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.