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3A THE DAILY ASTORIAN • MONDAY, JULY 9, 2018 ‘Singing fish’ study may improve human hearing “One of the questions we want to look at is how do the females find the studs and avoid the duds, right?” he said. “These females are probably not assessing males based on vision. They can’t see them at night. We think they’re actu- ally assessing the quality of the song.” Learning how is the focus of this research. Research in Hood Canal By CASSANDRA PROFITA Oregon Public Broadcasting You know that expression, “Leave no stone unturned?” That’s how Washington State University neuroscien- tist Allison Coffin goes about catching midshipman fish — at least during mating season. Standing on the rocky, oys- ter-covered shoreline of Hood Canal, Washington, she rolled over a beach-ball sized rock to reveal a small pool of water just barely covering two fish. “Oh yeah! Another female,” she said. “And then there’s the male right there.” Because it’s low tide, some of the fish she and her research partner, Joe Sisneros, uncov- ered aren’t in any water at all. That makes this area prime fishing grounds for the researchers, who say the ears of these fish could teach us how to improve our own hearing. Sisneros, a University of Washington neuroscientist, picked up a male fish to point out the pattern of white spots on its belly. Its spots glow in the dark, and they look a bit like the buttons on a midship- man’s naval uniform — hence, the name. As the fish struggled to free itself from his grasp, it made a can continue to make new ones,” she said. In the midshipman fish, Coffin thinks estrogen may be helping the females to generate — or protect — more hearing cells than they’re losing. But she needs to know which genes are making that happen and whether those genes could do something sim- ilar in our own ears. ‘When it gets dark, they start to sing. It’s a hum.… They only know one note. ’ Allison Coffin Washington State University neuroscientist Cassandra Profita/Oregon Public Broadcasting Neuroscientists Joe Sisneros and Allison Coffin search for midshipman fish, also known as ‘singing fish,’ underneath large rocks on the rocky shores of Hood Canal. noticeable buzzing sound. “Hear him? That was a series of grunts,” Sisneros said. “He’s mad.” And grunting is just the beginning of the sounds this fish can make. “When it gets dark, they start to sing,” Coffin said. “It’s a hum. There isn’t a lot of vari- ety to it. They only know one note. I guess it could be more like monks chanting in a way.” As the males are sing- ing, the females pick a nest to release their eggs into. The bright orange eggs stick to the undersides of the rocks. So if a female has visited a male’s nest, you can see the eggs by simply lifting the rock off the shore at low tide. On their recent trip, the researchers were looking for females in particular because they wanted to know more about what’s going on inside their ears as they’re picking their mates. At one point, Cof- fin found two females in one male’s nest. “So, this guy right here is apparently a stud,” she said. Cisneros said scien- tists have discovered that the females’ hearing improves dramatically during the mat- ing season, and they think they know why. “We want to take the ear from the fish, keep the ear alive in a culture dish and then manipulate the genes,” Coffin said. If they can identify which genes are changing to boost the females’ hearing, they might be able to mimic that process in human ears. At her lab in Vancouver, Washington, Coffin dissects the ears of the female fish for a closer look at the genes that control hearing cells. Fish are constantly making new hearing cells as they lose old ones. “Unlike us, where we lose them and that’s it, these fish Ultimately, she’s looking for ways to turn those genes on in people using drugs or gene therapy. The first step is to compare the ears of the fish she finds in the winter with the ones mating under rocks right now. Somewhere under the rocks in Hood Canal, she may find the secret to protecting people’s hearing cells or even regenerat- ing the ones we’ve lost. “Nature is doing something really interesting in changing these fishes’ hearing season- ally,” Coffin said. “We’re learn- ing about nature, but we’re also learning something we can apply to our own hearing.” Sanctuary law repeal initiative Attorney general targets IP 31 likely to be on November ballot with criminal investigation By PARIS ACHEN Capital Bureau By CLAIRE WITHYCOMBE Capital Bureau An initiative to repeal Oregon’s sanctuary law appears likely to go before voters in November. Backers of Initiative Petition 22 have submitted 110,445 signatures to the Oregon Secretary of State’s Office, said Cynthia Kendoll, president of Oregonians for Immigration Reform, who led the signature-gathering effort. Only 88,184 of those need to be verified to land the mea- sure on the ballot. The state’s sanctuary law, passed in 1987, prohib- its the use of state and local resources to enforce federal immigration law when a per- son’s only crime is being in the country illegally. The campaign for IP 22 asserts that unauthorized immigrants cannot live in the country without breaking other laws, such as acquiring a fraudulent identity or driv- ing without insurance. They argue too many of the state’s resources are used to support unauthorized immigrants at the expense of