It’s Rose Festival weekend; what does the weather have in store? Check our local weather coverage.
In case you missed it, here are some of the top stories of the week:
Graffiti has become a growing problem inside Ape Cave at the Mount St. Helens National Volcanic Monument over the last few years. U.S. Forest Service officials say they’re working on a plan to remove it, but the cave’s sensitive environment poses complications.
At 2.5 miles long, the Ape Cave is the third-longest lava tube in North America and a top attraction for visitors coming to Southwest Washington. But hikers who have walked through it in recent years have passed by spray-painted graffiti at various locations throughout the cave. Some of the graffiti inside is at least 2 years old and sits at various levels throughout the cave.
A Ridgefield man died in a three-vehicle crash as he was pulling onto southbound Interstate 205 in Vancouver Thursday afternoon, when he was rear-ended by another vehicle as traffic slowed for ducks in the roadway.
According to the Washington State Patrol, the driver, Michael R. Felton, 51, was turning south from Mill Plain Boulevard westbound shortly before 12:30 p.m., as were John R. Mead, 53, of Portland, and Lorie A. Pattee, 61, of Dexter, Ore.
Two days ago he finished his last high school final. Today he’s a pro baseball player.
The Seattle Mariners selected King’s Way Christian pitcher Damon Casetta-Stubbs in the 11th round of the MLB Draft on Wednesday morning, making the high school senior the highest drafted player out of Clark County this year.
“Going into this I wanted to be a Mariner,” Casetta-Stubbs said. “I think most of the teams knew that.”
It’s likely to be another hot summer for union negotiations in Southwest Washington and around the state as school districts and their teachers unions begin debating how to spend the millions of additional dollars districts will receive under the new school funding model.
Unsurprisingly, the two sides are already at odds.
Two Vancouver men were injured Monday morning when a man trying to kill himself by crashing his car into a concrete wall struck a passing vehicle instead, likely saving his life, according to the Washington State Patrol.
WSP Trooper Will Finn said the crash occurred shortly before 6:45 a.m. at the intersection of Ward Road and Northeast 162nd Avenue in Vancouver. He said Jerry L. Merfeld, 33, drove a 2006 Kia Rio sedan north on Northeast 162nd Avenue through a red light at high speed and crashed into the side of a 2016 GMC Sierra pickup being driven east on Ward Road by Vitaly Haytur, 44.
