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About The daily Astorian. (Astoria, Or.) 1961-current | View Entire Issue (May 15, 2017)
OPINION 4A THE DAILY ASTORIAN • MONDAY, MAY 15, 2017 Founded in 1873 DAVID F. PERO, Publisher & Editor LAURA SELLERS, Managing Editor BETTY SMITH, Advertising Manager JEREMY FELDMAN, Circulation Manager DEBRA BLOOM, Business Manager JOHN D. BRUIJN, Production Manager CARL EARL, Systems Manager OUR VIEW Invest in good science to track marine toxin hen the marine toxin domoic acid was first reported in Pacific Northwest waters in 1991, it caused a flurry of public consternation and scientific excitement. Specialist conferences were convened about this new kid on the block, joining older issues like paralytic shellfish poisoning. The shellfish poisoning hasn’t been a problem since then, but domoic acid — which causes amnesic shellfish poisoning — more than makes up for it. It’s a byproduct produced by a kind of micro- scopic marine organism. Domoic acid first generated headlines in 1987 after mussels raised on Prince Edward Island in eastern Canada resulted in human deaths and illnesses, including loss of the ability to store short-term memories. After it appeared here, speculation arose that it could have been around longer, perhaps not causing significant problems. But speculation is no substitute for scientific facts, and the fact is that domoic acid is first known on this coast in the past quarter-century, where outbreaks have killed seabirds and marine mammals from California to Alaska. Perhaps due to the rich nutrients in the Columbia River plume, Clatsop County has Oregon’s best razor clam populations, while the beaches in Pacific and Grays Harbor counties to the river mouth’s north are the best in Washington state. Clams gener- ate regional tourist revenue in the tens of millions in good years. Dungeness crabs, which eat razor clams and other toxin-impacted prey, can also be contaminated by the toxin during severe out- breaks, threatening the most lucrative commercial fishery in the two states. As we reported last week, domoic levels seriously impacted the 2016-17 clam and crab seasons. Oregon and Washington state both bar recreational and com- mercial razor clam digging on ocean beaches when the toxin level rises to 20 parts per million in sampled clam flesh. A study last year suggested even this threshold is open to re-examination, since some harm apparently can accumulate from consumption of sea- food that passes current standards. It’s vitally important to better understand exactly what causes spikes in toxin levels. Warmer ocean waters associated with El Niños and the Blob — an unusual mass of warm water in the northeast Pacific — are a strong suspect. Such conditions are vir- tually sure to become more common as the century continues to warm up. Will this permanently degrade important shellfish indus- tries? It’s possible that after acute recent problems, the domo- ic-generating algae will go away or quit generating the toxin, as it has in the past. But we can’t count on good luck. Effective monitoring of actual ocean conditions before toxins enter the near-shore food web is essential. In addition, the states must strive for more timely information about clam conditions, and more closely tailor digging times and places to take advantage of clean clams. For example, in the past year on the Long Beach Peninsula, digging would have been more-often permissible if authorities had been willing to open miles-long segments of beach where domoic levels were low. Ultimately, it may perhaps be possible to bioengineer the offending algae so it does not produce domoic acid, or to develop other novel solutions to the problem. Economic and environmen- tal harm from marine toxins argues for investment in good science and aggressive follow through. W Get out and vote uesday is Election Day, and no matter who you would like to win any of the elections being contested, the important thing is to vote. All ballots must be turned in by 8 p.m. If you didn’t previ- ously mail your ballot, it’s too late to do so, it must be hand-de- livered to any of nine locations throughout Clatsop County. The locations can be found at https://www.co.clatsop.or.us/clerk/page/ ballot-drop-site-locations. Heading toward Election Day, voter turnout is about even with what it was in the last off-year election in 2015. As of Friday turnout stood at 22.9 percent of registered voters, while final turn- out in the 2015 election was 22.8 percent. While off-year turnout is typically low, there are contested races for the Port of Astoria Commission, the Clatsop Community College Board, the Clatsop Care Center Health District, the Astoria, Seaside and Jewel school boards and the Sunset Empire Park and Recreation District Board. Voters are also being asked whether to approve a bond measure for the Port of Astoria to improve airport infrastructure and relocate the Life Flight Network, and in Seaside residents are being asked whether the city should approve a five-year local option tax for fire person- nel and equipment. If you haven’t turned in a ballot and want a say in the outcome in any of those races, now’s the time to do it. Every vote matters. T A political ax murder By CHARLES KRAUTHAMMER Washington Post Writers Group W ASHINGTON — It was implausible that FBI Director James Comey was fired in May 2017 for actions committed in July 2016 — the rationale contained in the memo by Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein. It was implausible that Comey was fired by Donald Trump for hav- ing been too tough on Hillary Clin- ton, as when, at that July news con- ference, he publicly recited her various email misdeeds despite rec- ommending against prosecution. It was implausible that Trump fired Comey for, among other things, reopening the Clinton inves- tigation 11 days before the elec- tion, something that at the time Trump praised as a sign of Comey’s “guts” that had “brought back his reputation.” It was implausible that