Initiative 522 may be a statewide ballot measure, but that hasn’t kept Clark County residents from taking a stand.
If approved, I-522 would require that genetically engineered foods and seeds offered for retail sale in Washington be labeled.
Some local farmers and other supporters of I-522 say the measure comes down to one point: Consumers deserve to know what they’re eating regardless of how they feel about genetically modified organisms, or GMOs.
But the local farmers who oppose the measure say it’s poorly written and inconsistent. They also cite a lack of education among the public about GMOs. The initiative would require labeling of most foods containing GMOs but exclude many others, such as food served in restaurants and schools.
Both sides agree GMOs are pervasive. The derivatives of GMO crops — including sweeteners, corn syrup, canola oil and sucrose — are common ingredients in most processed foods.
U.S. Rep. Jaime Herrera Beutler is under fire from Clark County GOP board members for her vote on Wednesday to end the partial government shutdown and raise the nation’s borrowing limit.
The board posted an open letter to the Camas Republican on its website Friday, calling her vote a disappointing surrender in the fight to reduce the nation’s debt. They also took the Camas Republican to task for a statement she made Tuesday expressing support for a budget deal that refrained from attacking the 2010 health care reforms.
“As elected representatives of the grass-roots and the local Republican Party,” the board wrote, “our perception regarding the so-called ‘Affordable Healthcare Act’ and ‘Debt Ceiling’ appears to differ significantly from your perspective in Washington D.C. As we see it, this is no longer about how to spend the citizen’s tax dollars, but rather now it has become an issue of distributing pain through debt to our children and grandchildren.”
The letter, signed by 14 board members, called the budget deal reached this week “a major setback to your constituents and the American people.”
Most of the freeholder candidates who responded to a Columbian survey believe it is time to expand the board of Clark County commissioners.
Of the 72 who responded to the survey, 49 say they generally believe the board needs to be expanded. Twenty-two said they are still weighing the pros and cons of the move. Just two said they opposed the idea.
Adding members to the current three-member board essentially dilutes the power vested in the individual commissioners, often allows for more representation among members of the county and allows for commissioners to work together without forming a quorum — currently created when just two commissioners meet.
Pete Kremen, who served as Whatcom County executive for 16 years before winning election to the county council, explained the benefits of additional commissioners simply as providing more representation countywide.
A former Secret Service agent who was in the Dallas motorcade when President John F. Kennedy was assassinated will headline a Nov. 8 fund-raising luncheon in Vancouver.
Clint Hill, who was assigned to first lady Jacqueline Kennedy’s security detail, will be the featured speaker in an 11:30 a.m. benefit for CDM Services at the Hilton Vancouver Washington.
He will be joined by Lisa McCubbin, co-author of a book about Hill’s time with the first family, “Mrs. Kennedy and Me.”
Hill was riding in the car behind the presidential limousine on Nov. 22, 1963. After the president was shot, Hill jumped onto the back of the limousine and placed his body above the president and Mrs. Kennedy.
After years of sniffing out drugs, Dingo, a 9-year-old police dog with the Washougal Police Department, will retire to a relaxing life on the couch, his owner said Saturday morning at the dog’s retirement party.
The brown-and-black-brindle Dutch shepherd, who now sports quite a bit of gray on his snout, was deployed in the field more than 500 times, said his owner and former partner, Officer Kyle Day. Dingo worked strictly in narcotics detection in Oregon and Washington and was a police dog for almost seven years, or about 40 dog years.
Dingo worked hard and led a life of excitement.
“He ended up on ‘Cops’ a few months back and found a pound and a half of cocaine in a car,” Day said. “That’s kind of his claim to fame.”
One of his teachers beat on corpses with a club to learn about bruising. Another professor could tell a man’s occupation by examining the calluses on his hands.
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle picked up a lot more than a medical degree in college: His time at the University of Edinburgh’s medical school provided the inspiration for Sherlock Holmes.
Now the worlds of Conan Doyle and fiction’s most prominent detective are highlighted in a new exhibit at the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry.
“The International Exhibition of Sherlock Holmes” includes an interactive mystery story featuring century-old scientific crime-solving techniques. Investigators follow the clues from Holmes’ sitting room at 221B Baker Street through the streets of 1890s London.
