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3A THE DAILY ASTORIAN • WEDNESDAY, JULY 4, 2018 Washington state voters could take up carbon fee initiative Measure to fight climate change By PHUONG LE Associated Press SEATTLE — Washington state voters will likely decide in November whether to charge industrial emitters a fee for their carbon pollution, the latest effort yet to pass a carbon-pric- ing measure to fight climate change. A broad, diverse coalition of tribes, community, labor and environmental groups say they’ve gathered enough signa- tures to put a “carbon fee” mea- sure on the ballot. It comes two years after voters rejected a car- bon tax that would have been the first in the nation. AP Photo/Ted S. Warren Abigail Doerr, campaign director for Yes on 1631, at a May rally in Seattle to kick off a ballot measure on carbon pricing. Sponsors of Initiative 1631 say it will hold corporate pollut- ers accountable. Money raised from fees would be spent on strategies that reduce green- house gas emissions, includ- ing projects for renewable energy, forests and other natural resources. Critics warn that implement- ing a fee will raise gasoline and energy prices on consumers, calling it a massive tax increase on families that expands gov- ernment while negligibly reducing overall global carbon emissions. Supporters on Monday delivered 375,000 petition sig- natures to the Secretary of State’s office in Olympia. The campaign will need nearly 260,000 valid voters’ signatures to be certified for the ballot. Washington state has been on the forefront of policy to curb greenhouse gas emissions blamed for global warming. But carbon-pricing efforts backed by Gov. Jay Inslee, a Democrat, and other lawmakers haven’t gained much traction. Inslee proposed but failed to get sup- port for a carbon tax bill in the most recent legislative session. Now, environmental, com- munity, faith-based and other groups — some of whom lined up against the carbon tax mea- sure that failed in 2016 — see this citizens’ initiative as the best opportunity to tackle cli- mate change and move away from fossil fuel use. “We are putting before vot- ers a responsible solution to protect the health of our chil- dren, our communities and our future,” said Aiko Schae- fer, who directs Front and Cen- tered, a coalition of about 100 groups, one of many that helped write the initiative. She said they’ll qualify and win because they’ve built the largest and most diverse coalition in Wash- ington’s political history. The proposal would charge $15 per metric ton on carbon emissions starting in 2020, rais- ing about $1 billion. It targets about 100 industrial emitters such as oil refineries and nat- ural gas power plants. The fee would increase by $2 a year in 2021 and end if the state meets its greenhouse gas emissions goals in 2035. Consult a PROFESSIONAL Oregon Marine Board seeks higher boat fees Associated Press MEDFORD — The Ore- gon State Marine Board plans to ask the Legislature to increase registration fees paid by motorized boaters. The Mail Tribune reported that the board expects to ask the Legislature in 2019 for a two-year budget of about $33 million. The agency is funded by registrations, title fees and marine fuel taxes paid by motorized boaters. It receives no state general fund or Ore- gon Lottery money. If approved by the 2019 Legislature, powerboat regis- tration fees would rise from the current $4.50 per foot to $5.95 per foot. The Marine Board gov- erns Oregon waterways. The agency also pays for county marine law enforcement, oversees guides and outfit- ter programs and funds the invasive species program and check stations operated by the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife. An increase to the power- boat-registration fee is one of eight “concepts” the agency plans to take to the Legisla- ture in 2019, the Mail Tribune reported. Another is a new water- ways access permit to begin January 2020 that would cost $5 a week, $17 a year or $30 for two years for nonmotor- ized boats 10 feet and longer. It would replace the current $5 annual Aquatic Invasive Spe- cies permit. Like the current inva- sive-species permits, the new permits would be transferable to other boats owned by per- mit holders, and the agency would expect to collectively sell about 58,000 of the three permit options annually, Marine Board spokeswoman Ashley Massey said. The invasive species pro- gram would still get its $1.6 million every two years from the new permit. The remain- ing money — estimated at $1.3 million in its first full biennium — would go toward projects that improve access for kayakers and rafters, who have generally been relegated to boat ramps and other facil- ities designed for powerboats. Other proposals include changes to outfitter and char- ter boat registrations and fees, a one-time increase to boater registration cards from $10 to $20, and a plan to allow the Marine Board to increase card suspensions from one year to three years for boating under the influence of intoxicants and a new one-year suspen- sion for reckless boating. The Marine Board also wants boat-rental companies to register with it and pro- vide information about the numbers and types of boats they rent. There would be no charge. The proposals also would require all boaters to “pull the plug” and open any vales to drain standing water while a boat is transported over land. Violations would carry a $30 fine for a nonmotorized boat and $50 for trailered motor- ized boats. The agency plans to tour the state to gather public input on its ideas. Man charged with shooting deer impaled with arrows Associated Press SHADY COVE — Ore- gon State Police have charged a Jackson County man with aggravated animal abuse in the case of two black-tailed deer that were seen alive in the wild with arrows sticking out of their bodies. The state police’s Fish and Wildlife Division said Tuesday 