AN ASTORIA ART
RIVER & SEA
WEDDINGS
BOOM
FRIDAY EXTRA • 1C
INSIDE
143rd YEAR, No. 142
ONE DOLLAR
FRIDAY, JANUARY 22, 2016 • WEEKEND EDITION
Family recalls Harkless as proud father, hard worker
Loved ¿ shing,
dirt bikes and his
Toyota truck
By KYLE SPURR
The Daily Astorian
Submitted Photo
Kyle Harkless married his high school
sweetheart, Amanda, last June.
Anywhere Kyle Harkless went,
his young son, Logan, likely fol-
lowed.
The two were inseparable,
just like Kyle was with his father
while growing up in Astoria.
“Logan was just his little side-
kick,” Lucille Jordan, Harkless’
grandmother, said. “If you saw
one then you saw the other.”
Harkless, 27, drowned Sun-
day when a canoe he and Logan
were in capsized on Smith Lake in
Warrenton. Rescuers determined
Harkless was not wearing a life
jacket when the canoe overturned
sometime in the mid-afternoon.
Logan, 7, who wore a life jacket,
was rescued by several witnesses
and taken to Columbia Memorial
Hospital. The boy is expected to
make a full recovery.
Family and friends are taking
solace in the fact that Harkless
died doing something he loved —
playing and ¿ shing with his son.
Helena Hines, Hark less’ moth-
er, said he would regularly ¿ sh
with Logan on the water or at one
of their favorite spots off the dock
at Coffenbury Lake in Fort Ste-
vens State Park.
The family is reassuring Lo-
See HARKLESS, Page 8A
Smith to
undergo
further
mental
exams
Care to
dance?
Performers needed for
Palm Sunday sacred
dance ensemble
By ERICK BENGEL
The Daily Astorian
Defense argues she is
not ¿ t to aid in her own
defense at murder trial
T
he North Coast community is cordially
invited to share in a sacred dance en-
semble — a Palm Sunday production
that will blend singing, dancing, acting and
pantomime to tell the tale of Jesus Christ, from
his coming to Jerusalem to his cruci¿ xion.
Sandra Ray-Hunter, the director and chore-
ographer, is seeking a minimum of four to six
dancers, but more would be better, she said. In
addition, she is issuing a call for speakers and
actors — men, wom en and children.
At 7 p.m. Feb. 2, Ray-Hunter will hold an
informational meeting for possible players in
the s ocial r oom at Astoria’s Peace Lutheran
Church , where she will show videos of previ-
ous ensembles to give interested participants
an idea of what to look forward to.
Though the show’s content is Christian, and
though the rehearsals and ¿ nal performance will
take place in a church, Ray-Hunter wants to
make one thing clear: People of every spiritual
stripe and from any faith or wisdom tradition —
even nonbelievers — are welcome to join.
“My hope would be that everyone who came
to this, or participated in it, would have their own
unique experience of it,” Ray-Hunter said. “I’m
not trying to convert anyone to anything.”
Dance and music and creative collabora-
tion, after all, can be enjoyed for religious and
secular reasons.
“‘Sacred’ is a very broad word to me,” she
said. “There is an element of me that (believes)
dance needs to be sacred; it needs to be spiritu-
al. The art of it is, to me, sacred.”
So, if people partake in Ray-Hunter’s dance
ensemble to express their faith, great. If they
do it for fun, that’s great, too. As long as they
can hear the music and commit to the rehearsal
schedule — 7 p.m. Tuesdays, beginning Feb.
9, until the March 20 performance — they can
sign up.
“Basically, they just need to want to do it,”
she said. “It can be such a wonderful, beautiful
experience. Such a freeing experience.”
gan, who is suffering survivor’s
guilt, that the accident was not
his fault. Logan is reminded that
there is nothing he could have
done, especially about the cold
water and the possibility of hypo-
thermia .
“It was not Logan’s fault by
any means,” Jordan said. “He
will grow up and carry on a full
life. We will see so much of his
dad in him.”
