The Columbian

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Faye Guenther, president of local UFCW 3000, hugs Carol McMillian, bakery manager at Kroger-owned King Soopers and member of Local 7, after a news conference about the Kroger and Albertsons merger outside the federal courthouse on Monday, Aug. 26, 2024, in Portland, Ore.

Kroger and Albertsons head to court to defend merger plan against U.S. regulators’ objections

August 26, 2024, 1:40pm Business

Supermarket chain Albertsons told a federal judge Monday that it might have to lay off workers, close stores and even exit some markets if its planned merger with Kroger isn't allowed to proceed. Read story

FILE - The exterior of a Google data center is pictured in The Dalles, Ore., on Oct. 5, 2021. Residents of The Dalles should soon know how much of their water Google's data centers there have been using to cool the computers, after a lawsuit seeking to keep the information confidential was dropped. Data centers around the world help people stream movies, store trillions of photos and conduct daily business online, but a single facility can churn through millions of gallons of water per day.

Energy demand from data centers growing faster than West can supply, experts say

August 26, 2024, 1:39pm Business Free

Data centers being rapidly built in the West are becoming an “emerging risk” to electrical grid reliability in the region, according to regional transmission experts. Read story

Vancouver police arrest 21-year-old in Sunday night drive-by shootings

August 26, 2024, 11:17am Clark County News

Vancouver police arrested a 21-year-old man in connection with a drive-by-shooting Sunday night at a hotel in Vancouver’s Marrion neighborhood. Read story

Lifeline Connections has joined a trend of animal assisted therapy.

“Horses are the masters of mindfulness”: Lifeline Connections adds animal-assisted therapy to offerings

August 26, 2024, 11:09am Clark County Health

Lifeline Connections is taking its therapy practices to the arena. The Vancouver organization — which provides mental health and addiction services — added animal-assisted therapy to its stable of offerings. Read story

MarathonÇ&fnof;Ùs refinery on March Point, just outside Anacortes, Washington on Aug 1, 2024.

Washington farmers want their promised carbon-pricing exemptions

August 26, 2024, 6:05am Latest News

Hay farmer Jon Driver uses 2,500 to 3,900 gallons of fuel a year, driving farm equipment all over his 700 acres of hay and timothy grass in Pend Oreille and Spokane counties and getting his crops to his customers. Read story

Former Ridgefield School District superintendent Nathan McCann is pictured at Ridgefield High School on August 26, 2019. McCann, who resigned in August 2023, was the subject of a Title IX investigation last year after an employee filed a complaint describing an angry outburst about a school policy. The investigation found McCann was not guilty of committing acts of gender discrimination or sexual harassment, but interviews with staff included in investigation documents revealed many female employees felt he displayed a pattern of unprofessional behavior toward them during his nine-year tenure.

Investigation into former Ridgefield schools chief found pattern of mistreatment after female employees speak out

August 26, 2024, 6:04am Clark County News Subscriber Exclusive

A 2023 investigation into former Ridgefield School District Superintendent Nathan McCann found he exhibited a pattern of mistreating female employees throughout his nine-year tenure, but that such behavior did not amount to a violation of Title IX. Read story

The Clark County Public Service Center is pictured in Vancouver in 2020 (The Columbian files)

Despite empty positions at the top, Clark County Medical Examiner’s Officer keeping up with increasing workload

August 24, 2024, 9:55am Clark County News

The Clark County Medical Examiner’s Office is able to meet local demand for death investigations and autopsies, officials say, despite a national shortage of forensic pathologists and a nearly yearlong vacancy of the chief medical examiner position. Read story

Heidi Leonard of Vancouver walks downstairs through her apartment building complex. Leonard lives at The Pacific and said the supportive housing needs more security and accountability.

Can Housing First work in the face of Clark county’s fentanyl crisis? Residents say apartments are rife with drug use and crime

August 24, 2024, 6:14am Clark County News

Heidi Leonard lives at The Pacific apartments, but some days, the 51-year-old wishes she were still homeless. Read story

Thomas Scanlan, the Fish Distribution Program manager, processes a load of fresh surplus chinook salmon. The fish are surplus salmon from Washington hatcheries on the Lewis, Cowlitz, Kalama and Washougal rivers.

‘We have it in our DNA’: Cowlitz Tribe provides free salmon to all members – no matter where they live

August 24, 2024, 6:13am Clark County Life Subscriber Exclusive

For Cowlitz Indian Tribe members, the taste of salmon is the defining flavor of their cultural identity. It’s so entwined with Cowlitz tradition that the tribe created a fish distribution program to ensure that all Cowlitz tribal members, no matter where they live, can get a taste of home in… Read story

From the Newsroom: Such a tough week for us

August 24, 2024, 6:11am Clark County News

Last week, I wrote about some changes we are making at The Columbian to present our digital news first, and then later publish it in the paper. The reason, in part, is to help meet the needs of our growing digital audience, which now outnumbers our print circulation. Read story