ASTORIA FALL SPORTS PREVIEWS PAGES 10A-11A
DailyAstorian.com // WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 31, 2016
144TH YEAR, NO. 44
ONE DOLLAR
Geologist
aims to
shake up
council
Filing deadline for
candidates was Tuesday
By R.J. MARX
The Daily Astorian
Danny Miller/The Daily Astorian
Astoria High School senior Raina Christian begins construction Monday on an art installation that will be displayed at the Gar-
den of Surging Waves during the upcoming Mid-Autumn Festival.
ADOPTED ASTORIAN HONORS
CHINESE HERITAGE
High school senior celebrates Mid-Autumn Festival
SEASIDE — Seaside might have felt a
rumble as geologist and environmental con-
sultant Tom Horning threw his hat in the ring
in a bid for City Council.
Horning will challenge Council President
Don Johnson in Ward 3 in November.
Horning, 62, is a
lifelong Seaside resi-
dent dedicated to rais-
ing awareness of the
unique and dire peril
the city faces from its
proximity to the Cas-
cadia S ubduction Z one.
“Tsunami prepared-
ness should touch
every issue,” Horn-
Tom
ing said. “I’m willing
Horning
to make tsunami pre-
paredness the highest
priority of the city.”
In his opinion, the city administration is
not doing enough.
“The city likes to not rock the boat too
much,” he said . “They like to appear in control.”
Candidates for city elections had until
Tuesday evening to fi le for the November
ballot.
See HORNING, Page 5A
By EDWARD STRATTON
The Daily Astorian
No vote
hackers
A
dopted at age 8 from the Guangxi
province of China, Raina Chris-
tian said she recently become
interested in her heritage. The incom-
ing Astoria High School senior started
learning Mandarin again, and started
searching for a senior project she was
passionate about.
“When the Garden of Surging
Waves started, I remember being
really fascinated that Astoria has
such a deep Chinese history,” Chris-
tian said.
Christian connected her heritage
with Astoria’s, and is organizing the
area’s fi rst Mid-Autumn Festival
around the full moon next month for
her senior project.
“It all kind of came together,”
Christian said. “The garden was
there, and I was asking about my
heritage, and I was like, ‘Why don’t
I just put on a celebration to cele-
brate the Chinese heritage in Asto-
ria. And I knew that one of the big-
gest holidays — the Mid-Autumn
Festival, or the Harvest Moon festi-
val — was coming soon.”
The Daily Astorian/File Photo
See CHRISTIAN, Page 12A
The story screen at the Garden of Surging Waves will be festooned with LED lights and red
lanterns from Sept. 13 to 17 for a celebration of the Chinese Mid-Autumn Festival.
State takes measures
to guard voter rolls
from cyber criminals
By CLAIRE WITHYCOMBE
Capital Bureau
‘When the Garden of Surging Waves started, I remember being
really fascinated that Astoria has such a deep Chinese history.’
Raina Christian
SALEM — Oregon’s secretary of state
says her agency has taken appropriate pre-
cautions to minimize the risk that personal
information submitted by the state’s voters
could be hacked.
In the wake of recent security breaches in
Arizona and Illinois, state elections authori-
ties received an alert from the FBI by way of
the federal Election Assistance Commission.
The FBI’s alert recommended states
check whether certain IP addresses had
attempted to access protected information
maintained by state elections agencies.
The recommendation was incorporated
into the Secretary of State Offi ce’s ongoing
security measures to protect the state’s cen-
tralized voter registration database, Secre-
tary of State Jeanne Atkins said Tuesday.
Astoria High School senior
See HACKERS, Page 5A
Across the river, ‘A gun without bullets’
Washington State Patrol’s new
communications system makes it
hard for cops to communicate
By NATALIE ST. JOHN
EO Media Group
LONG BEACH, Wash. —
So far, Washington State Patrol’s
fl awed “P25” radio communica-
tions system has cost taxpay-
ers $40 million. Many of the
state’s roughly 600 troopers are
concerned about paying a more
personal price for the new “nar-
rowband” digital radio sys-
tem — they say it could cost a
trooper his or her life.
A critical August Perfor-
mance Audit from the Wash-
ington State Auditor’s Offi ce ,
and other related public
records confi rm something
skeptics of the ambitious proj-
ect have been saying for quite
some time: While P25 has a
lot of bells and whistles, right
now at least, it can’t ensure
that troopers in rural areas can
communicate reliably, or get
help quickly. That compro-
mises the safety of offi cers,
and the public at large, audi-
tors said. Many critics of P25
agree.
“Law enforcement has
never been a more dangerous
profession,” Washington State
Troopers Association Presi-
dent Jeff Merrill said Saturday.
“To take away our primary
tool — a working radio — is
tantamount to giving us a gun
without bullets.”
Local consequences
In a lengthy report, audi-
tors concluded that the ongo-
ing project, which will cost
at least $53 million, has been
plagued by missed deadlines,
misunderstandings, unantic-
ipated technical problems, a
lack of transparency, mounting
expenses and underwhelming
results .
Of particular concern to
local cops, the auditors found
that in some rural areas, includ-
ing parts of Pacifi c and Wah-
kiakum counties, coverage has
actually gotten worse. Certain
new features don’t work reli-
ably, or don’t work at all. Other
local agencies, which are all
still using older analog sys-
tems, can no longer hear troop-
ers over the radio, so troopers
now have to rely on a network
of state and local dispatchers
to convey calls for emergency
backup. Critics of the project
think this dangerous commu-
nications gap could also widen
the cultural gap between state
cops — Department of Fish
and Wildlife and Department
of Natural Resources also use
WSP’s radio system — and the
local cops they work with on a
daily basis.
See SYSTEM, Page 7A