3A
THE DAILY ASTORIAN • MONDAY, FEBRUARY 5, 2018
Wyden pushes for coastal, social issues
Town hall was
senator’s 869th
in Oregon
By EDWARD STRATTON
The Daily Astorian
U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden told
the crowd at an Astoria town
hall Saturday that he would
continue pushing the federal
government to take seriously
Oregon coastal issues such as
the coming Cascadia Subduc-
tion Zone earthquake, tsunamis
and offshore drilling.
Wyden, a member of the
Senate Energy and Natural
Resources Committee, last
week urged U.S. Geological
Survey Deputy Director David
Applegate to support funding
for ShakeAlert, a federal early
warning system being devel-
oped for the West Coast. Pres-
ident Donald Trump last year
proposed eliminating funding
for the system.
“I think that we need to get
all the Democrats, all of the
Republicans, all over the West,
all up and down the coast, to
say to Mr. (Mick) Mulvaney,
the head of the Office of Man-
agement and Budget, ‘Earth-
quakes and tsunamis are seri-
ous, deadly business for our
part of the world,’” the Oregon
Democrat said.
Wyden took a moment near
the beginning of the town hall
to honor state Rep. Deborah
Boone, D-Cannon Beach, who
recently announced she would
retire from the state House
when her term expires in Janu-
ary. Boone’s late husband, Bill,
had been battling brain can-
cer the last two years until his
death in November.
“One of his last requests
of me was to retire and take
some time for me … to do
some things that we didn’t get
to do together,” she said, add-
ing she plans to visit relatives
in Sweden.
Boone’s tenure has largely
been defined by her focus on
coastal issues such as natural
disaster resiliency.
Melissa Ousley, one of sev-
City of Seaside
Seaside Fire and Rescue respond to a house fire on
Holladay Drive in Seaside Thursday.
Edward Stratton/The Daily Astorian
U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Oregon, stopped for photos with attendees at the end of his
town hall Saturday at Astoria High School.
eral Democratic candidates
who have filed for the primary
to replace Boone, asked for
Wyden’s take on the proposal
by Trump to expand offshore
drilling on the West Coast.
The senator promised to help
block attempts at offshore drill-
ing and the return to the natu-
ral resource-based econom-
ics of yesteryear, and to shift
the conversation on economic
prosperity to include emerging
industries like recreation and
tourism.
Wyden accused the presi-
dent of committing legislative
malpractice by publicly push-
ing for a large infrastructure
package, then passing a tax bill
that saps federal money.
“He didn’t want to have
money for roads and bridges,”
Wyden said. “He wanted to
have money for tax cuts, for his
friends, for the multinational
companies.”
He also decried the tax
bill for weakening the low-in-
come housing tax credit, link-
ing homelessness with the
need for affordable housing,
expanded Medicaid and more
coverage of mental health ser-
vices by insurance companies.
He recounted his late brother
Jeff’s struggle with schizophre-
‘Earthquakes
and tsunamis
are serious,
deadly
business for
our part of
the world.’
Sen. Ron Wyden
nia and bouts of homelessness
before his death in 2002.
“Don’t for a second let
anybody off the hook on this
homeless issue right now,” he
said.
Republicans recently made
public a memo by U.S. Rep.
Devin Nunes, the chairman of
the House Intelligence Com-
mittee, accusing the FBI and
U.S. Department of Justice
of abusing surveillance tools.
Wyden called the memo a
smokescreen to distract from
recent arrests and guilty pleas
in the investigation by special
counsel Robert Mueller into
Russia’s meddling in the 2016
presidential election. He called
Nunes hypocritical for criticiz-
ing federal officials’ use of the
Foreign Intelligence Surveil-
lance Act he recently voted to
reauthorize.
Asked about the threats to
Mueller’s investigation, Wyden
said firing the special coun-
sel would start a constitutional
crisis and lead some members
of the U.S. House to push for
Trump’s impeachment.
Wyden renewed his push
to have Trump’s tax returns
released and restrict the pres-
ident’s ability to unilaterally
launch a nuclear missile.
When people feel discour-
aged, they should look to more
promising developments, such
as Doug Jones becoming the
first Democrat elected to the
Senate in Alabama in more
than 20 years, Wyden said.
“There’s a lot going on in
America, and you ought to keep
it in perspective, along with the
record number of young people
running for office,” he said.
Wyden also held town halls
in Columbia, Multnomah, Til-
lamook and Washington coun-
ties over the weekend, bring-
ing him to 871 since he was
elected to the Senate in 1996
and promised to visit each of
Oregon’s 36 counties at least
once a year.
Seaside home
destroyed after
catching fire twice
By BRENNA VISSER
The Daily Astorian
SEASIDE — A fire
destroyed a Seaside home
early Friday morning just
hours after another blaze
caused significant damage.
The single-family home
at 412 N. Holladay was
engulfed in flames around
12:35 a.m. The owner, Rob-
ert Boucher, evacuated and
was not injured.
“This is a unique situ-
ation,” Seaside Fire Mar-
shal Chris Dugan said in a
press release. “The cause of
the original fire was unde-
termined, but most likely
appears to have started near an
actively burning wood stove.”
Several hours after crews
had left the scene of the origi-
nal fire on Thursday, a neigh-
bor reported another fire at
the same address.
The fire caused about
$10,000 in damage to the
exterior of multifamily hous-
ing to the north and five fam-
ilies were evacuated, accord-
ing to a press release. A
single-family home to the
south has about $30,000
worth of exterior damage
and the family was forced to
evacuate.
Everyone evacuated has
since returned to their homes.
The cause of the sec-
ond blaze is under investiga-
tion. Officials say the rapid
growth of the second fire can
be attributed to suppression
efforts from the first fire that
significantly damaged the
structure and left the home
without some windows and
put some holes in the roof.
Moderate to high winds also
contributed to the fire.
Anyone with information
about the fires can contact
Dugan at Seaside Fire and
Rescue at 503-738-5420.
WANTED
Alder and Maple Saw Logs & Standing Timber
Northwest Hardwoods • Longview, WA
Contact: John Anderson • 360-269-2500
3 TO WAYS
GET
YOUR
COPY
• ORDER ONLINE•
www.DiscoverOurCoast.com/order
• STOP BY ONE OF
OUR 3 LOCATIONS•
Astoria • 949 Exchange St.
Seaside • 1555 N. Roosevelt Dr.
Long Beach • 205 Boldstad Ave. E #2
• PICK UP A PHONE•
Call Holly Larkins at 503-325-3211, x227
Email: hlarkins@dailyastorian.com