Top Stories: Chicken, tuna settlement; quantum limit broken; food cart pod delayed, again

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Here are some of the top stories on columbian.com this week:

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

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.

The Attorney General’s Office mailed checks for $50 and $120 to 400,000 consumers across the state after settling a series of price-fixing lawsuits with chicken and tuna producers.

• 400,000 people across state getting $50 or $120 in settlement of price-fixing lawsuits with chicken, tuna producers

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

KENNEWICK — 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.

Since the observatory was turned back on in May after three years of upgrades, including adding new quantum squeezing technology, it can probe a larger volume of the universe.

• “Now that we have surpassed this quantum limit, we can do a lot more astronomy.”

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

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.

Motorcyclist Conner Alan Springer, 21, of Battle Ground died from blunt trauma of the head, neck and torso after crashing into a car, according to a Wednesday news release. He was wearing a helmet. The driver of the car, Brenda Velasquez, 37, of Vancouver, died from blunt trauma of the head and torso.

• Medical examiner’s office ruled deaths accidental

4. Opening of Battle Ground food cart pod Battle Ground Station delayed

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.

The site at 106 E. Main St., next to the Margarita Factory restaurant, was originally expected to open in November but the date was pushed back to Monday. That date came and went with no opening.

• Facility was to open Monday, but site improvements push back timeline

5. Reader’s question about a red ‘S’ leads to story of little log cabin that once housed popular German restaurant in Vancouver

When The Columbian recently featured a story about the old Totem Pole restaurant in Hazel Dell, we asked readers what else they would like to know about, using the Clark Asks portal on our website.

We got several questions, including this one from Michael Roll, who lives out toward Hockinson: “What is the story of a large neon sign with an S and a red bulb-lit arrow on the west side of Northeast 72nd Avenue south of the entry to Fire Station 7?”