Local News - The Daily News

Birds of a feather are flocking together Saturday and Sunday at the Red Lion Inn in Kelso. More than 200 budgies, along with their 27 owners, will compete at the 56th annual Washington Budgerigar Society show.

The Washington Department of Ecology sent a letter to federal regulators Friday saying its review of the Bradwood Landing liquefied natural gas terminal planned for the Columbia River ignores “major public and environmental safety concerns.”

CHEHALIS — Making Mount St. Helens a national park could damage the area’s timberland industries and cause some companies to curtail or alter their local operations, officials told the Mount St. Helens Advisory Committee on Thursday night.

KALAMA — “E-waste.” Unless you are Bob Briehl, that term probably doesn’t mean a whole lot.

A friendly raccoon creeps up to a table of folks dining outside recently at The Rutherglen Mansion, hoping for a handout.

On the first day of a month-long, “full immersion” Spanish-language program, Lyn Sheridan nearly panicked. “It was overwhelming,” said Sheridan, 43, a corrections officer at the Cowlitz County Jail who never studied a foreign language before. “I just thought, ‘what have I gotten myself into?’”

The only person arrested so far in connection with two marijuana-grow houses in Longview pleaded guilty this week to manufacturing marijuana.

Longview police are investigating three seemingly related crimes in which Molotov cocktails were thrown at two Longview School District buildings and a third building was burglarized late Wednesday or early Thursday.

CASTLE ROCK — Metal thieves soon may have a new, though decidedly eye-catching — and yellow — target these days.

Woodland-based USNR has bought bankrupt Canadian competitor Coe Newnes/ McGehee for $11 million, USNR announced this week.

A man took an undisclosed amount of cash at gunpoint from Jitters espresso stand on Kelso Drive shortly after 5 p.m. Thursday.

CASTLE ROCK — Stung by last year’s unexpected enrollment drop, the school board here approved a “conservative” and “worst-case scenario” budget Tuesday night.

There’ll be plenty of classic cars to admire, good food to eat and family-friendly fun at the 15th annual Mountain Mania Festival in downtown Castle Rock Friday night and Saturday.

Traffic will be reduced to one lane in each direction Sunday in the 2500 block of Ocean Beach Highway while the city of Longview removes a tree at Lake Sacajawea.

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission has renewed the operating license for four dams on the Lewis River, including Cowlitz PUD’s Swift 2 hydroelectric project, the utility announced Thursday.

The cities of Longview and Kelso recently hired a Seattle-based marketing firm to evaluate the cities through the eyes of a stranger.

Aaron Reibe, the 28-year-old Longview man diagnosed with a rare cancer in October and who underwent a 15-hour surgery in Baltimore on Jan. 3, was released from Mercy Medical Center on Wednesday, according to his mother, Peggy Reibe of Longview.

Interracial couple Roxanne Smith and Lloyd Clayton Hill walked out of their North Kelso apartment Wednesday morning to discover someone had scratched two swastikas — backward — into the paint job on Hill’s late-model Saab.

Melting snow has revealed another major road washout near Mount St. Helens.