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Columbian Newspaper

Judge OKs phone surveys of jury pool for man charged in 4 University of Idaho student deaths
Author: REBECCA BOONE, Associated Press

BOISE, Idaho — Defense attorneys for a man charged in the deaths of four University of Idaho students can resume phone surveys of potential jurors in the case, a judge has ruled.

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Judge sentences Vancouver man, guilty of assault and attempted murder, to 25 years in prison
Author: Alexis Weisend

A Vancouver man was sentenced Monday to more than 25 years in prison for shooting through the front door and bedroom window of his estranged wife’s house while she and their children were home.

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Washington Governor's Office

Washington state study and trade mission to Vietnam will focus on advanced technology, agriculture and climate
Author: jim.mumford@gov.wa.gov
Publish Date April 04, 2024 Story Body

The Office of the Governor is leading a delegation of about 46 business, government, port, industry, and education leaders on a five-day trade mission in Vietnam. The Washington State Department of Commerce and Washington State Department of Agriculture are supporting delegation activities as well.

The trade mission is April 8-12. Delegates will spend two-and-a-half days each in Hanoi in Ho Chi Minh City. Trade mission activities include bilateral meetings with Vietnamese leaders, visits to various manufacturing facilities and innovation centers, meetings with cultural and higher education leaders, as well as business networking and product promotion events. Much of the itinerary is focused on strengthening trade and collaboration opportunities in advanced technology sectors such as agriculture, clean energy and artificial intelligence.

Washington’s study and trade mission follows President Biden’s visit in September 2023 to announce the elevation of the United State’s relationship to Vietnam under the Vietnam-U.S. Comprehensive Strategic Partnership.

Vietnam is among the fastest-growing economies in Asia with several advanced manufacturing sectors setting up shop in the country. Washington companies with a presence in Vietnam include Amazon, Microsoft, Boeing, Brooks and SSA Marine. In 2023, Vietnam was Washington state’s 5th largest export market when including agriculture such as apples, wheat and dairy.

The United States and nine international partners launched the Just Energy Transition Partnership (JETP) with Vietnam in 2022 that provides investment and technical expertise to help Vietnam transition its energy sector and reach net zero greenhouse emissions by 2050.

More than 90,000 Vietnamese and Vietnamese-American people live in Washington today. In the late 1970s, Washington famously became the only state that stood up to welcome hundreds of refugees from Vietnam and Southeast Asia.

The delegation includes Commerce Director Michael Fong, Agriculture Director Derek Sandison, Office of Financial Management Director David Schumacher, state senators Joe Nguyễn and June Robinson, and state representatives My-Linh Thai and Steve Tharinger. Gov. Jay Inslee had been scheduled to attend, but following a bout of pneumonia his doctor recommended no long-distance travel right now.

The Commerce delegation is focused on strengthening collaboration between Washington and Vietnam on advanced technology, renewable energy and clean technology, forestry, maritime, and a strong STEM workforce. The Agriculture delegation is focused on expanding business connections, promoting Washington food agricultural products, and learning more about opportunities in the Vietnamese market. Delegates represent products including wheat and wheat flour, apples, wine, cherries, and hay.

Funding for the trade mission comes from a combination of legislatively-approved appropriations and delegate fees.

NYT Politics

For Biden, Aid Package Provides a Welcome Boost on the World Stage
Author: Peter Baker
The congressional breakthrough on security assistance to Ukraine and Israel will let the president finally deliver arms to match his words. But it could be only a temporary respite.

Washington State News

Mariners' strong rotation out to contain Rangers' bats
(Photo credit: Dan Hamilton-USA TODAY Sports) That the Seattle Mariners' strength is their starting pitching shouldn't come as too much of a surprise. But after a rocky second turn through the rotation, it's been even better than expected since. The Mariners hope that trend continues when they open a three-game series against the defending World Series champion Texas Rangers on Tuesday night in Arlington, Texas. Seattle

Seattle Times Opinion

State GOP convention: When did they become ‘beatification events’?
Author: Letters editor

Re: “State GOP endorses Bird for governor” [April 21, Northwest]: What happened to the former Grand Old Party I, a Democrat, was fond of and voted for? Would rational Republican politicians like former Govs. Dan Evans and John Spellman; King County Prosecuting Attorneys Norm Maleng and Chris Bayley; and U.S. Reps. Joel Pritchard and John […]
Supreme Court decision in Grants Pass case shouldn’t penalize homelessness
Author: Lauren McGowan

Cases like Martin v. City of Boise and Johnson v. Grants Pass affirm that we cannot punish people for managing their survival in a world without enough shelter.
Decade After Oso, Congress must not ignore landslide risk
Author: The Seattle Times editorial board

Congress should reauthorize the National Landslide Preparedness Act, an effective program to minimize loss of life and economic damage.

The Chronicle - Centralia

Intrepid skiers, snowboarders brave icy water during White Pass pond skim

With spring in full gear and temperatures approaching a balmy 50 degrees last Saturday, April 20, at the White Pass Ski Area, hundreds of onlookers watched as approximately 150 intrepid skiers and snowboarders braved icy water attempting the 2024 White Pass Pond Skim.

Organized by the White Pass Ski Patrol as a fundraiser, the Pond Skim is meant to mark the second-to-last weekend White Pass will be open this season, along with providing some fun and watching big wipeouts.

The origins of pond skimming are unclear, with some believing it either originated in Washington on Mount Baker in 1953 with the Slush Cup, while others attribute it to a pair of Canadian skiers — Cliff White and Cyril Paris — who created it while spring skiing in Banff, Canada, in 1928.

