News In case we weren't sure about how Clark County feels about light rail, Washington legislators introduced a bill yesterday asking for a law to block it.The bill comes two months after the county voted down a $2.5 million a year sales tax to pay for the operation of an extension of MAX into downtown Vancouver as part of the Columbia River Crossing.The CRC, the largest infrastructure project the area's ...   More

News Update 5:30 pm: The petition is actually invalid, Clark County elections supervisors found. After examining 94 suspect signatures, the county office found that some were duplicates, according to The Columbian. The petition now is 32 valid signatures short of the 5,475 it needed to refer the petition to the city council, and to the ballot.Here's the original story:On the heels of a resounding "no" to ...   More

News Washington is setting up its southern neighbors to hold the funding bag when money for the Columbia River Crossing falls short, incoming Metro Councilor Bob Stacey says.In a four-page memo to his soon-to-be fellow council members obtained by WW, Stacey blasts funding plans for the controversial $3.5 billion megaproject to replace Interstate 5's bridges, add light rail to Vancouver and expand freeways ...   More

News With the northern half of the Oregon's attention focused on the controversial Columbia River Crossing, the state's got a little-brother project in the works an hour's drive south.Meet the Salem River Crossing: an estimated $687 million bridge connecting West Salem to the Salem Parkway that's stirring up the waters in Marion County.Like Interstate 5 to Clark County, traffic from Salem's downtown over ...   More

News Columbia River Crossing planners appear to have drawn a line in the air: The bridges—designed too low for expect shipping traffic—can be raised to 115 feet or so, but not much more.After what the officials call a “substantial technical analysis,” project leaders told Washington legislators today that 115 feet lets most ships through without adding significantly to the cost and impacts to Hayden ...   More

News A right-wing think tank in Washington is pressing the state’s auditor to turn an eye toward the Columbia River Crossing.Seattle-based Washington Policy Center sent a letter to Washington Auditor Brian Sonntag last week, asking for action. The center’s director, Mike Ennis, says he made the request after meeting with the Acuity Group, a Vancouver accounting firm hired by staunch anti-CRC activist ...   More

News Hundreds of raucous Democrats, crowded into the cavernous downtown Hilton Hotel ballroom for their election-night victory bash, roared...   More

Headout Vancouver is actively disinterested in joining Portland’s transportation grid. Twice in recent years, voters there have been asked to approve a tiny sales-tax increase to pay for a light-rail br   More

News At today's 10th Oregon Leadership Summit, Gov. John Kitzhaber did what he could to put the best face on the controversial $3.5 billion Columbia River Crossing project. "I met with legislative leadership last week and they agreed to prioritize this project in 2013," Kitzhaber told the assembled throng of business leaders and elected officials. In the budget he released Nov. 30, Kitzhaber anticipated ...   More

News ...   More