New life for
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NORTH COAST • 3A
SPORTS • 7A
143rd YEAR, No. 44
MONDAY, AUGUST 31, 2015
ONE DOLLAR
Relay racers defy the elements to cross the line
Hood to Coast teams
battle high winds, rain
By. R.J. MARX
The Daily Astorian
SEASIDE — Early Saturday af-
ternoon, sun tentatively peered out
in Seaside after a morning of rain,
wind and bluster. The tally of Hood
to Coast Relay funds raised to ¿ght
cancer was more than $500,000, but
only the runners knew how hard those
dollars had been earned.
“We actually saw a tree crack in
half,” runner Travis Huntington said
after the race. “The true Oregonian
spirit came out.”
Teams started at Timberline
Lodge at Mount Hood, about 90
miles southeast of Portland. The
¿rst runners hit the gate Friday at
5 a.m., and teams followed until
about 4:15 Friday afternoon. Racers
headed westward through Portland,
Scappoose, St. Helens, Mist and
Jewell before heading into the ¿nal
legs and ¿nish in Seaside.
More than a thousand teams of
eight and 12 runners participated
in the 198-mile course. Waiting
were 3,600 volunteers, merchants,
family members and fans.
While the beach was closed to
runners and spectators because of
the day’s high winds, that didn’t
bother the ¿nishers.
“The winds came up, then the
rains started and it became real-
ly fun,” Matt Garnett of Madison,
Wisc., said after the race.
This was the 10th Hood to Coast
in a row for Matt Garnett’s group,
Smith defense
opposes pick
By DANI PALMER
EO Media Group
Joshua Bessex/The Daily Astorian
Visitors walk up the hill near the uncovered Astoria Column Sunday.
Summer storm blows cover off Astoria Column
By ERICK BENGEL
The Daily Astorian
I
Joshua Bessex/The Daily Astorian
A roadblock blocked access to the Astoria Column Sunday.
MORE STORM COVERAGE INSIDE
Turn to Page 10A to read about how the Coast Guard kept busy as the Saturday storm rushed
over the North Coast. The storm packed wind speeds that spiked higher than 80 mph.
See STORM, Page 10A
See RUN, Page 4A
Alleged killer
rejects state
psychologist
GONE
WITH
THE
WIND
t looked like a calamity atop
Coxcomb Hill Saturday morn-
ing as gale-force winds ripped
the white cover off the Astoria
Column, exposing the scaffolding
built for the landmark’s ongoing
restoration.
But, to the restoration team, the
sight meant that everything was
going according to plan.
In fact, Project Director Marie
Laibinis and Safway Services Inc.,
the scaffolding company, knew
the storm was coming — and pre-
pared for it.
On Friday, Laibinis and her
crew secured the scaffolding level
by level, adding additional ties to
the top area and removing note-
books, paint buckets and other
materials that could Ày away.
Laibinis arrived at the Col-
umn at around 6 a.m. Saturday
and took wind-velocity measure-
ments, which registered only 20
mph at that point. She summoned
which included members from
Seattle, Portland, Minnesota and
Utah.
Garnett said during his run he
thought about stopping only brieÀy,
but then realized “all the cars were
going in the same direction. “It was
crazy. The winds were insane. Peo-
ple were really earning it.”
A state-appointed psychologist
lacks proper credentials to examine
alleged killer Jessica Smith, her at-
torney said Fri-
day.
Smith, of
Goldendale,
Wash.,
ap-
peared in Clat-
sop
County
Circuit Court
shackled and in
a blue jumpsuit.
She is accused
of aggravated
Jessica
murder and at-
Smith
tempted aggra-
vated murder for allegedly drugging
and murdering her daughter, Isabella
Smith, 2, and attempting to kill her
older daughter, Alana Smith, 13, in
a Cannon Beach hotel in July 2014.
William Falls, Smith’s attorney,
asked the judge to oppose the state’s
request for a mental health evalu-
ation with Dr. Paul Guastadisegni,
a Portland-based psychologist, be-
cause he is not quali¿ed under new
state standards to evaluate a criminal
defendant.
“It’s not the evaluation, it’s the
evaluator,” Falls told Judge Cindee
Matyas.
Falls said he is not opposed to a
state evaluation as long as the de-
fense can participate in the process
with a certi¿ed evaluator. In any
case, Falls said he would direct
Smith not to answer any questions
about her state of mind at the time
of the murder and attempted murder.
The defense has already indicat-
ed it may seek to prove Smith acted
with diminished capacity as a result
of postpartum depression.
District Attorney Josh Marquis
said he did not believe defense
claims applied in this case.
Marquis added he was disap-
pointed the defense had waited until
the appearance date to make an ob-
jection. A letter stating the district
attorney’s of¿ce expected to call
Guastadisegni as an expert witness
was sent ¿ve weeks ago, he said.
See SMITH, Page 10A
Commander works to keep waterways open
Firestine ran
the effort to
remove Fennica
protestors
A
couple weeks into her
new job as response chief
for the U.S. Coast Guard’s
Sector Columbia River, Cmdr.
Rosemary Firestine found
herself coordinating an oper-
ation to remove activists amid
one of the higher-pro¿le pro-
tests in recent memory.
As the incident command-
er, Firestine coordinated all
levels of government in an
effort to clear the Willamette
River and St. Johns Bridge
of activists protesting the ice-
breaker Fennica, which was
leaving after being repaired
in Portland’s Vigor Shipyards.
Fennica was en route to sup-
port Shell Oil Co.’s drilling
rig Polar Pioneer in its explo-
ration for oil in the Chukchi
Sea northwest of Alaska.
Protesters with Green-
peace suspended themselves
in climbing harnesses from
the St. Johns Bridge late last
month in an effort to block
the Fennica from leaving.
Edward Stratton/The Daily Astorian
See FIRESTINE, Page 4A
Cmdr. Rosemary Firestine is the operations chief for the U.S. Coast Guard’s Sector Co-
lumbia River.