After last week’s extreme heat, see how high it is expected to go this week with our local weather coverage.
Here are some of the stories that grabbed our readers’ attention this weekend.
When Vancouver police shot and killed Justin Andrew Burton after he barged into an occupied apartment in February and threatened the occupants with a knife, it was a violent end to an all-too-common crisis.
Months before, Burton was arrested on suspicion of criminal trespass and resisting arrest after trying to enter a closed bar, and the case was put on hold when the court determined he lacked the mental capacity to stand trial.
Burton was one of the roughly 5 percent of Americans who have a severe mental illness, according to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration survey. Few of those people are ever violent, and contribute to maybe 3 to 5 percent of violent acts, according to the agency.
Learn more about what agencies are doing to keep conflicts from becoming deadly.
“It’s definitely safe to say that the earliest cheeses made in the Pacific Northwest were made in Clark County,” said Tami Parr.
She is the author of “Pacific Northwest Cheese: A History,” a 2013 publication in which Parr researched almost two centuries of dairy production in Washington and Oregon.
Clearly, there were no cheesemakers among the native inhabitants, Parr said, so it had to start when Europeans arrived. From there, it was a pretty easy process. The first arrivals to take up farming were employees of the Hudson’s Bay Company.
Read more about the history cheesemaking at the Fort.
LA CENTER — Driving into La Center is pretty straightforward. Take Exit 16 off Interstate 5 and turn east, away from the looming Ilani Casino Resort.
In two miles the road dips into a long left turn toward the East Fork of the Lewis River, the trees draw apart to show the bridge, the city’s wastewater treatment center and the cardrooms next door that helped pay for it.
Greg Thornton, La Center’s mayor, said the distance provides a nice buffer from the freeway, yet it also might be a missed opportunity. There’s very little to signal La Center’s offerings to the increasing number of people traveling to and from the Vancouver-Portland metro area.
Find out more about what is happening in La Center to encourage growth.
Customers of the Bonneville Power Administration, which includes Clark Public Utilities, broke records for electricity use three days in a row during this week’s heat wave, the federal power marketing agency said in a news release.
As temperatures hovered around the 100-degree mark, people turned on so many air conditioners and fans that they surpassed the BPA’s 2014 power consumption record of 7,861 megawatts. On Aug. 1, 2 and 3, customers consumed 8,048, 8,226 and 8,208 megawatts, respectively.
Read more about the electricity spike.
Ice is a great way to cool down in the heat, and, apparently, a pretty good way to make friends.
At least, that’s how it worked for Jayden Cavazos, 11, of Yacolt Friday morning while he and his family were waiting in line for pancakes on the first day of the Clark County Fair. Jayden, along with his siblings — Kylie, 7, and Camden, 4 — and their mother, Alicia Cavazos, got to the fair around 8 a.m. and waited at the end of a line hundreds deep at the Fred Meyer Free Pancake Breakfast. As the line turned a few corners and the odor changed from petting zoo to pancakes and syrup, the Cavazos reached bins once filled with bottled drinks. By the time they reached them around 9 a.m., they were mostly just ice.
Get all of the details about what is happening at the fair.
