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THE DAILY ASTORIAN • WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 15, 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
10 years ago
this week — 2008
After two deadlocked votes, the Newport City Council
delayed its decision on selecting a company to provide air ser-
vice to Newport and Astoria.
The council, which is one member short, voted 3-3 to
reject the two proposals from Cape Air of Massachusetts and
Air Azul of Florida and start the bidding process over.
Then it voted 3-3 to collect more information on the two
proposals before picking one. Mayor Bill Bain declared an
impasse and suggested members revisit the issue Sept. 2.
The only things that seemed out of place amid the
fog were the modern cameras.
Seaside beachgoers this weekend were trans-
ported back 202 years in a program called “The
Saltmakers Return to Seaside.” Actors portraying
members of the Lewis and Clark Expedition camped
on the beach off Avenue U and tended a bonfire to
boil water from the Pacific Ocean into salt.
This living history first-person interpretation
allows modern visitors to interact with members of
the Corps of Discovery. The actors slept and lived
as if it were Jan. 9, 1806. Buckets of seawater boiled
over a campfire until just a residue of salt remained.
Nearby, a tent provided meager shelter from the
elements.
Pvt. William Bratton (Don Laky) cooked a small
bird on a large stick over a fire, while Pvt. Rue-
ben Field (Aaron Webster) boiled eggs in the sea-
water. The menu was neither extensive nor varied,
although there was salt available for flavoring.
Four Astoria musicians helped the Oregon Crusaders
Drum and Bugle Corps win the respect of the judges and the
hearts of the crowd at the 2008 Drum Corps International
P
ortland was not another Charlottesville.
Despite all the ingredients for a violent
confrontation between right-wing Patriot
Prayer demonstrators and counter-protesters
Aug. 4, Portland escaped without the loss of
life that occurred in Charlottesville, Virginia,
when, officials say, a neo-Nazi deliberately
plowed his car into a crowd of protesters.
And instead of the brawling that has marked
past clashes between right-wing marchers and
anti-fascists in Portland, police successfully
enforced an uneasy peace by maintaining a
no-go zone between the two sides.
But the city hasn’t escaped injury.
While Portland Police as a whole
did a commendable job of managing a
near-impossible situation, reports of serious
wounds from police “flash bang grenades”
and videos of some officers’ use of force
deserve prompt and thorough investigation.
Among the disturbing cases reported
after police ordered the crowd to disperse:
one female counter-protester who appeared
to be leaving the area was yanked to the
ground by a police officer who grabbed
the poster she was carrying. After she got
up, other officers piled on. And a male
counter-protester sustained a head injury
after officers fired a flash-bang grenade
that lodged in his helmet, according to the
man’s friend.
Certainly, police were operating amid
chaos. Some of that stems from the subset
of counter-protesters who were intent on
wreaking havoc, whether it was on Patriot
Prayer members or the police. Individuals
in the crowd pelted officers and others with
projectiles. But some of the chaos resulted
from police officers themselves, who,
according to reporters’ accounts, gave little
time for the crowd to disperse before lob-
bing the disorienting flash-bang grenades
and rushing people in the crowd.
But chaos and obnoxious behavior from
some protesters don’t relieve police officers
of the responsibility to act professionally
and respect personal rights as they aim to
protect public safety. With the bureau’s
mixed record of handling protests, Chief
Danielle Outlaw’s promise to investigate
allegations of misconduct and suspend use
of flash-bang grenades is a welcome and
necessary one.
She shouldn’t stop there. She should also
review other methods for crowd control,
favoring tactics that ease compliance with
police requests rather than alarm or intimi-
date people into a panicked reaction.
It’s worth noting that Outlaw’s conduct
in the aftermath of the protests has been an
1968 — Fisherman Curt Olsen is not superstitious, he
said, having sailed out of San Francisco and Los Angeles
for the past five years on a boat named Deep Six by a
former owner. He was worried last week, however, when
several logs struck the stern while the vessel was tied up
at the Astoria dock.
World Championships. The competition, which began last
week in Michigan City, Ind., brought together 23 Open Class
corps with members from North America, Europe and Japan,
vying for slots in the finals round at Memorial Stadium on the
campus of Indiana University.
