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THE DAILY ASTORIAN • MONDAY, MARCH 19, 2018
Fred Meyer to stop selling guns, ammunition
Associated Press
PORTLAND — Superstore
company Fred Meyer will stop
selling guns and ammunition.
The Portland-based chain
in a statement Friday said it
made the decision after eval-
uating customer preferences.
The company sells guns at
nearly 45 of its 132 stores in
Oregon, Washington state,
Idaho and Alaska, including
the store in Warrenton.
“Fred Meyer has made a
business decision to exit the
firearms category,” the com-
pany said. “We are currently
working on plans to respon-
sibly phase out sales of fire-
arms and ammunition.”
The company, a subsid-
iary of Cincinnati, Ohio,-
based Kroger Co., didn’t
give a timeline in the state-
ment. Fred Meyer spokes-
man Jeffery Temple in an
email to The Associated
Press on Saturday said the
company wasn’t offering
interviews.
Fred Meyer stores sell a
range of goods that include
groceries, clothing, electron-
ics, outdoor equipment, fur-
niture and jewelry. Stores
also include pharmacies.
The company said the
Luke Whittaker/EO Media Group
The Warrenton store is among several that sells guns.
firearms category represents
about $7 million annually of
its revenue and sales have
been declining.
Engineer resigns from
transportation commission
By PARIS ACHEN
Capital Bureau
SALEM — State Trans-
portation Commissioner Paula
Brown, the only engineer on
the Oregon Transportation
Commission, has resigned
her position less than halfway
through her first term.
Brown, who was appointed
by Gov. Kate Brown in
November 2016, said she
is leaving the commission
because of work and family
obligations.
The volunteer transporta-
tion commissioner recently
accepted a paid full-time posi-
tion as public works director
for Ashland, where she lives,
and her elderly father recently
moved in with her from
Hawaii, she said in a phone
interview Friday.
“It was not an easy deci-
sion for me,” Brown said. “I
take my responsibilities very
seriously, and I take my com-
mitment to my city and my
family just as seriously, so it
was a tough decision.”
She notified the gover-
nor’s office in a resignation
letter sent Friday morning.
Her resignation was effective
immediately.
“I sincerely appreciate the
honor and privilege of serv-
ing Oregon,” she wrote. “I
am gratified with the abil-
ity to have (helped) to shape
ODOT’s policies and strate-
gic direction over the past 15
months.”
The governor is seeking
applications for Brown’s posi-
tion, but the next time the state
Senate can confirm a succes-
sor isn’t until May during the
interim legislative days, said
Bryan Hockaday, a governor’s
spokesman.
“Gov. Brown thanks Com-
Paris Achen/Capital Bureau
Oregon
Transportation
Commissioner
Paula
Brown has resigned.
missioner Brown for her lead-
ership on OTC and service to
the state of Oregon,” Hocka-
day said.
Paula Brown had to travel
from Ashland to Salem — a
more than four-hour drive —
the night before to make the
meetings.
Her engineering back-
ground added an extra level of
scrutiny to the transportation
commission’s oversight of the
transportation department.
She said she appreci-
ated Transportation Depart-
ment Director Matt Garrett’s
willingness to be more open
and accountable for agency
actions, when the commis-
sion decided to take a more
hands-on role in oversight
in the past year. Part of the
scrutiny of the department
stemmed from legislation last
year to fund $5.3 billion in
transportation projects over
the next several years.
“I have a high level of trust
and confidence in Matt Gar-
rett and his management team,
and I think they will fulfill
the legislative requirements
of House Bill 2017,” said
Brown, referring to the trans-
portation-funding package.
Brown succeeded for-
mer Douglas County Com-
missioner Susan Morgan on
the transportation commis-
sion after Morgan resigned to
take a position as a lobbyist
for the Association of Oregon
Counties.
Brown and her husband,
Patrick Flannery, own the
Dana Campbell vineyards in
Ashland. Brown has worked
extensively on federal and
local infrastructure projects
and government contracting.
She served as deputy chief
of civil engineering at Naval
Facilities Engineering Com-
mand in Washington, D.C.,
from October 2013 to Septem-
ber 2016.
