A5
THE ASTORIAN • TUESDAY, AUGUST 9, 2022
SPORTS
OBITUARIES
Ruth Koch
Seaside
Jan. 12, 1928 — July 23, 2022
Daryl Moore
Astoria’s Benton Moore, Merrick Benesch, Beck Olson and Owen Williams had a 3-0 record in
the championship bracket to take fi rst in Yakima’s 3-on-3 basketball tournament.
Nadine Long
Astoria players win
3-on-3 tournament
The Astorian
A team from Astoria had the best win-
ning percentage to fi nish fi rst in its division
in the annual Yakima “Hot Shots” 3-on-3
basketball tournament in late July.
Competing in the boys high school
“Grizzlies” division, Astoria lost just one
game in the tournament, but went unde-
feated in the playoff bracket to earn fi rst
place.
Astoria’s Benton Moore, Merrick Ben-
esch, Beck Olson and Owen Williams —
Ruth Koch passed away very peacefully the 1970s, she was an active part of the Miss
Oregon p ageant as a hostess.
on July 23.
But she is best known for her love of
Ruth was born on Jan. 12, 1928, to
bowling, as she bowled on three
Charles and Isabelle (Johnson)
diff erent leagues a week, and
Gahagan in Grand Forks, North
would travel across the state
Dakota. She was the youngest of
and country participating in
three; her sister, Margaret (Marge),
tournaments. She is also a life-
and brother, Harold Gahagan, pre-
time member of Our Saviour
ceded her in death.
Lutheran Church.
She was a graduate of Central
Ruth is survived by her
High School in Grand Forks.
three children, Charlotte (Dave)
She married Marcus L. Wood-
Link, of The Dalles, Mark (Liz)
worth and resided in Renton, Wash-
Woodworth, of Golden, Colo-
ington, until moving to Seaside in
Ruth Koch
rado, and Connie Clementz, of
1960. She worked at the Holladay
Seaside; three grandchildren,
Drug Store for 13 years.
In 1974, she married Eugene C. Koch Jr., Nikole Davis, of Oregon City, Elizabeth
who passed away in 2017. She resided in her (Libby) Jones (Nathan), of Littleton, Colo-
rado, and Sean Woodworth, of Westminster,
home for over 60 years.
Ruth was a beloved member of the com- Colorado; and three great-grandsons, Harri-
munity, as she was involved with many orga- son, Silas and Oaks Jones of Littleton, who
nizations, including Taking Off Pounds Sen- called her GGMA.
A memorial service will be at a later date.
sibly, Meals on Wheels, Partners for Seniors,
the American Legion and Elks. Also, during Uff da!
Ocean Park, Washington
July 8, 1932 — July 26, 2022
all incoming juniors — had a 3-1 record in
the championship bracket to take fi rst.
The two-day tournament included teams
from all over Washington state, Idaho and
Oregon.
With temperatures topping out at 105
degrees, Astoria posted playoff round wins
over the Legends (14-13) and the Big Boy
Squad (19-17 and 20-15).
The Yakima Hot Shots tournament was
founded in 2003 by Mel Moore, grandfa-
ther of Astoria’s Benton Moore, who was
playing in his fi rst Yakima tournament.
Nadine Long, of Ocean Park, Washing-
ton, passed away in Corvallis on July 26.
She was born July 8, 1932, in Corvallis,
to Minnie (Thompson) and Edward Harm-
sen, and raised in Blodgett.
She graduated from Corvallis High School
in 1950. She enrolled in, then graduated from,
Oregon State University in 1954, and began
a 27-year career as an elementary school
teacher in Oregon, fi rst in Perrydale, then
Grand R onde, next was Clatskanie — where
she spent the majority of her career, and raised
her family — and fi nally, in Knappa.
Nadine was an avid traveler who went
on numerous journeys throughout the U.S.,
Canada and Mexico. She touched many
people through both her travel, career and
friendships. She retired from teaching in
1987 to move to Ocean Park.
She was preceded in death by her hus-
band, George Long, whom she met while
in Perrydale; and her sister, Darlene “Duke”
Anderson.
She is survived by her sister, Charlotte
Frank, of Tucson, Arizona; son, Tom Long,
of Camas, Washington; daughter, Cindy
Long, of Ashland; son, Jim Long and his
wife, Susan , of Corvallis; six grandchildren,
Kacy Stripling, Jared Long, Willie Long, Jon
Long, Rob Straw and Ryan Long; and three
great-grandchildren, Mac Stripling, Nadine
“Nadi” Stripling and Layla Long.
