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THE DAILY ASTORIAN • TUESDAY, MAY 2, 2017
WORLD IN BRIEF
Associated Press
Violence leads to arrests in
May Day marches in Northwest
PORTLAND — May Day protests turned violent in the Pacific
Northwest as demonstrators in Portland, Oregon, threw smoke
bombs and Molotov cocktails at police while elsewhere thousands
of people peacefully marched against President Donald Trump’s
immigration and labor policies.
From New England to the Midwest to the West Coast peo-
ple chanted and picketed against Trump along with the traditional
May Day labor rallies. Protesters flooded streets in Chicago. At the
White House gates, they demanded “Donald Trump has got to go!”
In Portland police shut down a protest they said had become a
riot and arrested more than two dozen people. Police in Olympia,
Washington, said nine people were taken into custody after several
officers were injured by thrown rocks and windows were broken at
businesses in Washington’s capital city.
In Seattle, five people were arrested during downtown protests
and in Oakland, California, at least four were arrested after creat-
ing a human chain to block a county building where demonstrators
demanded that county law enforcement refuse to collaborate with
federal immigration agents.
The demonstrations on May Day, celebrated as International
Workers’ Day, follow similar actions worldwide in which protest-
ers from the Philippines to Paris demanded better working condi-
tions. But the widespread protests in the United States were aimed
directly at the new Republican president, who has followed aggres-
sive anti-immigrant rhetoric on the campaign trail with aggressive
action in the White House.
Trump: US needs September
‘shutdown’ to fix Senate ‘mess’
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump tweeted today
that the nation “needs a good ‘shutdown’ in September” to fix a
“mess” in the Senate, issuing contradictory messages ahead of key
votes on a spending plan to keep the federal government running.
Trump’s embrace of a government shutdown came days after
he accused Senate Democrats of seeking a shutdown and obstruct-
ing majority Republicans during recent budget negotiations.
Lawmakers announced Sunday they had reached an agreement to
avoid a shutdown until September — a deal that does not include
several provisions sought by Trump, including funding for a bor-
der wall.
Congress is expected to vote this week on the $1.1 trillion
spending bill to fund the government through September. The
White House on Monday praised the deal as a win for the nation’s
military, health benefits for coal miners and other Trump priori-
ties. The House is also considering a possible vote this week on
a health care overhaul that would repeal and replace the so-called
Obamacare law.
Kicking off the day, the president tweeted today from his Twit-
ter account, “The reason for the plan negotiated between the
Republicans and Democrats is that we need 60 votes in the Senate
which are not there!” He added that we “either elect more Republi-
can Senators in 2018 or change the rules now to 51 (percent). Our
country needs a good “shutdown” in September to fix mess!”
United CEO calls passenger
incident epic mistake
WASHINGTON — United Airlines CEO Oscar Munoz apol-
ogized today on Capitol Hill for an incident in which a passenger
was forcibly removed from a flight and vowed to do better as he
and other airline executives faced tough questions from lawmakers.
“It was a mistake of epic proportions, clearly, in hindsight,”
Munoz told a congressional hearing. He said passenger David Dao
was treated in a way that no customer — or individual — should
be treated, calling it a “terrible experience” that should never be
repeated.
United has taken a series of steps to reduce overbooking of
flights since the April 9 incident and will raise to $10,000 the
limit on payments to customers who give up seats on oversold
flights, Munoz said. The airline also said it will improve employee
training.
“This is a turning point for United, and our 87,000 profession-
als,” a contrite Munoz said. “It is my mission to ensure we make
the changes needed to provide our customers with the highest level
of service and the deepest sense of respect.”
Dave Killen/The Oregonian
Police try to disperse people participating in a May Day rally in downtown Portland on Monday. Police in Portland said the
permit obtained for the May Day rally and march there was canceled as some marchers began throwing projectiles at officers.
Former Washington Gov. Lowry,
also a congressman, dies
OLYMPIA, Wash. — Former Washington Gov. Mike Lowry, a
Democrat who served in Congress for a decade, died Monday fol-
lowing complications from a stroke. He was 78.
Lowry, who was elected to one term as governor in 1992, was
“a passionate defender of fairness for people and the environment,”
according to a news release from his family.
“Mike was known as a courageous leader who was often will-
ing to take early stands on sometimes controversial issues, and this
courage, plus his straightforward nature, garnered respect from
those in all political parties,” the statement said.
Lowry was a leading Democratic critic of President Ronald
Reagan’s economic policies, even when they were wildly popu-
lar, and also fought against the arms buildup and restrictions on
abortions.
