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Here are some of the stories that grabbed our readers’ attention this week.
Thinking of driving down to Oregon to see the eclipse next week? Don’t.
Planning to commute to Portland for work like you would on any Monday morning? You probably shouldn’t do that, either.
Oregon and Washington transportation agencies don’t know for sure what the roads will look like when an estimated 1 million people begin descending on Oregon to stand in the path of totality during the Aug. 21 eclipse, but they’re predicting it’s going to push highways to the max.
Troopers are investigating after a suspected homeless man’s body was found under the Mill Plain Boulevard onramp for Interstate 205 in Vancouver Wednesday night.
An acquaintance of the man found him in a makeshift homeless camp where the two live, Washington State Patrol Trooper Will Finn said.
The acquaintance last saw the man on Sunday and he was fine, but found him dead on Wednesday, Finn said. Troopers were called to the area around 8 p.m. and began a death investigation.
Detectives are investigating whether false reporting charges are appropriate after a woman called 911 to report a man had threatened her and two others with a knife, prompting heavy police response to an apartment complex in Vancouver’s Fourth Plain Village neighborhood Saturday morning.
Police swarmed the Cedar Lanes Apartments, 3205 E. 33rd St., just before 9 a.m. after a woman called 911 and told dispatchers that a man staying in the apartment threatened her and others with a knife, Vancouver Police Department spokeswoman Kim Kapp said.
A few feet from each other, a pair of new Vancouver businesses are near opening. Storefront windows are papered or tinted with sawdust, while workers hammer away behind the scenes.
It’s a familiar sight in Clark County these days, except for the fact that the building is 80 years older than the one that probably comes to mind.
“People need places to shop, places to eat,” said Rob Aschieris, property manager of the Schofield Building, across from downtown Vancouver’s Smith Tower at Sixth and Washington streets. For 50 years, 10,000 square feet of the building was dominated by a beauty school.
Vancouver School of Beauty, which closed in 2015, “had its day,” Aschieris said. “But the whole downtown has turned another direction.”
When the much-anticipated Ilani Casino Resort opened in the spring, traffic was backed up for miles with visitors eager to check out the new venue.
Months later, the casino doesn’t draw quite the same number of visitors, but people who live nearby have complained that when the venue holds large events, they’ve been denied access to Northwest 319th Street, which they rely on to get home.
Although Clark County and the Cowlitz Tribe are working with residents on the issue, residents remain worried that the casino’s plans for a gas station, hotel and other additions will just make the situation even harder to manage.
