7A
THE DAILY ASTORIAN • WEDNESDAY, APRIL 19, 2017
Ride: Journey to end in Idaho
Photos by Damian Mulinix/For The Daily Astorian
ABOVE: Kat Cannell and Katelyn Spradley ride their horses up through an Astoria neigh-
borhood Tuesday during their Ride for Redd, an effort to raise awareness about Idaho’s
endangered salmon populations. BELOW: Katelyn Spradley and Kat Cannell are making
a Ride for Redd to bring attention to endangered salmon populations.
Dam argument
In May, U.S. District Court
Judge Michael Simon ruled the
current salmon recovery plan
violated the Endangered Spe-
cies Act by not doing enough
to protect 13 listed Columbia
River Basin species of salmon
and steelhead. Setting off a
regional debate, Simon said
the removal of one or more of
the Ice Harbor, Lower Mon-
umental, Little Goose and
Lower Granite dams on the
lower Snake River in Wash-
ington should be considered in
a new recovery plan.
The dams produce about 5
percent of the Pacifi c North-
west’s power, passage for agri-
cultural barges upriver to Lew-
iston, Idaho, and irrigation for
local farmers. Billions have
been spent on salmon recov-
ery and retrofi tting dams to
improve fi sh passage, but
many still see the Snake River
dams as a major impediment
to upriver fi sh populations. In
March, Simon ordered dam
managers to start spilling more
water over those and four other
dams to aid with salmon pas-
sage starting in spring 2018.
Associated Press
Georgia House race down to two
candidates, plus Trump, Pelosi
Continued from Page 1A
summer and fall Chinook
salmon are listed as threat-
ened, likely to become endan-
gered in the foreseeable future.
In 2015, the sockeye run was
particularly hit by low snow-
pack and warm waters, very
few making it back to upriver
spawning grounds.
Spradley said the trio,
from agricultural backgrounds
themselves, are trying to be
balanced in their awareness
campaign about the plight of
salmon, which connects the
entire region. “As a human
race, I think we’re pretty intel-
ligent, and if we can quit argu-
ing, we can actually come up
with a solution that would ben-
efi t the salmon and maintain
our livelihood,” she said.
WORLD IN BRIEF
tary, “Redd,” about the ride.
Why horses?
“We’re not anti-dam,”
Cannell said. “We want to
make that really clear to peo-
ple. We’re not attacking the
Columbia dams, but the Snake
dams … were kind of the nail
in the coffi n for Idaho salmon.”
Idaho Rivers
The riders are directing
people to Idaho Rivers United,
a nonprofi t focused on restor-
ing the state’s rivers and
fi sh runs. The nonprofi t was
formed in 1991, the same year
sockeye salmon were listed as
endangered.
Greg Stahl, a spokesman
for the nonprofi t, said at least
half of what the nonprofi t does
focuses on re-establishing
salmon runs in Idaho.
Stahl said a combination of
overfi shing and pollution hurt
Idaho’s salmon. “But the big-
gest hit was the dams,”
The ride is also being doc-
umented by a fi lm crew. Can-
nell, a photographer, said the
hope is to produce a documen-
At an average 3 mph, the
three could go as fast on foot as
on horseback, and faster on a
bicycle. But they said the more
usual forms of cross-country
travel wouldn’t draw as much
attention.
“Horses, when you walk
down the road, people fl ock
to you,” Cannell said. “Peo-
ple come up to you like, ‘What
are you doing? Where are
you going?’ What’s on your
horses?’ They ask you a bazil-
lion questions. If we were just
walking down the road in ten-
nis shoes with a backpack on,
nobody would stop and ask us
that.”
Spradley said that if they
had walked with backpacks,
some people might write them
off as hippies, whereas horses
bring people from different
social backgrounds together.
“One thing MJ, our riding
partner said, was ‘We couldn’t
fi nd a salmon big enough to
ride, so we decided to ride
horses,” Cannell said.
DUNWOODY, Ga. — A Georgia congressional election in a
historically conservative district is headed to a runoff that raises
the stakes in an early measure for President Donald Trump and
both major parties ahead of the 2018 midterm elections.
Democrat Jon Ossoff, a 30-year-old former congressional
staffer, fell a few percentage points shy of an outright victory
amid an 18-candidate scramble in Georgia’s 6th Congressio-
nal District. Republican Karen Handel, a former Georgia sec-
retary of state, fi nished a distant second, qualifying for the June
20 runoff.
The winner will succeed Republican Tom Price, who
resigned the seat to join Trump’s administration as health sec-
retary. But the matchup in greater Atlanta’s northern suburbs is
just as much about Ossoff and Handel acting as proxies for the
nation’s roiled political atmosphere.