Whenever it was created, ski resorts around the world now hold their own Pond Skim events, and they have become a staple of the ski season’s end.

With the Pond Skim now complete, White Pass is preparing for its final event this season — the Yeti Hunt next weekend.

Beginning Saturday, April 27, 10 yeti cutouts will be placed at various locations on different ski runs throughout White Pass, according to White Pass Ski Area ski instructor Andy Mahre.

“You find seven of the 10 yetis, you take a picture with them or of somebody else with them, and you bring those into the prize desk at our retail shop and claim your prize,” Mahre said.

On Saturday, there will be a total of 133 prizes.

“One for each day that we were open this year, and Sunday, we will be giving away a season pass,” Mahre added.

Mahre said some, though not all, ski lifts will be operational, as some ski runs no longer have enough snow on them.

“Just the original ski area will be open,” Mahre said. “So the quad (Great White Express) down here, the triple chair (Far East) and Chair 4 will be open, but Basin Quad and Couloir Express (lifts) will be closed.”

Additionally on Saturday, a yeti hunter costume contest will be held behind the White Pass ski lodge beginning at 11 a.m.

For more information on the White Pass Ski Area Yeti Hunt, visit https://skiwhitepass.com/events/yeti-hunt-weekend

MGP votes in support of House passed foreign aid package

Following months of debate, the United States House of Representatives voted Saturday to provide $95 billion in foreign aid to Ukraine and Israel in a package that now heads to the Senate for consideration.

With wide bipartisan support, the House passed measures to provide nearly $61 billion in aid to Ukraine, $26 billion in aid to Israel and $8 billion in security funding to the Indo-Pacific Region. The House also passed a measure that could ban the social media app TikTok, unless its Chinese parent company, ByteDance, sells the company in the next nine months.

The four measures will be packaged into a single amendment and sent to the Senate, which could consider the legislation as soon as Tuesday. President Joe Biden has signaled support for the legislation if it ultimately makes it to his desk.

The additional funding to Ukraine proved to be the most contentious portion of the funding package. According to the clerk of the House, the proposal received unanimous support among Democrats, while a majority of Republican members rejected the measure.

The vote is the first time since December 2022, when Democrats still held control, that the House has voted to provide additional aid to Ukraine.

Third Congressional District Rep. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez, D-Washougal, who previously introduced a separate foreign aid package, voted in support of all four measures that passed the House on Saturday.

“Across the globe, our allies and partners are facing increasing threats to freedom and democracy — and action is long-overdue. Today, I voted to rearm Ukraine against Putin’s Russia, help Israel defend itself, strengthen security in the Indo-Pacific, and get humanitarian relief to innocent civilians in Gaza and Ukraine,” Gluesenkamp Perez said in a statement Saturday. “I came to Congress to work across the aisle, get stuff done, and serve as an independent voice for Southwest Washington. For months, I’ve called on my colleagues to stop using these crises as a political football — and I’m glad Congress could reach a bipartisan solution today modeled off the bipartisan Defending Borders, Defending Democracies Act I’ve worked on for months.”

In mid-February, Gluesenkamp Perez joined a bipartisan group of seven Representatives in introducing the Defending Borders, Defending Democracies Act. While smaller in scope than the legislation that ultimately passed, the proposal would have provided defense-only spending to Ukraine, Israel, and the Indo-Pacific.

The proposal would have also reimplemented a “remain in Mexico” policy for one year and required the Secretary of Homeland Security to “suspend the entry of inadmissible aliens at a U.S. land or maritime border” if necessary for operational control.

On Saturday, Gluesenkamp Perez was one of five Democrats to vote in support of the End the Border Catastrophe Act, a proposal that would have reimplemented the “remain in Mexico” policy and restarted construction of a wall along the southern border, among other immigration restrictions.

While the proposal received unanimous support among Republicans, and 215 representatives voted for its approval compared to 199 who voted against it, the legislation fell short of a two-thirds majority needed to pass.

In her statement, Gluesenkamp Perez noted a “worsening situation” at the southern border and said she is “committed to securing our border and halting the deadly flow of fentanyl into our communities.”

“President Biden has failed to end the crisis at our Southern Border, so I voted to do what he refuses to do: secure our border and stop the violent drug cartels pumping fentanyl into our country,” Gluesenkamp Perez said.

According to the Associated Press, the Border Patrol made 137,480 arrests of people crossing the southern border in March, a decrease from the 140,638 arrests the agency reported in February. The AP noted that border crossings typically increase during warmer months.

“Every country has an obligation to protect its citizens and secure its sovereign borders, and H.R. 3602 focuses on the urgent need to restore operational control of the Southern Border,” Gluesenkamp Perez said. “Unlike the unworkable and un-American immigration proposals pushed by far-right extremists, this bipartisan bill doesn’t create burdensome government mandates that would harm small businesses, agricultural employers, rural communities, and our economy.”

In her statement, Gluesenkamp Perez noted that she previously voted to fund the “largest Border Patrol workforce in our country’s history.”

“I’ll continue working with colleagues on both sides of the aisle to fight the fentanyl crisis and work toward a border security solution that delivers for Southwest Washington,” she said.

Republican congressional candidate Joe Kent, Gluesenkamp Perez’s leading challenger, blasted the foreign aid legislation in a post on X.

“‘A bipartisan consensus!’” he wrote. “Translation: The DC political class profits from sending our money to defend foreign nation’s borders while our borders remain wide open. This won’t change until we elect new Reps, help me get to DC to fight for (America first).”

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