OPINION
4A
THE DAILY ASTORIAN • WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 8, 2017
Founded in 1873
DAVID F. PERO, Publisher & Editor
LAURA SELLERS, Managing Editor
BETTY SMITH, Advertising Manager
CARL EARL, Systems Manager
JOHN D. BRUIJN, Production Manager
DEBRA BLOOM, Business Manager
Water
under
the bridge
Compiled by Bob Duke
From the pages of Astoria’s daily newspapers
10 years ago this week — 2007
Experts say it’s tough to tell exactly where contaminants such as DDT,
PCB and PAH are entering the Columbia River.
But it’s no mystery where these toxics end up.
“Everything comes down to Astoria,” said Mary Lou Soscia, direc-
tor of the water and watersheds office for the U.S. Environmental Pro-
tection Agency.
The river’s toxic brew reveals itself in the sediment along the banks,
in the crayfish and salmon that feed on microorganisms and insects, and
in the birds that eat the fish. Many are worried about the implications for
people who consume the accumulated contaminants in the river’s salmon
and sturgeon. And the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
has research that shows toxics can have damaging effects on endangered
fish species.
In response to tests that show potentially dangerous levels of contam-
ination throughout the river’s ecosystem, the EPA has named the Colum-
bia River Basin a “national priority” and pledged to reduce toxics in the
water and fish tissue by 10 percent in five years.
Price — Dr. Personal Enrichment
Tongue Point Job Corps Center received top marks at its
annual Health and Wellness Clinic review last week.
Conducted by Management & Training Corporation, which
administers Tongue Point and other Job Corps centers nation-
wide, the evaluation measured the local program’s ability to
provide health care services to students.
Clatsop Community College Board Chairwoman Rosemary Bak-
er-Monaghan has heard “I told you so” a lot since early January, when a
survey pinpointed location as the biggest factor behind the failure of a $24
million bond measure for a new campus in November.
But she’s looking forward to making a second attempt at a bond mea-
sure in May.
“If all those people vote, we’re going to be OK,” she told the Astoria
School Board at its regular meeting Thursday night.
50 years ago — 1967
Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call
Dr. Tom Price, President Donald Trump’s nominee for health and human services secretary, is under
scrutiny for stock-market activity involving drug companies.
By DAVID LEONHARDT
New York Times News Service
E
The Daily Astorian/File Photo
This sketch shows interior of the main room of the Astoria Library
as planned by interior designer George Schwars.
Astoria Seafood company is making plans for expansion of its
Astoria plant and is constructing a 48 by 210 foot plant to pro-
duce crabs, crab meat, cooked shrimp meat and eventually a fil-
let operation at Charleston on Coos Bay.
The firm also has opened a sales brokerage office for develop-
ment of frozen and fresh seafood sales in Oregon and Washing-
ton, under management of James Kinderd Jr.
The City Council authorized a call for bids for furnishing the new city
library Monday night despite the fact that estimated cost, $54,500, is in
excess of the approximately $52,200 available for the job, including fed-
eral match money.
The Port of Astoria has the dredge Natoma back on its hands,
a year after selling it on an installment contract to H.G. Palm-
berg and associates, and is trying to sell it again.
Both port manager C.E. Hodges and Palmberg confirmed
Wednesday that the dredge has been returned to port ownership.
Palmberg said he and his associates had acquired the dredge
in hopes of being able to obtain government and other dredging
jobs in the area, but that the U.S. Engineers had not been coop-
erative in making jobs available and that other dredging com-
panies had become extremely competitive in bidding for what
jobs there are.
75 years ago — 1942
A special try out for new Astoria air raid signals will be held about noon
Thursday, when five of the siren whistles will be blown throughout Asto-
ria. Clatsop Defense council authorities have asked that Astoria civilians
report the success of the new whistles to the defense council headquarters
(telephone 2183) shortly after they are blown. The defense council wants to
know whether the signals may be heard.
The Pacific Northwest today is ready for any assault by land,
sea or air …
A tour of defense fortifications, authorized by officials of the
Army, shows the task of preparing this vital keystone of Amer-
ican defense has made swift progress in building a chain of
defenses ready to handle anything the Japanese may throw at it
— ships, planes and land troops or tanks.
When Japan struck at Hawaii the Northwest’s military
defenders were all at Fort Lewis. The beaches, ports, river
mouths and other strategic military points were, for the most
part, entirely undefended.
ach year, a publication called
Medscape creates a portrait
of the medical profession. It
surveys thousands of doctors about
their job satisfac-
tion, salaries and
the like and breaks
down the results by
specialty, allowing
for comparisons
between, say, der-
matologists and oncologists.
