As the crippled B-17 bomber fell to earth near Belheim, Germany, the first man to bail out was Don Millar.
Which wasn’t as good as it sounds. Soldiers on the ground were shooting at the parachuting airmen, and Millar was the best target.
“I was the first one out and the last one to hit the ground,” the longtime Vancouver resident said.
Seventy years ago, Millar was a tail gunner on a Flying Fortress. That was the name given to the B-17, reflecting its durability and imposing firepower.
“We were a bunch of 19-year-old kids, running around in a million-dollar airplane,” Millar said, looking back at his 19 combat missions over Europe.
The B-17 that took Millar on his final bombing assignment in 1945 had a nickname of its own, and maybe it reflected something as well. It was called the “Screwball Express.”
Millar will tell you that he flew 18 1/2 missions, which indicates that things didn’t go according to plan.
And this year, as the world observes the 70th anniversary of World War II’s conclusion, Millar can offer his own hard-won perspective on war.
Proponents of building the nation’s largest rail-to-marine oil transfer terminal at the Port of Vancouver will be allowed to intervene in a lawsuit that accuses the port of unlawfully cloaking parts of the lease.
Friday’s ruling by Superior Court Judge Robert Lewis did not decide the merits of the suit filed by a local environmental group and one of its members. Instead, Lewis granted a request by attorneys for Tesoro Corp., a petroleum refiner, and Savage Cos., a transportation company, to step in and make their own arguments against releasing an unredacted version of the contract.
Lewis also spoke to attorneys in the case about setting a schedule for filing legal briefs and making oral arguments in the case. Such actions are expected to occur over the next several weeks.
“Looks like you’ve got a pretty good head start, given the 5 or 6 inches (of documents) that I’ve already received,” Lewis said.
At issue is a lawsuit filed on May 27 by the Clark County Natural Resources Council and John Karpinski, a member of the group. The complaint contends that certain blacked-out pieces of information in the lease must be revealed under the state’s public records law and that the information falls out of the scope of the state’s trade secrets law.
The hidden information includes the deadline by which the companies must secure construction permits under a state-level review process. If the companies don’t meet the deadline, the port could opt out of the contract. Other concealed information includes oil-handling targets the companies must hit to have a shot at building a second terminal or expanding their operation.
In initial legal filings, Tesoro, Savage and the port argue that state law allows them to hide parts of the lease for various purposes, including protecting their competitive positions in the broader market. The port has said that only 11 pieces of information were redacted from a 429-page lease.
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With racial issues plaguing national headlines, organizers of this year’s Juneteenth celebration in Vancouver added a theme for the event: Black lives matter.
The hashtag-turned-movement isn’t a new one — it was born after George Zimmerman’s acquittal in the death of black teenager Trayvon Martin in 2012. But as racial tensions continue to simmer, local NAACP members said this year they’re taking steps to involve the Vancouver community in the national conversation.
“We haven’t done anything here in Vancouver,” said Carol Collier, co-chair for the event. “The conversation is started now.”
It has been 150 years since the end of slavery in the United States. Even though President Abraham Lincoln had delivered the Emancipation Proclamation two years earlier, it wasn’t until June 19, 1865, when Maj. Gen. Gordon Granger delivered news in Galveston, Texas, that the war had ended and the enslaved were free.
Saturday’s event was a joyous one, with dancing, barbecue and a sweet potato pie baking contest at the Marshall Community Park. But there was also a serious note. This year’s Juneteenth celebration included its first-ever keynote speaker, Clark College professor Debra Jenkins.
Jenkins, division chair of behavioral sciences and Clark College’s only tenured African-American professor, asked that everyone in the crowd leave the event understanding: “There is work before you to make deliberate social change.”
“We as African-Americans are not this nation’s tragedy,” Jenkins said. “Let’s begin to emancipate again by doing the work over until we get it right.”
Steve Runyan and three old friends met Friday to talk over lunch at a reunion of sorts.
It’s a habit they formed nine years ago when Runyan was a Lunch Buddy program mentor and Nathan Harris, Seth Hunt and Isaiah Ephraim were third-graders at Martin Luther King Elementary School.
Once a week for three years, Runyan showed up at school to eat with his lunch buddies, talk about life, read books and play board games.
“When you brush your teeth at the end of the day, you can say, ‘I made a difference,’ ” said Runyan, a retired jeweler and businessman.
Friday’s reunion at Lapellah marked the high school graduations of all three young men earlier this month.
Harris, 19, graduated from Fort Vancouver High School. He’s planning to earn his associate degree at Clark College, pursue a bachelor’s degree in criminal justice with the goal of becoming a police officer like his father.
Hunt, 17, who graduated from Summit View High School in Battle Ground, plans to study welding at Clark College and then transfer to a trade school in Oklahoma.
Ephraim, 18, graduated from Camas High School. In the fall, he’ll attend Eastern Oregon University in LaGrande, Ore., as he pursues his dream of becoming a teacher and coach.
“He brought us lunch. He was there to spend time with us,” Ephraim said. “He also played a part in me wanting to be a coach and a teacher.”
Democrats have given up their call for a capital gains tax as Washington lawmakers continue wrangling over a two-year budget plan, focusing on closing some tax breaks instead.
The surrender on taxes came as Gov. Jay Inslee said Friday that there is no reason Washington state lawmakers shouldn’t agree on an operating budget next week. He urged legislators to compromise and move swiftly to avert a partial government shutdown.
“We need to have a budget for the state of Washington,” Inslee told reporters on Friday.
There’s an approximate $300 million to $350 million gap between the current Republican and Democratic budget proposals.
Senate Republicans struck an optimistic tone on Friday and said they are open to examining tax breaks that may no longer be beneficial.
Sen. Andy Hill, R-Redmond, the Republicans’ chief negotiator, said “both sides have made movements.”
“At the end of the day, it’s going to be a great budget,” Hill said.
Republicans are considering the “no new tax” budget now being considered in Olympia a victory.
Two years ago, lawmakers came close to a government shutdown but struck a deal in the final hours.
Lawmakers have until June 27 before the current special legislative session ends.
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