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In case you missed them, here are some of the top stories of the weekend:
Clark County took a position on one of the region’s most politically fraught topics and then abruptly reversed itself after emerging from a closed-door meeting.
During the council’s board time meeting on Wednesday, Council Chair Marc Boldt asked the council to take a position on a bill, sponsored by most of Clark County’s legislative delegation, intended to streamline the replacement of the Interstate 5 Bridge, which has long been a divisive topic.
The item wasn’t on the meeting’s agenda, but Boldt asked for the council to take a position on the legislation so the county could provide directions for its lobbyist in anticipation of an upcoming hearing on the bill.
Initially, Councilors Julie Olson and John Blom, along with Boldt, supported the bill “with concerns.” Councilors Jeanne Stewart and Eileen Quiring preferred to take a neutral position on the legislation.
Later in the meeting, the council entered executive session, a special meeting that allows officials to exclude the public while they discuss legally sensitive topics. When the council reemerged, the councilors who initially backed the bill changed their minds.
Read the full story: Clark County council neutral on I-5 Bridge
Sara Lugo has awakened her husband countless times over the past 20 years with an elbow and a command.
“You gotta read Lou today,” Lugo would tell her husband.
She was referring to weekly Press Talk columns written by Columbian Editor Lou Brancaccio.
Lugo and hundreds of others had a chance to thank Brancaccio for his years of columns and service to the community on Saturday at an open house to celebrate his retirement. Friday was Brancaccio’s last day.
Brancaccio, 66, was hired as The Columbian’s managing editor in November 1997 and took over as editor in January 2001, after the retirement of Tom Koenninger.
“I just like that he let people know what was happening in local government, important things that people need to know,” Lugo of Salmon Creek said. “He was brave about calling out inappropriate things that were happening. It was addictive fun reading him.”
Reading Press Talk was a bit more conflicting if you were the subject of the column, as former Vancouver Mayor Royce Pollard found out plenty of times.
Read the full story: Launching Lou forward
Shaun Johnson sat with her head in her hands Friday as a jury once again convicted her of vehicular assault stemming from a 2013 crash that resulted in the amputation of a Battle Ground teen’s lower leg.
The Clark County Superior Court jury deliberated seven hours before handing down its decision shortly after 2 p.m. Friday in the June 10, 2013, crash. The conviction was based on prosecution claims that Johnson was under the influence of methamphetamine when she struck then-16-year-old Justin Carey as he waited for a school bus beside Northeast 82nd Avenue in Battle Ground. He was found later, lying in the bushes, by a tow truck driver.
Johnson, 50, of Amboy was convicted in spring 2015 of the same charge and others, and was sentenced to three years in prison. However, a state appeals court in July overturned her convictions for vehicular assault and methamphetamine possession after finding that the Clark County sheriff’s deputy who found the drug in her purse had searched it illegally.
The prosecution had used the methamphetamine as evidence in her first trial to prove she was under the influence. The appeals court ruled that the drug evidence was erroneously allowed during Johnson’s trial. It was not introduced in the new trial.
Read the full story: Amboy woman convicted again of vehicular assault
The Greater Vancouver Chamber of Commerce’s 2015 Ambassador of the Year was dismissed Friday after writing on social media that certain illegal immigrants should be “shot on sight.”
John Cozzi Jr., president and CEO of Tailored Logistics Inc., wrote on Facebook that “if you are an illegal immigrant and committed a crime and you were deported by to (sic) your country and you are caught back in America illegally again, you should be shot on sight.”
“That will slow down illegal immigrants from coming back illegally,” he wrote.
The comment was one of three he made on a thread on the Facebook group Clark County Citizens for Good Governance after another person posted about a law enforcement agency not providing coats to children standing outside during an investigation.
After some backlash from others on the Facebook thread, Cozzi, 61, wrote that his brother was killed by an illegal immigrant with a criminal record who returned to the United States after being deported.
“The third time back is when he killed my brother trying to rob him,” he wrote. “Tell me again why he should not be shot on sight.”
The comments were posted shortly after midnight Thursday. When reached by phone Friday morning, Cozzi said he did not blame the chamber for his dismissal but defended his remarks against public vitriol.
Read the full story: Chamber ambassador dismissed after inflammatory comments
