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Morning Press: Cost of crime, Blazers preview, zoo trains

The Columbian
Published: October 27, 2014, 12:00am

After Saturday’s wind storm stirred things up , what does it look like for the week? Check out the weather forecast.

Here’s a look at some of this weekend’s top stories:

The high cost of crime taking toll on Clark County

Victims say the cost of crime is more than monetary.

In the five minutes that it takes you to read this story, people in the county will lose $220 worth of property to crime. It could be burned, vandalized, bought with a forged check or, more likely, stolen.

Maybe you’ve been a crime victim yourself. Maybe you lost much more than $220 worth of belongings this last year. If crime involving property was evenly dispersed, every single person in Clark County would have lost $52. That’s another way to look at it.

The sum of property value lost through crime last year in Clark County was $23,051,573, according to the Washington Association of Sheriffs & Police Chiefs. It sounds like a hefty amount, but when you consider that an average of 135 crimes of all types were reported every day last year in unincorporated Clark County and Vancouver alone, the figure makes more sense.

That’s $63,155 lost per day — thousands of dollars more than what the average Clark County resident earns in a year.

And that enormous sum isn’t even the complete cost of crime.

Read more about crime in Clark County.

Ridgefield approves bans on marijuana

Ridgefield became the latest local city to take a hard stance on marijuana this week, voting to ban recreational pot businesses and collective gardens for medical marijuana.

The council approved two ordinances Thursday night, staking unanimous opposition to collective gardens and narrowly outlawing the recreational side with a 4-3 vote. The laws will go into effect in about a month, just before the city’s moratoriums expire, City Manager Steve Stuart said.

Initially, the Ridgefield Planning Commission recommended permitting collective gardens on a limited basis. Each garden would have up to 45 plants and 10 members, and they would have to abide by siting restrictions and odor controls, said Elizabeth Decker, a planning consultant working with the city.

The council also considered allowing some aspects of the recreational side. But after months of discussion and studying the market, Councilor John Main suggested banning all three prongs of recreational marijuana operations: growth, processing and retail.

“We’re positioning Ridgefield as a destination community,” said Main, who’s been one of the council’s most vocal opponents to the idea of pot shops in Ridgefield. “If we really want to be a destination community, we can say ‘no.’ ”

Victims say the cost of crime is more than monetary.

Read more about RIdgefield’s decision.

Fighter pilot befriends Vietnam War foe

Four decades after they met in jet-to-jet combat, U.S. Air Force veteran Dan Cherry and one-time North Vietnamese fighter pilot Nguyen Hong My will share a stage in Vancouver.

Cherry won their first encounter, shooting down Hong My’s MiG-21.

In the last few years, Cherry’s relationship with Hong My has changed. It’s a transformation he describes in his book, “My Enemy, My Friend.” The book’s subtitle offers a little more detail: “A story of reconciliation from the Vietnam War.”

The two aviators, who were reunited in 2008 by a Vietnamese television show, will tell their story at 5:30 p.m. Nov. 5 in a fundraising event for a local caregiving agency. Cherry is the keynote speaker in the “Symbol of Freedom” dinner at Hilton Vancouver Washington; Hong My will be his special guest.

There also will be a more intimate reception for Cherry and Hong My at 5:30 p.m. Nov. 4, at Fort Vancouver’s Artillery Barracks.

This will be the fourth annual fundraising event for CDM Caregiving Services, a Vancouver nonprofit agency that provides care for the elderly and disabled. Last year’s event included former Secret Service agent Clint Hill, who was part of Jackie Kennedy’s security detail when President John F. Kennedy was killed in Dallas in 1963.

Learn how the connection unfolded.

Zoo trains return following makeover

After a four-month makeover in Ridgefield, a celebrity couple have returned home with all the bells and whistles.

And don’t forget about custom paint jobs and updated power plants for a steam powered locomotive and a diesel fueled Zooliner. It was all part of the work when two historic railroad engines from the Oregon Zoo train were refurbished at Pacific Power Group.

Following completion of the project, the Old West-style Centennial steam locomotive and the retro-modern Zooliner were loaded onto flatbed trailers this week and trucked to the Oregon Zoo in Portland.

The two iconic engines are on schedule to be part of ZooLights, the annual winter lights display, which opens Nov. 28, zoo spokesman Hova Najarian said.

Both engines were built to help celebrate Oregon’s centennial in 1959, although they represent vastly different eras. The Centennial steam locomotive is a reproduction — about five-eighths-scale — of the 1872 Virginia & Truckee “Reno” locomotive featured in “How the West Was Won” and dozens of other films and TV shows.

See the Zoo train’s transformation.

Blazers Preview: It Starts with Dame and LA

The Blazers made it back to the playoffs for the first time in three seasons last year, winning their first series in 14 years.

They got clutch performances from almost everyone who played in the series. From Nicolas Batum, to Wesley Matthews, to Dorell Wright. Everybody had their moments, winning with a more complete team, in the eyes of most who saw the series.

But it was the performances that began and ended the series against the Houston Rockets which remains most memorable. They were provided by the duo that now stands apart from the rest, even while they may have the biggest role in making sure everyone on the Blazers sticks together.

LaMarcus Aldridge’s dominance changed the series in Game’s 1 and 2 with historic performances. He defended Houston’s Dwight Howard in clutch moments, taking the challenge of playing center in the clutch.

Then Damian Lillard did the impossible, much like a player that Aldridge was once paired with before, Brandon Roy.

In the simplest sense, this duo did what the other could not. Now that the duo is together, most agree that Aldridge and Lillard can play leading roles on winning teams.

Get ready for the Blazer’s new season.

Living lab at Mount St. Helens

CASCADE PEAKS, Mount St. Helens — A double rainbow emerged between Mount St. Helens and a group of students, teachers and scientists gathered to conduct field tests at the Mount St. Helens National Volcanic Monument.

When heavy rain pelted the group, they shrugged into raincoats and plastic ponchos and kept listening to a discussion about conducting field research.

Not many high school students have the opportunity to conduct field studies on a volcano.

“This is a once-in-a-lifetime experience for many students,” said Abi Grosskopf, science education director of the Mount St. Helens Institute. “For many, it is their first time to Mount St. Helens, first time camping and first time sinking their hands and minds into the messy but real-world process of field-based sciences.”

This is the fourth year in which area students have taken part in the institute’s High School Field Study Project. Between Sept. 13 and Oct. 3, biology and environmental science students from six Southwest Washington school districts participated in field studies on Mount St. Helens. The schools were selected by the institute, and Clark County was represented by students from the Center for Agriculture, Science and Environmental Education in Battle Ground Public Schools and iTech Preparatory from Vancouver Public Schools.

Learn more about the students’ experiences.

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