Long an advocate of international trade that became crucial
to the state, Lowry was credited with saving the Export-Import
Bank’s direct loan program. He was on the House Budget Com-
mittee and worked on wilderness and marine sanctuary legislation
and other issues.
Gov. Jay Inslee said Lowry “served with compassion and
humility.”
House packed with families
became death trap in Iraq’s Mosul
CAIRO — After an American airstrike killed more than 100
Iraqi civilians in a house in the western part of Mosul in March,
U.S. officials suggested the Islamic State group was to blame for
the horrific toll, saying militants may have crammed the building
with people, booby-trapped it with explosives, then lured in an air-
strike by firing from the roof.
None of that happened, survivors and witnesses told The Asso-
ciated Press, recounting the deadliest single incident in the months-
long battle for the Iraqi city.
“Armed men in the house I was in? Never,” said Ali Zanoun,
one of only two people in the building to survive the March 17
strike. He spent five days buried under the rubble of the building,
drinking from a bottle of nose drops, with the bodies of more than
20 members of his family in the wreckage around him.
Instead, Zanoun and others interviewed by the AP
described a horrifying battlefield where airstrikes and artillery
pounded neighborhoods relentlessly trying to root out IS militants,
leveling hundreds of buildings, many with civilians inside, despite
the constant flight of surveillance drones overhead. Displaced fam-
ilies scurried from house to house, most driven out of their homes
by IS militants, who herded residents at gunpoint out of neighbor-
hoods about to fall to Iraqi forces and pushed them into IS-held
areas.
Increased use of bombardment has made the fight for Mosul’s
western sector, which began in mid-February, dramatically more
destructive than fighting for its eastern half.
Overcoming Opioids: When pills
are a hospital’s last resort
BALTIMORE — A car crash shattered Stuart Anders’ thigh,
leaving pieces of bone sticking through his skin. Yet Anders
begged emergency room doctors not to give him powerful opioid
painkillers — he’d been addicted once before and panicked at the
thought of relapsing.
“I can’t lose what I worked for,” he said.
The nation’s opioid crisis is forcing hospitals to begin rolling
out non-addictive alternatives to treatments that have long been the
mainstay for the severe pain of trauma and surgery, so they don’t
save patients’ lives or limbs only to have them fall under the grip
of addiction.
Anders, 53, from Essex, Maryland, was lucky to land in a Bal-
timore emergency room offering an option that dramatically cut
his need for opioids: An ultrasound-guided nerve block bathed a
key nerve in local anesthetic, keeping his upper leg numb for sev-
eral days.
“It has really changed the dynamics of how we care for these
patients,” said trauma anesthesiologist Dr. Ron Samet, who treated
Anders.
Repeal or spare? Pressure is on
moderates over health care
HAMILTON TOWNSHIP, N.J. — Moderate Republicans face
intense pressure on their party’s latest attempt to scrap Democrat
Barack Obama’s health care law — from President Donald Trump,
House GOP leaders, medical professionals and outside political
groups.
Back home, their constituents provide little clarity.
In interviews, Associated Press reporters found views deeply
held and deeply divided, reflective of dueling impulses to fulfill the
seven-year-old GOP promise to repeal the law and to save many
of its parts.
Meridene Walsh of Greenwood Village, Colorado, voted for
Donald Trump for president last year partly because she wanted
the Affordable Care Act gone. Now, she’s frustrated that House
Republicans, including her own representative, Mike Coffman, are
balking.
New oyster war: Rich homeowners vs. working-class farmers
By BEN FINLEY
Associated Press
VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. — Oys-
termen, pirates and police clashed
violently more than a century ago
over who could collect the Chesa-
peake Bay’s tasty and lucrative oys-
ters. As the shellfish makes a come-
back, a modern-day oyster war is
brewing, this time between wealthy
waterfront property owners and work-
ing-class fishermen.
Over the past five years, oys-
ter production has doubled on the
East Coast, driven by new farming
methods, cleaner water and Ameri-
cans’ growing taste for orders on the
half shell. The resurgence has led to
unprecedented resistance from coastal
Virginians who want to maintain pic-
turesque views from their waterfront
homes and has fueled a debate over
access to public waterways.
“These people can’t have it all,”
said Chris Ludford, an oysterman in
Virginia Beach who sells to nearby
farm-to-table restaurants.
Ludford said he faces fierce push-
back along a Chesapeake Bay tribu-
tary from people with “a $2,000 paint-
ing in their house of some old bearded
oysterman tonging oysters.
“But they don’t want to look out
their window and see the real thing,”
he said.
