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7A THE DAILY ASTORIAN • THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 22, 2016 WORLD IN BRIEF Associated Press Charlotte chief: Family will watch police video of shooting SAMUT SAKHON, Thailand — Facing international pressure for failing to stop human traficking in the seafood trade, Thailand prom- ised almost a year ago to compensate victims of slavery and industry leaders vowed to bring all shrimp processing in-house. That hasn’t always happened. Instead, some formerly enslaved shrimp peelers have been deported. And some shrimp peeling sheds are being inspected and authorized to keep operating. e us se Ho ou ic h bl ew Pu Br s and le rn e A ve ug Ta Ro ll’s Bi SALEM — Groundwa- ter depletion problems in Ore- gon discussed during a recent legislative hearing in Salem potentially foreshadow policy proposals during the upcoming 2017 legislative session. While participants in the “legislative days” informa- tional session did not address the recent newspaper series by name, the Oregonian’s “Drain- ing Oregon” package obvi- ously loomed over the hearing. Printed stacks of the series, which was printed last month, sat on a table near the entrance during the Sept. 21 hearing. The newspaper’s allega- tions that state regulators are allowing farmers to over- pump groundwater were also clearly on the minds of law- makers on the House Interim Committee on Rural Commu- nities, Land Use and Water — as well as those of Oregon Water Resources Department staff called to testify. Committee chair Brian Clem, D-Salem, said the topic will likely be a source of con- Since 1955, when legis- lators passed a law requiring groundwater regulations, the number of wells across the state has increased from 4,660 to 256,800, said Justin Iverson, groundwater section manager for Water Resources. Agricultural wells — which require permitting — make up roughly 10 percent of the total number, but they rep- resent about 90 percent of total groundwater usage in Oregon, Iverson said. While domestic users must only report the location of new wells, drillers of agricultural wells must also provide infor- mation about water levels and irrigators must report their usage, he said. OWRD also monitors groundwater with more than 1,200 observation wells, Iver- son said. Rep. Ken Helm, questioned whether water regulators were “driving in the dark” in regard to well-drilling and the effects of climate change on water availability. “Does that change the par- adigm under which we should be operating?” Helm said. He also asked if the OWRD is simply short of funding to robustly study groundwater, or if policy changes are also needed. Byler replied that the agency already has many regu- latory tools but is always open to looking at new ones. S eptember 23 rd ! se By MATEUSZ PERKOWSKI Capital Bureau versations during the next series of “legislative days” in November and during next year’s legislative session. To avoid “brutal neigh- bor-on-neighbor warfare,” lawmakers should try to ind a collaborative approach for water conservation, he said. With the caveat that he didn’t want to attack journalists who “buy ink by the barrel,” Clem said he was concerned about loaded terms that imply farmers are greedy and wasteful. “Farmers don’t become farmers to become rich,” he said. “There are much easier ways of getting rich.” The basic thesis of “Drain- ing Oregon” was that Water Resources had insuficient information about groundwa- ter levels across much of the state but nonetheless freely allowed well drilling, deplet- ing aquifers. Tom Byler, OWRD’s direc- tor, conceded that over-pump- ing in past decades had led to several critical groundwater areas across the state, which led the agency to restrict uses. “We haven’t done as good a job as we should on that item,” he said. Byler said groundwater is tough to manage given the complex geology of under- ground aquifers and because farmers have become more reliant on this irrigation source when surface waters dwindle during the dry months. NAMIE, Japan — In an abandoned Japanese village, cows grazing in lush green plains begin to gather when they hear the familiar rumble of the ranch owner’s mini-pickup. This isn’t feed- ing time, though. Instead, the animals are about to be mea- sured for how they’re affected by living in radi- ation — radioactivity that is 15 times the safe benchmark. For these cows’ pasture sits near Fukushima, a name now synonymous with nuclear disaster. ge ou or c H Ge bli in’s rt Pu m Fo ry+ ena we M c M Groundwater depletion likely to spark policy proposals Cows in Fukushima radiation zone ind new purpose: science e Br Oregon lawmakers discuss groundwater problems NEW YORK — Investigators of last week- end’s bombings have released an image of two men who took a suitcase they found on a city street, possibly without realizing a wired pres- sure cooker they removed from it and left behind could have blown them to bits. Police investigating the bombings in New York and New Jersey have been saying for sev- eral days they were looking for the men, who they stressed were being sought as potential wit- nesses in the case, not as suspects. “They’re not in any jeopardy of being arrested,” Jim Watters, chief of the New York Police Department’s counterterrorism unit, said on Wednesday. “We have no reason to believe they’re connected.” Federal prosecutors have charged Ahmad Khan Rahami with detonating a pipe bomb in a New Jersey shore town on Saturday morn- ing and a pressure cooker bomb in New York City’s Chelsea neighborhood later that night. Thirty-one people were injured in the New York blast. A second pressure cooker bomb left in Manhattan didn’t explode and is the subject of the latest public plea. Prosecutors said surveillance video shows Rahami rolling a suitcase down the street, then abandoning it on the sidewalk where that sec- ond device was found. P Pe ubl lic ic an Co Br as ew t B in re g wi Co ng ma C pn o. y Promises unmet as Thailand tries to reform shrimp industry NEW YORK — It doesn’t matter what Pres- ident Barack Obama says these days, his listen- ers are bound to hear two words: Donald Trump. With his proclivity for dominating the con- versation, the Republican presidential nomi- nee is forcing Obama’s inal few months to be viewed almost entirely through the prism of campaign politics. As Obama carries out his presidential duties, voters can’t help but wonder what the role would look like if it were inhab- ited by the brash