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About The daily Astorian. (Astoria, Or.) 1961-current | View Entire Issue (Aug. 1, 2018)
4A THE DAILY ASTORIAN • WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 1, 2018 editor@dailyastorian.com KARI BORGEN Publisher JIM VAN NOSTRAND Editor Founded in 1873 JEREMY FELDMAN Circulation Manager DEBRA BLOOM Business Manager JOHN D. BRUIJN Production Manager CARL EARL Systems Manager Water under the bridge Compiled by Bob Duke From the pages of Astoria’s daily newspapers 10 years ago this week — 2008 Port of Astoria and city of Newport leaders will meet next week to select a proposal from one of two companies inter- ested in providing passenger air service between the coast and Portland. The two agencies have a $3.6 million grant through the state’s ConnectOregon II program to subsidize the cost of establishing air service. Two companies, Cape Air of Massa- chusetts and Air Azul of Florida, have submitted proposals to provide at least two daily, nine-passenger flights to Portland from each city. The effort to bring air service back to the coast comes as rising fuel prices and stagnant ticket sales are causing air- lines to abandon their flights to smaller markets elsewhere in Oregon. The end is in sight for Ilwaco residents wonder- ing when the fire station is going to be rebuilt. Officials say as soon as a building permit is issued, work will begin on the new station at 301 S.E. Spruce St. The expected completion date is mid- March 2009. The station burned in 2006. 50 years ago — 1968 The 9th annual Gearhart rodeo Saturday and Sunday was the most successful one held so far, rodeo association officials said today. Between 5,000 and 6,000 people were estimated to have attended, with fine weather helping make the event succeed. Eastbound traffic on Sunset highway became so thick late Sunday on the eastern segment of the road that state police had to divert some vehicles via Banks junction to the Forest Grove-Beaverton-Port- land road. The congestion became bad about 8:30 p.m. as traffic coming in on Wilson River road from Til- 1968 — USS Colonial (LSD-18) will be an Astoria Regatta visitor. The ship was built in 1945 and operated for sev- eral years in the western Pacific. It also saw duty during the Korean War. lamook merged with that moving east on Sunset highway. State police said that Sunset Highway’s stretch of four-lane road eastward from Portland is being extended to the Wilson River-Sunset highway junc- tion and that when this is done the traffic problem on busy weekends will be much alleviated. Missing since Tuesday night, the drag boat Rodoma of Astoria was the object of an intensive search by Coast Guard air and surface craft Thursday morning. David Thomas of Blue Ridge, skipper of the missing 66-footer, radioed the Coast Guard late Tuesday that his ves- sel had struck a log about 12 miles off Cape Perpetua and was in danger of sinking in 50 fathoms of water. Soviet trawlers moved northward during the week ending July 25, with 30 sighted off the Wash- ington coast during three aerial patrols and one surface search by the Coast Guard, according the Bureau of Commercial Fisheries. Fort Stevens state park, enlarged this summer to a total 485 sites for campers, is enjoying another boom season. Val Jones, superintendent of the park, reported that the number of visitors is slightly down from 1967 totals, due probably to a considerable cooler and damper early summer season this year, but that the people are staying longer. Survivor of a harrowing 41 hours at sea in an open life raft, skipper Dave Thomas of the ill-fated dragger Rodoma was in exhausted sleep today in his modest home in Astoria. Thomas was pulled from the sea shortly after 4 p.m. Thursday by the Coast Guard cutter Modoc after his tiny gray-blue raft was sighted, 30 miles southwest of Newport, from a Coast Guard Alba- tross flying out of Port Angeles. 75 years ago — 1943 Astoria’s long series of apartment house fires, called to public attention first during the disastrous blaze at the Astoria rooming house on Jan. 24 when 30 people were made homeless and six hospitalized, climaxed last week with the West End conflagration centering in rooming houses and homes housing more than 200. In recent months there have been 27 apartment house fires in Astoria in addition to the almost daily reports of fires in dwell- ings where one or more families are housed. Many of the fires have been classed as of undetermined origin, while others appear on the record of the local fire department under the general head- ing of “flue fires.” Albacore tuna surged into Astoria canneries in increasing volumes today and there were two deliv- eries Monday of soupfin shark which totaled 2,207 pounds and commanded the season’s high price of $5.45 a pound. The Columbia River Salmon company paid two boats more than $12,038 for their shark, the high boat being Ferdinand Sandness Lincoln with 1,707 pounds. The Argo had 563 pounds. Grocery shoppers, beginning Aug. 1, will have to give up three ration points more per pound for seven frozen foods — fruits, berries, green beans, lima beans, cut corn, peas, and spin- ach — and one point more per pound for tomato juice. The new point values, announced today by the office of price administration, will apply to blue stamps R, S and T which become valid Aug. 1. There were no point value changes in such regular canned foods as corn, beans and peas. Observance of Aug. 1-7 as Aircraft Warning Ser- vice week in Pacific coast states will get under way in Astoria officially with a public meeting scheduled for Monday night at the USO house, Mike Cosovich, Clat- sop County director of the “eyes