What’s on tap for this week’s weather? Check our local weather coverage.
In case you missed them, here are some of the top stories of the weekend:
With just two years of perspective, 13-year-old Ashley can explain exactly how she came to be a victim of online sexual solicitation.
It happened toward the end of fifth grade and into her sixth-grade year, when her best friend changed schools. On top of not having a solid friendship, Ashley had self-esteem issues and was going through an awkward stage.
Having had a phone for about a year, Ashley started playing an online game that allowed her to chat with other players. Eventually the conversations with some of the people she met in the game moved to text messaging and a chatting app called Kik.
“I didn’t have anybody at school, so instead of hanging out with somebody at lunch, I could just sit there and text,” she said. “I was just looking for somebody who was nice. I was just looking for a friend. That’s not obviously what I got.”
She had two long-term conversations with people she thought were a little older than she was, teenagers at most. But Ashley had actually been talking to what appeared to be adult men coaxing her into sharing sexually explicit photos.
The world is increasingly at the fingertips of children, as studies show that more and more youths have access to the internet through phones, tablets and laptops.
Read the full story: Protecting children from online danger
Now that it’s spring, flowers are starting to pop out of the ground — and new apartments are also sprouting in downtown Vancouver.
With all of the buildings proposed or under construction, it can be difficult to keep track of just how many housing units may be added to the downtown and uptown areas.
Teresa Brum, the city’s economic development division manager, said earlier this month that the city has more than 600 residential units in the pipeline for downtown.
Some projects have been completed in the last few months. There was an open house at Midtown, a 48-unit apartment complex at 513 E. 16th St., Saturday. The building by Portland-based ekoLiving has been open since January but isn’t fully leased. Monthly rent for a one-bedroom, 432-square-foot apartment is $1,150. The 18-unit Herby complex at 1510 C St. was also developed by ekoLiving.
Read the full story: Apartment complexes, projects begin to sprout
A tornado with wind speeds estimated between 65 to 85 mph touched down in the Orchards area Friday afternoon, toppling a fence and downing tree branches. No injuries were reported.
The National Weather Service in Portland said the EF0 twister was reported at about 3:15 p.m., but no one reported seeing the funnel, and there was little damage.
“It was weak,” meteorologist Paul Tolleson said.
A fence was damaged in the vicinity of Northeast 99th Street and Northeast 140th Court, and some debris from a nearby yard blew into that yard, he said. Then, on Northeast 105th Avenue north of Northeast 67th Street, a 12-by-12-foot metal shed was lifted up and placed back down. And tree branches about 4 inches in diameter snapped off, Tolleson said.
No other damage in between those locations was reported to the National Weather Service, but Tolleson said they couldn’t rule out if there was additional damage.
Read the full story: Small tornado causes damage in Orchards
Sen. Ann Rivers, R-La Center, is pushing for money in the state’s transportation budget to add additional lanes on state Highway 14 with the hopes of easing traffic congestion.
The Republican from La Center is hoping to shift about $30 million in funds to pay for auxiliary lanes on state Highway 14 east of Interstate 205 to Southeast 164th Avenue.
Rivers is championing the effort, even though the project falls outside of the 18th Legislative District, which she represents.
“As someone who asks, ‘What does Southwest Washington need?’ rather than, ‘What does my district need?’ I knew which project would help both my district and our region more,” Rivers said in a statement.
The funding, however, would come from a project in her district that had been approved in the 2015 state’s transportation package.
Read the full story: Sen. Rivers proposes more lanes on state Highway 14
LA CENTER — Dolcie Niemi, 37, and her 3-year-old son walked to the corner of their property and stuck a Black Lives Matter sign into the lawn at 2 p.m. on a Saturday in February.
By 11 a.m. Sunday, it was gone.
“I knew it would be stolen,” Niemi said. “That’s why I got two. I didn’t know it would happen so quickly.”
Niemi lives off Northwest Pacific Highway with her husband, Erik Niemi, and their 3-year-old and 9-month-old sons. She put the sign facing the Northwest Pacific Highway to get as many eyeballs on it as possible.
“I put it up in hopes people would see it and look more into the topic,” she said. “Mostly, I don’t think people get it. My goal was that people would educate themselves about the racism and bias that still exists against people who are black.”
Read the full story: Sign stolen from homeowner’s yard
