Friday, November 25, 2011

Ann Baldwin: 1948 - 2011

(Photo By: Kathy Patenaude)
Ann Baldwin of Chinook, Wash., died in Chinook.
Hughes-Ransom Cremation & Mortuaries in Astoria is in charge of the arrangements.

Wednesday, November 23, 2011

November 30, 2011 - Prior To Regular Meeting, Clatsop County Board Of Commissioners Schedules 5:00 PM Work Session To Review Draft Of New Board Rules

Clatsop Emergency Services Office Issues Coastal Flood Watch

Wednesday, Nov. 23, 2011

COASTAL FLOOD WATCH
ISSUED FOR REGION WEDNESDAY

Runoff from this week’s strong Pacific storm is expected to combine with high tides today,
Wednesday, to bring potential flooding to coastal and estuary areas around
Clatsop County.
County officials continue to coordinate with local emergency agencies on the response to the
storm, which knocked out power to several communities and blocked some roads
with downed trees Tuesday.
As of Wednesday morning, Highway 202 was restricted to one lane by downed trees. LoukasLane was also reported to be blocked by downed power lines.
Electrical service was out for customers in Cannon Beach, Arch Cape and Warrenton/Hammond, as well as in other scattered areas of the county. Most areas were expected to be
restored by noon Wednesday, according Pacific Power.
The National Weather Service has issued a coastal flood advisory for northwest Oregon and southwest

Washington through 2 p.m. Wednesday. High tide scheduled for 11 a.m. Wednesday,
combined with storm runoff, is forecast to reach 11 feet, posing a risk of
flooding to some low-lying areas. Motorists are advised to look for high water
on roadways.

High water has prompted the Oregon Department of Transportation to restrict traffic on U.S.
Highway 101 south of Seaside at Beerman Creek. Only trucks and other
high-profile vehicles were being allowed as of Wednesday morning.
A second but weaker storm front is expected to hit the northwest coast on Thursday, bringing
additional rain and wind gusts of up to 60 mph.
For weather updates,
go to www.wrh.noaa.gov/pqr.
For up-to-date road
conditions, go to http://www.tripcheck.com/ or call the travel
info hotline at 511.
For information on
winter storm preparation, go to http://www.co.clatsop.or.us/.
To receive weather
advisories from the National Weather Service, sign up with the ClatsopALERTS!
emergency notification system at http://www.co.clatsop.or.us/ or (503) 338-3656.

Released by: Tom Bennett
Community Relations
Coordinator
(503) 338-3622

New Emission Standards For Oregon Customer-Owned Utilities Companies Goes Into Effect November 23, 2011

New rules for emission standards going into effect November 23, 2011
By SARAH ROSSSALEM, Ore. – Oregon Capital News
New rules governing how customer-owned utility companies are supposed to implement Oregon’s greenhouse gas emission standards for power generation went into effect Tuesday.The rules stemmed from a 2009 piece of state legislation requiring the Department of Energy (DOE) to create such rules. Investor-owned utilities will be under similar guidelines being developed by the Oregon Public Utility Commission.Specifically, the rules include an output-based method for calculating greenhouse gas emissions, how electricity with no identified generation source is to be addressed, a process for determining when a utility can be designated as a “low-carbon resource,” and how utilities can meet greenhouse gas standards.The state’s greenhouse gas emission standard, which includes only carbon dioxide emissions, is set at 1,100 pounds of emissions per megawatt-hour of electricity produced by the utility company.If a utility company wishes to become a low-carbon resource company, it must submit a plan to the DOE. That agency then decides if the plan includes enough technical documentation to prove that the company will be a low greenhouse gas producing facility within seven years of opening.

