Fisher, the keynote speaker, began his move into Clark County in 2006 to open a small satellite office in east Vancouver. Since then, Fisher has expanded to more than 900 employees on a campus in Camas with two office buildings. The company’s headquarters remains in Woodside, Calif., and Fisher Investments also has offices in London and in Frankfurt, Germany. Fisher is No. 236 on the Forbes 400 list of wealthiest Americans, with a net worth of $2.7 billion.
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A new political action committee, calling the Port of Vancouver “out of touch with our community and the public interest,” says it will provide campaign cash and grass-roots personnel to get candidates that share its values elected to the port’s three-member board of commissioners.
Launched earlier this month, Taxpayers for a Responsible Public Port has so far raised $2,000 from two individuals, records show. The group maintains a website and Facebook page, which, as of Wednesday afternoon, had 437 “likes.”
One of the group’s members, Jim Luce, said Wednesday the group grew out of concerns about the port commission’s handling of the lease for the oil transfer facility proposed by Tesoro Corp. and Savage Companies. The Vancouver lawyer is a former chairman of the state agency that’s reviewing the proposal by Tesoro and Savage to build the nation’s largest oil-by-rail terminal at the Port of Vancouver. However, Luce said, the group will advance a much broader cause aimed at making the port’s decision-making process more transparent and more accountable to citizens.
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When Chuck Atkins was sworn in as sheriff, a curious commonality emerged among three of Clark County’s six elected executives. Atkins, Auditor Greg Kimsey and Treasurer Doug Lasher are Columbia River High School graduates.
They’re in the top positions in Clark County government and they all were — and still are — Chieftains.
As part of a deal with prosecutors, Eric M. Estes, 42, of Vancouver entered the guilty plea in Frederick County Circuit Court in Maryland to a charge of child abuse of a household member.
In exchange, prosecutors agreed to recommend no prison time, three years of supervised probation and sex offender registration. Charges of third-degree sex offense and attempted second-degree sex offense were dropped. Sentencing is scheduled for May 21.
Officials with Vancouver Public Schools said they will fire Estes from his job as baseball coach and social studies teacher at Skyview High School in Vancouver.
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