<img height="1" width="1" style="display:none" src="https://www.facebook.com/tr?id=192888919167017&amp;ev=PageView&amp;noscript=1">
Thursday, March 28, 2024
March 28, 2024

Linkedin Pinterest

The Morning Press: primary election, CRC letter, Dutch Savage, Fair

The Columbian
Published: August 9, 2013, 5:00pm
7 Photos
Test Caption
Test Caption Photo Gallery

This week’s top stories and news you may have missed:

Councilor Jeanne Harris knocked out in primary

The longest-serving member of the Vancouver City Council will be stepping down at the end of the year.

Councilor Jeanne Harris finished fourth in a five-way primary race, according to preliminary results provided Tuesday night by the Clark County Elections Office.

She’ll be replaced by either Anne McEnerny-Ogle or Frank Decker, who advanced to the Nov. 5 general election.

McEnerny-Ogle, a retired math teacher who serves as chairwoman of the Vancouver Neighborhood Alliance and president of the League of Women Voters of Clark County, finished first in the primary with 35 percent of the vote. Decker, executive supervisor of instructional technology and assessment for the Centennial School District in Gresham, Ore., came in second with 23 percent of the vote.

Along with Harris, candidates Galina Burley and Adam Fox were eliminated.

Harris said Tuesday that she’s loved all 16 years on the council.

Read the full story here.

CRC supporters send governors their plan to revive the project

A group of Columbia River Crossing supporters formally made their plea to revive the controversial Interstate 5 Bridge replacement project on Wednesday, sending a letter to the Washington and Oregon governors.

The letter, signed by a group of nearly 80 business leaders and other CRC supporters, asked the two governors to salvage at least part of the $3.4 billion plan, declared dead a month ago after Washington lawmakers failed to commit funding.

To bring it back to life, supporters want Oregon to take the lead on the project. They hope to use money already lined up to build a new Interstate 5 Bridge between Vancouver and Portland — with light rail — but without approval from the Washington Legislature.

“We feel strongly that while there is still a window of time to receive federal support, we cannot afford to walk away from thousands of hours of public involvement and community leadership on both sides of the river, reams of technical data, a completed federal environmental review process, and an investment of $175 million taxpayer dollars, without exhausting every possibility,” the letter reads.

Read the full story here.

Portland Wrestling star Dutch Savage dies at 78

The Pacific Northwest has lost one of its biggest pro wrestling stars.

Dutch Savage, 78, of Yacolt died Saturday of complications from a major stroke. He was 78.

At 6 foot 4 inches and 265 pounds, Savage was well known in the wrestling world of the 1960s and ’70s for his unusual goatee, long tights and kneepads. His signature move was a thumb to the throat jab used to debilitate opponents. And he won at least 21 belts in various regional championships.

“There was a lot of showmanship involved” back in pro wrestling’s early days, he said in a 2003 interview with The Columbian.

But as professional wrestling became more glitzy and commercialized in the 1990s and beyond, he grew critical of it.

Read the full story here.

Blazers land free agent Mo Williams

Since the start of the NBA free-agency period, the Portland Trail Blazers and veteran point guard Mo Williams have shared mutual interest.

Even as the team refined its roster through trades and other signings, general manager Neil Olshey and Williams’ agent Mark Bartelstein, never broke communication.

Finally on Wednesday — more than a month into free agency — the constant conversion led to Williams landing in Portland.

Williams, a former All-Star who will be entering his 11th season in the NBA, has agreed to a two-year contract with the Blazers. The deal, first reported by Yahoo! Sports and confirmed by Bartelstein, will be worth $5.6 million that includes a player option in the second season.

Read the full story here.

Travis and Mandy: A journey through addiction

December 2012.

Comfort came at the end of a needle.

As the New Year approached, Travis Trenda and his girlfriend Mandy Cooper were holed up in a rental house along East Mill Plain Boulevard looking to tap their veins.

Their lives, a series of exhilarating highs counterbalanced against harrowing lows, had just come crashing down.

It was nearly a year to the day since Mandy overdosed on an injection of heroin Travis had administered. The episode sent Travis to the Clark County Jail and he ended up with a deferred sentence.

It was a blessing Mandy was even alive. She’d flatlined twice.

TODAY: Winter. Drugs have a stranglehold on Travis and Mandy.

MONDAY: Spring. Stuck in the cycle of recovery and relapse.

Loading...