Tuesday, November 22, 2011

Oregon Governor John Kitzhaber Puts Moratorium On Death Penalty Until The End Of His Term


U.S. NEWS/WALL STREET JOURNAL/ASSOCIATED PRESS
NOVEMBER 22, 2011, 5:34 P.M. ET

SALEM, Ore.—Oregon Gov. John Kitzhaber on Tuesday imposed a moratorium on the
death penalty for the remainder of his term, saying he is morally opposed to
capital punishment and has long regretted allowing two men to be executed in the
1990s.
Mr. Kitzhaber's term ends in January 2015. He has not said whether he would
run for re-election.
The Democratic governor's decision gives a temporary reprieve to a
twice-convicted murderer who was scheduled to die by lethal injection in two
weeks, along with 36 others on death row. It makes Oregon the fifth state to
halt executions since 2007.
Mr. Kitzhaber said he has repeatedly questioned and revisited his decisions
to allow convicted murderers Douglas Wright and Harry Moore to be executed in
1996 and 1997.
"I do not believe that those executions made us safer, and certainly they did
not make us nobler as a society," Mr. Kitzhaber said. "And I simply cannot
participate once again in something I believe to be morally wrong."
Mr. Kitzhaber is a former emergency-room doctor who still retains an active
physician license with the Oregon Medical Board, and his opposition to the death
penalty has been well-known. He was elected last year to an unprecedented third
term as governor after eight years away from public office.
Oregon has a complex history with capital punishment. Voters have outlawed it
twice and legalized it twice, and the state Supreme Court struck it down once.
Voters most recently legalized the death penalty in 1984. Since then, two men
have been executed, both of whom voluntarily gave up their appeals during Mr.
Kitzhaber's first administration.
Prison officials had been preparing for the Dec. 6 execution of Gary Haugen,
who also had waived appeals. Mr. Haugen was serving a life sentence for fatally
bludgeoning his former girlfriend's mother when he was sentenced to death for
the 2003 killing of a fellow inmate, who had 84 stab wounds and a crushed
skull.
Mr. Kitzhaber said he had no sympathy or compassion for murderers but
Oregon's death penalty was "an expensive and unworkable system that fails to
meet basic standards of justice."
Over a three-decade political career, Mr. Kitzhaber has built a reputation
for charting his own course, sometimes to the frustration of fellow Democrats
and others to the chagrin of legislative Republicans.
Mr. Kitzhaber's moratorium means Oregon joins, at least temporarily, four
other states that have halted executions, according to the Death Penalty
Information Center. Illinois this year outlawed the death penalty after the
discovery of wrongful convictions. New Mexico voters abolished it in 2009, two
years after New Jersey's Legislature and governor did the same. A New York
appeals court struck down a portion of the death-penalty statute.

Monday, November 21, 2011

National Weather Service Cautions Strong Pacific Coast Storm Forecast Monday Night

Monday, Nov. 21, 2011

STRONG PACIFIC STORM
FORECAST TO HIT COAST MONDAY NIGHT

A Pacific storm front
is expected to bring high winds and possible flooding to area rivers and streams
this week, according to the National Weather Service.
The agency has issued
a high wind warning and flood watch for the north and central Oregon Coast and
south Washington Coast beginning Monday night. Sustained winds of up to 50 mph
with gusts of up to 80 mph are forecast for beaches and headlands, with winds in
coastal communities of 40 mph-sustained and 70 mph-gusts. High winds are
expected to last through Tuesday night, potentially causing downed trees and
power lines.
The storm is also
forecast to bring several inches of rain to the Oregon Coast Range and Willapa
Hills in Washington between Tuesday morning and Wednesday morning, potentially
causing flooding in creeks and small rivers in Tillamook and Clatsop counties
and southwest Washington counties.
A high surf advisory
is also in effect for early Tuesday morning into Tuesday night.
For updates, go to www.wrh.noaa.gov/pqr. For
information on winter storm preparation, go to http://www.co.clatsop.or.us/.
To receive weather
advisories from the National Weather Service, sign up with the ClatsopALERTS!
emergency notification system at http://www.co.clatsop.or.us/ or (503) 338-3656.

Released
by:
Tom
Bennett
Community Relations
Coordinator
(503) 338-3622

Astoria City Council To Hear Resolution To Amend And Adopt, On Recommendation Of City Staff, Implementaion Of Rules Regarding Government Markers!


At tonight's November 21, 2011 Astoria City Council meeting(7:00 PM at Guy Boyington Building, 857 Commercial St., Astoria), a resolution amending and permitting the use of bronze Government Markers at Ocean View Cemetery as furnished to veterans together with miscellaneous revisions to standards for marker placement and finishing. City Staff recommends that Council adopt to proposed resolution implementing these amendments.