Oregonians. “They have to continue breaking laws to perpetrate the law they broke by coming here,” Kendoll said. “They have gone on to commit other crimes to shield the fact that they came here illegally.” Opponents of the initiative on Friday launched their offi- cial “no” campaign — Orego- nians United Against Profil- ing — and plan to hold news conferences around the state to publicize it, said Andrea Williams, executive director of Causa, a statewide immi- grants rights organization. “Republicans and Demo- crats came together in 1987 to pass this law for a really important reason — unfair racial profiling in our state Paris Achen/Capital Bureau A pro-immigrant rally at the Oregon State Capitol in Salem in January. — and to ensure local police are focused on local com- munities and not focused on the job of the federal govern- ment,” Williams said. The official opposition campaign includes a coali- tion of about 80 businesses, including Nike and Columbia Sportswear, and other organi- zations, she said. “We believe Oregon’s existing sanctuary law has been working as intended for over three decades in giv- ing clear guidance to law enforcement officials on complicated immigration issues,” she said. State Sen. Michael Dem- brow, D-Portland, said the state’s sanctuary law is essen- tial until the federal govern- ment passes comprehensive immigration reform. Dembrow serves on the National Conference of State Legislatures’ bipartisan Task Force on Immigration and the States. The 30-member task force unanimously supports comprehensive federal immi- gration reform, he said. “We all believe there needs to be a federal solu- tion,” Dembrow said. “Until WANTED Alder and Maple Saw Logs & Standing Timber Northwest Hardwoods • Longview, WA Contact: John Anderson • 360-269-2500 SUB-BIDS REQUESTED Seaside School District-New Middle/High Schools Seaside, Oregon Bid Package: #2 Concrete Foundation, Underslab Utilities, Waterproofing and Elevators (Includes Structural Concrete Foundation, Underslab Elec/ Tele/AV, Underslab Plumbing, Waterproofing & Elevators) Bids Due: www.hoffmancorp.com/subcontractors Jeff Hale Painting • • • • Residential Commercial Cedar Roof Treatments Exterior Repaint Specialist Over 25 years local experience 503-440-2169 Jeff Hale, Contractor LICENSED BONDED INSURED CCB#179131 violations. It’s unlikely that the investigation could prevent IP 31 from going before vot- ers in November, though, Trout says. If the attorney general finds criminal wrongdo- ing, and if someone believes that means the measure shouldn’t be on the bal- lot, they could challenge it in Marion County Circuit Court. Trout said that while alle- gations are common in the initiative petition process, he has not seen a court inter- vene in an initiative petition getting to the ballot. “I’ve never seen a court step in and change things,” Trout said. Additionally, the elec- tion is in just four months. The state and counties must move swiftly to prepare vot- ing materials. The petition would still have sufficient signatures to make it to the ballot even if the signatures questioned by the complaint were taken out, Trout said. er Und New nt! e gem a n Ma JOB FAIR! At Tillamook Bay Community College 431 Third Street, Tillamook, Or 97141 Thursday, July 12th, 2018 Come In Anytime During Either Session 8:00 am - 12:00pm & 2:00pm - 6:00pm Interviews and Hiring On The Spot Over 60 Positions Available Now! July 18 th 2:00pm Bid Documents: Fre e Est Fast ima tes Call me ti Any there is one, we need to make do with the current reality, and we need people who are here as documented immi- grants or undocumented immigrants to feel confident that their neighbors are sup- porting them: If they have to call the police or have to go to court for whatever rea- son, they don’t have to worry about state law enforcement turning them in.” The ability to report crimes without repercussions because of their immigra- tion status makes everyone in Oregon safer, he argued. SALEM — Oregon Attorney General Ellen Rosenblum has opened a criminal investigation into signature-gathering prac- tices for Initiative Petition 31. The investigation is unlikely to interfere with that measure going before voters in November, how- ever, according to the state elections division. IP 31 would amend the state’s constitution to man- date stricter voting require- ments for the Legislature to pass certain tax measures. Our Oregon, a progres- sive political coalition, and Connea Derber, a for- mer paid circulator for Bal- lot Access LLC, allege that while she was working for the company she was paid below minimum wage, that another circulator improp- erly attested signature sheets that Derber collected and that Derber was allowed to circulate a petition without being properly registered. Ballot Access’ owner, Lee Vasche, denies those allegations and says they are politically motivated. Our Oregon and Der- ber filed its complaint July 2 with the Oregon Secre- tary of State’s Office and the Bureau of Labor and Industries. The next day, the Sec- retary of State’s Elec- tions Division Director Steve Trout asked the attor- ney general to investigate whether elections law vio- lations occurred by “circu- lators, and/or others, includ- ing the circulating company employing certain of the subjects,” according to a Tuesday letter provided by the Department of Justice. 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