Citing a year of acrimony and partisanship, Clark County Commissioner Steve Stuart said Thursday he will not seek re-election this fall.
“Life’s too short,” he said.
Stuart said he’ll post a detailed explanation on his Facebook page Friday morning.
He doesn’t have another job lined up, but he said he wanted to allow potential candidates time to consider whether to run to represent his district, which falls mostly within the city of Vancouver west of Interstate 205 but does include some precincts east of I-205, as well as in Hazel Dell.
Stuart said he also owes it to his family to give himself time to find another job.
The registered owner of a truck allegedly involved in Sunday night’s fatal hit-and-run refuses to speak with police detectives, investigators said Wednesday.
Others associated with the truck’s owner also are not cooperating with investigators, police said. Concealing or destroying evidence in a crime is illegal.
Detectives said the registered owner and several others may have been watching the NFC championship game between the Seattle Seahawks and the San Francisco 49ers on Sunday night at a residence in the 9900 block of Northwest 26th Avenue. After the game ended, they might have gone to a residence in the 8700 block of Northeast 27th Avenue. The game kicked off at 3:30 p.m. and ended by 6:50 p.m. The crash was reported around 8 p.m.
Sunday night, Raisa Mosh, 45, and Irina Gardinant, 28, were in the crosswalk on Northeast Vancouver Mall Drive at 72nd Avenue when a white pickup truck took a quick left turn from 72nd Avenue, struck the women and fled the scene, police said. Mosh died at the scene and Gardinant died later at an area hospital.
A third pedestrian with the group, Mosh’s 12-year-old son, suffered minor injures in the incident.
Following the collision, Vancouver police launched a public campaign to find the white pickup, as well as a black pickup that went through the intersection shortly after the crash.
Take a quick walk around the block of stores at Evergreen Plaza in Orchards, and you may see the sprouts of a new — if somewhat controversial — industry.
Within view of the shopping center at Northeast 117th Avenue and Fourth Plain Boulevard are three “head shops,” stores specializing in pipes and other marijuana paraphernalia. And within about a mile of the plaza, at least three people have applied for marijuana retail licenses, while a handful of others have applied for growing or processing licenses.
Why the area seems to be turning into a marijuana mecca is anybody’s guess, beyond the fact that at least portions of it meet the state guidelines that say stores must be more than 1,000 feet from a school, public park, transit center, library, child care center, playground and arcade.
But what’s more noteworthy is the lack of strong outcry against it by the community.
“People in my church haven’t really said anything about it, and they usually do speak up — especially about roads and other things going on in the area,” said Kathy Neary, president of the Maple Tree Neighborhood Association and pastor of Orchards United Methodist Church. “I think people are waiting to see what happens.”
Some have mentioned the potential new pot stores in neighborhood meetings, but even that has been a lot less than you’d expect, she said.
Clark County’s economy is growing, but is that growth just shrug-worthy, or is it cause for celebration? Two very different answers to that question emerged Thursday morning at The Columbian’s 2014 Economic Forecast Breakfast at the Hilton Vancouver Washington.
“My prediction? Vancouver and Clark County will flourish over the next decade,” said Jon Roberts, principal at TIP Strategies, providing a voice of optimism.
The county’s proximity to Portland will help it share in the growth of “knowledge economy” jobs, and Southwest Washington’s investments in infrastructure will give the community competitive advantages, said Roberts, whose Austin, Texas-based company developed a strategic plan for the Columbia River Economic Development Council.
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On the doubtful side: Scott Bailey, regional economist with the Washington Employment Security Department. Retail sales, home construction and hiring are climbing, Bailey told a crowd of roughly 430, but all remain below pre-recession levels.
“Things are getting better; still, a lot of people are hurting out here,” Bailey said, as he warned that national political corruption and income inequality could hold back the middle class from economic advancement.
Read the full story here. Read local and regional experts’ forecast about businesses, markets and the economy here. See a video of the event.
One of La Center’s cardrooms closed its doors Monday and will not reopen.
Revenue had been flat for a while at Chips Casino, according to John Bockmier, a spokesman for the city’s cardrooms.
However, “General operating costs have increased every year,” he said.
It was a trend expected to continue in 2014, so the cardroom’s owner, Lakewood-based Michel’s Development, decided to cut its losses and shutter the 16-year-old casino.
The decision came less than three weeks after a 13-cents-per-hour increase to the state’s minimum wage took effect, which Bockmier cited as one reason for the closure. Most of the cardroom’s employees were paid the state’s minimum wage, Bockmier said, meaning operating costs had recently increased.
“There is a tremendous number of people in this industry who are in tipped positions,” he said. “So from an employer’s standpoint, you still have to increase the wage every year, and there’s no relief for that.”
On top of that, employee health care costs are going up this year, Bockmier said. So too are the city’s sewer service fees.
The afternoon of Jan. 2 is a blank spot in Dick Malin’s memory.
The Vancouver man remembers planning a workout at Marshall Community Center, but that’s it.
He doesn’t remember arriving at the gym. He doesn’t remember hopping onto a cardio machine. And he certainly doesn’t remember dying.
“When you suffer sudden death, those things happen,” Malin said. “You forget things.”
Peter Harrison is the stranger who has filled in some of those blank spots. He’s also the man who brought Malin back to life.
Harrison, 53, of Hazel Dell has been certified in CPR since he was 18. In the years since, he’s taught hundreds of people how to perform CPR as a volunteer instructor for the American Red Cross.
That CPR knowledge went to real use for the first time Jan. 2.
Malin, 79, is a gym regular, working out four or five days a week. After arriving at the gym that Thursday, Malin headed for the cardio equipment, climbed on a machine — a type of stationary bicycle that also requires arm movement — and got to work.
At that time, Harrison was on the other side of the gym. He was wrapping up his 90-minute workout with one more rep on the bench press when he heard a commotion.
