NOTE: Yesterday, Oregonian reporter Rich Read breathlessly reported that “someone apparently intentionally set adrift a loaded grain barge on the Columbia River Friday night that was to be unloaded at a terminal that has locked out longshoremen,” and that “the fact that Barge 550 was loaded with grain destined for the locked-out elevators is also significant.”
Dramatics aside, it turns out the Oregonian was wrong. Today, the Columbian — the Vancouver newspaper that’s been giving much more accurate coverage of the grain lockout, wrote:
An earlier report by The Oregonian said the barge was to be unloaded at a terminal that has locked out longshoremen. However, in an email to The Columbian today, Pat McCormick, spokesman for a group of grain-terminal operators that includes United Grain Corp. at the Port of Vancouver, said Barge 550 “was not scheduled for either United Grain or Columbia Grain.”