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6A THE DAILY ASTORIAN • FRIDAY, JUNE 30, 2017 Bill to require advance notice of work schedule heads to governor By PARIS ACHEN Capital Bureau SALEM — Oregon is poised to become first in the nation to adopt a statewide law to require advance notice of employees’ work schedules. “It’s going to be a national model,” said state Rep. Ann Lininger, D-Lake Oswego. The House of Representa- tives voted 46-13 Thursday to pass the legislation. The Sen- ate approved the measure 23-6 last week. Gov. Kate Brown’s signa- ture is the final step to enact the law. The legislation requires employers in the retail, hos- pitality or food service sec- tors who have 500 or more employees to give at least seven days’ notice of a work schedule. The law would take effect July 1, 2018. By July 2020, the amount of required notice would increase to 14 days. Employers are exempt from the requirement when there are weather conditions beyond their control. The notice gives workers more time to arrange child or elder care and juggle sched- ules for multiple jobs and school. “I think that there is wide agreement that we want fam- ilies to be able to provide for themselves. We want families to want to be able to have and to be able to sustain a job, and I believe this bill will make that easier,” Lininger said. Employers may not sched- ule workers for shifts with- out a minimum of a 10-hour reprieve in between. “I think it promotes safety as well as people’s good health,” said Rep. Janelle Bynum, D-Clackamas, who owns two McDonald’s fran- chises in Portland. “On the business side, I support this because I believe it will make Oregon a leader in the devel- opment of this policy.” When employers fail to give the mandatory notice, they will be required to pay penalty compensation to Library: The building was special for Larson the employee. Employees who wish to work last-minute shifts or shifts that are closer than 10 hours apart to earn more income may join a standby list. Employees on the standby list who volun- tarily pick up last-minute shifts will not receive the penalty compensation. Workers who think their employer has violated the law may file a complaint with the Bureau of Labor and Indus- tries or a civil complaint. Rep. Greg Barreto, R-Cove, who voted against the bill, said Oregon’s policies are “picking winners and losers.” “In this regard, maybe a Plaid Pantry that has a dif- ferent model in the way it is set up and has more than 500 employees is different from say a 7-Eleven that has the indi- vidual stores,” Barreto said. “Whether they have a certain number of employees, we pick and choose. Whether they are in retail, hospitality and food service versus other industries, we pick and choose.” WORLD IN BRIEF Associated Press The renaming came just before Larson announced his intention to step down as mayor after the second year of his fourth term. Larson, who was 80, died less than a month later. Continued from Page 1A Personal mission The library, originally housed on the west side of U.S. Highway 101, was deemed too small, lacked parking and crit- ical facilities for patrons and staff. But with daunting costs, plans for a new building stalled until Seaside resident Albert Groot offered a $500,000 matching grant, former library Director Reita Fackerell said. Mayor Larson, who took office in 2002, made the library his personal mission and in 2005, a new library became the City Council’s No. 1 goal. Larson envisioned a build- ing that would blend in with the beach and be something the community would be proud of. Under Larson’s leadership, “The community completely came together,” Fackerell said. The city purchased the property at 1131 Broadway in 2007 for $184,000. With grants, urban renewal money and fundraising, the library opened its doors in 2008 without raising taxes or incurring debt, Fackerell said. Ribbon cutting The building was special for Larson. Project Manager Dale McDowell — now the city’s public works director — even gave Larson an honorary ‘Extraordinary passion’ R.J. Marx/The Daily Astorian Don Larson’s family attended a ceremony Thursday night where the former mayor was honored with the renaming of the Seaside Library. Larson’s wife, Lois, is fourth from front. hard hat. With a giant pair of scis- sors, Larson performed the ribbon-cutting ceremony and started a new era. “People would come and drive just to come to the library,” Fackerell said. “It was kind of a tourist attraction — it was awesome. He was an awesome person and we were lucky to have him as a mayor.” Eight years later, in November 2016, Larson was honored with the renaming of the library building. City coun- cilors made the decision based on the mayor’s “numerous and extraordinary contributions to local government leading to positive changes for the future of Oregon.” The resolution, adopted unanimously, recognized Lar- son’s major contributions to the library project, from the first discussions to construc- tion and completion. At Thursday’s ceremony, councilors