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About The daily Astorian. (Astoria, Or.) 1961-current | View Entire Issue (Dec. 15, 2017)
A WILD AND PRECIOUS LIFE WEEKEND BREAK • PAGE 1C TOP SPORTS PHOTOS OF 2017 PAGE 5A 145TH YEAR, NO. 120 ONE DOLLAR WEEKEND EDITION // FRIDAY, DECEMBER 15, 2017 Oregon to challenge FCC on net neutrality Several states plan to file a lawsuit over repeal By PARIS ACHEN Capital Bureau SALEM — Oregon Attorney General Ellen Rosenblum said she plans to join a law- suit to challenge the Federal Communica- tions Commission’s decision to repeal a rule barring internet providers from blocking or charging more for to access to one website over another. The FCC voted 3-2 Thursday along party lines to scrap the rule approved in 2015. The commission’s two Democrats voted against it. Photos by Colin Murphey/The Daily Astorian Cheri Lerma, owner of Cheri’s Cafe, grabs a pastry for a customer. Ellen Rosenblum | Oregon attorney general PAYING THE PRICE Delays in federal flood maps leave Cannon Beach businesses feeling the pinch of high insurance By BRENNA VISSER The Daily Astorian C ANNON BEACH — For the past two years, Cheri Lerma of Cheri’s Cafe & Cannon Beach Cookie has spent almost $10,000 on flood insurance she knows she doesn’t need. As a part of a countywide study by the Federal Emergency Management Agency, preliminary mapping in 2014 showed flood hazard zones shrinking by 27 percent in Cannon Beach. The changes take almost all of downtown out of a zone that requires mandatory flood insurance. But the federal government has been slow to adopt new flood plain hazard maps, leaving some downtown busi- nesses like Lerma’s to pay thousands of dollars in insurance. A letter of determination, which rat- ifies the new maps, is scheduled to be delivered later this month, said David Ratté, a regional engineer for FEMA. After the city receives the letter, it will go through a six-month adoption period before the maps will be recognized. “In my mind, I’ve taken a match to $10,000,” Lerma said. “Everyone knows I’m not in the zone, but because it hasn’t been ratified I have to pay for it. Some bigger companies could withstand this, but to me, a small business? Paying this much can knock me out of the park.” ‘WE ALL RELY ON A FREE AND OPEN INTERNET.’ Steve Sinkler looks over his inventory at The Wine Shack in Cannon Beach. Delays The project to update flooding risks along the coast started more than seven years ago. There are a few reasons FEMA’s mapping project has faced delays, Ratté said. Concerns with the draft coastal analysis in the Columbia River Estuary, as well as assessments of a levee in Warrenton, stalled creating pre- liminary maps. While Gearhart, Seaside and Cannon Beach raised no concerns about the maps, Ratté said separating out these communities from the estuary would have been costly and logistically difficult. See FLOOD MAPS, Page 7A “The decision today by the FCC to reverse course on net neutrality will have lasting neg- ative impacts for our economy and almost every aspect of our lives,” Rosenblum said. “We all rely on a free and open Internet, and we will no longer have an even playing field if we start to incentivize Big Cable over other companies.” The vote came despite calls from state attorneys general, consumer advocates, tech executives and even some Republican law- makers to postpone or cancel the decision. Rosenblum spearheaded a letter from 18 state attorneys general to the FCC urging them to delay a vote until investigators could determine whether fraud was committed in the FCC comment process. New York Attorney General Eric Schnei- derman’s office has been investigating whether commenters to the FCC on the pro- posed rule change illegally used the identities of Americans from around the country to give feedback on net neutrality. Schneiderman released new information Wednesday that his office had identified a total of 2 million fake comments on net neu- trality to the FCC using stolen identities. His office has a search engine where resi- dents can look to see if their identity was used fraudulently in comments. Oregon is one of more than a dozen states expected to join New York in launching a legal challenge of the FCC decision. “I’m proud to stand up with other attor- neys general and join New York to petition for review,” Rosenblum said. Supporters of the rule change argue that it will benefit consumers by spurring more com- petition between broadband providers and cutting internet providers’ expenses. FCC Commissioner Jessica Rosenwor- cel, one of the two FCC commissioners who voted against the rule change, told NPR’s “The Takeaway” Tuesday that half of U.S. households have only one choice for a broad- band provider. ‘Protect our Puffins’ sweatshirts raise money for scientific research Data could help explain bird decline By BRENNA VISSER The Daily Astorian Lisa Sheffield A puffin on Haystack Rock. CANNON BEACH — In July, John Underwood donated his time and money to create and sell sweatshirts with the mission “Protect our Puffins” embedded on the front. The goal was to raise the profile of and money for the Haystack Rock Awareness Program. It was his way of try- ing to help after hearing how the tufted puffin population has declined for the past 20 years. Almost six months later, the money raised from the sweat- shirts — which totals more than $4,000 — will help fund research to figure out why. During a talk Wednes- day at Cannon Beach Library, Shawn Stephenson, a wild- life biologist with the Oregon Coast National Wildlife Ref- uge Complex, gave a presen- tation about the town’s iconic seabird. Stephenson is waiting to hear back from a research grant that would allow him and other biologists to collect blood samples and study migration patterns more thoroughly than any other study done in Oregon in the past couple of decades. If awarded, 80 percent of the money raised for the sweat- shirts would go to match the grant. “Getting that info gives us more power to get these birds onto the threatened species list, where they’ll get more protections,” Stephenson said. “There is something going on here — they’re not just mov- ing out.” Detecting the problem The tufted puffin population See PUFFINS, Page 7A