Leaders in both major parties agree the race offers a prime
test run for 2018 elections, because the affl uent, well-educated
Georgia district is replete with the kind of voters Democrats
must attract to reclaim a House majority and win more guber-
natorial and Senate races.
For Democrats, Ossoff’s near win in such a district — a
Republican has held the seat since 1979, and Price won 62 per-
cent of the vote in November — encourages the opposition
movement that has fl ourished since Trump’s election. Yet fall-
ing short also highlights the party’s lingering power defi cit in
Washington and around the country.
US VP Pence warns North Korea:
‘The sword stands ready’
YOKOSUKA, Japan — From the wind-swept deck of
a massive aircraft carrier, Vice President Mike Pence today
warned North Korea not to test the resolve of the U.S. mili-
tary, promising it would make an “overwhelming and effec-
tive” response to any use of conventional or nuclear weapons.
Pence, dressed in a green military jacket, said aboard the
hulking USS Ronald Reagan that President Donald Trump’s
administration would continue to “work diligently” with allies
like Japan, China and other global powers to apply economic
and diplomatic pressure on Pyongyang. But he told the sail-
ors, “as all of you know, readiness is the key.”
“The United States of America will always seek peace but
under President Trump, the shield stands guard and the sword
stands ready,” Pence told 2,500 sailors wearing blue fatigues
and Naval baseball caps on a sunny, windy morning aboard
the carrier at the U.S. Yokosuka naval base in Tokyo Bay.
“Those who would challenge our resolve or readiness
should know, we will defeat any attack and meet any use of
conventional or nuclear weapons with an overwhelming and
effective American response,” Pence said.
The vice president said the U.S. would honor its alliance
with Pacifi c Rim nations and protect freedom of navigation
in the South China Sea, the sea lanes vital to global shipping
where China has been staking claim to disputed territory.
Zaitz: ‘If you have a big story, you pour everything into it’
Continued from Page 1A
The Enterprise has a print
circulation of about 1,400. It’s
drawn national attention in
recent weeks for its success-
ful battle against a state agency
that repeatedly denied Zaitz
access to public records involv-
ing a 49-year-old man who kid-
napped his son and fi rst wife,
and then was held at the Oregon
State Hospital or was released
under state medical supervision
for 20 years.
Within a month of his release
last December, Anthony Mont-
wheeler was accused of fatally
stabbing a different ex-wife,
Annita Harmon, of Weiser, out-
side an Ontario gas station. He
also stands accused in the death
of Vale resident David Bates,
who was killed in a head-on
crash police say was caused
by Montwheeler while he was
fl eeing police in January.
“(Bates) and his wife were
driving to work, like we all
do, and he ended up dying,”
said Enterprise reporter John
Braese. The couple worked at
Saint Alphonsus Medical Cen-
ter in Ontario. Bates’ wife, Jes-
sica, was seriously injured but
has since been released.
Harmon was on her way to
work at the Dickinson Frozen
Food plant near Fruitland that
morning when she was kid-
napped. Her body was found in
Montwheeler’s truck after the
collision.
“I guess the question we’re
going to keep asking is: Why
was he (Montwheeler) allowed
out? Why was he allowed so
much freedom after kidnap-
ping and threatening the life of
a child?” said Harmon’s sister,
Stacey Harmon-Roeber.
To answer that, Zaitz and his
team turned to the records.
Shocking details
Circuit Court records from
the 1996 kidnapping in Baker
County contained a clue: evi-
dence that Montwheeler might
have been faking his mental
illness.
They were able to obtain
Public plea
the incident, he is grateful
In a public plea for dona- for the investigative work the
some, but not all, of the records
they sought from the Psychi- tions to cover the paper’s paper has done to get answers
atric Security Review Board, attorney fees, Zaitz noted that — and possibly prevent future
which supervises those who the review board had hired unnecessary deaths.
successfully assert an insanity high-paid private attorneys
“I appreciated them being
defense to a criminal charge in to press its case. That really willing and able to stick their
Oregon. One key item turned upset some local readers.
neck out,” Abbott said. “They
“That’s our taxpayer just want the truth to come
over was audio from Mont-
wheeler’s discharge hearing, money — used to stop us from out. That’s what we want as
when he revealed his scam to being able to know what hap- well.”
pened,” said Tracy Landreth,
stunned board members.
With a background in
owner of Vale’s health care, Harmon-Roeber
“I was using
Miracle Eatery.
this as a teachable
knows the tension between
Gov.
