A2
THE ASTORIAN • TUESDAY, MAY 18, 2021
IN BRIEF
Kindergarten event planned
at Astor Elementary
Incoming kindergarten students will get to preview
life at Astor Elementary School.
The event for incoming students who will be 5 by
September will be held from 3 to 5 p.m. on Thursday.
The students will get a chance to play on the school
playground, draw with sidewalk chalk and participate
in other activities hosted by the school.
Information will also be available about how to reg-
ister children for kindergarten at Astor. Registration is
open on the school’s website. In general, the Astoria
School District is expecting a large class of incoming
kindergartners.
All activities at the Thursday event will occur out-
side. Masks must be worn as a precaution against the
coronavirus.
— The Astorian
Coast Guard suspends search for
Oregon fi sherman lost overboard
GRAYS HARBOR, Wash. — The U.S. Coast
Guard suspended the search Friday for a 47-year-old
man who reportedly fell overboard while fi shing for
halibut 28 miles northwest of Grays Harbor.
The man was identifi ed as Jason LaBrie, of Ore-
gon City.
Fishermen aboard the 26-foot vessel Defi ance II
activated an emergency position indicating radio bea-
con after realizing LaBrie was missing.
— Chinook Observer
Earthquake strikes west
of Port Orford
A 4.1-magnitude earthquake shook the bottom of
the Pacifi c Ocean around 8 a.m. Sunday, according to
the U.S. Geological Survey.
The quake struck about 100 miles west of Port
Orford. It was the 10th-strongest earthquake off the
Oregon Coast in 2021 so far, coming about two-and-
a-half weeks after three separate quakes set just as
many still-unbeaten records for the year. The strongest
among them hit magnitude 5.4.
— The Oregonian
DEATHS
May 17, 2021
In LINDSLEY,
Brief
Eileen,
74, of Astoria, died in
Astoria.
Caldwell’s
Deaths
Luce-Layton Mortuary of
Astoria is in charge of the
arrangements.
May 16, 2021
DIAMOND,
Louis
Elliott III, 67, of Gearhart,
died in Gearhart. Cald-
well’s Luce-Layton Mor-
tuary of Astoria is in charge
of the arrangements.
May 12, 2021
WAGNER, Kathleen,
76, of Astoria, died in
Astoria. Hughes-Ransom
Mortuary is in charge of
the arrangements.
MEMORIAL
Wednesday, May 19
Memorial
STEVENSON, Rose-
mary — Graveside ser-
vice at 11 a.m., Ocean
View Cemetery, 575 S.W.
18th St. in Warrenton. Ste-
venson, 98, of Longview,
Washington, formerly of
Astoria, died in Longview.
Hughes-Ransom
Mor-
tuary is in charge of the
arrangements.
ON THE RECORD
Theft
On
Record
• Beth the
A. Scherf,
51, of The Dalles, was arrested
Saturday at Fred Meyer in Warrenton for theft in the
fi rst degree.
PUBLIC MEETINGS
TUESDAY
Clatsop County Board of Commissioners, 10 a.m., work
session, (electronic meeting).
Miles Crossing Sanitary Sewer District Board, 3 p.m.,
budget meeting, 34583 U.S. Highway 101 Business.
Port of Astoria Commission, 4 p.m., (electronic meeting).
Astoria Historic Landmarks Commission, 5:30 p.m., City
Hall, 1095 Duane St.
Seaside Planning Commission, 6 p.m., work session, 989
Broadway St.
Seaside School District Board, 6 p.m., (electronic meet-
ing).
WEDNESDAY
Youngs River Lewis & Clark Water District Board, 2 p.m.,
budget meeting, 34583 U.S. Highway 101 Business.
Seaside Tourism Advisory Committee, 3 p.m., 989 Broad-
way St.
Seaside Tree Board, 4 p.m., 989 Broadway St.
Cannon Beach City Council, 6 p.m., work session, (elec-
tronic meeting).
THURSDAY
Clatsop Care Health District Board, 3 p.m., budget
review meeting, (electronic meeting).
