143RD YEAR, NO. 182
ONE DOLLAR
WEEKEND EDITION // FRIDAY, MARCH 18, 2016
LUCKY LOUIE
FINDS A HOME
THE MAN BEHIND
BOB’S RED MILL
FRIDAY EXTRA 1C
FRIDAY EXTRA 2C
Astoria
schools
start new
preschool
Law enforcement faces waiting game
to unlock technological clues in crimes
Program would
target students from
low-income families
By EDWARD STRATTON
The Daily Astorian
The Astoria School District is planning a
preschool by ne[t year at Capt. 5obert Gray
School targeting lower-income families.
“We’ve talked about how our achieve-
ment gap starts before kindergarten,” said
Melissa Linder, curriculum director for Asto-
ria, at a recent school board meeting. “We
have to prepare kids to be in our institution.”
Warrenton-Hammond and Jewell school
districts are the only two in Clatsop County
with their own preschool programs. Jewell is
taking bids for a private operator to take over
the program on campus.
Astoria School District and Cannon
Beach Preschool and Children’s Center,
which is set to close in April, were part of a
regional application covering school districts
and private preschool providers from sev-
eral n orthwest Oregon counties to the state’s
Early Learning Council for grant funding
See PRESCHOOL, Page 12A
Children’s
center to
close after
39 years
By KYLE SPURR
The Daily Astorian
A
storia Police had to wait
more than seven months
before arresting a man
for possessing up to 500
images of child pornogra-
phy on his laptop and À ash drives.
Christopher York’s laptop was seized
in May 2013, but he was not arrested until
January 2014, when his laptop was ¿ n-
ished being e[amined by an analyst with
Oregon Department of Justice.
Astoria Police Deputy Chief Eric Halv-
erson said it is unsettling to know crimi-
nals such as York are free for months after
they are identi¿ ed because of the delay
in scrubbing technology for evidence.
York was eventually convicted and sent
to prison, where he is serving a si[ -year
sentence.
See BACKLOG, Page 11A
With city help, Cannon
Beach program to close
‘gracefully’ in April
By LYRA FONTAINE
EO Media Group
Joshua Bessex/The Daily Astorian
A pouch of adapters used with the Cellebrite software are seen in the Astoria
Police Department. The software pulls data off cell phones and other mobile
devices smaller than a laptop.
‘That’s the scary part when you are having
to wait to confi rm what you believe is there.’
Eric Halverson
Astoria Police deputy chief
CANNON BEACH — The Cannon
Beach Children’s Center will close in April
due to declining enrollment and ¿ nancial
troubles, a decision supported by the board
and director.
The nonpro¿ t children’s center, founded
in 1977, is losing about $5,400 a month and
spent down its savings, center representa-
tives told City Manager Brant Kucera this
month .
“The situation at this point is a dire need,”
said Christy Bisping, the children’s center
director. “To be able to close the program
gracefully and give enough notice to our par-
ents, we need at least the $10,500.”
See CENTER, Page 12A
Jordan Schnitzer gets a son — and a court battle
Schnitzer used
science to pick
baby’s gender,
but parentage is
now in dispute
By NIGEL JAQUISS
Willamette Week
Portland businessman Jor-
dan Schnitzer owns a bil-
lion-dollar real estate port-
folio. He has homes in San
Francisco, Palm Springs and
Gearhart, and four residences
in Portland. He has a private
jet and the nation’s largest col-
lection of ¿ ne art prints. He’s
one of the city’s top philan-
thropists, collects honorary
degrees, sits courtside at Trail
Blazers games and even has a
museum named after him.
The only thing Schnitzer,
64, didn’t have? A son.
Three days before Christ-
mas, he ¿ [ed that.
On Dec. 22, 2015,
Schnitzer’s son was born at
Samaritan Albany General
Hospital, a modest, 69-bed
Linn County facility.
That location — far from
Oregon Health & Science Uni-
versity, to which Schnitzer’s
family has given millions, or
any of the other large Port-
land hospitals — was close to
the home of the woman who
gave birth to Schnitzer’s son.
She was a surrogate mother,
paid by Schnitzer to carry and
deliver his child.
Gestational
surrogate
pregnancies — in which a
woman carries another wom-
an’s fertilized eggs and gives
birth for pay — are increas-
ingly common in Oregon and
elsewhere.
Frequently in gestational
surrogacy, the donor of the
eggs remains anonymous.
But Schnitzer knew the
woman whose eggs produced
his son. He’d dated her for
nearly two years.
See SCHNITZER, Page 8A
Submitted Photo
Jordan Schnitzer says he discussed his desire to have a son
with his mother, Arlene, a couple of years ago. “She said,
‘you’re older. Are you prepared for this? Is this what you
want to do with the rest of your life?’ I said ‘yes,’’’ he recalls.