7A
THE DAILY ASTORIAN • FRIDAY, JANUARY 1, 2016
Oregon games not implicated Federal hydrologist says
in lottery ¿xing scandal
Oregon’s snowpack in
good shape for summer
By PARIS ACHEN
Capital Bureau
SALEM — The likelihood
of winning a lottery jackpot
is less than dying in a plane
crash, catching a Àesh-eating
bacteria or being duped by a
corrupt lottery employee.
The integrity of lottery
games nationwide are in
question amid an investi-
gation into jackpot ¿xing
that started in Iowa and has
spread to at least four other
states — Colorado, Wiscon-
sin, Oklahoma and Kansas,
according to The Associated
Press.
There is no information
that games offered in Oregon
have been compromised, said
Oregon Lottery spokesman
Chuck Baumann.
The investigation stems
from accusations that a for-
mer security director at
the Urbandale, Iowa-based
Multi-State Lottery Associ-
ation installed root kit soft-
ware on the association’s
random number generators
to ¿nd out winning numbers
in advance, The Associated
Press reported.
Former security director
Eddie Tipton, who worked
for the lottery association
for 11 years, was convicted
in July of fraud for work-
ing with associates to try to
claim a $16.5 million Hot
Lotto jackpot he had rigged
in Iowa. He has since been
charged with criminal con-
duct and money laundering
involving lotteries in Colo-
rado, Wisconsin and Okla-
homa, The Associated Press
reported.
Games in 44 states
The nonpro¿t lottery asso-
ciation administers a variety
of lottery games in 44 states,
including Hot Lotto, Wild
Card, Powerball and Mega
Millions.
The only Multi-State Lot-
tery
Association-adminis-
tered games Oregon partic-
ipates in are Powerball and
Mega Millions, Baumann
said. The winning numbers
for those games are selected
in a live televised drawing.
The Powerball drawing is
held at Universal Studios in
Orlando, Florida. The pro-
cess is the same for Mega
Millions except that the
drawing takes place in Atlan-
ta, Georgia.
Idaho Lottery Director
Jeff Anderson, chairman of
the lottery association board,
did not immediately respond
to messages inquiring wheth-
Associated Press
SALEM — While it’s too
soon to say Oregon’s drought
is over, experts say they’re
relieved by December’s
abundant snowfall.
“It’s so awesome to see
the snow hanging on the
trees. We sure didn’t see
that last year,” hydrologist
Julie Koeberle of the United
States Department of Agri-
culture’s Natural Resources
Conservation Station in Port-
land told The Capital Press.
Koeberle was at Timber-
line Lodge on Mount Hood,
trekking through the snow
on cross-country skis to take
measurements. She learned
that as of Dec. 29, 7 feet of
snow had accumulated there.
EO Media Group
There is no information that games offered in Oregon have
been compromised by a lottery fixing scandal involving
the Multi-State Lottery Association.
er Tipton had access to lot-
tery equipment or computers
outside of Iowa, where the
association is based.
Security precautions
Oregon’s Game Mega-
bucks uses an International
Game Technology random
number generator to yield
winning combinations. That
computer is housed at the
Oregon Lottery headquarters
in Salem. The random num-
ber generator is a stand-alone
computer under 24-hour vid-
eo surveillance and is not part
of the Oregon Lottery’s cen-
tral computer system, Bau-
mann said.
International Game Tech-
nology and the Oregon State
Police Lottery Security Sec-
tion evaluate and monitor the
security controls, he said.
The random number gen-
erator “has no knowledge
of the ticket number combi-
nations that have been pur-
chased for any of the draw-
ings,” Baumann said.
At draw time, the lottery’s
central computer system,
with no human involvement
“asks” the random number
generator for the set of win-
ning numbers, he said.
An independent testing
laboratory also certi¿es the
number generator at random,
he said.
He did not immediately
have information about how
many people have access to
the random number genera-
tor.
Geoff
Greenwood,
spokesman for the Iowa At-
torney General, said that
of¿ce would notify proper
authorities of any alleged il-
legal activity in other states
that might be discovered
during the course of its in-
vestigation.
