A man and woman who'd suffered apparent gunshot wounds were found dead this morning in a Clark County house, according to the Clark County Sheriff's Office.

Police later identified them as 86-year-old Evelyn D. Wastler, and her 58-year-old son, Donald R. Wastler.

The Clark County Medical Examiner will perform autopsies on both bodies tomorrow.

Wonder was the lucky cat today. After two other cats died in Vancouver house fires, crews were able to revive him.

Firefighters responding about 6:30 p.m in the 2400 block of Southeast 139th Avenue found Wonder in an upstairs bedroom, covered in soot and unconscious.

OLYMPIA -- Gov. Chris Gregoire's plan to reduce the state's current budget by nearly $600 million to avoid a deficit includes reductions at the state's largest agency, and officials there say job cuts are likely.

The Olympian reports that the state Department of Social and Health Services will likely lay off part of its 20,000-employee work force as $180 million is cut from its budget.

Voter turnout in this year's election has set a Washington state record.

The state's 39 counties certified their election results this week, showing a record turnout of 84.61 percent. That barely beat the 1944 figure of 84.54 percent.

BELLINGHAM, Wash. -- The chief of a rural school district in Whatcom County has been named the state's superintendent of the year.

The Bellingham Herald reports that Mark Johnson of the Nooksack Valley school district was named superintendent of the year last week by the Washington Association of School Administrators.

FEDERAL WAY, Wash. -- A 17-year-old supermarket employee who found a bag containing $10,000 at his work's bathroom returned the money, much to the owner's delight.

The Tacoma News Tribune reports the bag of cash found at the Top Food & Drug supermarket in Federal Way two weeks ago had been left behind by a man from Vancouver, Wash.

A 22-year-old Vancouver man remains in critical condition this morning after he struck a car while performing a stunt on his motorcycle.

Police said Alec Thomale was traveling at high speed north on Northwest Erwin O. Rieger Memorial Highway just after 3 p.m. when he struck a northbound car driven by Miguel Martinez Mariscal, 20, also of Vancouver.

PULLMAN, Wash. -- Gov. Chris Gregoire said the ballooning state deficit will lead to spending cuts that are "truly ugly."

Gregoire and other leaders learned last week that the budget deficit through mid-2011 is about $5.1 billion. That includes a shortfall of about $500 million in the current budget, which lasts through June.

OLYMPIA -- Officials say the creation of a new area code for the state has been delayed by a couple of years.

The state Utilities and Transportation Commission has announced that telecommunications companies have at least another three years to assign a new area code to users with a 360 area code, which covers most of the western half of the state.

SEATTLE -- University of Washington president Mark Emmert has decide to forgo a pay raise this year.

Regents completed their annual review Thursday and said Emmert has done an exceptional job, but they did not consider a pay increase, at his request.

STEVENSON, Wash. -- Late afternoon on the opening day of elk season, a man approached three hunters in the Lone Butte area near Carson. He couldn't speak English and struggled to deliver his message: His friend had been shot dead.

A dozen detectives and officers from four agencies descended on the case. They interviewed as many as 100 elk hunters who had set up camp near the site of the man's death near Skookum Meadows in the Gifford Pinchot National Forest.

Detectives arrested a Camas, Wash., teacher on Monday in the fatal shooting of a Tacoma man earlier this month in the Gifford Pinchot National Forest.

Craig A. Sjoberg, 55, faces an accusation of first-degree manslaughter, said Skamania County Undersheriff David Cox. Sjoberg teaches in the Evergreen School District.

Three people are in custody following a drive-by shooting on a residential street in Vancouver early this morning, police said.

The target in the 4 a.m. shooting appears to have been a group of people standing outside a house in the 5400 block of Northeast 29th Circle, said Sgt. Kathy McNicholas, a Vancouver police spokeswoman.

A car pulled up to the house and someone fired a handgun out of an open window, McNicholas said. Some parked cars were hit, but no one was injured, she said.

"Until people start getting up and assessing the damage on that street," she said, "we won't know the full extent of the damage."

Investigators believe the shooting was gang-related.

Police found at least three bullet casings at the scene. Acting on a description of the car, Portland police stopped the vehicle across the state line and took three people into custody.

Vancouver detectives are interviewing the trio in Portland this morning and more information on the incident is expected soon, McNicholas said.

McNicholas said gang activity has increased "drastically" this year in Vancouver. She said the city's gang task force was disbanded several years ago and the city has had trouble finding the money to bring the special unit back.

-- Joseph Rose; josephrose@news.oregonian.com

Clark County deputies arrested a second fugitive this afternoon in connection with a Tigard robbery and assault.

About 2:15 p.m. Jamie Sweany, 31, of Vancouver was arrested at a residence in the 1900 block of West 28th Street, said Sgt. Duncan Hoss, a Clark County Sheriff's Office spokesman.

