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About The daily Astorian. (Astoria, Or.) 1961-current | View Entire Issue (July 25, 2018)
4A THE DAILY ASTORIAN • WEDNESDAY, JULY 25, 2018 editor@dailyastorian.com KARI BORGEN Publisher JIM VAN NOSTRAND Editor Founded in 1873 JEREMY FELDMAN Circulation Manager DEBRA BLOOM Business Manager Water under the bridge JOHN D. BRUIJN Production Manager CARL EARL Systems Manager Bureau of Commercial fisheries; and Don Johnson, Seattle, regional director of the bureau. The small maritime museum assembly room overflowed with federal and state fishery officials, representatives of fishermen’s unions and pack- ers representatives as Crowther outlined a “mas- ter plan” for future development of the fishing industry. “There is no overall solution to the fishery prob- lems,” Crowther said. “We must look at each seg- ment of the industry since the problems are not the same.” Compiled by Bob Duke From the pages of Astoria’s daily newspapers 10 years ago this week — 2008 “Hold tight with a leather fist, watch out when he starts to twist,” a country song goes and so it was Friday and Saturday at the Clatsop County Professional Rodeo Cowboys Associa- tion Rodeo, with riders coming from all over the Northwest to try their luck against broncs, bull and a stop watch. Amongst those competing for the lowest recorded time in an event was Jon Englund of Astoria, heading for his son Jay Englund in the team roping event Saturday night. “It’s so much fun to be here,” said Englund. “It’s so nice to see a good crowd.” Organizers estimated the crowd totaled more than 1,500 Friday and saw about the same number in attendance Satur- day as well. Warrenton Fire Chief Ted Ames is worried about his agency’s ability to protect the public if a lique- fied natural gas terminal is built in Clatsop County. Ames knows his department doesn’t have the resources to handle an LNG emergency right now. In fact, with 800 service calls a year, he said, the agency struggles to keep up with day-to-day oper- ations as it is. Two Long Beach Peninsula heritage projects are in the lineup for Washington state money. The Chinook School gym and the Columbia Pacific Heri- tage Museum in Ilwaco earned high scores in a statewide com- petition when the Washington State heritage Capital Projects Fund advisory panel announced rankings and recommended distribution of $10 million for historic projects. 50 years ago — 1968 While sportsmen’s groups clamor for further curtailment of commercial fishing and the gover- nors of Oregon, Washington and Idaho solemnly 2008 — Bryan Jones, of Elko, Nev., charges out of the gate aboard War Paint during the bareback riding competition at the Clatsop County Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association Rodeo. confer on how to do something about it, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is giving an unusually graphic example of what is really the matter with the salmon runs of the Columbia. The slaughter of salmon caused by construction of John Day Dam has become so immediately enor- mous that dead fish are scattered on the banks and the loss between dams is graphically demonstrated by the fish counts. John Day Dam already in a month has killed more fish than the entire commercial fishery har- vests in a year. And the ones that the dam kills are the ones depended upon to reach the spawning grounds and reproduce the species. The anti-commercial fishing efforts of the steel- header associations and the governors seem rather misdirected and futile when one considers the enor- mous butchery of fish that this one dam is doing. Preliminary plans were presented Tuesday night for a convention-exposition center at Gearhart, a facility that would be “the only public playground on the coast,” in the view of county commissioner Hiram Johnson. Demanding immediate federal action to curb foreign fishing in U.S. coastal waters and imports of foreign-caught fish, Northwest fishermen painted a gloomy picture of the industry’s future Wednesday at an Astoria hearing. On the receiving end of a barrage of questions was Harold E. Crowther, national director of the Gov. Tom McCall said today there is new hope that the Columbia River Highway between Portland-Astoria might be included in the interstate highway system. He said Rep. Wendell Wyatt, R-Ore., advised him that a Senate-House conference committee has added 1,500 miles to the interstate system. If the Portland-Astoria section is added, it would become a four-lane freeway. Wyatt urged the governor and Oregon highway officials to file an application immediately. 75 years ago — 1943 A careful watch must be kept at the Bonneville dam next fall if migrating salmon are to be passed over that barrier, in the judgment of Arne Somela of the Washington Department of Fisheries who is in Astoria this week. With eight units of the power plant now in oper- ation, control of the gates will be extremely difficult during the low water period, he says, and this may change the attraction to the fish ladders. He was at Bonneville last week and conferred with the U.S. engineers on the problem. Somela, who was raised at Ilwaco and who was with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife service before going to the Washington department recently, has been assigned to the Columbia River by the depart- ment. He plans to remain at Bonneville most of the time during the low water period to watch develop- ments at the ladders. To teach recognition and combating of war gases, the Clatsop County defense council with aid of representatives from the state defense council will begin a two-day school at 8 a.m. Saturday in the auditorium of Lewis and Clark school. A group of gas experts from the state defense council will assist in conduct of the school. This Clatsop County school is the first to be held in the state. GUEST EDITORIALS Excerpts from Oregon newspaper editorials East Oregonian on nominee Ryan Bounds yan Bounds’ career on the federal judiciary likely came to a sudden end last week, just minutes before it was set to begin. On Thursday, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell