New Year fireworks in Clark County

The Daily Insider wishes all the best to its readers for 2012!  Because of you, we have enjoyed a fantastic year, full of growth and changes.  Many thanks to our supporters and this wonderful community.  To celebrate the season, we will not publish Friday, Dec. 30 or  Monday, Jan. 2. From all us at the Insider, Happy New Year!

Margie Coursey sends cheer overseas.

Polly McCarter explains her accent.

Melissa Layman knows a good roast.

Bad Agent

Magenta Theater’s Bad Agent will be playing at the Rosemary Café, 1001 Main St., Vancouver, Friday Jan. 13, and Saturday, Jan. 14.

Enjoy a homemade style menu followed by an explosive evening of classic rock, blues, country, and pop. Dinner starts at 6:30, followed by music at 7:30.

General seating for the show is $10. Dinner and drinks are paid for at the end of the show, and cost between $5 and $20. For more information and tickets, click here.

The public is invited to the Coaster Poetry Contest Reading at Niche Wine and Art Bar, 1013 Main St., Vancouver, Wednesday, Jan. 18, from 7 to 10 p.m.

Leah Jackson and Christopher Luna are proud to announce the winners of Niche Wine and Art Bar’s Coaster Poetry contest. The winners will gather for a special reading of their work, and each of the winning poems will be published on a set of limited edition coasters to be used in the bar and for sale to the public.

Jackson is a visual artist and the proprietor of both Angst Gallery and Niche Wine and Art Bar. In late 2010, Jackson named Luna poet laureate for Niche and Angst. For more information, email Luna at christopherluna@gmail.com, or click here.

With more than 185,000 visitors pouring through its gates so far this month, the Oregon Zoo reached a milestone yesterday by welcoming its 50 millionth visitor since 1959, the year it moved to its current Washington Park location. To mark the occasion, those attending the Zoolights, the zoo’s holiday light show,  could enter a drawing to win a prize package that includes a one-year family membership to the zoo, an assortment of gift items from the zoo store and the opportunity to help deliver Packy the elephant’s 50th birthday cake this spring.

The traditional light show has delighted visitors for more than two decades with its dazzling life-size animal silhouettes, moving sculptures, forests of lighted trees and light-bedecked steam train. In keeping with the zoo’s commitment to sustainability, most of the lights displayed are LEDs, which use only a fraction of the power of standard holiday lights.

ZooLights, presented by Fred Meyer with support from The Boeing Company, runs through Jan. 1. For more information about Zoolights or the zoo, visit www.oregonzoo.org or call 503-226-1561.

The public is invited to a free health and wellness fair at the Firstenburg Community Center, 700 N.E. 136th Ave., Vancouver, on Saturday, Jan. 14, from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. In addition to vendor booths, there will be aerobics classes in the gym and a drawing for prizes from the vendors. The Southwest Washington Blood Program will also be on site during the health fair to take blood donations. For more information or to register as a vendor, contact Jen Thomas at 360-487-7019 or jen.thomas@cityofvancouver.us.

The Clark County Event Center, 17402 N.E. Delfel Rd., Ridgefield, invites Southwest Washington networking groups and business professionals to attend the second annual “networking extravaganza” on Wednesday, Jan. 11, from 4:30 to 6:30 p.m. For a fee, networking groups can use skirted tables to display information, and each group is allotted one minute to educate attendees about the benefits of membership. Door prizes, contributed by the networking groups, will be awarded to visitors. For more information or to register for a table, visit www.clarkcoeventcenter.com.

The Port of Vancouver board of commissioners will meet in executive session to discuss real estate matters and personnel on Wednesday, Jan. 4, at 2 p.m. at the Port of Vancouver USA Administrative Offices, 3103 Lower River Road, Vancouver.  No action will be taken during executive session.