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About The daily Astorian. (Astoria, Or.) 1961-current | View Entire Issue (Dec. 29, 2020)
A2 THE ASTORIAN • TUESDAY, DECEMBER 29, 2020 IN BRIEF Man accused of attacking journalists at protests outside Capitol turns himself in to state police A man accused of attacking two journalists and attempting to gain entrance to the Oregon State Capi- tol during a protest in Salem last week has turned him- self in to the state police. The Oregon State Police announced Monday that Jeremy Roberts, 40, was booked at the Marion County Jail on Sunday afternoon for charges of criminal mis- chief, disorderly conduct, assault, harassment and a probation violation. Police had been trying to locate Roberts after demonstrations turned violent outside the Capitol on Dec. 21 as lawmakers met inside for a special legisla- tive session on coronavirus pandemic-related relief. According to court documents, Roberts is accused of engaging in “violent, tumultuous and threaten- ing behavior,” damaging a door and attacking Brian Hayes, a photojournalist with the Statesman Jour- nal, and Sergio Olmos, a reporter with Oregon Pub- lic Broadcasting. Roberts’ is one of several arrests stemming from last week’s protests. Oregon State Police said offi cials have charged two men who remained in the Capitol’s vestibule after warnings to leave — Ronald Vanvlack, 75, and Jerry Dyerson, 53 — with criminal trespass- ing and disorderly conduct. Ryan Lyles, 41, of Clat- sop County, also was arrested for felon in possession of body armor and unlawful use of mace, and Jeremiah Pruitt, 35, was arrested for criminal mischief and dis- orderly conduct. — Oregon Public Broadcasting Offi ces close for New Year’s Day In observance of New Year’s Day on Friday, all fed- eral, state, county and city offi ces, including Astoria, Warrenton, Gearhart and Seaside, are closed Friday. Cannon Beach offi ces are closed Thursday and Friday. All U.S. post offi ces are closed Friday, and there is no mail delivery. Astoria, Jewell, Knappa, Warrenton/Hammond and Seaside (including Cannon Beach and Gearhart) school district schools, and Clatsop Community Col- lege, are closed for winter break. The Astoria Library, Seaside Library and Warren- ton Library are closed Friday. The Port of Astoria offi ces and services are closed Friday. Garbage collection through Recology Western Ore- gon and the city of Warrenton garbage collection are not affected by the holiday. Recology Western Ore- gon’s transfer station closes at 2 p.m. Thursday and is closed Friday. The Sunset Pool in Seaside and the Astoria Aquatic Center are closed. The Clatsop County Heritage Museum, Oregon Film Museum, Flavel House and Carriage House are closed Friday. The Uppertown Firefi ghters’ Museum is closed for the winter. Lil’ Sprouts is closed Friday. Fort Clatsop is open from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. The Columbia River Maritime Museum is open from 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. The Seaside Museum is closed. Sunset Empire Transportation (“The Bus”) is not running Friday. The Astorian offi ces are closed Friday. — The Astorian ON THE RECORD Assault Theft In • Peter Brief Johansen, 56, • Lilly I. Pettit, 30, of Astoria, was arrested was arrested Saturday at Wednesday U.S. Walmart in Warrenton On the on Record Highway 30 for assault for theft in the second in the fourth degree and harassment. Burglary Ellen M. Langevin, 61, of Hammond, was arrested Sunday on Lake Drive in Warrenton for burglary in the fi rst degree, criminal trespass in the fi rst degree and criminal mischief in the fi rst degree. • Alaina Burns, 31, of Astoria, was arrested Fri- day on U.S. Highway 101 Business for burglary in the second degree, theft in the second degree and criminal mischief in the fi rst degree. degree. Criminal trespass • Joshua Henry Mar- shall, 36, was arrested Saturday on Exchange Street in Astoria for crim- inal trespass in the sec- ond degree and crimi- nal mischief in the third degree. DUII • Kimberly Cae Schwartz, 41, of War- renton, was arrested Sat- urday on Columbia Ave- nue in Astoria for driving under the infl uence of intoxicants following a hit-and-run complaint in Warrenton. Offi cials say mink recovering from virus at Oregon farm By GEORGE PLAVEN Capital Press SALEM — Mink that tested positive for COVID-19 at an Oregon farm in Novem- ber appear to be recovering, according to state agriculture offi cials. Dr. Ryan Scholz, the state veterinarian for the Ore- gon Department of Agricul- ture, visited the farm Nov. 23 and collected 10 mink sam- ples that were sent to Oregon State University and the U.S. Department of Agriculture for testing. All samples came back positive for the virus. It is believed the mink contracted COVID-19 from humans at the farm, which was placed under immediate quarantine. The Department of Agriculture has not iden- tifi ed the operation or dis- closed its location. Oregon has 11 permitted mink farms with an estimated 438,327 animals, making it the