Image provided by: University of Oregon Libraries; Eugene, OR
About The daily Astorian. (Astoria, Or.) 1961-current | View Entire Issue (April 7, 2017)
SEASIDE HIGH SCHOOL PAGES 8A-9A SPRING SPORTS PREVIEW WINNERS WEEKEND EDITION // FRIDAY, APRIL 7, 2017 144TH YEAR, NO. 201 COAST RIVER BUSINESS JOURNAL • INSIDE ONE DOLLAR Santiam Correctional Institution in Salem. JUSTICE REINVESTMENT Wikimedia Commons ‘So the stakes are going to be quite high for you’ A drunken driving and theft case shows the county’s dilemma By DERRICK DePLEDGE The Daily Astorian Michael J. Ehrlund W hen Judge Cindee Matyas was about to sentence Michael Ehrlund for felony theft and drunken driving in February 2016, she warned him that any lapse in probation could have severe consequences. Ehrlund, who lives in Astoria, pleaded no contest to fi rst-degree theft for claim- ing more than $20,500 in state unem- ployment insurance benefi ts while work- ing for J.M. Browning Logging. He also pleaded no contest to drunken driv- ing after being pulled over near Knappa Market early one morning with a blood alcohol content of 0.20 percent, his third DUII in a decade. In an agreement between the District Attorney’s Offi ce and Ehrlund’s attor- ney known as a downward departure, Ehrlund received probation on the theft convictions, with the understanding that if he violated the terms and his proba- tion was revoked by the Circuit Court, he would go to prison for fi ve years. He also received 90 days in county jail, had his driver’s license revoked for life and was placed on probation for the DUII. The deal spared Ehrlund from prison but left him in a precarious situation were he to mess up. The District Attor- ney’s Offi ce does not agree to structured sanctions in downward departure cases — such as a county jail stint or residen- tial treatment after a relapse into drinking See JUSTICE, Page 6A STREET 14 A beery Uniontown farewell Popular, but not profi table Family and friends recall murder victim Chef branches out after dinners end By JACK HEFFERNAN The Daily Astorian By EDWARD STRATTON The Daily Astorian A year and a half after starting their regionally acclaimed farm-to-table din- ners, Street 14 Cafe owners Jennifer and Micha Cameron-Lat- tek have ended the venture because of a lack of diners. But Andrew Catalano, the Chef Andrew award-winning chef Catalano behind the menus , will soon start delivering a similar experience to people’s homes. Judge Cindee Matyas Danny Miller/The Daily Astorian Buzz Bissinger, an award-winning reporter and author, speaks at the Columbia Forum Thursday in Astoria. It was the final program of the forum’s 27th season. Bissinger talks of falling in love with Astoria Pulitzer winner caps off fi nal Columbia Forum See CAFE, Page 7A By ERICK BENGEL The Daily Astorian A journalist is only as good as his eyes, according to Buzz Bissinger, a Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter and author . Almost 20 years ago, Bissinger’s eyes — which have observed corruption in the Philadelphia court system and witnessed his writings become popular fi lms — landed on Astoria for the fi rst time. “It was the most magnifi cent setting for a town that I think I had ever seen.” He recounted the experience of falling for Astoria from a journalists’ perspective Thursday evening during the fi nal program of the Columbia Forum’s 27th season, held in Columbia Memorial Hospital’s Commu- nity Center. Recently, Bissinger has been widely known for his 2015 Vanity Fair cover story “Call Me Caitlyn” about the transformation of Olympic icon Bruce Jenner into Caitlyn Jenner. The writer and subject have collab- orated on a book about Jenner’s life and will soon launch a book tour. Bissinger, who lives in Long Beach, Washington, is currently working on a profi le of tennis player Serena Williams for the magazine. Bissinger’s 1990 nonfi ction book “Friday Night Lights,” about a Texas town’s obses- sion with high school football — came into being after he decided to write about one of the many isolated points of small-town life he saw from airplanes. “I’m always still looking — as a writer, as a person — for places that get to me, that move me in some way,” he said, “and then, as a writer, to see if there is, behind these emotional feelings, this connection — there is a strong enough story that can be told on the page.” Though he acknowledges his eyes aren’t what they used to be, Bissinger, 62, still seeks “to be in the presence of something that is endlessly stimulating, something that is epic, something that is different, something that you haven’t seen,” he said. That’s what Astoria and the Colum- bia-Pacifi c r egion does for him and his wife, Lisa Smith. Beers replaced tears Saturday as doz- ens gathered to remember a Warrenton man allegedly killed by his nephew. Family and friends packed Mary Todd’s Workers Bar and Grill for a pot luck lunch to memorialize the 66-year life of Ronald Bou- dreau. He died in early March of blunt-force trauma after allegedly being beaten at his home by his nephew, Christopher Eric Johns . Despite the morbid nature of Boudreau’s death, loved ones said the party was the best way to remember their friend and relative, a regular at the Uniontown bar. “He was a happy-go-lucky person, and these were his friends,” said Starr Boudreau, his sister-in-law. “They probably could have met in a church, but they wouldn’t have wanted to.” After attendees grabbed drinks and browsed through photos of Boudreau near a food table, they held a toast in his memory. See FAREWELL, Page 7A ‘Totally authentic’ In the late 1990s, during their court- ship days, Smith wanted to test Bissinger — to see whether her partner, a thorough- going East Coaster, could connect with the Pacifi c Northwest, a place she had lived in and loved for almost 25 years. They stayed in the Sou’wester Lodge in Seaview, Submitted Photo See FORUM, Page 7A Ronald Boudreau, left, with his father, Al- bert, and brother, Stephen, in happier times.
