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In case you missed them, here are some of the top stories of the weekend:
After months of politicians’ (and aspiring politicians) knocking on doors, appearing at candidate forums and waving signs at traffic, the end of the long campaign season is in sight. With two days left, candidates are now turning their energy to getting voters to actually fill out and turn in their completed ballots.
Already nearly 40 percent of 270,787 ballots have been returned to the Clark County elections office. In the 2012 general election, 193,502 votes were cast in Clark County.
Although the presidential race is in the spotlight, Washington voters will also choose a governor, a senator and their U.S. representative. In Clark County, voters may well determine the majority party in the state Senate. Certainly we will choose two new county council members. Finally, voters in Vancouver, Battle Ground and Woodland will decide on tax measures to fund affordable housing, new schools and transportation projects.
Read the full story: Election 2016: A look at local ballot
A big, grateful smile spread across Pearl Harbor survivor Ralph Laedtke’s face as people took turns shaking his hand and thanking him for his service during Vancouver’s Veterans Parade on Saturday.
The Washougal 96-year-old said it touched him to be remembered for a time in his life when he was doing what he had to do.
“I’ve been recognized more today than ever before, so I feel blessed,” he said.
Laedkte, who retired as a U.S. Navy captain after nearly 35 years of service, worked aboard a hospital ship at the time of the attack. He was 21 years old.
“I never dreamed it would end the way it did. We were caught flat-footed that day,” he said. “I’ll never forget that day and how proud I was of our Navy.”
Laedkte was just one of many veterans honored Saturday at the 30th annual Lough Legacy Veterans Parade at Fort Vancouver. About 100 people gathered in front of the Marshall House for a morning ceremony before the parade.
Read the full story: Lough Legacy Veterans Parade salutes those who served
During a Thursday night public forum on how the proposed county budget would affect the sheriff’s office, a man in attendance asked Sheriff Chuck Atkins if he would ever have enough money after years of cuts.
“I don’t think in my lifetime I’m going to say, ‘Hey, don’t give us any more,’ ” Atkins told the roughly 30 people gathered at Three Creeks Community Library to hear about the budget. “Because the population keeps growing and the calls for service that you expect law enforcement to deal with keep growing.”
Clark County council is currently considering a $321 million budget for the 2017-18 biennium proposed by County Manager Mark McCauley.
One portion of the budget that’s attracted particular attention from the public and officials are proposed cuts to the sheriff’s office. The budget initially anticipated a $1.7 million cut that has risen to $2.7 million.
But one fact that’s received less attention is that the new budget will increase the overall amount of money for the sheriff’s office. According to the most recent set of numbers from the Clark County Auditor’s Office, the budget for the sheriff’s office would increase from its current $102 million to $112.5 million for the 2017-18 biennium.
Atkins told The Columbian that the new money is already spoken for, meaning his office will still be forced to consider cuts. During the meeting, he noted that there’s one part of his office he won’t cut.
Read the full story: Clark County Sheriff’s Office weighs budget cuts
In the first-floor meeting space of the Hudson Building on a particularly rainy October night, upstart entrepreneurs catch themselves in a verbal tennis match with Dave Barcos. The 52-year-old freelance creative director asked them to distill their products into single sentences to help them focus on their products’ strengths. As he listens, he nods along to good ones and spikes the others.
“It’s about …,” Janus Sanders said, before pausing and looking toward the ceiling for ideas. He created a camera that fixes onto firearms and records stable footage. They talk of marketing it to paintball players, to the military or to hunters. “It’s about bringing your audience outdoors with you.”
“No. It’s not,” Barcos said. Others in the room laugh.
“It’s not?” Sanders said, laughing, then scrambled to his next idea. “It’s about … reliving the moment. That moment.”
Sanders scanned the other would-be captains of industry in the room. They include a man who makes jerky from mushrooms, a man who wants to better integrate drone technology for search-and-rescue missions, a man who manufactures high-end beer growlers, and a man who sells fashionable toddler clothes to be shipped directly to parents’ doorsteps. They nodded approval. Importantly, so did Barcos and his business partner, Colton Telford.
The back-and-forth was just a sliver of the hourslong meeting at the Bridge Accelerator, but it encapsulates a lot of what the business owners found appealing about the seven-week program. For them, joining an accelerator program was a chance to brainstorm together with relatively little pressure. For organizers Barcos and Telford, it’s a chance to find upcoming businesses that need a little push and a way to push the throttle on startup culture in Vancouver.
Read the full story: Bridge Accelerator works to help new businesses fine-tune plans, find investors
Clark County’s lead attorney in a racial discrimination suit — won by a black former jail deputy following a jury trial in August — argued Friday that the county did not receive a fair trial. His motion for a new trial was denied, however.
Mitchell Cogen of Bullard Law in Portland said the Clark County Superior Court jury that awarded $500,000 in noneconomic damages to Britt Easterly was “improperly prejudiced.” The jury awarded Easterly $100,000 more than he sought.
Cogen said there was no evidence presented during the two-week trial that proved race played a factor in most of the issues Easterly raised.
Easterly was one of three African-American men who filed the suit against the county in 2009. He, former jail commander Clifford Evelyn and Elzy Patrick Edwards, a job applicant who was denied employment, alleged a pattern of racial discrimination by jail managers and officers. Evelyn’s and Edwards’ claims are pending in the Washington Court of Appeals.
Easterly was a custody officer from 2003 until he left the Clark County Sheriff’s Office in 2009 after being passed over for a promotion.
Read the full story: Jail discrimination award stands