fourth-largest pelt-pro- ducing state behind Wiscon- sin, Utah and Idaho. Eight of Oregon’s mink farms are in Marion County, one is in Linn County and two are in Clatsop County. An animal rights group has claimed that a mink farm in Astoria is the one under quarantine, but the state has declined to identify the farm, citing medical privacy. Since the initial positive tests, the Department of Agri- culture has conducted two rounds of follow-up testing Fur Commission USA COVID-19 has been found in an Oregon mink farm. documenting the animals’ recovery. The fi rst round was conducted Dec. 7. Out of 62 mink sampled, only one showed “barely detectable” levels of the virus. The second round, con- ducted Dec. 21, revealed no positive tests at the farm. The Department of Agricul- ture says it will conduct one more round of testing before deciding whether to lift the quarantine. Meanwhile, USDA Wild- life Services, under the direc- tion of the Oregon Depart- ment of Fish and Wildlife, continues to trap and test local wildlife to ensure the virus does not spread. Biol- ogists have tested nine ani- mals since Dec. 7, including fi ve opossums, three cats and one mink that was believed to have escaped from the farm. The mink, captured Dec. 13, tested positive for low levels of COVID-19 while the cats and opossums all tested negative. Based on where the mink was captured and its condition, the Depart- ment of Agriculture believes it had recently escaped. The Department of Agri- culture has requested con- tinued surveillance, trap- ping and testing as an added precaution. Scholz said there is no evi- dence that COVID-19 is cir- culating or has been estab- lished in the wild. “Several animals from different species were sam- pled, and all others were neg- ative,” Scholz said in a state- ment. “Still, we are taking this situation very seriously and continuing to survey and trap near the farm. Also, we have asked USDA to run additional tests on the trapped mink, including sequenc- ing the viral genome and a DNA test to ensure we know exactly where this mink came from.” Outbreaks of COVID- 19 in farmed mink have also been reported in Utah, Mich- igan and Wisconsin, as well as six countries, according to the World Organization for Animal Health. The situation in Denmark was particularly severe, where health offi cials discovered a mutated strain of the virus that threatened to undercut the effectiveness of a vaccine. In response, Denmark culled its entire population of farmed mink — more than 17 million animals. To make matters worse, the Wall Street Journal reports Danish par- liament has voted to exhume 5.5 million of the dead mink beginning in May after envi- ronmental inspectors found that some water sources might have been contami- nated by bacteria as the mink decay. Fearing a similar threat in Oregon, the Center for Bio- logical Diversity, an environ- mental group, has urged the Department of Agriculture , the Oregon Health Author- ity and Gov. Kate Brown to release more informa- tion about the November outbreak. “It’s inexcusable that Ore- gon offi cials are withholding information critical to iden- tifying and protecting any- one exposed to this facility,” said Lori Ann Burd, envi- ronmental health director for the group, in a letter sent ear- lier this month. “Given the surge of COVID-19 cases, it’s astounding that Oregon’s public health offi cials are choosing to protect this facil- ity’s secrets rather than pub- lic health.” Marine heat waves concern researchers By CASSANDRA PROFITA Oregon Public Broadcasting This year brought one of the biggest marine heat waves on record in the Pacifi c Ocean, and it’s one of several record-setting spikes in ocean water temperatures over the last six years. The string of warm water events has scientists wonder- ing if this is actually the new normal for the Pacifi c Ocean. A series of heat waves started in 2013 with what was nicknamed “the blob,” which brought water temperatures up to nearly 7 degrees Fahr- enheit higher than normal across a 1,000-mile stretch of the West Coast. The warm water caused massive harmful algae blooms that shut down crab and clam fi sheries and affected food availability for wildlife. Many young sea lions were left stranded on beaches by parents searching for food. Whales started feed- ing closer to shore, which caused more of them to be struck by vessels and entan- gled in fi shing gear. The heat wave also brought warm-wa- ter species farther north and spurred a baffl ing prolifera- tion of a pickle-shaped crea- ture known as a pyrosome. But although “the Blob” retreated in 2018, the marine heat waves continued with NOAA Fisheries An emaciated sea lion pup in California’s Channel Islands. water temperatures reaching record highs again in 2019 and 2020. Andrew Leising, a scien- tist with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Adminis- tration, uses satellite data to track how much of the ocean is much warmer than normal in these heat waves. “For the last six years, we’ve now had the three larg- est