Veterans and military families will not have to pay any recreation fees to enjoy the outdoors on federal land on Tuesday.

The U.S. Bureau of Land Management said those fees will be waived on Veterans Day for all military personnel and their families.

Police say they expect to make Portland-area arrests in a money-laundering investigation that has already led to the seizure of more than $350,000.

The investigation began during a Sunday traffic stop on Interstate 5 north of Roseburg, said Lt. Gregg Hastings, an Oregon State Police spokesman.

VANCOUVER -- A Vancouver-area man is in hiding after three acquaintances took him early Sunday to north Clark County, where they repeatedly stabbed, kicked and beat him, then threw him down an embankment and left him for dead, police said.

Jeremiah Dee Anderson, 19, was arrested Thursday and Michael J. Harvey, 24, was arrested Wednesday in connection with the assault. Each of the Vancouver men is being held on a charge of first-degree attempted murder. Anderson also is charged with a probation violation.

A woman was arrested on accusations of attacking an acquaintance with a knife this afternoon in downtown Vancouver, police said.

About 5:30 p.m., officers responded to reports of a fight in a parking lot in the 1100 block of West Thirteenth Street, said Officer Dave Chamblee of the Vancouver Police Department.

VANCOUVER -- Citing the need to keep the public safe, a Clark County Superior Court judge today sentenced a Vancouver teenager to 55 years in prison for the 2007 murder of a man shot in his car at Northeast Fairmount Avenue and 26th Street.

Orlin A. Campos-Cerna, 18, was convicted last month of first-degree murder in the death of Jose S. Avila, 34, of Vancouver and the first-degree attempted murder of his passenger, Anthony Tirado, 24.

VANCOUVER -- A southeast Vancouver family and a dog escaped unharmed Tuesday when they crawled on to the garage roof from a second-story window as flames and heavy smoke swept through their home.

Vancouver firefighters were sent to 705 S.E. 141st Ave., just after 9 a.m. One firefighter, Nate Cook, put up a ladder to the attached garage while others went into the home and brought the blaze under control, said Jim Flaherty, a spokesman for the Vancouver Fire Department.

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Flames were shooting out the front door when firefighters arrived, he said.

Cook climbed the ladder and brought down a 13-year-old boy from the sloping, wet roof before climbing back up to rescue a 3-year-old girl, then a woman on a third climb, Flaherty said. No one was injured.

Cook climbed the ladder a fourth time to rescue a dog "who wasn't happy one bit," Flaherty said. Cook got his arm around the dog, likely a basset-beagle mix, only when the canine bit his glove, he said.

The identities of those rescued and details of the blaze were not immediately available. It was unclear how long the family was on the wet, sloping roof or who called 9-1-1, Flaherty said.

A fire investigator was sent to the home to determinen the cause of the blaze.

--Holley Gilbert; holleygilbert@news.oregonian.com

Vancouver today announced layoffs of nearly 30 employees while its city manager predicted a bigger budget deficit during the next two years.

The city now expects a budget deficit totaling $8.5 million in 2009-10, not the $6 million forecast earlier this year, according to the memo from City Manager Pat McDonnell.

Police are searching for a man who attacked two men with a hatchet near Vancouver's Evergreen Park this morning.

The two Vancouver men were taken to Southwest Washington Medical Center with head injuries. One, with a skull fracture, was placed in intensive care. The other suffered minor wounds to the head and neck, according to information released by the Vancouver Police Department.

VANCOUVER -- Five people were arrested early today during a drug raid at two apartments in the Orchards area. A toddler found at one home was placed with relatives.

Clark County Sheriff's deputies went to the Northeast 94th Avenue apartments with search warrants at 5:40 a.m. to investigate complaints of narcotics trafficking, said Deputy Duncan Hoss.

VANCOUVER -- A Clark County jury found a Vancouver man guilty Friday of multiple theft charges for persuading a 78-year-old woman to pay him approximately $1 million for over-priced house repairs and non-existent real estate investments, costing her the home.

Richard M. Amaro, 32, was convicted on 12 counts of first-degree theft, two counts of second-degree theft and three counts of contracting without a license.

VANCOUVER -- Celebrate Freedom's Veterans Day parade on Saturday, Nov. 8, will take a slightly different route than in past years because of construction on Main Street in downtown Vancouver.

As usual, the 22nd annual parade will start at 11 a.m. at the corner of East Reserve Street and Evergreen Boulevard and head west along Officers Row. Once over Interstate 5, however, the parade will turn south on to C Street, then right on Eighth Street to end at Esther Short Park.

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VANCOUVER -- Clark County Sheriff's deputies on Thursday evening arrested two young males in connection with a spate of incidents in which objects have been thrown off an overpass onto cars traveling along Padden Parkway.

