The Columbian

Editor's Choice

Parents, like the ones pictured at Sherwood Forest Elementary on Jan. 27, 2023, attended multiple open houses to discuss the potential closure of several elementary buildings in the Bellevue Public Schools in response to shrinking enrollment rates. Bellevue is now considering consolidating a middle school, and other districts including Seattle and Olympia are considering similar moves for next school year, in response to enrollment projections.

Enrollment woes leave Washington school closures on the table

January 5, 2024, 6:00am Editor's Choice

Despite a slight increase in public school enrollment statewide, school closures and consolidations within the next few years are still being discussed in several Western Washington school districts. Read story

The Attorney General's Office expects to send more than 400,000 checks to Washington households by the end of the year because the state has settled a series of price-fixing lawsuits with chicken and tuna producers.

Tuna, chicken settlement checks from Washington AG’s Office are legitimate – don’t throw them away

January 4, 2024, 6:05am Business

If you get a check in the mail from the Washington Attorney General’s Office, don’t throw it away. It’s not a scam, as feared by several who called The Columbian after the unexpected checks arrived. Read story

Battle Ground man, Vancouver woman ID’d as those killed in December crash

January 3, 2024, 12:54pm Clark County News

A Battle Ground man and a Vancouver woman have been identified by the Clark County Medical Examiner’s Office as the people killed in a Dec. 20 crash near Five Corners. Read story

The Hanford LIGO facility near Tri-Cities is part of a network that includes a site 1,800 miles away in Louisiana.

Gravitational wave observatory in Eastern WA breaks quantum limit. Why it matters

January 3, 2024, 7:27am Editor's Choice

The LIGO Hanford Observatory near Richland is expected to detect 60% more cataclysmic cosmic events — like colliding neutron stars and black holes — thanks to a quantum limit breakthrough. Read story

Construction continues at Battle Ground Station, the city’s new food cart pod. Once completed, the site will house 10 food carts, offering a variety of cuisines.

Opening of Battle Ground food cart pod Battle Ground Station delayed

January 3, 2024, 6:07am Business Subscriber Exclusive

The opening of Battle Ground’s newest food cart pod, Battle Ground Station, has been delayed again, and a new opening date has not been set. Read story

The five foundresses of the Sisters of Providence Northwest mission in Washington Territory. Front row: Sister Praxedes of Providence, Mother Joseph of the Sacred Heart, Sister Mary of the Precious Blood. Back row, Sister Vincent de Paul, Sister Blandine of the Holy Angels.

Sisters of Providence’s holy ground: Mother Joseph Catholic Cemetery of Vancouver final resting place for pioneering religious women

January 3, 2024, 6:06am Churches & Religion

Tucked away behind Vancouver Barracks National Cemetery lies another cemetery nearly as old. In it lies the remains, not of soldiers but of pioneering women, such as Mother Joseph of the Sacred Heart, who brought their Catholic faith and personal grit to Southwest Washington, influencing the greater Pacific Northwest region… Read story

The Grant Street Pier is barely visible as thick wildfire smoke continues to blanket the region in September 2020. Clark County's air quality was so bad that Vancouver's PM 2.5 pollution levels went beyond the index used to rate air quality.

Vancouver among 16 communities most impacted by air pollution, according to new state report

January 2, 2024, 6:36pm Clark County Health

Vancouver residents are more likely than those in most places around Washington to become seriously ill from air pollution, according to a new state report. Read story

Pepper Parker, a 19-year employee of Vintage Books, shows off a 1928 set of “History of the Columbia River Valley: from The Dalles to the Sea” at the shop in Vancouver.

Vintage Books: After nearly 50 years, Vancouver mainstay remains charming, eclectic

January 2, 2024, 6:07am Business Subscriber Exclusive

Towering wooden shelves create a maze at Vintage Books in Vancouver. Read story