billionaire. At the United Nations this week, Trump trailed the president both metaphorically and physically, as world leaders took stock of what a dramatic shift a Trump presidency would mean for American leadership. The fusion of the campaign with real-world governing was on vivid display Monday when White House and State Department oficials mingled in the same Manhattan hotel lobby where Trump’s advisers were gathered as their candidate met upstairs with Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi. Obama was staying in the hotel, while Trump was using the meeting to try to show his read- iness to go head-to-head with a foreign leader. Democrat Hillary Clinton met with the Egyp- tian at the same hotel earlier in the day. 2 potential bombing witnesses seen with suitcase are sought y and offering only temporary patches to stem the bloodshed. In a U.N. Security Council session originally envisioned to enshrine the Sept. 9 truce, world powers rued the possibility of a darker phase in the conlict amid increased attacks on humani- tarian workers. The council’s nations all sought to revive the U.S.-Russian cease-ire deal, but once again illustrated why they’ve been unable for more than ive years to stop Syria’s civil war. Obama speaks, and listeners hear nothing but ‘Donald Trump’ MI NG NEW YORK — The United States and Rus- sia are taking their differences over the conlict in Syria to new heights, after trading ferocious allegations of duplicity and malfeasance at the United Nations Security Council. After a fractious meeting of the council on Wednesday, Secretary of State John Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov were set to duel again over Syria at a gathering of the roughly 20 nations that have an interest in Syria. Thursday’s meeting of the International Syria Support Group comes after the two men blamed each other for spoiling the country’s cease-ire that they had agreed to earlier this month. Each has blamed the other for violations. Kerry called for all warplanes to halt lights over aid routes, while Lavrov suggested a pos- sible three-day pause in ighting to get the truce back on track. Thursday’s meeting comes a day after Kerry and Lavrov abandoned diplomatic niceties in a fractious public debate over Syria, blaming each other for the failure of a week-old truce AP Photo/Chuck Burton Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police chief Police Chief Kerr Putney gestures as he answers a question during a news conference today after a second night of violence following Tuesday’s fatal police shooting of Keith Lamont Scott in Charlotte, N.C. . Putney plans to show video of an officer shooting Scott to the slain man’s family, but the video won’t be immediately released to the public. Tin Nyo Win, who escaped slavery and alerted police to abuses, was deported to Myan- mar this month, along with his pregnant wife and a half-dozen others, after being held almost a year in a Thai government shelter. Authorities said that although the couple were victims of modern-day slavery, they had illegally entered Thailand to begin with. “They don’t treat us like humans. They treat us like dogs,” Tin Nyo Win said hours before Thai authorities took them away. “They just try to bully those of us who are victims already.” Nattamon Punbhochar at the Thai foreign ministry said the couple never requested com- pensation and were deported in accordance with a memorandum of understanding Thailand has with Myanmar. C O US, Russia take Syria battle to new heights Jeff Siner/The Charlotte Observer Protesters block an intersection near the Transit Center as they march uptown in Charlotte, N.C. Wednesday. Authorities in Charlotte tried to quell public anger Wednesday after a police officer shot a black man, but a dusk prayer vigil turned into a second night of violence, with police firing tear gas at angry protesters and a man being critically wounded by gunfire. North Carolina’s governor declared a state of emergency in the city. As to ri a Bu Br oy ew Be ing er C , C om o. pa n CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Charlotte’s police chief said Thursday he plans to show video of an oficer shooting a black man to the slain man’s family, but the video won’t be immedi- ately released to the public. Charlottte-Mecklenburg Police Chief Kerr Putney has said that 43-year-old Keith Lam- ont Scott refused oficers’ repeated commands to drop a gun, but he said during a news con- ference that the video does not deinitely show Scott pointing a gun at anyone. Putney said he is working to honor the request from the family of Scott to view the video. It’s unclear when or if the video might be released publicly. “Right now my priority is the people who really are the victims of the shooting,” Putney said. “I’m telling you right now if you think I say we should display a victim’s worst day for consumption; that is not the transparency I’m speaking of.” The video could be key to resolving the chasm between police, who say Scott refused repeated commands to drop his gun, and resi- dents who say he was unarmed. Residents say Scott was unarmed, hold- ing only a book, and disabled by a brain injury. But it’s unclear what the body cameras worn by three oficers who were present during the shooting may have captured. The plainclothes oficer who shot Scott, Brently Vinson, was not wearing a camera. He has been placed on leave, standard procedure in such cases. Vinson is black, As oficials tried to quell the unrest, at least three major businesses were asking their employees to stay home for the day as the city remained on edge. Mayor Jennifer Roberts said earlier Thursday the city was considering a curfew. But Putney said during the news conference that he saw no reason to impose a curfew. He said Charlotte now has more resources to deal with problems, following a declaration of a state of emergency and the arrival of the North Caro- lina National Guard and more oficers from the State Highway Patrol. The Craft Beer publication coincides with the 15 th Annual PNW Brew Cup - Astoria’s premier beer festival. Always held the last weekend of September, the PNW Brew Cup attracts more than 3,000 attendees from the local area, Portland, Seattle, and beyond! F eatures • L OCAL S TORIES ON A STORIA , S EASIDE AND C ANNON B EACH B REWING C OMPANIES • C RAFT B EER V ARIETIES • U PCOMING C RAFT B EER E VENTS A ll F ull C olor D EADLINE : September 9, 2016 P UBLISHES : September 23, 2016 I NSERTED I N : The Daily Astorian