One of the people they arrested reportedly told deputies that he has been throwing objects off the overpass because he was bored.

They also arrested a second youngster who told said the two of them had been planning to throw a dryer off the same overpass, at Northeast 130th Avenue near 83rd Street.

In the 11 years since Oregon became the only state where dying patients can end their lives with a legally prescribed drug overdose, no other state has followed suit. That could change next week, if Washington voters approve a ballot measure modeled on Oregon's law.

VANCOUVER -- Energy bills for Northwest Natural Gas customers in Clark County will go up about $15 a month starting Saturday under a rate increase the Washington State Public Utilities and Transportation Commission approved today.

The 19 percent increase means the average bill will go to $90, according to the commission.

VANCOUVER -- Two Vancouver churches on Saturday will open their doors to the homeless for the duration of the cold-weather months.

The Winter Hospitality Overflow program provides emergency shelter at St. Paul Lutheran Church in downtown Vancouver and St. Andrew Lutheran Church in the Orchards area. It runs through March.

Jones Creek and Boulder Creek have served the city of Camas since the days that Herbert Hoover was in the White House.

The city diverted water from the creeks, approximately 18 miles to the north. One creek has supplied water since 1931; the other since 1913.

VANCOUVER -- Motorists traveling northbound on Interstates 5 and 205 near their junction at milepost 37.15 will encounter early morning rolling slowdowns Thursday and Friday.

Beginning at 12:01 a.m. each day, crews will close two lanes of I-5 northbound near the Northeast 179th Street exit (Exit 9), narrowing the interstate to a single lane for about two miles. Drivers can expect a delay of about 15 minutes.

VANCOUVER -- A $1.2 million budget shortfall at the Fort Vancouver Regional Library District could spell the closure of its mall branch or cutback in hours at all branches, among other potential changes.

Prior to making 2009 budget cuts at their Nov. 10 meeting, board members want to know whether Westfield Vancouver Mall management will waive a $500,000 remodel of the branch that's required as part of an overall mall renovation.

VANCOUVER -- An armed man shot and killed by police during a standoff early this month fired once toward several officers, prompting four others to fire 19 rounds at him, the Clark County Sheriff's Office said today.

Sgt. Scott Schanaker declined to say how many bullets struck Robert Kenneth Miller, 43, early Oct. 7. Three deputies and one Vancouver police officer shot at Miller after he refused to put down a handgun he was holding to his head or cooperate any other way, but instead raised the gun and fired toward officers.

Two men were arrested in connection with serious injuries sustained by two infants in separate incidents this week.

A 5-month old boy remains in pediatric intensive care at Legacy Emanuel Hospital & Health Center after being brought in on Sunday with fractured ribs, a fractured arm and a subdural hematoma, according to the Clark County Sheriff's department.

A Vancouver man, Silvestre Luna Rodriguez, 27, was charged in Clark County Superior Court with two counts of second-degree assault, although the prosecutor has since amended those charges to first-degree, said Sgt. Scott Schanaker of the Clark County Sheriff's department. Police declined to identify the man's relationship to the child.

VANCOUVER -- Throughout their rematch of 2004, Washington Gov. Chris Gregoire and Republican rival Dino Rossi often tout their switch-over voters.

Only 133 votes separated the candidates last time. So a switch-over here, a switch-over there, and pretty soon, you're talking enough votes to win.

A Vancouver man appeared in court today in connection with a 5-month-old baby hospitalized Sunday with fractured ribs, a fractured arm and brain bleeding, the Clark County Sheriff's Office reported.

Silvestre Luna Rodriguez, 27, was charged in Clark County Superior Court with two counts of second-degree assault.

VANCOUVER -- Three men serving lengthy prison sentences in a 2005 home-invasion murder lost their bid today for a new trial when the Washington Court of Appeals upheld their convictions.

Michael Darrin Odell, 43, of Portland, Jason Z. Balaski, 36, of Vancouver and Daniel C. Johnson, 37, of Aloha, appealed their 2006 convictions on charges of burglary, first-degree murder and two counts of first-degree assault, citing 10 errors at trial.

Hearings into the fatal sinking of a fishing boat near Alaska's Aleutian Islands are scheduled to begin Monday in Anchorage by the Coast Guard Marine Board of Investigations.

The 93-foot Katmai sank early Wednesday in heavy seas. Five of the 11 crew members died and two remained missing. The other four survived aboard a life raft before being rescued by a Coast Guard helicopter.

Four of the dead were from Oregon and southwest Washington.

A Coast Guard news release said the three-member investigative panel expects to hear testimony from the surviving crew members as well representatives of Katmai Fisheries Inc. of Seattle, the boat's owner. The National Transportation Safety Board also is investigating the sinking.