Masen Bowers, Jessica Nokelby, James Strecker and Jas-
mine Thomasian brought home finalist medals, an honor
earned by only 12 corps in each of two divisions nationwide.
The Crusaders placed fourth overall.
50 years ago — 1968
The 46-foot pleasure craft Glady sank off Clat-
sop spit after the vessel struck Buoy 12 in the lower
harbor in a dense fog.
Owner J.M. Hardy, Portland, radioed the Coast
Guard at Cape Disappointment station that his boat
was sinking. Crewmen from a 44-foot rescue boat
took nine persons from the vessel.
An expedition from Maryland finished retracing the 1805
Lewis and Clark expedition’s route under cloudy skies near
Chinook, Wash., where the Columbia River meets the Pacific
Ocean.
“My knees are shaking,” said Mrs. LeRoy Jensen, head of
the biology department at Charles County Community Col-
lege, La Plata, Md.
Mrs. Jensen, her husband, two daughters, a teacher and
three students brought two canoes down the Columbia River
Tuna tonnage coming into Astoria and Warren-
ton is setting a record pace, a Bumble Bee Seafoods
official said.
“This year, if the season lasts long enough, could
beat the record. This remains to be seen,” said Lew
Wright of Bumble Bee’s production department.
“Roughly speaking, we’re three times ahead of
what we had last year.”
Wright said the cannery is operating nine hours a
day, six days a week. The facility would be operating
longer hours but for the fact that the women work-
ers also have to operate households and can’t easily
put in the time.
75 years ago — 1943
With 93 percent of America’s total rubber supply sources in
the hands of the enemy, drivers of staff cars, jeeps and trucks
at Fort Stevens have been giving the vehicles they drive the
infinite care that is normally accorded to a fine watch.
Each driver’s name is proudly pasted on the windshield of
the vehicle he drives and these men have become finished spe-
cialists in the art of check and double check.
With the slogan of “Rubber Speeds Victory,” these driv-
ers take a pride in being ever prepared for a “check” by auto-
mobile experts especially selected by Col. C.S. Doney, com-
manding officer, harbor defenses of the Columbia.
The daily tire check is not a matter of simple routine, but
these drivers continually examine their rubber for tell-tale
signs of irregular wear. Faulty wheel alignments and unequal
brakes are especially watched for.
The kickoff in the local Legion’s 40 et 8 organi-
zation’s free cigarette drive for the boys overseas
and on casualty trains is all set, sponsors of the drive
said.
More than 100 money “buckets” have been
placed in Astoria and Clatsop County business
establishments for the convenience of citizens desir-
ing to help the cause, according to Oswald Gus-
tafson, chairman of the 40 et 8 committee.
Vanport City, the nation’s largest single war-housing proj-
ect, was completed today.
The giant project will shelter 40,000 residents, stepping into
fifth place in population among the cities of the Northwest. It is
the most extensive mass housing experiment of all time.
reflection about the strengths and weaknesses
of each candidate and the five statewide mea-
sures on the ballot.
OTHER VIEWS
The Oregonian
on an uneasy peace in Portland
CARL EARL
Systems Manager
to the sandy beach near Chinook at 9 a.m. The trip began June
18 in St. Louis, 3,400 miles away.
Compiled by Bob Duke
From the pages of Astoria’s daily newspapers
Excerpts from Oregon
newspaper editorials
JOHN D. BRUIJN
Production Manager
Eugene Register-Guard on PERS
mortgage weighing heavily
F
or a taxpayer, the obligation to fund
Oregon’s public employee pension
shortfall — the gap between what
governments are paying into the pension
system and the system’s projected needs
— can seem abstract. The Public Employee
Retirement System’s so-called unfunded
liability is $22 billion, a staggering figure
that is hard to grasp on a personal level.
But what if you calculated that liability
as a mortgage that each property owner
owes on her or his house, and cannot
escape paying off? And what if you compared
Oregon’s so-called “public pension stealth
mortgage” to those of other states?
That’s what a New York City researcher
and a Claremont McKenna College finance
professor have done, for all 50 states, provid-
ing a unique and frightening set of data that,
AP Photo/John Rudoff
not surprisingly, highlights the severity of
Counter-protesters prepare to clash with Patriot Prayer protesters during a rally in Portland. Oregon’s problem.