Memorial contributions, in lieu of fl ow-
ers, may be made to the Arthritis Foundation.
A celebration of life will be held at a later
date.
Longtime Johnson staff er under scrutiny for blog posts
By JAMIE GOLDBERG
and HILLARY BORRUD
The Oregonian
For more than eight and a half years, Ore-
gon unaffi liated gubernatorial candidate and
former longtime lawmaker Betsy Johnson
employed a woman as a legislative staff er
who repeatedly voiced hateful views online
toward Black, Muslim and LGBTQ people.
At the same time Pamela Fitzsim-
mons was a long-tenured staff er to John-
son, she maintained a Twitter account and
a blog, Held to Answer, where she repeat-
edly referred to Black people as criminals,
railed against the Black Lives Matter move-
ment, said Black civil rights organizations
needed segregation and hate crimes for
their survival, questioned whether a Black
man wanted to be shot by police for public-
ity, called LGBTQ rights activists “bullies,”
said transgender individuals who share their
stories were attention-seeking and wrote
that the U.S. Constitution “might be a lot
worse” if Muslims had participated in its
writing.
Fitzsimmons worked as a part-time leg-
islative aide to Johnson from October 2011
to May 2012 and again from January 2014
until shortly after the Democratic state sen-
ator resigned to run for governor as an inde-
pendent last December, according to Jessica
Knieling, manager of employee services for
the Legislature.
Johnson also paid Fitzsimmons during
that time frame using campaign funds ,
according to state campaign fi nance
records. Johnson’s political action commit-
tee reported the payments were overwhelm-
ingly for the general category of man-
agement services, with a couple of early
payments for speechwriting.
In a statement provided to The Orego-
nian on Friday, Johnson said that Fitzsim-
mons worked for her as a researcher and
drafter of policy materials and that she was
not aware and had not read Fitzsimmons’
personal blog or social media posts. She did
not address whether she was aware of Fitz-
simmons’ views.
“Her views are her own and she is respon-
sible for her own opinions and thoughts,”
Johnson said in an emailed statement.
“Trying to attack me using someone
else’s views or actions is gutter-dwelling
politics,” Johnson added. “As I have stated
previously, I am absolutely against all forms
of bigotry and intolerance, and that includes
the Confederate fl ag on T-shirts and people’s
personal blog posts. This campaign should
be about moving the state forward past poli-
tics of hate and division, not indulging in it.”
Fitzsimmons responded to an email from
The Oregonian seeking comment by writing
only, “Thanks for the publicity.”
On March 29, 2017 – when Fitzsimmons
was receiving money both from Johnson’s
campaign coff ers and as a part-time legisla-
tive staff er for Johnson – Fitzsimmons wrote
on her blog that Quanice Hayes, a Black
teenager fatally shot by Portland police in
2017, had perhaps “fantasized about a cop
killing him: His family would score a fi nan-
cial settlement, and he would be a celeb-
rity with thousands of people taking to the
streets to protest his death.”
After Cameron Whitten, CEO for Brown
Hope and co-founder of Black Resilience
Fund, wrote an opinion piece published by
The Oregonian last October calling on Port-
SEVENDAY FORECAST FOR ASTORIA
TODAY
WEDNESDAY THURSDAY
FRIDAY
SATURDAY
landers to recommit to action on racial jus-
tice, Fitzsimmons tweeted, “Look who’s
desperately hoping for another George
Floyd. There’s money to be made! Consid-
ering how many B lack felons like to resist
arrest, the wait shouldn’t be too long.”
Fitzsimmons said on her blog that she
grew up in Medford and describes herself
as a former longtime reporter and editor at
newspapers in California and Washington
state who “wrote about gangs, drugs, dete-
riorating schools, urban sprawl, poverty and
its off springs: more babies, more poverty,
more social problems.” She points to prob-
lems with “gangs” and “illegal immigration”
as issues she saw in California that are also
plaguing Oregon. On another blog, Portland
Dissent, where Fitzsimmons also posts opin-
ion pieces, she refers to herself as a “former
newspaper reporter/editor, now bearing wit-
ness to Portland’s self-destruction.”
Fitzsimmons previously worked for The
Spokesman-Review in Spokane and The
Columbian in Vancouver, according to a
2005 announcement on the The Spokes-
man-Review’s website.