As I read the most recent survey,
I was struck by the answers from
orthopedic surgeons. They are the
highest-paid doctors, with an aver-
age salary of $443,000 in 2015 —
which, coincidentally, was almost
the exact cutoff for the famed top 1
percent of the income distribution.
Yet many orthopedists are not
happy with their pay. Only 44
percent feel “fairly compensated,”
a smaller share than in almost every
other specialty. A lot of orthopedists
aren’t even happy being doctors.
Just 49 percent say they would go
into medicine if they had to make
the decision again, compared with
64 percent of all doctors.
I know that many orthopedists
have a very different view: They
take pride in helping patients and
feel fortunate to enjoy comfortable
lives. But despite those doctors, it’s
clear that orthopedics suffers from
a professional culture that does not
live up to medicine’s highest ideals.
Too many orthopedists are rich and
think it’s an injustice that they’re
not richer.
This culture helped shape Dr.
Tom Price, the orthopedic surgeon
and Georgia congressman who is
Donald Trump’s nominee for secre-
tary of health and human services.
Price had a thriving practice
near Atlanta before being elected to
Congress in 2004. His estimated net
worth of more than $10 million (and
possibly a lot more) makes him one
of the House’s wealthier members.
Yet he hasn’t been content to
make money in the standard ways.
He has also pushed, and crossed,
ethical boundaries. Again and again,
Price has mingled his power as
a congressman with his desire to
make money.
So far, the nominee receiving
the most attention is Betsy DeVos,
Trump’s choice for education sec-
retary, and she definitely deserves
scrutiny. Still, I think Democrats
have made a mistake focusing so
much on her rather than on Price.
He could do more damage — and
his transgressions are worse than
those that have defeated prior
nominees.
Last March, Price announced his
opposition to a sensible Medicare
proposal to limit the money doctors
could make from drugs they pre-
scribe their patients. The proposal
was meant to reduce doctors’
financial incentives to prescribe
expensive drugs. (And, yes, if
you’re bothered that your doctor has
any stake in choosing one drug over
another, you should be.)
He could do
more damage
— and his
transgressions
are worse than
those that have
defeated prior
nominees.
One week after Price came out
against the proposal, he bought
stocks in six pharmaceutical com-
panies that would benefit from its
defeat, as Time magazine reported.
At the time, those same companies
were lobbying Congress to block
the change. They succeeded.
It’s a pattern, too. Price has put
the interests of drug companies
above those of taxpayers and
patients — and invested in those
drug companies on the side.
Last year, he also bought shares
in Zimmer Biomet, a maker of hip
and knee implants. Six days later,
according to CNN, he introduced
a bill that would that have directly
helped Zimmer.
In his defense, a spokesman for
Price has said that his broker bought
the Zimmer stock and Price didn’t
find out until later. That’s certainly
possible, but still not acceptable.
Members of Congress bear respon-
sibility for their personal stock
transactions, period.
A third episode may be the
worst. Price accepted a special offer
from an Australian drug company to
buy discounted shares, as The Wall
Street Journal and Kaiser Health
News reported.
He told the Senate that the offer
was open to all investors, although
fewer than 20 Americans actually
received an invitation to buy at the
discounted price. The stock has
since jumped in value, and Price
underreported the worth of his
investment in his nomination filings.
It was a “clerical error,” he says.
Even without any larger con-
text, his actions are disqualifying.
He’s repeatedly placed personal
enrichment above the credibility of
Congress. The behavior is substan-
tially worse than giving money to an
illegal immigrant (which defeated a
George W. Bush nominee) or failing
to pay nanny taxes (which scuttled a
Bill Clinton nominee).
But of course there is a larger
context. Price has devoted much
of his political career opposing
expansion of health insurance.
His preferred replacement of
Obamacare would reduce health
care benefits for sicker, poorer and
older Americans.
His views have a long history
within the medical profession. For
decades, doctors used their political
clout to help block universal health
insurance. They offered many
rationales, but money was the main
reason. Many doctors feared that a
less laissez-faire health care system
would reduce their pay.
It’s to the great credit of today’s
doctors that they have moved their
lobbying groups away from that
position and helped extend insur-
ance to some 20 million people.
They understand that some
principles matter more than a
paycheck.
Or at least many of them do.