aloft” program, said today. LETTERS TO THE EDITOR Trump-focused editorials will not change the world y wife and I take The Daily Astorian (dead tree edition) to read its news and columnists about the happenings in and around our small part of the world, as well as matters related to the Pacific Northwest. This it does well, but apparently the editorial page finds local matters boring, seeking to flex its mettle on a larger stage. These are recent headlines or extracts from the lead editorial or column ... July 16: Donald Trump isn’t the first presi- dent to obliterate the truth … July 17: The Trump EPA isn’t conserva- tive, but profoundly disruptive. July 18: Trump and Putin versus America July 19: The Trump administration sows so much chaos within America and around the world on a daily basis July 20: Donald Trump gave a mortifying, humiliating account … We get it. Five consecutive days tells us The Daily Astorian editorialists do not like President Donald Trump, something already evident. Fine. Having resolved that myriad challenges face us locally, they have moved on to a stage more befitting their talents. Or not. From where we sit, this appears more like succumbing to obsession, rather than the pur- suit of objectivity. It doesn’t really matter whether or not we agree or disagree, but why not smaller thoughts for smaller places that have more relevance to your readers’ daily lives? That’s why we subscribe. The Trump editorials will not change the world, but focused ones might help move Astoria, Clatsop County and the region to a better place. JON and JOAN CHAMBREAU Ilwaco, Washington M Please warn people on Riverwalk when passing was almost hit by a bicyclist on the Astoria Riverwalk. I had stopped to birdwatch — no one around me — and turned to continue my walk, as I didn’t hear anyone or anything, and no one said anything. There were the bicycles. I said, “Please let people know when you are coming up behind them.” The woman in front slammed on her brakes, and her partner almost hit her from behind, just so she could, in a terse voice, tell me she didn’t know what movement I was going to make. Exactly. She continued her complaints as she rode off from me, as if I were in a bike lane, instead of on a walking path, and should be I looking out for them. She was mad at me. Please. Other folks on the Riverwalk say some- thing, and even folks in the grocery store warn if they are behind you, etc. It’s easy and cour- teous to just say “on your right (or left),” or “behind you,” or ring your bike bell. Please, folks. It makes for a much safer Riverwalk … or wherever you are enjoying your travels. ROBIN RODGERS Astoria Sunset Empire bond would be a burden ’m a regular user of the Seaside Empire Park and Recreation District facilities, and have heard all of the excitement regarding the expansion. We are a retired couple, on a fixed income and another addition to our taxes is a burden. Has the commission assigned with this expansion exhausted all options of federal grants before putting this on the ballot this November? I, personally, have investigated grants and found several for a smaller com- munity such as Seaside. I think it would be less expensive to hire a grant writer, and use the money we have already paid in taxes, than make us pay anew. LINDSEY MORRISON Seaside I Biased news is now obvious everywhere P resident Trump caused a furor with his rhetoric that the press is the enemy. But the press is in denial about its ethical status that resulted in Trump’s remark. Sadly, the press ignored reality like the proverbial ostrich with its head in the sand. Americans expect the press to report facts as news and to express opinions in other ways, such as editorial pages. Most Americans, how- ever, believe political opinion injected into news reporting is unethical and unfair. And, blatant political bias on both the left and right is the reason the press has such a lousy reputation for trustworthiness in most polls these days. Political bias doesn’t involve only national news organizations. Local community news outlets often are sucked into printing politi- cal bias through their relationship with national news organizations like the Associated Press. Biased news is now so obvious everywhere that President Trump, in his rhetorical way, said out loud what many millions of Ameri- cans have already concluded — political bias has become an integral part of news reporting. And most Americans don’t want that for any ideology. The press’ current view of its ethical obli- gation poses a dilemma. The press is the only business mentioned in the Constitution. Every constitutional right is limited in some way or other. And “freedom of the press” is likewise not a business with a Constitutional right to operate in totally unlimited ways. The press would be wise to re-think its eth- ical obligations and not fool itself, like the ostrich does. DON HASKELL Astoria Words missing from judicial nominee story n the article I read by Jeff Mapes, “McCon- nell withdraws Trump judicial pick minutes before vote” (The Daily Astorian, July 20), I see no hint of the columns in question Ryan Bonds authored. Readers are apparently supposed to be hor- rified by the unseen words Bonds apparently wrote. This omission tends to make it hard for the uninitiated readers to make a decision con- cerning the actual words of Ryan Bonds. I off- hand suspect Bond’s words paraphrase only words that are found in the Christian Bible, the Jewish holy documents, and the basic lit- erature supporting every other major religion. It is disingenuous to hold Bond liable for the “political correctness” that has come to pass since his words were written. BENJAMIN A. GREAVES Seaside I