Tough odds
What are the odds of win-
ning the lottery in Oregon?
The odds of winning the
jackpot in any of the three
games offered in Oregon are
dismal, but players have bet-
ter chances winning at the
state’s homegrown game,
Megabucks. According to the
Oregon Lottery, the odds of
winning that is 1-in-6.1 mil-
lion compared with winning
Powerball, 1-in-292 million,
and Mega Millions, 1-in-258
million.
The Capital Bureau is a
collaboration between EO
Media Group and Pamplin
Media Group.
Neighbors: Couple ¿nds
a place to grow in Astoria
Continued from Page 1A
masculinity, along with the
rustic, outdoorsy feel of the
store and her appreciation for
Native American culture.
She primarily runs the
shop, handpicking the eclectic
array of clothing, grooming
and hygiene products, from
mustache wa[ to Àeece Nordic
leggings. Conn handles the ex-
pansive vinyl record collection
and helps source the mens-
wear. In his day job, he is one
of several commercial brewers
at Buoy Beer Co., where he
started in June.
Moving up the
West Coast
Johnsen and Conn original-
ly met as teenage undergradu-
ates in San Francisco.
“I was going to art school,
and I decided that wasn’t for
me,” said Conn, who eventual-
ly found his calling in brewing.
Shortly after meeting, and
after bouncing some around
California, the two moved
north to Portland.
“Without even visiting Ore-
gon, I knew I wanted to live up
north,” Johnsen said, adding
there was a more supportive
artistic community and a better
brewing culture than in Cali-
fornia.
After growing up in the
deserts of eastern San Diego,
the rain and trees also appealed
to Johnsen, who said the only
thing she misses about home is
the burritos.
The couple went through
a separation and Conn left
Portland for Chicago, where
he earned a brewing degree
from the Siebel Institute. After
school, he moved back to the
Bay Area and worked at Tru-
mer Pils in Berkley, not return-
ing to Portland until summer
2012, when he started working
at Laurelwood Brewing.
Johnsen said she stayed in
Portland to become a resident
while studying at Portland
State University. College was
on-and-off for Johnsen, de-
pending on job opportunities.
About four years ago, she
started thinking about Doe +
Arrow, after gaining enough
experience working in bou-
tique shops, but said much of
her initial savings for a shop
went into a backpacking ad-
venture around Europe.
While she was gone, her
parents moved from Rocka-
way Beach to Astoria, where
she lived for a while a few
years ago and said she had
dreamed of opening her busi-
ness.
Eventually, she and Conn
came back together again in
Portland. After an Easter visit
to Astoria and getting in touch
with Paul Caruana, owner of
the Astor Hotel building, they
moved to the coast last spring.
Weaving into
local fabric
“It’s rewarding to be in a
town with so much history,
and slowly interweaving into
that fabric,” Conn said, adding
he gets dual exposure through
the brewery and Doe + Arrow.
Much of the couple’s com-
munity involvement has come
through their business. At Doe
+ Arrow, they sell Sackcloth &
Ashes Blankets. For every one
sold, another is donated to the
Astoria Rescue Mission. Both
music connoisseurs, they sell
vinyl records at the store and
recently joined an inaugural
vinyl record exchange at the
Commodore Hotel. Johnsen
said they eventually want to
do record nights at Doe + Ar-
row, gathering people to eat,
drink and enjoy music — “like
a record happy hour,” added
Conn.
In their spare time, Johnsen
and Conn said they enjoy
exploring the outdoors and
spending time with their pug,
Oliver, and a black lab-shep-
herd mix named Barry Ma-
nilow. Johnsen said she and
other female business owners
also gather to talk about their
challenges and successes.
“I haven’t had a bad day,”
Johnsen said, feeling as if she’s
reached her dream. “We re-
ceive a lot of positive support.
I’ve woken up happy and ex-
cited for what the day holds.”
What’s more, she said it con-
tained 21.5 inches of water
on Dec. 29 — already more
than the 20 inches measure
at the peak snowfall in April.