Before that, she worked
at the Navy First Naval Con-
struction Division in Nor-
folk, Virginia, from October
2010 to September 2013, and
served previously as the pub-
lic works director for Ashland
from June 1997 to December
2008. She also worked at the
Rogue Valley Council of Gov-
ernments from fall 1993 until
June 1997.
The Capital Bureau is a
collaboration between EO
Media Group and Pamplin
Media Group.
WANTED
“We made the decision
early last week after eval-
uating changing customer
preferences and the fact that
we’ve been steadily reduc-
ing this category in our Fred
Meyer stores over the last
several years due to softening
consumer demand,” the com-
pany said. “More recently we
have been transitioning away
from gun departments as a
result of our ongoing work
to optimize space in our Fred
Meyer stores.”
Following last month’s
high school shooting in Park-
land, Florida that left 17 peo-
ple dead, Fred Meyer said it
would stop selling firearms to
anyone under 21. The com-
pany had already stopped
selling assault-style guns
several years ago, except in
Alaska.
Fred Meyer did not men-
tion the school shooting in its
statement Friday.
Other stores announced
in the wake of that shoot-
ing that they would stop sell-
ing guns to anyone under 21,
including Walmart Inc. and
L.L. Bean. Dick’s Sporting
Goods recently banned sales
of assault rifles.
Several outdoor chains,
including Bass Pro Shops,
Cabela’s, Gander Outdoors
and Academy Sports, con-
tinue to sell assault-style
rifles.
Washington state moves to
protect endangered killer whales
By PHUONG LE
Associated Press
SEATTLE — With the
number of endangered orcas
that frequent the inland
waters of Washington state at
a 30-year low, Gov. Jay Ins-
lee has directed state agencies
to take immediate and lon-
ger-term steps to protect the
struggling killer whales.
The fish-eating mam-
mals that spend time in Puget
Sound have struggled for
years with a lack of food, pol-
lution, noise and disturbances
from boat traffic. There are
now just 76 of the orcas,
down from 98 in 1995.
Inslee said the orcas are in
trouble and called on every-
one in the state to do their part.
His executive order aims to
make more salmon available
to the whales, give them more
space and quieter waters,
ensure they have clean water
to swim in and protect them
from potential oil spills.
“The destiny of salmon
and orca and we humans
are intertwined,” the gover-
nor said at a news confer-
ence Wednesday at the Day-
break Star Cultural Center in
Seattle. “As the orca go, so go
we.”
An orca task force form-
ing now will meet for the
first time next month and will
come up with final recom-
mendations by November.
“This is a wake-up call,”
Suquamish Tribal Chairman
Leonard Forsman said, add-
ing, “It’s going to take some
pain. We’re going to have to
make some sacrifices.”
Many have been sounding
the alarm for years about the
plight of the closely tracked
population of southern resi-
dent killer whales. The federal
government listed the orcas
as endangered in 2005, and
more recently identified them
as among the most at risk of
extinction in the near future.
A baby orca has not been
born in the past few years.
Half of the calves born during
a celebrated baby boom sev-
eral years ago have died.
Female orcas also are having
pregnancy problems linked to
nutritional stress brought on
by a low supply of Chinook
salmon, the whales’ preferred
food, a recent study said.
“We are not too late,”
said Barry Thom, West Coast
regional administrator for
NOAA Fisheries. “From a
biology perspective, there are
still enough breeding animals,
but we need to act soon.”
Whale advocates wel-
comed the statewide initia-
tive, saying it creates urgency
and calls attention to the issue.
But some also said it was long
overdue.
“I think that everybody
would have loved to have
seen this five years ago,” said
Joe Gaydos, science director
for the SeaDoc Society. “It
is a crisis. The fact that we’re
responding is good.”
Under the order, state
agencies will find ways to
quiet state ferries around the
whales, train more commer-
cial whale-watching boats to
help respond to oil spills and
adjust fishing regulations to
protect key areas and fish runs
for orcas.
The whales use clicks,
calls and other sounds to navi-
gate, communicate and forage
mainly for salmon, and noise
from vessels can interfere.
Lawmakers also passed
a supplemental budget this
month that includes $1.5 mil-
lion for efforts such as a boost
in marine patrols to ensure
that boats keep their distance
from orcas and an increase
in hatchery production of
salmon by an additional 5
million.
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