abruptly pulled President Donald Trump’s appellate nominee — who was born and raised in Hermiston and grad- uated from Hermiston High School — when it became apparent that Bounds did not have enough votes to pass the Senate. Enough Republican senators — it only takes two in the closely divided body — voiced concerns about writings Bounds authored while an undergrad at Stanford. The New York Times reported that Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) had been attempting to persuade Republicans in their cloakroom directly off the Senate floor that Bounds’ writing was disqualifying and he should be rejected. Oregon’s other senator, Jeff Merkley, was equally strident in the cause of defeating Bounds’ nomination. Neither senator returned a “blue slip,” which had been required for a federal court nomination to proceed. By now you are familiar with those deeply immature columns, for which Bounds apol- ogized and claimed — convincingly, we’d argue — that they do not represent who he is as a person or a jurist. But when you have the razor-thin margins that Republicans are dealing with in the Senate — and a Democratic bloc that has remained steadfast in opposition to many of Trump’s nominees — even the smallest issue can grind the whole process to a halt. It’s unfortunate to see Ryan Bounds’ nomination crash and burn because of a few opinion pieces he wrote more than 20 years ago. We argued previously that while the columns were boneheaded and dumb, most all of us have done boneheaded things when we’re 21 years old, and we don’t think anyone should be judged for all eternity on immature mistakes. But we also realize the power — and the responsibility — of the blue slip. As we go through this political movement of anarchic upheaval, we must hold onto our time-hon- ored norms and protect them at all costs. The ability of home-state senators to have outsized sway is an important one, and should be respected by everyone who supports local control in federal decisions. Sure, the process can be twisted to be partisan and petty — and that may be the case here. But the principle is crucial. R Albany Democrat-Herald on election reform resident Donald Trump recently pledged his administration would aggressively try to prevent Russian efforts to inter- fere in the upcoming midterm elections in November. If Trump is serious about trying to find ways to make U.S. elections more secure, here’s one terrific way to start: He could take a hard look at Oregon’s vote-by-mail system. Oregon’s system tosses a number of hurdles into the paths of would-be election hackers: The paper ballots we use are mailed to elec- tion offices or inserted into secured drop-off boxes. Results are counted on computers that are not connected to the internet. By its very nature, the system leaves a paper trail that can be audited. It adds up to a system that, while not foolproof, offers unique challenges to potential hackers. U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden of Oregon has for years been pushing legislation to pave the way for other states to follow Oregon’s lead on paper ballots. Yet the measure hasn’t gotten much traction. That’s a surprise: You would think state election officials would be inter- ested in at least exploring a system that not only could foil meddlers but also in Oregon typically has led to higher voter turnouts than in other states. Trump’s administration could encourage other states to explore vote-by-mail systems. P At the same time, the administration could encourage states to overhaul their election systems, which can be inviting targets for hackers: Some estimates say that across the nation, 10,000 or so local jurisdictions rely on obsolete or imperfectly secured technology. Now, we’re not recommending that the federal government take on a role overseeing elections; these functions are best left to state and local governments. (And the fact that U.S. elections are decentralized offers another challenge to cyberattackers.) But surely the federal government can encourage states to improve their election systems and to help pay for improvements. Finally, Trump should resist the temptation to renew accusations he’s levied in the past about how widespread voter fraud cost him the popular vote in the 2016 election. There’s a reason why the presidential commission he convened on this issue crashed and burned: There’s just no evidence of the kind of widespread voter fraud that would have been required to steal the popular-vote victory away from Trump. Besides, as the president sometimes seems to forget, he won the elec- tion where it matters, in the Electoral College. But revisiting this phony voter-fraud issue now would run the very real risk that we won’t focus on an issue that’s very real: The prospect that the meddling of 2016 was just a warmup for 2018. The Eugene Register-Guard on tolling plan needing to account for visitors regonians are nearly as allergic to tolls as they are to sales taxes. The state has had no toll roads since pioneer days and has only two toll bridges, both on the Columbia River. But tolling will soon become a bigger part of Oregonians’ lives, because the 2017 Legislature could devise no other way to pay for an estimated $1.1 billion in freeway improvements needed in the Portland area. As the state seeks to craft an efficient tolling system there, it should bear in mind the needs of those outside the Portland area. A tolling system for those who drive Portland’s freeways daily or weekly can employ an electronic pass system that bills freeway users based on frequency, time of day or both. But the tolling system must also be convenient for people in other parts of Oregon who visit the Portland area only occa- sionally. There will have to be an easy way to buy a day pass — or perhaps the fee could we waived for the first few uses of the toll roads within a fixed period. One day, tolling could be incorporated into a transponder-based pay-per-mile system that would replace the current state fuel tax. Until then, visitors to the Portland area won’t want to find themselves fumbling for exact change while waiting in long lines at toll booths. O