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REGIONAL FORECAST
Shown is today’s weather. Temperatures are today’s highs and tonight’s lows.
Seattle
69 58
71 54
71 54
70 56
71 55
Clouds and sun; Partly sunny; Low clouds may Partly sunny
Showers around
nice
pleasant
break
and nice
73 56
Partly sunny
72 56
Partly sunny
Aberdeen
Olympia
71/58
80/59
Wenatchee
Tacoma
Moses
Lake
83/59
ALMANAC
UNDER THE SKY
TODAY'S TIDES
Astoria through Sunday
Tonight’s Sky: Just above Hercu-
les is the constellation of Draco,
the Dragon.
Astoria / Port Docks
Temperatures
High/low ................................ 88/53
Normal high/low .................. 68/55
Record high .................. 88 in 2022
Record low .................... 46 in 1946
Precipitation
Sunday ..................................... 0.00”
Month to date ........................ 0.15”
Normal month to date ......... 0.16”
Year to date .......................... 43.03”
Normal year to date ........... 38.16”
Forecasts and graphics provided by
AccuWeather, Inc. ©2022
Time
High (ft.) Time Low (ft.)
12:32 p.m. 6.1 6:05 a.m. -1.0
11:32 p.m. 8.6 5:43 p.m. 2.9
Cape Disappointment
12:14 p.m. 6.1 5:11 a.m. -1.1
11:08 p.m. 8.8 4:50 p.m. 3.2
Source: Jim Todd, OMSI
Hammond
SUN AND MOON
Sunrise today .................. 6:07 a.m.
Sunset tonight ............... 8:34 p.m.
Moonrise today ............. 7:34 p.m.
Moonset today ............... 2:34 a.m.
Full
Last
New
First
12:23 p.m. 6.2 5:32 a.m. -1.4
11:22 p.m. 8.9 5:16 p.m. 2.9
Warrenton
12:27 p.m. 6.5 5:49 a.m. -0.9
11:27 p.m. 9.0 5:27 p.m. 3.0
Knappa
1:09 p.m.
none
Depoe Bay
Aug 11 Aug 18 Aug 27 Sep 3
6.4 7:06 a.m. -0.9
6:44 p.m. 2.5
11:29 a.m. 6.3 4:42 a.m. -1.4
10:21 p.m. 9.1 4:19 p.m. 3.3
City
Atlanta
Boston
Chicago
Dallas
Denver
Honolulu
Houston
Los Angeles
Miami
New York City
Phoenix
San Francisco
Wash., DC
Wed.
Hi/Lo/W
88/72/t
92/68/t
77/62/pc
97/79/t
94/65/s
88/77/pc
95/76/t
88/66/pc
91/81/t
94/77/t
99/84/t
73/62/pc
94/77/pc
87/71/t
76/68/t
86/68/s
96/77/t
92/67/s
89/77/pc
91/75/t
88/68/pc
91/78/s
84/74/t
102/85/t
74/59/s
91/72/t
Weather (W): s-sunny, pc-partly cloudy,
c-cloudy, sh-showers, t-thunderstorms,
r-rain, sf-snow fl urries, sn-snow, i-ice.
102/74
Hermiston
The Dalles 97/66
Enterprise
Pendleton 94/65
95/69
97/70
La Grande
97/65
86/60
NATIONAL CITIES
Today
Hi/Lo/W
96/65
Kennewick Walla Walla
96/73 Lewiston
100/68
81/60
Salem
Pullman
99/66
Longview
69/58 Portland
86/64
98/70
Yakima 99/68
84/57
Astoria
Spokane
98/72
Corvallis
82/57
Albany
84/58
John Day
Eugene
Bend
86/58
93/58
94/65
Ontario
97/71
Caldwell
Burns
91/58
94/69
Medford
97/60
Klamath Falls
89/49
City
Baker City
Brookings
Ilwaco
Newberg
Newport
Today
Hi/Lo/W
94/60/s
62/54/pc
68/58/sh
87/60/s
62/55/pc
Wed.
Hi/Lo/W
90/55/t
65/54/pc
70/56/pc
82/54/pc
64/52/pc
City
North Bend
Roseburg
Seaside
Springfi eld
Vancouver
Today
Hi/Lo/W
67/57/pc
85/59/s
70/57/pc
87/57/s
86/62/pc
Wed.
Hi/Lo/W
69/55/pc
83/59/s
72/55/pc
83/55/pc
82/60/pc