Cheers: To the Boschma family, which has pledged to hold a 20-acre parcel in Ridgefield as the permanent home of Southwest Washington’s law enforcement training academy. Becoming a cop requires a lot of training; a year ago, an academy opened at the former Image Elementary building in east Vancouver. This allowed local agencies to get new hires on the job faster, and to attract applicants who couldn’t be away from home for weeks at a time to attend an academy in the Seattle area.
But an old elementary school isn’t its ideal home. The Boschma property, which was once a farm, would be able to accommodate a classroom building and potentially a shooting range and a driving track. Local officials will ask the Legislature this year for $3.5 million to design the facility; construction funding could come as soon as 2027.
Jeers: To the ignominious thief who stole cute figurines from Vancouver’s Gnome Trail. The little path, an offshoot of Burnt Bridge Creek Trail, offered walkers a whimsical little piece of folk art. Now someone has stolen all of the figurines from the little dioramas that were tucked into its shady corners.
Cheers: To returning artifacts to their rightful home. This story starts as a tale of friendship between a renowned 19th-century Sioux warrior and diplomat, Chief Spotted Tail, and a U.S. Army major and Indian agent named Cicero Newell. At some point, Spotted Tail gifted Newell with a lush headdress of eagle feathers, a quiver and arrows, beaded and fringed moccasins, leggings, a shirt and a horn. The Newells stored the items in a suitcase that was passed through the family for five generations.
The most recent family member to have the suitcase, James Newell of La Center, realized that the artifacts could be put to better use if they were returned to the Rosebud Sioux Tribe. After being displayed temporarily in Sinte Gleska University’s Heritage Center (Sinte Gleska was Chief Spotted Tail’s Native name), they will find a permanent home in the expanded South Dakota State Historical Society museum, where they will tell the story of both an Indigenous culture and an unusual friendship.
Jeers: To high egg prices. If you’re headed to the supermarket for some eggs, be sure to bring extra money. An outbreak of avian influenza and facility fires in 12 states led to the loss of nearly 40 million egg-layers last year, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The shortage of eggs has inflated local prices to $5, $6 or even $7 per dozen. Maybe we should color marshmallows for Easter this year?
Cheers: To nurse navigators. No, these trained professionals won’t help you deal with your health insurance provider. Instead, when you call 911 for an ambulance, they may be able to help connect you with a more suitable alternative than going to a hospital’s emergency room, where lower-priority patients can wait for hours. Of course, patients with urgent needs still get that ambulance ride. But using the nurse navigators can save patients time and money, and free up emergency resources such as paramedics and ambulances. Since the program launched in May 2023, Clark County’s 911 dispatch center has routed nearly 800 nonurgent medical calls to nurse navigators, saving an estimated 476 ambulance transports and $1.1 million.
Jeers: To an increase in drunk driving. Local police report making substantially more DUI arrests on New Year’s Eve than in the previous year. Luckily, there were no fatal crashes.