Homeowners say the growing
number of oystermen — dressed
in waders and often tending cages
of shellfish — spoil their views
and invade their privacy. Residents
also worry about less access to the
water and the safety of boaters and
swimmers.
Low tides often expose oyster
cages, usually accompanied by mark-
AP Photo/Steve Helber
Oysterman, Chris Ludford, works sorting oysters on his leased oyster
beds on the Lynnhaven River in Virginia Beach, Va. As the shellfish makes
a comeback, a modern-day oyster war is brewing, between wealthy wa-
terfront property owners and working-class fishermen. Ludford said he
faces fierce pushback along a Chesapeake Bay tributary from people.
ers or warning signs that protrude
from the surface. In some places,
cages float.
“All of sudden you have peo-
ple working in your backyard like it
was some industrial area,” said John
Korte, a retired NASA aerospace
engineer in Virginia Beach who’s
among residents concerned about oys-
ter farming’s proliferation. “They may
be a hundred feet away from some-
one’s yard.”
Ben Stagg, chief engineer at the
Virginia Marine Resources Commis-
sion, said the state is poised to break
its record of leased acreage for oys-
ter growing. But nearly 30 percent
of more than 400 new lease appli-
cations face opposition, an unprece-
dented number that’s led to a backlog
of leases awaiting approval.
“Occasionally I can resolve those
by having the parties get together
and adjust the area further offshore,”
Stagg said. “But oftentimes, I can’t.”
There hasn’t been this much inter-
est in oysters in Virginia since the
early 1960s. Since then, disease and
overfishing took hold and growers
started to disappear.
Over the last few decades, breed-
ing programs have produced more
disease-resistant and faster-growing
oysters. The water’s cleaner. Ameri-
can palates have evolved, increasing
demand.
Farming techniques also changed.
Traditionally, oysters are grown on
the bottom of a calm and salty river
or bay, then harvested with tongs or
dredges that pull them onto boats.
Now, fishermen are increasingly
using cages to grow oysters over a
two-to-three year period. The equip-
ment keeps predators away and pro-
duces oysters with a more uniform
shape and size, which restaurants
prefer.
But the cages are often placed in
shallower water closer to shore — and
people’s homes.
Virginia Beach is perhaps ground
zero for today’s oyster war. The state’s
largest city sits at the mouth of the
Chesapeake Bay. And oysters thrive
in the city’s Lynnhaven River, a net-
work of bays and creeks flowing past
expensive homes. Lynnhaven oysters
are well-known for their salty taste
and size.
A state task force was formed to
find compromise. It recommended
giving residents more power to block
nearby oyster leases. But the idea
was rejected by the Virginia Marine
Resources Commission, with the
majority of commissioners saying
state lawmakers should step in.
Proposals in the Statehouse have
included raising the cost of an oys-
ter farming lease from $1.50 an acre
annually to $5,000. But legislators
haven’t found a solution.
Conflicts also have flared up along
Maryland’s Patuxent River, the coastal
lagoons of Rhode Island and on Mar-
tha’s Vineyard in Massachusetts.
In Delaware, a group of peo-
ple who mostly own vacation homes
successfully blocked potential oyster
farming along their part of an inland
bay.
“Oftentimes, affluent and new
members of the community have the
point of view that they own the water
in front of them, which is really not
true,” said Bob Rheault, executive
director of the East Coast Shellfish
Growers Association. “We need to
win back our social license to farm.”
Rheault said he’s seen these battles
“up and down the East Coast” — even
before the crop began to double five
years ago.
“The industry was there before
the waterfront mansions were built,”
Rheault added. “But it hasn’t been
there for this generation.”
Ludford, who also works as a Vir-
ginia Beach firefighter, is relatively
new to the business. He and other rel-
atives started growing oysters in 2010
after leaving the crab industry.
On a recent morning, Ludford
sorted through cages as he stood in the
Lynnhaven River, hundreds of yards
from the nearest home.
He dragged cages into view as
grass shrimp wriggled on the shells.
He and two helpers retrieved more
than 500 oysters, which he sold at 75
cents apiece to three restaurants —
totaling about $375.
“Really, people haven’t seen an
oysterman behind their houses in 50
to 60 years,” Ludford said.
Steven Corneliussen, who owns
a waterfront home in Poquoson, Vir-
ginia, said he’s among a group that
successfully protested new leases
along his corner of the Chesapeake.
He said waterways should be subject
to zoning, like land.
“That water out in front of me
doesn’t belong to me,” he said. “But it
doesn’t belong to them, either.”