The rain has returned, and the forecast for this week doesn’t give much hope for sunshine. Check our local weather coverage for details.
In case you missed them, here are some of the top stories from the weekend:
As political campaigns look for new ways to reach voters and earn their support, some traditions hold true. Campaign mailers once again flourished in Clark County, specifically relating to candidates in the 3rd Congressional District race.
A few pieces of literature were sent before the primary, but many likely noticed their mailboxes filling with campaign materials in the weeks before the Nov. 6 election. Six mailers alone went out in the days preceding the election.
Along with digital advertising, print materials represent a large chunk of campaign spending.
Are these mailers even effective?
What may surprise some is the content of the mailers. The bulk are negative.
Read the full story: 3rd District campaign mailers had mixed message
The word “hire” is used just four times in the 217-page annual budget for Clark County proposed by county Manager Shawn Henessee and approved last week by the county council.
The $518 million budget funds state mandates, public safety, transportation infrastructure and other services. Although Clark County’s population has rapidly grown, the county government has hired fewer people. Henessee said that’s not an accident.
“Whenever you add employees that is only a cost that will continue to go up,” Henessee said.
Figures provided by Clark County show that in 2009 the county had 1,125 full-time employees paid out of the general fund, the county’s largest discretionary fund. Their salaries and benefits cost $90.4 million.
By 2018, the number of full-time employees decreased to 1,067. However, the salary and benefits associated with these employees ballooned to $108.2 million. The 2019 budget anticipates 1,065 full-time employees paid for from the general fund at a cost of $111 million.
Henessee, and others, expect the problem to get worse as employees become more expensive, and the county has limited means of raising revenue.
Read the full story: Clark County annual budget explained
Crystal Bauer, 56, and her husband, Roddy, 57, have become fierce advocates for Kaine, but they initially never imagined they would adopt a child. They are grandparents with their biological children are in their 20s. The couple began fostering about six years ago, typically taking in boys with behavioral health issues like Kaine.
“We had some relatives who needed support and foster care services,” said Crystal Bauer, who’s licensed to have up to five foster children in her Hazel Dell home. “And then the phone just kept ringing.”
Her goal is to get children back home with their parents. Brinkman said Bauer has mentored mothers to give them the skills they need to get their children back.
That wasn’t in the cards for Kaine, the oldest of three boys who, like many children placed in the foster care system, faced neglect in his formative early years. Crystal Bauer remembers first meeting Kaine a handful of days before Christmas in 2014.
Read the full story: Raising Kaine — The Bauers adopt, help boy, 9, address his behavioral health, skills
The Last Frontier turned 30 years old in November, an occasion that prompted its management to celebrate among staff and customers and to encourage news stories about the milestone. But its leaders acknowledge they have a challenge ahead as they seek to chart a course for another 30 years or more.
The conditions facing The Last Frontier also affect the only other surviving La Center cardroom, The Palace. And those businesses are in the same quandary as other nontribal gaming facilities in the state. Where once there were 105 cardrooms in 2005 generating $302 million in net gambling receipts, there were 71 at the end of last year. They accounted for about $257 million — a 15 percent decrease in net receipts.
At The Last Frontier, the receipts had been edging slightly upward from 2013 through 2017, and the same applied to The Palace. Both likely were helped by the closure of Chips Casino and of the New Phoenix Casino.
This year’s figures are not yet available through the Washington State Gambling Commission. But a Nov. 28 report provided to the La Center City Council says gross revenue at both of the surviving cardrooms through September are down 17 percent from the same period last year and are down 22 percent compared with 2016.
Read the full story: At age 30, The Last Frontier makes sure this isn’t the last stand
