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About The daily Astorian. (Astoria, Or.) 1961-current | View Entire Issue (Feb. 16, 2018)
SEASIDE BOYS PUT ON A SHOW OVER NO. 1 BANKS SPORTS • 8A 145TH YEAR, NO. 164 WEEKEND EDITION // FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 16, 2018 ONE DOLLAR State House moves to keep guns from abusers Vote to close the ‘boyfriend loophole’ By PARIS ACHEN Capital Bureau SALEM — The state House passed a bill Thursday to keep domestic abusers and stalkers from having firearms. House Bill 4145 would close the so-called “boyfriend loop- hole” in state law that omitted State Rep. stalkers and domestic abusers who are not a spouse, former spouse, Jeff Barker live-in partner or co-parent from the gun ban. The 37-23 vote came one day after a mass shoot- ing at a Florida high school revived the national debate over gun control. “I believe from the bottom of my heart this bill will save lives in Oregon,” said state Rep. Jeff Barker, D-Aloha. The bill now heads to the Senate for consideration. Floor debate over the bill drew out emotional speeches and revelations about personal experi- ences from lawmakers. Barker, a former police officer, recounted responding to a gruesome scene in which a young mother had attempted to protect herself from her abuser and had her hand blown off before being killed. POACHERS BEWARE See GUNS, Page 7A Photos by Oregon State Police Authorities are cracking down on poaching in Oregon. Informant campaign had banner year By JACK HEFFERNAN The Daily Astorian Experienced planners seek city community development post Finalists are from Utah and Texas A statewide campaign that encourages people to inform on poachers just had the most robust year in its 32-year history. The Turn in Poachers fund — a collaboration between the Oregon Hunters Associa- tion, Oregon State Police and state Department of Fish and Wildlife — rewarded $24,200 in 50 cases last year. That’s more than double the average amount, according to the hunt- er’s association. The number of cases typically ranges from 20 to 35 in a given year. Clatsop County had one reward case in 2017. An infor- mant received $500 for infor- mation about an elk shot in an area where hunting is not allowed. Poaching issues in the county mainly center on Roosevelt Elk and blacktail By KATIE FRANKOWICZ The Daily Astorian Two experienced planners are vying to become Astoria’s community development director. They talked with city lead- ers and residents at an informal meet-and-greet Thursday night and will spend Friday inter- Kelly Amy viewing with Violette Weiser other department heads, a citizen panel and City Manager Brett Estes. Estes had narrowed down the pool of applicants to three people, but one person removed their name from consideration. The two remaining finalists are Amy Weiser, the community services director for Moab, Utah, and Kelly Violette, executive director of the Tomball Economic Development Corpora- tion in Tomball, Texas. See POACHERS, Page 7A The program known as Turn in Poachers saw an uptick in rewards last year. See PLANNERS, Page 7A Sea star wasting unusually high at Haystack Rock Findings could be a worrisome indicator By BRENNA VISSER The Daily Astorian CANNON BEACH — A wasting disease is again plaguing sea stars at Haystack Rock — and it’s not clear why. A survey in January found that 64 of the 247 sea stars monitored had symptoms. The spread of the disease in the sea star population — 26 percent — is higher than other locations on the West Coast. The disease was first spotted in Washing- ton state’s Olympic National Park in June 2013, and then shortly after on the coast from Alaska to Southern California. It didn’t appear at Hay- stack Rock until 2014, where a summer survey showed more than 70 percent of the population was affected. The population bounced back in 2015 when there was a sharp increase in the birth of baby sea stars. “What we’re seeing is essentially a popula- tion still struggling to persist through this epi- demic and only just beginning to recover,” said Eric Owen, the citizen science coordinator at the Haystack Rock Awareness Program. How and where the wasting disease strikes has always been patchy, said Sarah Gravem, a postdoctoral student at Oregon State University who has studied the disease since the first out- break. Part of what makes the disease so hard to research is its untraditional way of spreading. “The reason it is so hard to understand is because the virus is in the water, and it can move so easily,” Gravem said. “It can survive Colin Murphey/The Daily Astorian See SEA STARS, Page 7A Sea stars at Haystack Rock in Cannon Beach have been hit hard by a wasting disease.