Trump, a man notorious for being swayed by close and loyal personal advisers, fired Comey on the recommenda- tion of a sub-Cabinet official whom Trump hardly knew and who’d been on the job all of two weeks. It was implausible that Trump found Rosenstein’s arguments so urgently persuasive that he acted immediately — so precipitously, in fact, that Comey learned of his own firing from TVs that happened to be playing behind him. These implausibilities were obvi- ous within seconds of Comey’s fir- ing and the administration’s imme- diate attempt to pin it all on the Rosenstein memo. That was pure spin. So why in reality did Trump fire Comey? Admittedly, Comey had to go. The cliche is that if you’ve infuri- ated both sides, it means you must be doing something right. Some- times, however, it means you must be doing everything wrong. Over the last year, Comey has been repeatedly wrong. Not, in my view, out of malice or partisan- ship (although his self-righteous- ness about his own probity does occasionally grate). He was in an unprecedented situation with unpal- atable choices. Never in Ameri- can presidential history had a major party nominated a candidate under official FBI investigation. (Turns out the Trump campaign was under investigation as well.) Which makes the normal injunction that FBI directors not interfere in elections facile and impossible to follow. Any course of action — disclosure or silence, commission or omission — carried unavoidable electoral consequences. AP Photo/Evan Vucci President Donald Trump talks to reporters Wednesday in the Oval Of- fice of the White House. Trump, in an apparent warning to his fired FBI director, said that James Comey had better hope there are no “tapes” of their conversations. Trump’s tweet came the morning after he asserted Comey had told him three times that he wasn’t under FBI investigation. Comey had to make up the rules as he went along. He did. That was not his downfall. His downfall was making up contradictory, illogical rules, such as the July 5 nonindict- ment indictment of Clinton. A series of these — and Comey became anathema to both Dem- ocrats and Republicans. Clinton blamed her loss on two people. One of them was Comey. Whacking Comey has brought more critical attention to the Russia story than anything imaginable. And there’s the puzzle. There was ample bipartisan sentiment for letting Comey go. And there was ample time from Election Day on to do so. A simple talk, a gold watch, a friendly farewell, a Comey resig- nation to allow the new president to pick the new director. No fanfare, no rancor. True, this became more diffi- cult after March 20 when Comey revealed that the FBI was investigat- ing the alleged Trump-Russia col- lusion. Difficult but not impossible. For example, just last week Comey had committed an egregious factual error about the Huma Abedin emails that the FBI had to abjectly walk back in a written memo to the Sen- ate Judiciary Committee. Here was an opportunity for a graceful exit: Comey regrets the mistake and notes that some of the difficult decisions he had previously made necessarily cost him the con- fidence of various parties. Time for a clean slate. Add the usual boiler- plate about not wanting to be a dis- traction at such a crucial time. Awk- ward perhaps, but still dignified and amicable. Instead we got this — a political ax murder, brutal even by Washing- ton standards. (Or even Roman stan- dards. Where was the vein-open- ing knife and the warm bath?) No final meeting, no letter of resigna- tion, no presidential thanks, no cor- dial parting. Instead, a blindsided Comey ends up in a live-streamed O.J. Bronco ride, bolting from Los Angeles to be flown, defrocked, back to Washington. Why? Trump had become increasingly agitated with the Rus- sia-election investigation and Com- ey’s very public part in it. If Trump thought this would kill the inquiry and the story, or perhaps even just derail it somewhat, he’s made the blunder of the decade. Whack- ing Comey has brought more criti- cal attention to the Russia story than anything imaginable. It won’t stop the FBI investigation. And the con- firmation hearings for a successor will become a nationally televised forum for collusion allegations, which up till now have remained a scandal in search of a crime. So why did he do it? Now we know: The king asked whether no one would rid him of this trouble- some priest, and got so impatient he did it himself. WHERE TO WRITE • U.S. Rep. Suzanne Bonamici (D): 2338 Rayburn HOB, Washing- ton, D.C., 20515. Phone: 202- 225- 0855. Fax 202-225-9497. District office: 12725 SW Millikan Way, Suite 220, Beaverton, OR 97005. Phone: 503-469-6010. Fax 503-326- 5066. Web: bonamici.house. gov/ • U.S. Sen. Jeff Merkley (D): 313 Hart Senate Office Building, Wash- ington, D.C. 20510. Phone: 202-224- 3753. Web: www.merkley.senate.gov • U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden (D): 221 Dirksen Senate Office Building, Washington, D.C., 20510. Phone: 202-224-5244. Web: www.wyden. senate.gov • State Rep. Brad Witt (D): State Capitol, 900 Court Street N.E., H-373, Salem, OR 97301. Phone: 503-986-1431. Web: www.leg.state. or.us/witt/ Email: rep.bradwitt@ state.or.us • State Rep. Deborah Boone (D): 900 Court St. N.E., H-481, Salem, OR 97301. Phone: 503-986-1432. Email: rep.deborah boone@state. or.us District office: P.O. Box 928, Cannon Beach, OR 97110. Phone: 503-986-1432. Web: www.leg.state. or.us/ boone/ • State Sen. Betsy Johnson (D): State Capitol, 900 Court St. N.E., S-314, Salem, OR 97301. Telephone: 503-986-1716. Email: sen.betsy john- son@state.or.us Web: www.betsy- johnson.com District Office: P.O. Box R, Scappoose, OR 97056. Phone: 503-543-4046. Fax: 503-543-5296. Astoria office phone: 503-338-1280. • Port of Astoria: Executive Director, 10 Pier 1 Suite 308, Asto- ria, OR 97103. Phone: 503-741-3300. Email: admin@portofastoria.com • Clatsop County Board of Com- missioners: c/o County Manager, 800 Exchange St., Suite 410, Astoria, OR 97103. Phone: 503-325-1000.