36-year-old Daniel Logsdon faces charges of the unlaw- ful take of an antlerless deer, aggravated animal abuse in the first degree and failure to report accurate information as a sex offender. Investigators launched a three-month investigation after residents spotted the impaled animals in the Shady Cove area. Wildlife biologists were able to tranquilize the deer and remove the arrows. One deer had an arrow embedded in its head. The other had one in its neck. They are expected to survive. Q: Muscle spasms can be a thing of the past. horses in the leg,facial tics A: Charlie and back spasms are all deficiency ASTORIA CHIROPRACTIC Barry Sears, D.C. 503-325-3311 2935 Marine Drive Astoria, Oregon Q: I am with By KRISTIAN FODEN-VENCIL Oregon Public Broadcasting Oregon Health & Science University is about to become a nationally recognized imag- ing center. The teaching univer- sity just won a grant with the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory to install four new cryo-electron microscopes. The National Institutes of Health is paying $128 mil- lion dollars to build three new cryo-electron microscope cen- ters around the country. One will be at OHSU in Portland, the others will be at Stanford University and the New York Structural Biology Center. The microscopes are so powerful that scientists expect them to revolutionize the study of structural biology. The three scientists who developed them won the Nobel Prize in chem- istry for their work in 2017. Rather than a flat two-di- mensional image of molecules, these microscopes produce three-dimensional images that can be rotated around a com- puter screen. The images, at magnifications of 150,000 times actual size, look like a symmetrical pile of spaghetti, where each wiggle is clearly visible. Few people understand the significance of the new machines as well as Greg Mar- tin, a post-doctoral student. He’s using an older version of the microscope at OHSU to Kristian Foden-Vencil/Oregon Public Broadcasting A 2012 version of the four new cryo-electron microscopes that are coming to Oregon Health & Science University. study the structure of the drug Glyburide. “This drug was discovered in the 1940s, totally by acci- dent,” he said. “They were looking for antibiotics in the 1940s to treat typhoid in World War II. And they happened to notice, treating dogs, they had this severe low blood sugar, when they were giving these dogs these drugs. And then they’re like, ‘Oh, it’s not really an antibiotic, but it seems to be doing something with blood sugar.’” It turns out the drug acts on a protein created by the pancreas. Martin is using the cryo-electron microscope, or “Cryo-Em” for short if you’re a scientist, to capture images of both that protein and the drug. The goal is to see what actually happens when they interact. “For the longest time, we didn’t really know even what it was binding to or how it was WANTED Alder and Maple Saw Logs & Standing Timber Northwest Hardwoods • Longview, WA Contact: John Anderson • 360-269-2500 interacting with the protein,” he said. “So then we could actually use Cryo-Em to just visually see the drug, bound to the protein.” Martin is growing cells containing the protein in a petri dish, then breaking up those cells and isolating the protein. It’s as if the mixture is alphabet soup, and he’s trying to isolate all the “A” shapes. Once he’s done that, he flash freezes all the As in what are essentially little ice cubes. Then the microscope takes individual pictures of all the frozen As and uses software to stitch them together. “They’re not identical,” he said. “But hopefully they’re close enough that it gives you a high resolution image and they don’t sort of blur themselves out as you average them.” What Martin ends up with is a three-dimensional images of the spaghetti A — or, in this case, the protein. Then he’ll do the same with the drug and see how the two might inter- act. Eventually, that could lead to reducing some of the side effects of the drug or some other completely unexpected breakthroughs. “What they are, I don’t know. But I’m sure there are going to be new discoveries,” said Eric Gouaux, a senior sci- entist at the Vollum Institute at OHSU. The institute is focused on understanding the mechanics of how biology works — for example what actually hap- pens when a protein molecule reacts with a drug molecule. Gouaux said you can think of a drug as a key and a pro- tein as a lock. A drug can turn a protein on or off. “When we study these bio- logical molecules, using this technique of electron micros- copy, we can very accurately determine the shape of the lock,” he said. “Therefore we’re in a much better position to design small molecule keys that will specifi- cally fit that particular lock and therefore target that molecule more specifically and have perhaps fewer side effects.” The new OHSU national imagine center will attract sci- entists from across the country anxious to get a closer look at the molecules they’re studying. 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Muscles need calcium, magnesium and Vitamin D taken together. Seventy-six percent of Americans are deficient in those nutrients. People may be OK until an injury when the increased activity in the hurt area causes the deficiency symptoms. It is easy and quick to correct. Time of day and dosage are important and need to be adjusted until the spasms stop. If you need help figuring this out, call Dr. Sears. discharge papers (DD- 214) if they were lost or misplaced? John R. Alcantara - Funeral Director Visit https://www.archives.gov/ A: Yes. veterans/military-service-records and fill out VA Standard Form 180. The instructions are pretty self-explanatory and the website has plenty of resources to reach out to for assistance. The process can take upward of two or more weeks before receiving the document. 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