Seaside Transportation Advisory Commission, 6 p.m.,
989 Broadway St.
PUBLIC MEETINGS
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Education district eyes
space at recreation center
Potential move from
Astoria to Seaside
By R.J. MARX
The Astorian
SEASIDE — The Sunset
Empire Park and Recreation
District and the Northwest
Regional Education Service
District are in talks to lease a
portion of the Sunset Recre-
ation Center .
The former Broadway
Middle School would be
“the ideal hub for our ser-
vices,” wrote Dan Goldman,
the superintendent of the
e ducation d istrict.
The education district is
in the process of selling the
29,000-square-foot
Clat-
sop Service Center loca-
tion in Astoria and is seek-
ing space to lease, Goldman
said. They hope to down-
side to a 7,600-square-foot
space in the Sunset Recre-
ation Center.
“It would be a signifi cant
downsize, but it’s what we
need now,” Goldman said at
a park district board meeting
last week. “We’re looking to
actually get in a space that
not only is a better fi t for us
in terms of size, but also pro-
vides us an opportunity to do
what ESD does best.”
The education district is
seeking classroom space for
preschool programs, com-
munity meetings and offi ce
space. The district brings
additional school resources
to students and school dis-
tricts in Clatsop, Tillamook,
Washington and Columbia
counties. “We provide what
you would consider a co-op
of services across school
districts,” Goldman said.
In Clatsop County, this
R.J. Marx/The Astorian
A former classroom is being used for temporary storage at the Sunset Recreation Center.
includes technology and
administrative support , early
learning, migrant educa-
tion, child care and special
education.
“I am struck by the align-
ment in our organizations’
visions,” Goldman wrote to
the park district in a March
letter. “We lead our commu-
nity toward a healthy, active
lifestyle and foster a sense of
community through inclu-
sive, sustainable, educa-
tional and recreational pro-
grams. ... The colocation of
our services will undoubt-
edly multiply our respec-
tive capacities to serve Clat-
sop County children and
families.”
Areas of interest to the
education district at the for-
mer middle school include
three classrooms along
the southwest corner of
the building, the computer
lab adjacent to the library,
administrative offi ce space
and a counseling room.
These spaces would be
used to provide programs
and services to children and
families in the community.
“We shift resources to where
there is the greatest need,”
Goldman said.
The lease would likely
include installation of tem-
porary doors and walls to
secure their part of the prop-
erty. Restrooms in the west
hallway could be shared.
The education district
will be leaving the Astoria
location at the end of June. If
a deal doesn’t come together
immediately, the district is
“prepared to be remote for a
little while,” Goldman said .
“We really like this option
for the reasons I stated,” he
said. “But if the park district
felt like it couldn’t move
forward, we’ll be OK.”
Board member Su Cod-
dington viewed the proposal
positively. “What an oppor-
tunity in having purchased
this building, to have oppor-
tunities like this,” she said.
“I am grateful to them for
being interested.”
Board member Michael
Hinton said he would enjoy
working with the education
district. “I think they would
be a healthy partner for us,”
he said. “I would like, at an
appropriate time, to have
Skyler (Archibald, the park
district’s executive director)
begin some kind of negoti-
ation so we can defi ne the
lease.”
Supreme Court ruling will not make
unanimous jury requirement retroactive
By CONRAD WILSON
Oregon Public Broadcasting
The U.S. Supreme Court
ruled 6-3 on Monday that
non unanimous juries are not
retroactive.
Last year, the high court
found they were unconsti-
tutional, ending the prac-
tice in Oregon, which at
the time was the lone state
that allowed juries to con-
vict people of most felonies
without unanimity.
In writing for the court’s
conservative majority, Jus-
tice Brett Kavanaugh said
applying the court’s earlier
ruling retroactively “would
potentially overturn decades
of convictions,” adding that
“conducting scores of tri-
als years after the crimes
occurred would require sig-
nifi cant state resources.”
The court’s conserva-
tives also noted their rul-
ing applies to federal cases.
“States remain free, if they
choose, to retroactively
apply the jury-unanim-
ity rules as a matter of state
law in state post-conviction
proceedings,” Kavanaugh
stated .
The ruling could have
tossed out convictions for
anyone convicted by a
non unanimous jury, eff ec-
tively sending their case
back to the local prosecu-
tor’s offi ce that originally
fi led the charges to deter-
mine how to proceed.
