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In case you missed them, here are some of the top stories of the weekend:
Most people know Teddy Patrick as the Costco employee with a bright smile and sweet voice who serenades shoppers as they leave the Vancouver warehouse store.
So it’s only fitting that the community came together to sing for Patrick after a heart attack sidelined the beloved Vancouver resident.
About 150 people of all ages — some of whom know Patrick personally, some of whom have had only fleeting encounters with him at Costco — gathered Friday morning at Hillcrest Church of the Nazarene to sing Christmas carols and gospel songs in a show of support.
Anthony Bordelon and Mandy Seitz were perched on a bench with their belongings outside the Vancouver Community Library when a caravan — the tail-end being a red, 1969 Firebird driven by Santa Claus — arrived bearing gifts.
Temperatures hovered near freezing the night of Dec. 17, when Santa and a handful of Food with Friends volunteers drove around downtown Vancouver looking to assist the homeless. The grass-roots group turned nonprofit organization provides food and other supplies to the homeless every Saturday night in the downtown area.
“I think it’s awesome. They find us no matter where we’re at,” said Seitz, 30, who’s been homeless since she and her mother lost their housing in Gresham, Ore., more than a year ago.
A program starting next year aims to clean up downtown Vancouver and employ homeless people in the process.
Talkin’ Trash is the name of a joint effort between the city of Vancouver’s solid waste department and Share, a local homeless service provider.
“We are always addressing litter issues,” said Tanya Gray, the city’s solid waste supervisor. “We’ve heard from both residences and businesses downtown.”
Clark County Prosecuting Attorney Tony Golik says his hands are tied in proceeding with an attempted-murder case, because of the ongoing criminal investigation into the lead detective.
His office on Thursday dropped about a half-dozen charges filed against co-defendants Troy D. Meyers, 47, and Michael Conley, 50, who were accused in the stabbing of an acquaintance last year. The decision took defense attorney Shon Bogar by surprise, he said, because during a hearing the week prior, he asked a judge to dismiss the case on the same premise, but the prosecution objected.
A 16-year-old Battle Ground boy was killed Christmas morning in a car crash that occurred after an evening of singing Christmas carols.
Samuel Chiriac was a passenger in a car being driven by a church friend when it ran off Mount Scott Boulevard in Portland and plunged down an embankment, according to a news release from the Portland Police Bureau.
Chiriac was one of five teenage boys who were traveling in a Volkswagen Cabriolet from Happy Valley, Ore., to Wilsonville, Ore.
