. Check out our extended forecast.
Here are some of the top stories this week on columbian.com.
Vancouver ends Cowlitz casino fight
Moments after Cowlitz tribal leaders urged the Vancouver City Council to begin working with them, the council unanimously voted Monday to overturn a 2007 resolution opposing the tribe’s casino project west of La Center.
The resolution ends the city’s participation in the current lawsuit challenging the casino, and it invites dialogue between the city government and tribal government.
“We feel it will be a new beginning, turning a page on a history that maybe we’d rather not look back at. But it’s a breath of fresh air,” Cowlitz Tribe Chairman Bill Iyall said during Monday’s public hearing. “We’re more than happy to work on any remaining issues you have.”
Moeller to run for Congress against Herrera Beutler
State Rep. Jim Moeller announced Wednesday he’s jumping into the race for the 3rd Congressional District with the hopes of unseating U.S. Rep. Jaime Herrera Beutler.
“My No. 1 goal is the community gets the representation it deserves,” Moeller said. “And unfortunately that’s not happening in Washington, D.C., and I plan on changing that.”
Moeller, a Democrat from Vancouver, previously announced he was giving up his long-held seat in the Statehouse to run for lieutenant governor.
Students give first aid to Camas teen hurt badly in car crash
A group of Mountain View High School students rendered first aid to a Camas teenager badly hurt in a car crash Saturday night while they waited for emergency medical personnel.
Senior Grant Moog, 18, said their timing was a miracle. He was out driving with friends — sophomore Grace Akers, 16, and senior Matt Ferguson, 18 — when they were pulled over. They were drifting, Moog said, and got a ticket.
The three then returned to Ferguson’s house to switch vehicles before going on their way to do some hot-tubbing, Moog said.
Sky Zone park growing in old Albertsons
“Take the leap!”
It’s a three-word phrase that turns up in a lot of places. At corporate retreats. Classrooms. Career counselor offices. Fund raisers. Even living rooms. And, by mid-summer, people will be taking leaps and bounds at the region’s first Sky Zone Trampoline Park.
Construction is well underway at 5000 E. Fourth Plain Boulevard, across from the recently closed — yet still beloved — Golden Skate. “We wanted a very central location, where most of the community could drive in 20 minutes or less,” said Carrie Schnell, franchise owner of the park.
Woodland couple rebuilding after fire
Jenny Stanton-Johnson watched the fire dance around the sky while crackling sounds echoed through her 16-acre Woodland property, but all she could focus on was the smell of roasting pig.
“It was just heinous,” said Stanton-Johnson, 42.
The firefighters had already left, telling her there was nothing they could at that point and they needed to let the fire burn, and so Stanton-Johnson watched the overnight destruction of her storage barn.
