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.