“Snowpack is the life-
blood of the West. This is
such a relief from last year,”
she said. The mountain snow
stores water that will help ir-
rigate crops, cool salmon and
spin turbines come summer-
time.
The past season’s North-
west snowpack was mostly
gone by May. The drought
stunted crops, killed ¿sh and
left the land dry and vulnera-
ble to ¿res.
The NRCS maintains 82
monitoring sites in Oregon
that electronically report
snowfall and water content
information. At the end of
December, they were re-
porting water levels that
were 150 percent of normal
for that date. But last year,
nearly half of the long-term
locations were reporting the
lowest snowpack on record.
“This is a great way to
start,” Koeberle said. “To be
already better than last year
is a little bit comforting.”
Some complications re-
main, though. The National
Weather Service’s Climate
Prediction Center said the
rest of the season should be
warmer than normal in the
Paci¿c Northwest.
Koeberle said by email
that the forecast makes her
worried that January could
be warmer and drier.
Slope: City staff was surprised
by developer’s interest in area
Continued from Page 1A
“The way our code is writ-
ten, it would be dif¿cult for
the city to say ‘no’ if they had
an engineer — a geotechnical
engineer — who said they felt
it could work,” Estes said.
The property in Up-
pertown might be in the un-
mistakable risk category,
both geologically and politi-
cally.
Skip Hauke, who is now
the executive director of the
Astoria-Warrenton Chamber
of Commerce, had sought
to build a commercial proj-
ect on the land after the new
Safeway went in across the
street at the site of the old
Hauke’s Sentry Market.
Neighbors
complained
when excavation work at
the foot of the slope by Jim
Wilkins, a local contractor,
caused slides that damaged
property. Lawsuits over the
damage were eventually set-
tled, but the experience has
become a cautionary example
of the risks of building on or
near hillsides.
Hauke eventually donated
the property to Clatsop Com-
munity Action, a nonpro¿t
that intended — but was nev-
er able — to establish a com-
munity garden.
A surprise
Given the turbulent his-
tory, and the idea that the
property would be used as a
community garden, city staff
was surprised that a commer-
cial developer was interested
in building.
Both the city and Clatsop
Community Action declined
to identify the developer.
Clatsop Community Ac-
tion has sought to sell the
property because the non-
pro¿t has to pay property tax-
es and liability insurance on
the land, which is not being
used to advance the nonprof-
it’s mission.
“We’re not wanting to
promote any development,”
said Elaine Bruce, the direc-
tor of social services at Clat-
sop Community Action. “We
just want to be released of the
property.
“We’re a nonpro¿t orga-
nization. We’d rather use the
money to help low-income
clients.”
Estes said the city would
work with Bruce and Clatsop
Community Action on op-
tions to potentially reduce the
nonpro¿t’s tax liability and
ease the pressure to sell.
“They understand the
city’s concern,” he said.
“And they don’t seem to be
wanting to get sideways with
the city on this, either.”
The Liberty Theater Presents...
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THE $99 ART “a la cARTe” SALE
A FABULOUS FUNDRAISER FOR THE LIBERTY THEATER .
SATURDAY, JANUARY 16, 2016: 2 to 3:30pm
at the historic Columbia Maritime Barbey Center.
Each original piece is created by local NW artists and
from across the country. Participants include well-
known artists like N OEL T HOMAS , E RIC W IEGARDT ,
D ARREN O RANGE , C AROL R ILEY , G IN L AUGHERY , D ON
N ISBETT and some yet to be discovered newcomers to
the art scene.
Astoria Visual Arts, Artist-in-Residence Program ,
will be participating this year at Art ala cARTe.
TICKETS ARE ON SALE NOW FOR $15 AT THE LIBERTY BOX
OFFICE , WHICH IS OPEN WEDNESDAY TO SATURDAY FROM 2 TO
5 PM . LAST DAY TO PURCHASE TICKETS IS JANUARY 15, 2016.
S PONSORED BY : US B ANK , T HE D AILY A STORIAN , T HE
B ANK OF THE P ACIFIC , AND C OLUMBIA B ANK