events on record,” he said. “It’s tempting to say, ‘OK, this may be the new normal.” However, Leising said, satellite data only goes back to 1982. So, this could be part of a temperature cycle that hasn’t been documented before. “My take on it is it’s just still too early to say,” he said. “We need another cou- ple years of data and more research into the pressures and drivers of what’s causing them to really understand if we’re in a new pattern.” The ocean is also getting warmer with climate change, which complicates the mea- surements scientists use to identify a marine heat wave. Leising said the defi nition of a heatwave might need to change as the overall tem- perature of the ocean rises. “Basically, in 40-50 years from now, everything will look like a heat wave if we keep the same defi - nition we have now,” Leis- ing said. “The whole ocean will be a heat wave all the time, right? But that’s kind of meaningless.” It is important to distin- guish between long-term warming and shorter-term temperature spikes because they can have different effects on the marine ecosys- tem, he said. “The heat waves are basi- cally exacerbating the effects of background warming,” Leising said. “And that actu- ally can be important for some animals because cer- tain fi sh and other animals have these absolute limits. ... suddenly it gets to 25 degrees Celsius and bam, it’s dead. They do fi ne up until a certain point and then they just can’t have it any warmer.” Research shows warmer water and more frequent marine heat waves are increasing the risks of harm- ful algal blooms in the ocean. A recent study found the 2013-2015 marine heat wave created a new toxic hot spot near the border of Ore- gon and California where the algae that produce domoic acid have shut down fi sher- ies every year since the heat wave and are likely to con- tinue proliferating in that area in the future. Fishery managers are developing new systems of forecasting harmful algal blooms that produce domoic acid, a potentially deadly neurotoxin, so they can pro- vide early earnings and pre- vent people from eating shell- fi sh that could poison them. PUBLIC MEETINGS TUESDAY PUBLIC MEETINGS Gearhart City Council, 6 p.m., work session, (electronic meeting). 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Lancaster, a Seattle native, joined Bridgewater Bistro as a sous chef and graduated to chef de cuisine. At The Cove restaurant at the Peninsula Golf Course in Long Beach, Washington, he enhanced his reputation with an Iron Chef Goes Coastal award and was mentioned in a “picks” selection by The Oregonian contributor Gerry Frank. He established a perma- nent truck as part of a food pod in Astoria before buying a second truck, which he tried out this summer at the Sea- side Farmers Market and is now debuting for eight weeks every Friday at the Hamilton. He is joined by his partner, Amy Myers, who worked at Maggie’s as a sous chef. Myers, a Portland native, grew up in Hillsboro and the Portland area before her fam- ily relocated to Seaside. She brings 27 years of experience to the food truck, working at various restaurants since she was around 10. “I went to culinary school over a decade ago,” Myers said. “I used to be the kitchen manager right here in this neighborhood at the former U Street Pub.” The most diffi cult part of operating a food truck, Lan- caster said, is setting up and shutting down. “You’re putting in an hour before you even touch any food,” he said. Unlike in Astoria, where he serves from a fi xed loca- tion, moving the cart means loading and packing up. Not done properly, once out of the parking lot the inside of the truck “looks like a bomb went off,” he said. Lancaster, Myers and Montero still face a challenge to maintain a long-term spot in Seaside. In 2018, Seaside restau- rant owners largely opposed a request from another food cart owner to operate in Sea- side, citing limited housing and the short tourist season, which, they said, put brick- and-mortar businesses at a disadvantage. All uses in the city’s com- mercial zones, “shall be con- ducted entirely within a com- pletely enclosed building,” Seaside’s code reads . “When I asked for the event permit, I used COVID as the basis for my request,” Montero said. “My sense is that we are really not infring- ing upon the sit-down din- ers, we’re really affecting the fast-food people. There’s a need. Even McDonald’s and Kentucky Fried Chicken are backed up for blocks.” A challenge looms. After their fi rst day serv- ing, Montero said, they were told that downtown restaura- teurs had complained to the city’s p lanning d epartment about Lancaster’s operation. Montero planned to approach the department to seek a variance for a long- term permit. If denied, he said, Mon- tero could approach the City Council to try to change the ordinance. Lancaster said he is con- fi dent he will be able to con- tinue to operate in Seaside. “If places have the right setup and you’ve got your own garbage disposal and power, I think they’re going to allow it,” he said.