The case the justices
ruled in Monday, Edwards v.
Vannoy, involved Louisiana
prisoner Thedrick Edwards.
He was sentenced to life in
prison after being convicted
by a non unanimous jury and
has since argued that prose-
cutors intentionally excluded
Black jurors from the case.
In Louisiana, there are
about 1,500 known non unan-
imous jury cases, and in Ore-
gon there are about 300.
In both states, the practice
is based in discrimination.
Voters in Oregon passed it
in 1934 at a time when the
Ku Klux Klan was popu-
lar and anti-immigrant sen-
timent was high. In Louisi-
ana, the law was directly tied
to Jim Crow laws and aimed
to make it easier to convict
Black defendants so white
landowners could maintain
a cheap post-slavery labor
force.
In l ast year’s decision
in Ramos v. Louisiana, the
Supreme Court took the
unusual move of overturning
precedent to fi nd non unani-
mous juries were unconstitu-
tional. Justice Neil Gorsuch
said then that the justices
simply got it wrong in 1972
when they ruled on Apo-
daca v. Oregon, allowing the
practice of non unanimous
juries in state criminal cases
to continue for decades.
“Every judge must learn
to live with the fact he or
she will make some mis-
takes; it comes with the ter-
ritory,” Gorsuch wrote. “But
it is something else entirely
to perpetuate something we
all know to be wrong only
because we fear the conse-
quences of being right.”
Judge Elena Kagan wrote
the dissent for the court’s
three liberals.
“Citing centuries of his-
tory, the c ourt in Ramos
termed the Sixth Amend-
ment right to a unanimous
jury ‘vital,’ ‘essential,’
‘indispensable,’ and ‘fun-
damental’ to the American
legal system,” Kagan wrote.
“The c ourt therefore saw
fi t to disregard stare decisis
and overturn a 50-year-old
precedent enabling states to
convict criminal defendants
based on non unanimous
verdicts. And in taking that
weighty step, the Court also
vindicated core principles of
racial justice.”
Kagan stated the majority
failed to follow its own prec-
edent by not considering the
Ramos ruling a “watershed”
event, legally speaking.
“The result of today’s rul-
ing is easily stated,” Kagan
wrote. “Ramos will not
apply retroactively, mean-
ing that a prisoner whose
appeals ran out before the
decision can receive no aid
from the change in law it
made.”
Second Amendment sanctuaries facing court test
By LINDSAY
WHITEHURST and
ANDREW SELSKY
Associated Press
SALEM — The fi rst court
test of whether local govern-
ments can ban police from
enforcing certain gun laws
is playing out in a rural Ore-
gon county, one of a wave
of U.S. counties declaring
itself a Second Amendment
sanctuary.
The measure that voters in
Columbia County narrowly
approved last year forbids
local offi cials from enforcing
most federal and state gun
laws and could impose thou-
sands of dollars in fi nes on
those who try. Voters in Clat-
sop County rejected a similar
measure.
Second Amendment sanc-
tuary resolutions have been
adopted by some 1,200 local
Andrew Selsky/AP Photo
Firearms are displayed at a gun shop in Salem.
governments in states around
the U.S., including Virginia,
Colorado, New Mexico,
Kansas, Illinois and Florida,
according to Shawn Fields,
an assistant professor of law
at Campbell University in
North Carolina who tracks
them.
Many are symbolic, but
some, like in Columbia
County, carry legal force.
The movement took off
around 2018, as states con-
sidered stricter gun laws
in the wake of mass shoot-
ings, including a high school
shooting near Parkland,
Florida, that killed 17 peo-
ple and made survivors into
high-profi le gun control
activists.
After President Joe Biden
took offi ce, conservative
lawmakers in several states
proposed banning police
from enforcing federal gun
measures, and at least one
proposal in Arizona has been
signed into law.
The movement hasn’t
yet faced a major legal chal-
lenge. The Oregon case was
fi led by Columbia County
under an unusual provision
in state law that allows a
judge to examine a measure
before it goes into eff ect. No
timeline has been set for a
court hearing.
“This will allow the
court to tell us whether the
county can actually decline
See Guns, Page A8