Stories for March 28, 2010

Camas man dies in off-road accident

Here is a press release from the Clark County Sheriff's Office:

Not in my backyard

Some Ridgefield residents upset about farming practices.

Hiker, 22, falls to death in Oregon

Vancouver man attended WSUV

An investigation continued Sunday into the death of a 22-year-old Vancouver man who fell to his death Saturday afternoon at Silver Falls State Park near Silverton, Ore. Naseem A. Shqueir was on a Washington State University Vancouver outing when he fell 50 to 75 feet into rocks and water, the Oregon State Police said.

March to get a whole lot wetter

Nearly an inch of rain expected to fall today

Ready for a hard rain? It’s coming Monday, weather experts say. “We’re expecting almost an inch of rain during the day,” Liana Ramirez said. She is a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Portland. And she said wind gusts might hit 20 to 25 today.

Blazers continue to gain ground in West

Win over Thunder moves Portland into tie for sixth place with Oklahoma City

Andre Miller scored 26 points, Brandon Roy added 20 and the Portland Trail Blazers beat Oklahoma City 90-87 on Sunday night to move into a tie with the Thunder for sixth place in the Western Conference.

Ash, masks and Harry Truman

"It was just 3 days before my 12th birthday."

Sixteenth birthday memory

"I was sitting in front of my TV in Elgin, Ill., on my 16th birthday watching Mount St. Helens blow her top."

Police help stabilize King County Jail incident

SEATTLE (AP) -- Seattle police helped stabilize a disturbance at the King County Jail.

Code proposals rouse Newport property owners

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) -- Some property owners in Newport are upset over city plans to change rules for areas susceptible to landslides and erosion.

Orting man killed in wrong-way I-5 crash

TUMWATER, Wash. (AP) -- The State Patrol says an Orting man drove six miles in the wrong direction on Interstate 5 before he was killed when he crashed head-on with a semi.

Parents of crash victims settle with lounge

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) -- Parents of two women killed in a drunken driving crash have won a $1.35 million settlement against a lounge and its insurance company.

Trash haulers in King, Snohomish authorize strike

SEATTLE (AP) -- Hundreds of unionized garbage haulers in King and Snohomish counties have voted to authorize a strike if their contract dispute isn't settled this week.

Rev. Jesse Jackson returning to Portland

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) -- The Rev. Jesse Jackson is returning to Portland on Monday to discuss police shootings.

Burgess remembered as great judge, Gonzaga star

TACOMA, Wash. (AP) -- A judge who died in Tacoma is being remembered as star not only on the federal bench, but on another court as well: as a one-time college basketball star who led the NCAA in scoring and put Gonzaga University on the map.

Potato plant in Prosser to close; 250 out of work

PROSSER, Wash. (AP) -- A potato plant that is the city of Prosser's largest private employer is closing.

Ore. State Police arrest woman after wild chase

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) -- Oregon State Police say a 34-year-old Portland woman is in custody after a wild car chase.

Researchers say stemless cherries would save money

KENNEWICK, Wash. (AP) -- Tired of trying to knot cherry stems with your tongue? Researchers in leading cherry-growing states are working on getting stemless cherries to market.

Double-secret probation not the way for Blazers

Greg Jayne: Commentary

The Blazers’ front office haphazardly attempted to calm the masses last week, they might as well have been telling fans to bend over and say, “Thank you, sir, may I have another?”

Clark baseball team splits at Western Washington

The Clark College club baseball team split a doubleheader with the Western Washington club team on Saturday in Bellingham.

Local View: SW Washington Health System, suitor have shared vision

When Southwest Washington Health System began looking at the potential for affiliating our organization with a larger hospital system, we focused first on our shared values, vision and mission for delivering high-quality medical care. Both of us came to believe that Southwest and PeaceHealth have much in common: First is our commitment to excellence. PeaceHealth operates medical centers, critical access hospitals, clinics and laboratories in Alaska, Oregon, and Washington. PeaceHealth employed approximately 11,000 people and cared for more than 53,000 hospitalized patients last year. Southwest employed more than 3,400 people and cared for more than 25,000 inpatients last year. Both systems have similar missions, visions and values, and each has received national recognition for clinical excellence, patient satisfaction, innovations in technology and cost efficiency.

Clark County business briefs

Business news and events in Clark County.

Skyview High takes state title at knowledge bowl

Six-man team comes from behind at the buzzer

Skyview High School’s Varsity 1 squad was in a jam. Trailing by two with only three questions remaining, Clark County’s surviving entrant in the 4A State Knowledge Bowl Championships had to out-think not one, but two rival teams to make their state title dreams come true.

Lower road bids reduce fees on home-builders

County expects to make adjustment in April

Surprise: A county fee is about to go down. It’s not exactly a big drop. But thanks to continued weakness in the construction market, Washington’s contractors keep bidding for jobs at bargain prices.