Kate private and public records and
moment on how to
Brown
inter- said she is a big believer in
background some-
vened earlier this privacy laws. She didn’t want
one. I was show-
month, pressuring to comment specifi cally on the
ing these guys (two
the state agency to Enterprise’s battle for records
reporters) how to
drop its lawsuit. without knowing what they
use court records
The board con- contained, but said her family
to profi le this man
ceded and released generally supports efforts to
accused of horrifi c
the records, which track public offi cials’ actions.
crimes,” said Zaitz.
among other things
In the process, he
“We feel that any reporting
Anthony
showed that at least that sheds light, or gives atten-
broke a 3,000-word
Montwheeler
two state-employed tion to, the poor choices that
story in late March
doctors suspected put anyone in danger is a good
about how Mont-
wheeler faked mental illness early on that Montwheeler thing,” she said.
for 20 years to avoid going to was faking mental illness to
Zaitz plans to return all the
stay out of prison. Those sus- legal-fee donations, all made
prison for seven.
picions, Zaitz noted, appar- to the Oregon Newspaper
Widely read
ently weren’t acted on.
Publishers Association. He
Zaitz tapped his former col-
“Access to public records is didn’t know how much money
leagues at The Oregonian to a basic tool that reporters use was raised toward his $20,000
edit the complex story. The to keep the public informed goal, and the association
Portland-based paper co-pub- about what their government didn’t respond to a request for
lished it online and in print, is doing, and the idea that a that information.
and the Statesman and other state agency would sue a small
Home on the ranch
Boise-area media picked it up weekly newspaper to try to
Zaitz is the son of a news-
as well, bringing the story to a prevent that access is appall-
wider audience in both states.
ing,” said Betsy Russell, pres- paperman who worked on
The Enterprise sought more ident of the Idaho Press Club weeklies and dailies all over
records, but the review board and co-founder of Idahoans the country before settling in
— citing health care privacy for Openness in Government. Oregon. His dad also owned
concerns — balked. Oregon’s
Landreth and others said some Oregon weeklies.
Zaitz and his wife, Scotta
attorney general sided with the the death of David Bates, a
small paper on an appeal, writ- well-known father of fi ve, Callister, a former editor at
ing that public interest in Mont- hit the Vale community hard. The Oregonian and the Blue
wheeler’s case far outweighed More than 1,000 people turned Mountain Eagle in John Day,
any privacy exemptions, not all out to his funeral, according to bought and ran the Keizer-
of which even applied to start the Rev. Phil Abbott of Vale times (based in Keizer) in
1987. He returned to The Ore-
with.
Christian Church.
The review board then took
Abbott said that even gonian in 2000, and with his
the very rare step — and one of though it is hard on Bates’ younger brother, Lyndon, he
its few allowed options under family to keep reading about and Callister bought the Mal-
Oregon code — of suing the
Enterprise rather than releas-
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ing the documents, which
were 15 of the exhibits from
is NOW OPEN in our
Montwheeler’s
discharge
new location at
hearing.
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heur Enterprise in late 2015.
An avid bicyclist and
camper, Zaitz became enam-
ored with the idea of living
on a ranch in Eastern Oregon
after years of pedaling around
the state as part of Cycle Ore-
gon and other rides. He and
his wife bought the Boul-
der Creek Ranch in 2004 and
moved there in 2006, run-
ning it as a working ranch that
also allows tourism. He was
by then a senior investigative
reporter for The Oregonian,
and it wasn’t imperative that
he live in the Portland metro
area.
Last year, he found himself
uniquely prepared to cover the
armed occupation of the Mal-
heur wildlife refuge in early
January 2016.
“It was ideal,” said Zaitz,
who essentially made Burns
his home for 40 days. “I knew
the issues already. I had very
deep contacts in law enforce-
ment, and I know how to talk
to ranchers. … I exhausted
myself, but it was a blast.”
Braese described Zaitz as
a workaholic, working “like
20 hours a day, seven days a
week.”
“I’ll get up at 6 or so, and
I’ll have fi ve or six emails
and text messages from him,”
said Braese, a Boise native
who has been a reporter at the
paper about fi ve years.
Zaitz said he’s typically up
at 4 a.m. but denies he works
so many hours. He prom-
ises he’s going to cut back at
the offi ce in Vale, a 100-mile
drive from his Grant County
ranch. He’s also frank about
the calling he and his small
staff feel, the impetus that led
them to push the review board
for access.
“If you have a big story
you’re working and you want
to do it well and right, you
pour everything into it,” Zaitz
said. “You disregard both the
clock and the calendar.”
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