By KYLE SPURR
The Daily Astorian
David Robinson/Submitted Photo
From left: Trina Robinson, Karina Cohrs, Nadine Nordquist, Patti MacGregor, Bonny
Gorsuch and Katie Harris perform at the Cannon Beach Community Church last sum-
mer in a sacred dance ensemble, directed and choreographed by Sandra Ray-Hunter.
“‘Sacred’ is a very
broad word to me.
There is an element
of me that (believes)
dance needs to be
sacred; it needs to
be spiritual. The
art of it is, to me,
sacred.”
Sandra Ray-Hunter
director and choreographer
The church won’t charge admission, but
attendees will have a chance to donate to the
Astoria Warming Center.
Martyrs
The Palm Sunday production dramatizes
the usual narrative highlights: Jesus confront-
ing the money changers in the Temple, calling
out the hypocrisy of the Pharisees, presiding
over the Last Supper and dying at the hands of
“the powers that be,” Ray-Hunter said.
But just as the performance art transcends
the religious subject matter, so, too, does the
message, she argues.
“For me, it’s about social injustice, and I
think for a lot of people it is,” she said. “The
underlying current (of several monologues) is
the social injustice of the time,” she said.
However, “I also try to project that this is
not over. This is not a one-time event,” she
said. “Jesus is certainly not the only martyr
in the world. We have them still, on a daily
basis. And to separate that event from the rest
of history is a mistake.”
“We just don’t seem to be able to get past
‘I’m right, you’re wrong, and therefore you
deserve to die,’” she continued. “History
doesn’t change, it just changes on the surface,
but the underlying currents never seem to re-
ally change. We don’t seem to get the mes-
sage that everyone is equal.”
Jessica Smith will be evaluated further
to determine if she is mentally un¿ t to pro-
ceed in her murder trial.
Clatsop County Circuit Court Judge
Cindee Matyas said Thursday she has not
observed any unusual behavior from Smith
in court, and found
her attentive, focused
and cooperative in a
videotaped evaluation
with a state-hired psy-
chologist.
But the judge or-
dered Smith to be
independently evalu-
ated by a state or pri-
vate expert based on
Jessica
the defense expert’s
Smith
claims that Smith has
severe mood changes,
abstract thinking and reasoning and untreat-
ed mental health issues.
“I have really no option but to conclude
that the question of the defendant’s ¿ tness
to proceed has been raised to where I ¿ nd
it appropriate to have an evaluation of the
defendant,” Matyas said.
Matyas will consider recommendations
from the defense and prosecution before
making her decision on an expert in the next
couple of days.
The evaluation process could take up to
60 days. A hearing scheduled next month
was postponed until April. The trial is still
scheduled for late June.
See ENSEMBLE, Page 7A
See SMITH, Page 8A
Oregon school board adopts
exception to Indian mascot ban
Warrenton can
keep ‘Warriors’
if tribe agrees
Enter your baby
in The Daily
Astorian’s Cutest
Baby Contest for
2015
If your baby was born
between Jan 1st & Dec
31st
of
2015 ,
you
can
submit
your
By PARIS ACHEN
Capital Bureau
newborn’s picture either via email at
SALEM — The Oregon
Board of Education approved
a compromise Thursday that
makes an exception to a strict
ban on American Indian mas-
cots.
The rule allows 15 school
districts with Indian mascots —
including the Warrenton-Ham-
mond School District, the home
of the Warriors — to keep the
mascots if the districts obtain
approval from one of the state’s
nine federally recognized tribes.
Warrenton High School
one of our offices in Astoria or Seaside
classifieds@dailyastorian.com or drop by
and we can scan in the photo for you.
Joshua Bessex/The Daily Astorian
The Warrenton-Hammond School District, home of the
Warriors, has moved away from a Native American vis-
age as its symbol, opting for a spear and a feather jutting
through the school letter.
Principal Rod Heyen has al-
ready met with the Confeder-
ated Tribes of Grand Ronde
to iron out an agreement that
would allow the district to keep
the Warriors mascot.
See MASCOT, Page 8A
Deadline to enter is Tuesday,
January 26th at 5:00 pm .
Entries will be printed in The
Daily Astorian on January 29th.