extolled the may- or’s “extraordinary passion and visionary leadership to the city of Seaside.” McDowell, along with vol- unteer firefighter Katie Bul- letset, stood on ladders to unveil the building’s new name, prominently displayed above the front doors. “If he were here, he would say that his favorite moment was watching this building being built,” Lois Larson, Lar- son’s wife, said. “The kids and I are delighted that his ser- vice to the city that he loved is being remembered by nam- ing this beautiful building after him. “I will still call it ‘the library,’ as you will, but I will stand a little taller, I will walk a little straighter, and I will smile a whole lot more broadly each time I enter the building under that name,” she said. “We are awed, blessed, humbled, proud and extremely grateful that Don Larson is being honored in such a wonderful way.” Orcas: Under increased nutritional stress Continued from Page 1A Struggles Southern resident killer whales along the U.S. West Coast have struggled since they were listed as endangered spe- cies in 2005. They now num- ber just 78, down from a high of 140 decades ago. The whales face threats from a lack of food, pollution and boats. The new study, published Thursday in the journal PLOS ONE, zeroes in on food sup- ply as an important stress fac- tor among these fish-eating whales. Unlike other killer whales that eat marine mam- mals, the orcas that spend the summer in Puget Sound, and also feed elsewhere along the Oregon and Washington coasts including the Columbia River and Willapa Bay, primarily eat salmon, mostly Chinook. Many species of Chinook salmon along West Coast are listed as threatened or endan- gered because of a host of fac- tors, including loss of habi- tat from urban development, dams, fishing, pollution and competition from non-native fish. Toxins that accumulate in the whales’ fat and are released when the animals starve and metabolize that fat also play a role in the pregnancy problems. “Food is the driver. But what we can’t yet say is how much of that then is affected by its interaction by toxins,” Was- ser said, adding that there were not enough samples to say how influential the toxins are. Whale-sniffing pups Using dogs trained to sniff out whale poop, a team of sci- entists collected nearly 350 excrement samples from 79 unique whales in inland waters of British Columbia and Wash- ington state between 2008 and 2014. Back in the lab, they ana- lyzed it for the hormones pro- gesterone and testosterone and assessed whether the orca was pregnant and at what stage. They also used DNA to deter- mine the identity, sex and fam- ily line of the whale. A preg- nancy was deemed successful if the female whale was later observed with her calf. Their analysis showed 35 orca pregnancies between 2008 and 2014. Eleven calves were spotted with their mothers in successful births. Puget Sound orcas are individually identi- fied and intensely tracked, so researchers know when calves are born to one of three fami- lies of orcas, known as the J, K and L pods. The study found 24 unsuc- cessful pregnancies. No calves were seen in those cases, indi- cating that the whales lost the Fre e as Est F ima t t es Jeff Hale P ainting • Residential • Commercial •Cedar Roof Treatments • Interior & Exterior Over 20 years local experience 503-440-2169 Jeff Hale, Contractor LICENSED BONDED INSURED CCB#179131 babies or the calves died shortly after birth. Those females showed signs of nutritional stress — more so than those who gave birth successfully. Worrisome numbers The concerns reflected in the study are not new; research cruises in recent years have been examining issues with whale fecundity. In 2015, Dr. Brad Hanson, a wildlife biolo- gist with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administra- tion, noted that L pod was espe- cially worrisome. At the time, L pod had few young whales and its adult females were nearing the end of their breeding years. Researchers also recorded the number of boats in the area when collected the whales’ scat. They studied two hor- mones that play important roles Astoria Band Boosters CAN & BOTTLE DRIVE 1 P.M.- 3 P.M. • SUNDAY, JULY 2 ND AT ASTORIA HIGH SCHOOL k th e L a b e Ch ec l P LEASE , NO EARLY DROP - OFFS ! ll Ca ime yt n A Submitted Photo This orca was photographed near the mouth of the Co- lumbia River in 2015 by researchers from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. in physiological stress and were able to differentiate between stress from poor nutrition and stress from boat traffic. The team compared the hormone data to abundance records of two Chinook salmon runs in the Pacific Northwest. The data over time suggest the orcas experienced periodic nutritional stress, partly caused by variation in the timing and strength of the salmon runs in the Columbia and Fraser rivers, the study said. The study said improving those Chinook salmon runs could help save Puget Sound orcas. “I think it’s fair to call out nutrition as a major stressor for these guys,” said