The PERS unfunded liability amounts to a
mortgage of $106,952 on every Oregon home,
encouraging sign of her leadership style.
found researcher Rob Arnott and professor
ads against her Republican opponent, Knute
Despite sharp criticism from the American
Lisa Meulbroek.
Buehler.
Civil Liberties Union and others, she has
That’s the 9th highest per-home amount
To be fair, Brown already has been the
owned responsibility for the police bureau’s target of attack ads this campaign season.
among all the states. The highest is Alaska,
response. She has defended her officers’
with a $182,756 pension stealth mortgage, the
In January, for example, a business-backed
overall performance while standing front
study found.
group called Priority Oregon launched a
and center to hear complaints. She has
The lowest was Tennessee, with $30,404.
negative ad campaign against the governor.
talked publicly and acted decisively. In
The average was $74,639.
Earlier this summer, a nonprofit organization
other words, she’s showing what account-
Arnott and Meulbroek contend that these
called Oregon Foster Families First paid for
ability looks like. Her actions send a reas-
debts amount to a government mortgage on
a television ad calling for Brown to “start
suring message to those concerned about
your home.
putting our families first.” The director of the
these protests and bode well for relations
Their presence ultimately is reflected in
group declined to say who had paid for the
between police and community members in ads — and, in this case, is not legally required
real estate prices, they argue, and in the case
the future.
of Detroit, was a factor in pushing the city into
to do so.
bankruptcy, which was devastating for home
For their part, Oregon Republicans have
Corvallis Gazette-Times on getting formed a political action committee called No prices.
ready for waves of attack ads
“On average nationwide, unfunded state
Supermajorities PAC, which seeks to prevent
regon voters, if you like political attack Democrats from gaining the three-fifths super- and local pension burdens represent 20 percent
majority they need to raise taxes without any
ads and negative campaigns, this fall’s
of real-estate values.
election campaign could be a little slice Republican support. (Democrats need to win
This ratio can rival or exceed an owner’s
just one additional seat in each chamber to get
of heaven.
home equity,” they wrote in a recent Wall
the supermajority.)
State politicians and interest groups have
Street Journal opinion piece. “Future pension
It’s a good bet that Brown’s supporters
been racing to form political action committees
obligations simply must be paid, either through
will spend some PAC money creating attack
— the sort of entities that claim independence
higher taxes or cuts to public service.”
ads targeting Buehler, and you can expect the
from candidates they support but which often
State and local elected officials in
same from political action committees for
bankroll ads attacking opposing candidates
Oregon have professed much anxiety over
Planned Parenthood and NARAL Pro-Choice,
or statewide initiatives. It’s an arrangement
the PERS unfunded liability. But at the
which already have targeting the Republican
that lets candidates themselves appear to be
end of each discussion they throw up their
candidate. Public employee unions are also
taking the high road, secure in the knowledge
hands and declare there’s little they can do
supporting Brown, including through the polit- to curb escalating pension costs, or for that
that other entities are taking care of the
ical nonprofit Our Oregon. (Independent Party
mudslinging.
matter to reduce pay increases and health
candidate Patrick Starnes must be wondering
In July, for example, Gov. Kate Brown
care costs.
what he has to do to become the target of a
formed two separate political action commit-
And then they ask taxpayers to cough
tees. One of these committees, dubbed Team
negative ad campaign; such a campaign could
up more, in higher property taxes, fees and
Oregon, initially financed with $100,000
boost his name recognition.)
the like, under the warning that absent the
from the governor’s re-election campaign,
And we’ve just scratched the surface of the
increases, services will suffer.
seeks to re-elect the governor and to maintain
political action committees that aim to make
In the drawn-out train wreck that is
Democratic majorities in the Legislature. The
noise during the fall elections.
Oregon’s public pension system, the work
other political action committee Brown formed
It’s all going to add up to a considerable
by Arnott and Meulbroek is a snapshot.
in July is called Defend Oregon’s Values; this
amount of electoral clamor this fall, which
The spreadsheet containing the pension data
committee apparently will bankroll attack
could drown out reasoned conversation and
is at: rgne.ws/2ORXvhW
O