Two men robbed a woman at knifepoint about 4:30 Saturday afternoon at a Vancouver ATM at 13215 S.E. Mill Plain Blvd.

Vancouver police arrested two suspects after a foot chase; police used a Taser on one of them. Both suspects face charges of first-degree armed robbery.

VANCOUVER -- Rocks thrown from an overpass Thursday night damaged a marked Clark County Sheriff's Office patrol car, but did not injure the deputy driving the vehicle, the sheriff's office reported today.

The rocks were thrown from the 130th Avenue overpass on to the eastbound lane of the Padden Expressway, east of Vancouver in central county, at about 10 p.m., the sheriff's office said.

VANCOUVER -- A 44-year-old man from Sequim was found hanged early this morning in the Clark County Jail.

According to Sgt. Scott Schanaker, Donald L. Chadwick was found hanging from a bed sheet when custody officers were making a regularly scheduled safety check about 2:40 a.m. They called medical staff members as well as paramedics, who tried to revive Chadwick, but were unable to do so.

He was pronounced dead at 3:11 a.m. Schanaker said that Chadwick hung himself sometime after 1:30 a.m., when officers had made an earlier round of checks. Chadwick had been fine at that point, he said.

VANCOUVER -- The Camas School District and the Public School Employees union have reached a tentative agreement after months of collective bargaining regarding wages and other issues, the groups announced today.

About 350 union members in the district are set to vote on the proposal Nov. 5. If ratified, it would go to the school board for approval Nov. 10.

The city of Gresham will host an Internet safety seminar for Latinos on Saturday, to educate parents and families how to stay safe on the Web.

"Staying safe on the Internet" is the first Spanish-language workshop offered by the city, where Latinos make up 20 percent of the population.

Ben Brink/The OregonianLocal police and agents from the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives leave a Milwaukie house they raided Tuesday as part of a regionwide crackdown on the Mongols Motorcycle Club.

In a series of pre-dawn raids Tuesday, federal agents swept through homes in six states and corralled 88 members of the Mongols Motorcycle Club, a feat authorities called the biggest mass takedown of outlaw bikers in U.S. history.

In Oregon and Washington, agents with the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives searched four homes, turning up firearms and marijuana to support a racketeering indictment against the California-based club.

A Clark County man lost his bid today for a new trial in the 2004 death of Clark County Sheriff's Sgt. Brad Crawford.

Robin T. Schreiber, 48, had sought to have his second-degree murder conviction overturned, claiming that Clark County Superior Court Judge Robert L. Harris made three errors during trial. But the Washington Court of Appeals in Tacoma issued a ruling saying Harris did not err and affirmed Schreiber's June 2006 conviction.

VANCOUVER -- Clark County's unemployment rate dropped to 6.9 percent in September, reflecting seasonal hiring trends. But is still well above last September's 5.1 percent, the state Unemployment Security Department reported today.

The rate in August was 8.4 percent.

VANCOUVER -- The River S Unit of the Ridgefield National Wildlife Refuge will be closed next week to allow emergency repairs to the bridge over Lake River.

The unit, home to a 4.2-mile auto tour and waterfowl hunting, will be closed from Monday, Oct. 27, through Friday, Oct. 31.

Read the full story in the Seattle Times.

Nine State Patrol troopers have been placed on administrative leave while the agency investigates whether they purchased falsified diplomas in order to get increased pay.

The State Patrol audited its rank and file last summer after hearing several accounts of law-enforcement and other government officials across the country being caught with fake diplomas, said State Patrol Capt. Jeff DeVere.

The nine troopers, including three sergeants, were put on paid leave Oct. 13 after agency officials couldn't determine whether the schools from which they obtained their diplomas actually existed, DeVere said.

"It appears these may be fraudulent institutions," DeVere said on Monday. "These nine [schools] were not readily apparent institutions of higher education, and they weren't easily determined institutions of education by looking at a Web site or [making] a phone call."

--The Oregonian

Washington State Patrol motorcycle troopers will be out in force on Wednesday and Thursday, looking for speeders and aggressive drivers on Interstate 5.

The emphasis patrols from Vancouver to Bellingham are designed to reduce the number of collisions caused by speed and aggression.

State Patrol Chief John Batiste says drivers who are too fast and aggressive are a main cause of traffic accidents.

The State Patrol has 44 motorcycle troopers assigned to work throughout Washington state; 37 of them are assigned to this two-day speed emphasis patrol.

--The Associated Press

VANCOUVER -- An employee of the Clark County-run Children's Justice Center filed a lawsuit against the county today alleging her supervisor discriminated and retaliated against her after she rejected the woman's personal attention.

The county has not turned over all records of an in-house investigation into a complaint Mary K. Herdener filed a year ago about Mary Blanchette, the center's executive director, the lawsuit says. Herdener was "subjected to a continuous pattern of re