Keep chicks, ducklings from kids

VANCOUVER — Though they are cute and soft and associated with the arrival of spring, baby chicks or ducklings can carry harmful salmonella bacteria, health officials warn. “We strongly discourage giving chicks or ducklings as gifts,” said Dr. Alan Melnick, Clark County health officer.

Weather Eye: Hard rain and wind in the air

Quite an interesting weather scenario should come up today and Monday as a vigorous storm moves inland. We are talking about heavy rain — about an inch locally, with upwards of four inches in the Olympics and two or three inches in the Coast Range mountains. Along with that, strong winds will develop tonight with wind speeds locally between 25 and 35 mph and gusts maybe to 50 mph. On the coast, a high-wind watch was issued Saturday afternoon.

Study of county depicts inequalities

WSUV researchers’ report can help to track progress

A new study of equity issues in Clark County has been posed online by the Center for Social and Environmental Justice at Washington State University Vancouver. It was presented at the end of a daylong WSUV conference about “Health, Well-Being and Equity” in the region.

State’s health care ideas hit big time in Cantwell's hands

Experience with Washington's Basic Health Plan helped shape national reform bill

If some parts of the new health reform law passed by Congress sound familiar here in Washington, it’s no coincidence. As a member of the Senate Finance Committee, U.S. Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., helped write several of the law’s provisions with the goal of building on Washington’s success in providing cost-effective and humane health care.

Bookstores try to read future

Battered by prolonged recession, local booksellers use variety of strategies to keep their doors open

To Mel Sanders, a successful author’s event or open-mike poetry night at her downtown Vancouver bookstore is like the binding of a good book. It holds the pages of her business together.

Charity food empire comes bearing discounts

Angel Food Ministries sells grocery boxes at Hazel Dell church

Just because Karla Brown lost her job of 29 years doesn’t mean she doesn’t still have mouths to feed. Brown has two teenage boys at home, and they tend to have friends over frequently, and food seems always to be at the top of their priority list. That’s why Brown — laid off from a Portland insurance brokerage two years ago — turned up Saturday morning at the kickoff Angel Food Ministries food distribution at St. John Lutheran Church on Northeast Highway 99.

Death notices, March 28

A daily list of death notices.

Our Readers' Views

Leave bridge designing to engineers To receive federal funding for freeways built in the 1950s and 1960s, it was required that they be designed and built for up to 70 mph travel and traffic flow. Interstate 5, between the Freemont and Marquam bridges, has never had a 70 mph posted speed. During the 1950s, elected officials got involved in the design of I-5 resulting in two lanes with many offramps and onramps between the two bridges. This resulted in I-5 being turned into more like an expressway, getting vehicles into and out of Portland, not traveling straight through. Staying in the left lane, or through lane, going either north before the Marquam bridge or south while on the bridge, you will end up in downtown Portland.

A little night musing

Full moon hikes at Ridgefield Wildlife Refuge allow visitors to experience surroundings in a new light

Moonlight changes things. It casts a silvery thread that illuminates treetops, ripples across waterways and tosses moody shadows over a shrouded landscape. Especially when it’s a full moon. Hike with a full moon and the mysteries of the night unfurl: silhouetted figures lumber across the forest floor, wings beat overhead, backlit by the moon’s glow, and creatures call out from the shadows.

In Our View: Vigorous Recruiting

Local economic development officials take aggressive approach during tough times

Bart “Silver Lining” Phillips is not one to be intimidated by a few statistics. That current 14.8 percent local unemployment rate and those 31,000 out-of-work Clark County residents only represent a world of opportunity, at least in the mind of the Columbia River Economic Development Council’s president. As Libby Tucker reported in Friday’s Columbian, Phillips and the rest of the CREDC crew are responding to the current economic slump with an aggressive business-recruiting approach that has produced more opportunities, if not more outright businesses and jobs. Already this year the CREDC has heavily recruited 20 companies from outside the area that are interested in moving to Southwest Washington. That’s a more vigorous pace than in 2009 when 55 companies were wooed during the entire year. Even in the worst of economic times, last year CREDC successfully recruited seven companies to our community, with 167 direct jobs and a combined $72 million in overall business development.

Two Goliaths: Gregoire vs. McKenna

Our governor and state attorney general are acting awfully political these days. Chris Gregoire and Rob McKenna used to get along quite well, much to the dismay of their more partisan Democratic and Republican, respectively, cohorts. Each has a keen understanding of the other’s job. McKenna succeeded Gregoire as attorney general, and many believe he wants to succeed her as governor, an ascension common among state AGs. Last week, Gregoire and McKenna bottled up the vinegar of politics with the oil of constitutional law. No matter how vigorously they shake that decanter, ultimately the two liquids will separate, and a winner and loser will emerge in this dispute.