Loggers heat up the house HAPPY NEW YEAR SPORTS • 7A 142nd YEAR, No. 132 And the winner is … COAST WEEKEND THURSDAY, JANUARY 1, 2015 ONE DOLLAR A brief refuge from the cold AP Photo/Argus Leader, Joe Ahlquist, File Susan Edwards, of Westborough, Mass., browses the wine selection at Prairie Berry East Bank in down- town Sioux Falls, S.D., in July. Wine connoisseurs will be popping the cork over a new law taking effect today that allows out-of-state win- eries to ship bottles directly to con- sumers in Massachusetts. Nix the tiger New laws OK wine shipments, give chicken more space JOSHUA BESSEX — The Daily Astorian Men wait outside the Astoria Senior Center, converted to a warming center, as volunteers set up inside Tuesday. The warming center opens on nights when the temperature is expected to drop below 35 degrees. New Astoria Warming Center provides night shelter for homeless, needy By DERRICK DEPLEDGE The Daily Astorian W ayne W. said he would probably have spent the past few wintry nights sleeping in a pup tent outside if not for the new Astoria Warming Center, a temporary night shelter - less and needy. Homeless for the past several months, he de- scribed himself as a 60-year-old disabled Army veteran muddled after a personal loss. He said he has a line on a place to live soon, but Tuesday night, when temperatures fell below freezing, he was among more than a dozen people who took advantage of the makeshift shelter at the Astoria Senior Center. “It was just a blessing. It really is,” said Wayne W., who had also stayed at the shelter Sunday Approved in November by the Astoria City Council, the warming center is using space in the senior center, which is awaiting renovation. The See CENTER, Page 10A COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — New state laws taking effect Thursday give livestock in California more liv- ing room, approve direct-to-consum- er wine shipments in Massachusetts and levy the ultimate punishment on wannabe teen drivers in Nevada by denying them licenses if they skip too much school. Other laws will allow Louisiana teens as young as 16 to register to vote, crack down on meth dealers in Michigan, end tax breaks for Holly- wood in North Carolina and raise the minimum wage in Ohio, New York, Rhode Island and elsewhere. Although it doesn’t take effect until early February, a New York law captures this year’s “Who knew?” have been used by young men as A look at some of the new laws taking effect Jan. 1, in alphabetical order by topic: ALCOHOL JOSHUA BESSEX — The Daily Astorian Volunteer Kate Leonard and Larry Miller, executive director of the senior center, walk past beds in the warming center. Bedding is kept in plastic bags for guests that have stayed multiple nights in the warming center. New guests receive donated bedding to use. Volunteer Charles Schweigert walks past shelves of donated blan- kets, sheets, and pillows in the warming center. Volunteer Jack Leon- ard hangs a sign with some of the rules of the warming center. JOSHUA BESSEX The Daily Astorian JOSHUA BESSEX The Daily Astorian Wine connoisseurs will be pop- ping the cork over a new law taking effect Thursday that allows out-of- state wineries to ship bottles directly to consumers in Massachusetts. The drive for direct wine shipments had been stalled for years before get- ting a big boost from former New England Patriots quarterback Drew Bledsoe. Now a winemaker in Wash- ington state, Bledsoe complained to lawmakers he could not send his products to Massachusetts residents, including fans and former teammates like current Patriots quarterback Tom Brady. ANIMALS In California, a ballot initiative approved by voters in 2008 takes ef- egg-laying hens, breeding sows and See LAWS, Page 10A Nursing teacher worked way up West Coast CCC’s new instructor arrived in August By EDWARD STRATTON The Daily Astorian Slowly but surely, Karson Nasstrom’s been making her way up the West Coast. A former nurse practitioner from Coos Bay, Nasstrom made her latest move in Au- gust, when she, husband Doug and two daughters, Piper, 3, and Poppy, 6, relocated to Astoria. She started in the fall as one of the newest nursing instruc- tors at Clatsop Community College. Nasstrom and her husband have spent their professional lives in the health care indus- try, Nasstrom as a nurse prac- OUR NEW NEIGHBORS PEOPLE NEW TO THE COMMUNITY titioner and Doug as a anesthe- tist. - ing and education,” Nasstrom said, about her natural transi- tion from nurse practitioner to instructor. “You do a lot of education with patients. “I saw myself doing a lot of that, educating patients and promoting health.” She joins a vaunted pro- gram at CCC with four nurs- ing faculty in Astoria, another teacher located at Tillamook Regional Medical Center and a pristine record of almost all its nursing graduates passing time out. See NASSTROM, Page 10A EDWARD STRATTON — The Daily Astorian Karson Nasstrom is one of the newest nursing instructors at Clatsop Community College.