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Here are some of the stories that grabbed readers’ attention this week.
Keeping garbage off public lands and convincing campers to pick up after themselves are perennial struggles for land management agencies, but local officials with the U.S. Forest Service say they’re seeing more trash now than at any point in recent memory.
One area on the Mount St. Helens National Volcanic Monument, which is often used for primitive and free camping, was left in a galling state when Forest Service workers visited it in early September.
“It was a disaster,” said Chelsea Muise, the monument’s recreation program manager.
Several tents and a gazebo were left with piles of clothing trailing out of them. A bathroom area with a primitive toilet was left behind. Empty cans and food bags were piled around the site.
The Forest Service allows up to 14 consecutive days of camping at one site. What workers found indicated whoever left the mess was there longer.
A chaotic scene unfolded Monday after Clark County Superior Court Judge Robert Lewis agreed to delay sentencing for triple murderer Brent Luyster.
The decision elicited gasps, shouts and sobs from family members and friends of Luyster’s shooting victims, as well as from the sole shooting survivor, Breanne Leigh.
As Luyster, 37, was escorted from the courtroom, Leigh and the victims’ families demanded answers.
The decision to postpone sentencing came after prosecuting attorneys divulged that a juror may have been influenced during deliberations by seeing Luyster’s shaved head — revealing a tattoo of SS bolts, a neo-Nazi symbol.
Luyster shaved his head sometime while the jury was in deliberations. The jury briefly saw Luyster the day before handing down guilty verdicts Nov. 17 on three counts of aggravated murder.
The appearance of “It’s OK to be white” and similar posters on the Clark College campus left students and staff feeling frightened, angry and threatened, members of a crowded audience said at a community forum Wednesday.
As first reported by Oregon Public Broadcasting, “It’s OK to be white” posters first appeared on campus in early November, about a week before demonstrators waved signs bearing the slogan on an Interstate 5 overpass in Vancouver. “It’s OK to be white” posters have also been spotted on Washington State University’s Pullman campus and at other colleges across the country.
In response, Clark College hosted two community forums this week, collecting ideas on how to make students of color feel more secure on campus going forward.
A dispute between Ghost Runners Brewery and an investor spilled into the courts last week and could affect development of its coveted waterfront real estate.
In a complaint filed Friday in Clark County Superior Court, Texas-based investor Brad Rummer argues that the brewery has been mismanaged into insolvency and its assets should be sold off by a receiver.
Jeff Seibel, who together with his wife, Amy, owns the majority of the company, calls the mismanagement claims untrue and said the suit is part of a “hostile takeover.” He says Rummer torpedoed the business so he could seize its assets — including a 6,500-square-foot space at The Waterfront Vancouver.
Neither Rummer or his attorneys at Vancouver firm Landerholm could be reached for comment.
Two former Clark County Jail inmates have filed a lawsuit against Clark County for failure to accommodate a disability. Melody Alvarez and Kalpana Crabtree, both deaf, allege they did not receive proper accommodations while detained at the county jail in August 2016 and December 2014, respectively.
According to the lawsuit, the jail failed to offer American Sign Language interpreters while being booked, while in the general jail population or while attending activities such as Narcotics Anonymous. The suit also states the two women were not provided an explanation of jail procedures and other announcements in a way that could be understood by deaf inmates, nor were they allowed telephone access, including use of a teletype machine, or TTY.
