In a pivotal development in a yearslong fight to build a casino in Clark County, the Cowlitz Tribe was notified Wednesday they’ll receive 152 acres west of La Center in January or within 30 days of a federal court ruling in their favor, whichever comes first.
Tribal Chairman William Iyall issued a statement Thursday, saying, “We have pressed on for 12 years in an effort to fully service tribal members with services and programs only available on trust land. On Oct. 22, the federal government issued a notice of their intent to acquire our proposed 152-acre reservation in Clark County into trust for the Cowlitz Tribe, providing our people with the same opportunities as other federally recognized tribes. This is a significant moment in Cowlitz history.”
The case remains pending in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C.
Brent Boger, a Vancouver assistant city attorney, said he and other plaintiffs’ attorneys will likely ask the federal judge to order a stay, which would prevent the tribe from taking the land into trust until the case is settled. Wednesday’s development forces plaintiffs to put pressure on the federal judge to move the case along, Boger said.
Written arguments were filed months ago, but no court date has been set.
Clark County’s economy continues to show some signs of progress, as employers expand payrolls and the jobless rate heads downward.
But strong job growth has yet to translate to fatter wallets, according to a new analysis by Scott Bailey, regional labor economist for the state Employment Security Department.
The median hourly wage for jobs in Clark County ($20.05 in 2013, adjusted for inflation) has remained flat even as the economy has recovered lost jobs and added more after the end of the Great Recession. Meanwhile, the make-up of jobs in the county significantly shifted from 2007 to 2013, with more than 700 middle-income positions vanishing and with more than 1,000 lower-income jobs going away. (Clark County has seen strong recovery in employment since mid-2013, after experiencing major job losses in the economic crash.)
As part of that shift, the county saw a net increase of more than 1,100 jobs paying $26 or more per hour. The influx of high-wage jobs is a positive development. However, there aren’t enough of those jobs to significantly boost the county-wide median hourly wage, Bailey said. And the addition of those jobs doesn’t necessarily mean existing workers improved their lives by catapulting themselves into a higher income bracket. That’s because many of the new high-wage jobs belong to corporate managers who relocated to Clark County when PeaceHealth moved its headquarters to Vancouver and as Fisher Investments has expanded its campus in Camas.
Clark County commissioner candidate Jeanne Stewart received a financial boost this month, when the state Republican Party made a $35,000 in-kind donation to her campaign to produce and air a television commercial.
The amount of the donation — more than a third of what the Republican had raised, with less than a month to go in the campaign — coupled with its suddenness showed just how fast political fortunes could turn.
More than that, it’s raised some eyebrows.
That’s particularly the case among Democrat Craig Pridemore’s camp, which has questioned whether county Commissioner David Madore and real estate developer Clyde Holland, both major Republican donors, contributed their money to the state party with the understanding that it would be passed along to Stewart’s campaign.
Pridemore called the Republican Party’s contribution to a local race “unprecedented.”
Records show that in September, Madore and Holland contributed $25,000 apiece to the state Republicans. Holland later contributed an additional $65,000 to the party, according to the state’s Public Disclosure Commission. Stewart received the state Republicans’ donation on Oct. 9.
The Washington State Republican Party said it often lends financial support to local candidates and that there’s nothing irregular in funding a commissioner campaign.
Cinetopia owner Rudyard Coltman knows how to build movie theaters so dazzling that they draw moviegoers from miles around.
His theater at Westfield Vancouver mall pulls in one-third of its customers from the greater Portland area, making it one of the few Clark County venues strong enough to draw visitors from across the Columbia River. Last weekend, it was the highest-grossing theater in Oregon and Southwest Washington, Coltman said.
The older Cinetopia on Mill Plain Boulevard is one or two generations ahead of the industry standard for luxury theaters, making it “the finest in the world,” Coltman believes. The Vancouver-based company operates another theater in the Portland suburb of Progress, and this spring it opened its fourth venue in Overland Park, Kan., a Kansas City suburb.
But while Coltman envisions further expansion, his ambitions are threatened by a huge issue over which he has little control: the entertainment industry’s practice of sometimes refusing to release movies to rival theaters in close proximity to each other. It’s a high-stakes Hollywood dispute that already has damaged Cinetopia twice, Coltman told The Columbian on Monday. The first time was when the original Cinetopia opened in 2005 and operated for three months without a major movie. The second time is right now, when the Cinetopia in Overland Park is being forced to alternate openings of major movies with an AMC Entertainment Holdings theater that is three miles away, the Wall Street Journal reported Monday. Coltman told the newspaper that the luxury theater’s box office revenues are running 30 to 50 percent below projections.
On a clear day, Mount St. Helens is the dominant feature on Clark County’s northeast skyline.
But hidden in its crater is a secret landscape that has been viewed by only a dozen people who explored two glacier caves in June.
Ed Jahn likened the cave environment to a Middle-Earth setting in “Lord of the Rings.”
“You’re descending into a steamy pit and constantly aware of how active a volcano it is,” said Jahn, an Oregon Public Broadcasting producer. “All these rocks, warm and steaming; the smells and humidity: It’s like being in Mordor.”
Their expedition is the subject of Thursday’s “Oregon Field Guide” telecast. OPB’s outdoor show will kick off its 26th season with “Discovery on Mount St. Helens.”
The volcano literally is a forbidden landscape. People need permits to gain access. Ten experienced mountaineers, several affiliated with the National Speleological Society, had that access during a five-day stay in the volcano’s crater; Jahn and OPB videographer Todd Sonflieth were allowed to document the visit.
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