Joe Gaydos, a wildlife veterinarian and sci- ence director of SeaDoc Soci- ety, who was not involved in the study. Transient resident whales that feed on marine mammals confront similar boat noise and pollution, but haven’t had the same kind of pregnancy prob- lems as the fish-eating whales. But Gaydos added that nutri- tion or food can’t be viewed independently of other factors. Noise, boats, food availability and toxins are all interrelated. He said the study shows the need to take as many actions as possible to save the iconic creatures. Daily Astorian reporter Katie Frankowicz contributed to this story. Items must have the 5 cent, OR redemption label in order to benefit the band programs The Band Boosters are the primary source of funds to keep Astoria’s school band programs functioning. Please help by dropping off your empties or making a donation. Call (503) 791-8134 or email i_want_to_help@astoriabands.org to arrange pickup of large amounts. More court challenges expected for Trump’s new travel ban WASHINGTON — A scaled-back version of President Donald Trump’s travel is now in force, stripped of provisions that brought protests and chaos at airports worldwide in January yet still likely to generate a new round of court fights. The new rules, the product of months of legal wrangling, aren’t so much an outright ban as a tightening of already-tough visa policies affecting citizens from six Muslim-majority coun- tries. Refugees are covered, too. Administration officials promised that implementation this time, which started at 8 p.m. EDT, would be orderly. Customs and Border Protection spokesman Dan Hetlage said his agency expected “business as usual at our ports of entry,” with all valid visa holders still being able to travel. Still, immigration and refugee advocates are vowing to chal- lenge the new requirements and the administration has strug- gled to explain how the rules will make the United States safer. Under the temporary rules, citizens of Syria, Sudan, Soma- lia, Libya, Iran and Yemen who already have visas will be allowed into the United States. But people from those countries who want new visas will now have to prove a close family rela- tionship or an existing relationship with an entity like a school or business in the U.S. GOP may keep Obama tax on wealthy in bid to save health bill WASHINGTON — Top Senate Republicans may try pre- serving a tax boost on high earners enacted by President Barack Obama in a bid to woo party moderates and rescue their sputter- ing push to repeal his health care overhaul. The break from dogma by a party that has long reviled tax boosts — and most things achieved by Obama — underscores Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s feverish effort to yank one of his and President Donald Trump’s foremost pri- orities from the brink of defeat. The money would instead be used to bolster proposed health care subsidies for lower-income people. The change, proposed by Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn., would give a more populist flavor to the bill. The nonpartisan Congres- sional Budget Office says that as the legislation now is written, it would boost out-of-pocket costs for many poor consumers and produce 22 million uninsured people while cutting around $700 billion in taxes over a decade — largely for richer people and the health care industry. Trump pans TV host’s look, brains: Republicans plead, Stop! WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump launched a crude Twitter attack on the brains, looks and temperament of a female TV personality Thursday, drawing bipartisan howls of outrage and leaving fellow Republicans beseeching him: Stop, please just stop. Trump’s tweets aimed at MSNBC’s Mika Brzezinski revived concerns about his views of women in a city where civility already is in short supply and he is struggling for any support he can get for his proposals on health care, immigration and other controversial issues. “I heard poorly rated @Morning_Joe speaks badly of me (don’t watch anymore),” Trump tweeted to his nearly 33 million followers Thursday morning. “Then how come low I.Q. Crazy Mika, along with Psycho Joe, came to Mar-a-Lago 3 nights in a row around New Year’s Eve, and insisted on joining me. She was bleeding badly from a face-lift. I said no!” The tweets served to unite Democrats and Republicans for once in a chorus of protest that amounted to perhaps the loudest outcry since Trump took office. “Obviously I don’t see that as an appropriate comment,” said Republican House Speaker Paul Ryan. House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi called Trump’s tweets, “blatantly sexist.” The pres- ident, she added, “happens to disrespect women ... it’s sad.” W A NTED Alder and Maple Saw Logs & Standing Timber N orth w es t H a rdw oods • Lon gview , W A Contact: John Anderson • 360-269-2500 In honor of July 4th, The Daily Astorian’s offi ces in Astoria and Seaside will be CLOSED TUESDAY, JULY 4 Have a safe holiday! 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