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In case you missed them, here are some of the top stories from the week:
Clark County Public Health Officer Dr. Alan Melnick relayed a grim message to the Clark County Council at Wednesday morning’s Clark County Board of Health meeting. Melnick said the county is in line to see more COVID-19 hospitalizations and deaths in the near future if infection rates don’t start to dip soon. On Wednesday afternoon, Public Health confirmed 37 new coronavirus cases in Clark County and no new deaths. The county has confirmed 1,090 total COVID-19 cases.
Read more about the county health department’s report.
The coronavirus pandemic’s latest Clark County victim was a young man in the midst of planning a wedding and buying his first house. Danh Tran, 34, had been recovering at home in Vancouver after falling ill. He died of COVID-19 on Tuesday, according to the Clark County Medical Examiner. That marked the 30th such death in Clark County since March. “It’s hard to comprehend or even grasp,” said Mark Woodford, who had been Tran’s friend since their days at McLoughlin Middle School. “I’m supposed to be standing next him as he marries his best friend. I can’t even stand next to him to bury him. And people want to be mad about having to wear a mask.”
Learn more about Danh Tran’s life and death.
A group of “confrontational and highly intoxicated” men from Clark County were arrested Saturday night in Lincoln City, Ore., for allegedly shooting illegal fireworks, harassing a Black family and challenging responding police officers to a fight, according to the Lincoln City Police Department.
Police were dispatched at 9:33 p.m. to a public beach in front of the Inn at Spanish Head after a report of a group shooting off illegal fireworks and causing a disturbance with other beachgoers, the department said.
Responding officers were immediately surrounded by a group of about 10 people who began taunting and challenging the officers for seizing illegal fireworks, police said.
Read more about the incident.
Recent destruction of memorials to Confederate leaders and causes haven’t deterred the private operators of Jefferson Davis Park, a small memorial visible from Interstate 5 near Ridgefield.
“I don’t understand honoring people that wanted to keep people in slavery,” NAACP Vancouver President Bridgette Fahnbulleh said. “It’s just a matter of who you identify with, and there are people who identify with the Confederacy.”
Marc Anderson, who lives in Ridgefield near the monument, agrees.
Learn more about the history of the monument.
With 21 years left on its lease, Who Song & Larry’s says it isn’t going anywhere.
Perched along the Columbia River, east of the Interstate 5 Bridge, the restaurant has plans to renovate its building by turning a wall on the outdoor patio into a garagelike door with a U-shaped bar extending outside.
Within the last two years, the building, at 111 S.E. Columbia Way, has also gotten new flooring to replace carpet and a fresh coat of gray paint that replaced a faded white exterior.
The total renovation will tally around $1 million, said Chris Lankford, senior regional director of Xperience Restaurants, the California-based company that owns Who Song & Larry’s.
Find out more about the riverfront restaurant’s plans.
