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ByJuliePace and Vivian Salama The Associated Press WASHINGTON President Donald Trump's national security adviser addressed U.S. sanctions against Rus- sia in his conversations with the country's ambassa- dor while President Barack Obama was still in office, a new report said, contradict- ing previous claims that the issue was not discussed. A Trump administration official told The Associated Press that Michael Flynn "can't be certain" that sanc- tions did not come up in his discussions with the Rus- sian ambassador. The of- ficial said Flynn has "no recollection" of discussing the sanctions, but left open the possibility that the is- sue did come up when he spoke with Ambassador Sergey Kislyak during the transition. The Kremlin denied Fri- day that Flynn and Kislyak discussed the sanctions be- fore Trump took office. But the Washington Post, citing several current and former U.S. officials, re- ported late Thursday that Flynn made explicit refer- ences to election-related sanctions imposed by the Obama administration in his conversations with Kis- lyak. Members of the Trump administration have main- tained that Flynn had spo- ken to the ambassador during the transition pe- riod to wish him a Merry Christmas and offer condo- lences after a deadly Rus- sian plane crash. One of the calls took place on Dec. 29, the day the Obama administration hit Moscow with sanctions in response to a U.S. intel- ligence assessment that the Russian government had interfered in the U.S. pres- idential election with the goal of helping Trump. WASHINGTON Official:Flynnnot'certain' on sanctions talk with Russia By Dan Joling The Associated Press ANCHORAGE, ALASKA A year after tens of thou- sands of common murres, an abundant North Pacific seabird,starvedandwashed ashoreonbeachesfromCal- ifornia to Alaska, research- ershavepinnedthecauseto unusuallywarm oceantem- peratures that affected the tiny fish they eat. Elevated temperatures in seawater affected wild- life in a pair of major ma- rine ecosystems along the West Coast and Canada, said John Piatt, a research wildlifebiologistfortheU.S. GeologicalSurvey.Common murres are an indicator of the regions' health. "If tens of thousands of them are dying, it's because there's no fish out there, anywhere, over a very large area," Piatt said. To see such effect over two sizeable marine eco- systems is extraordinary, he said. Deaths of common murres in Alaska likely weremultipliedwhenstarv- ing birds in December 2015 were hit by vicious Gulf of Alaska winter storms, Pi- att said. Commonmurreslooklike thin penguins. They can fly miles in search of schools of finger-length fish and can dive and swim nearly 600 feet deep to capture them. However,thebirds'highme- tabolism means they have to eat a lot. If they don't eat prey matching 10 to 30 percent of their body mass daily, they can use up fat re- serves and drop to a criti- cal threshold for starvation within three days. Common murres eat small forage fish: capelin, from the smelt family, and juvenile pollock, which as adults are caught for fast- food fish sandwiches. Both fish were largely absent when the National Marine Fisheries Service conducted surveys in summer 2015. Common murres paid the price. Volunteers and federal researchers last year counted the carcasses of 46,000 dead murres in Alaska and another 6,000 in California, Oregon and Washington. Die-offs of seabirds oc- cur periodically, but this one was spectacular. Only a fraction of the dead birds likely reached shore, Pi- att said. And only a frac- tion of Alaska coastline was surveyed. A conserva- tive extrapolation indicates 500,000 or more common murres died, Piatt said. Nearly all were emaci- ated. As birds starved, they consumedtheirownfatand proteinuntiltheylostdeadly amounts of body mass. "You can't keep yourself heated, and then you die," Piatt said. "It's an agoniz- ing, awful death. And then on top of that, some of them probably drowned." Starting in 2014, the tem- perature in the upper 300 feet of water was as much as 4.5 degrees warmer than normal. NASA explained it like this: An unusually strong and persistent ridge of atmospheric high pres- sure appeared over the northeastern Pacific, weak- eningwindsandeasingnor- mal, wind-driven churning, which promoted upwell- ing of deep, cold water to the surface. It led to a lens of unusually warm surface water that a University of Washington meteorologist dubbed "the Blob." NORTH PACIFIC By Blake Nicholson and Dave Kolpack The Associated Press BISMARCK, N.D. The fed- eral judge who will decide whether oil flows through the disputed Dakota Access pipeline has shown sympa- thy for the historical plight of American Indians, but has also made clear that he doesn't think that should play a role in judicial deci- sions. U.S. District Judge James "Jeb" Boasberg is overseeing a lawsuit filed by the Stand- ing Rock and Cheyenne River Sioux that could be their last hope of stopping the $3.8 billion pipeline to carry North Dakota oil to Il- linois. The tribes argue the pipeline threatens drinking water and cultural sites. A hearing is scheduled Mon- day. While the Washington, D.C.-based Boasberg cited in a previous ruling the his- toric exploitation of Indi- ans in early America, he also told an attorney for the tribe last year he won't be influ- enced by phone calls from pipeline opponents to sway his opinion. That doesn't surprise Mi- chael Kellogg, a law firm col- league of Boesberg's in the mid-1990s, or Virginia attor- ney Tim Heaphy, who once workedwithBoasberginthe D.C. federal prosecutor's of- fice. "He is not motivated by ideology or politics," Heaphy said. Boasberg has been ap- pointed to judgeships by both Republican and Dem- ocratic presidents, showing he is respected by both con- servatives and liberals, said a third colleague of Boas- berg, 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Senior Judge Dorothy Nelson, for whom Boasberg once clerked. Texas-based developer Energy Transfer Partners this week received approval from the Army Corps of En- gineers to lay pipe under Lake Oahe, a Missouri river reservoir that's the tribes' water source. It's the final chunk of construction for the 1,200-mile pipeline. The Cheyenne River tribe has asked Boasberg to stop the work until the legal battle is resolved. Boasberg earned his law degree from Yale in 1990. He wasappointedtohis current post on the federal bench by President Barack Obama in 2011. In responding to ques- tions in 2010 from then-Al- abama U.S. senator and cur- rent U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions about his judi- cial philosophies, Boasberg agreed with another judge who had rejected Obama's call for empathy in a Su- preme Court justice. LEGAL DISPUTE Colleagues say judge in Dakota pipeline case is even-handed MARKTHIESSEN—THEASSOCIATEDPRESSFILE Dead common murres lie washed up on a rocky beach in Whittier, Alaska. A year a er tens of thousands of common murres, an abundant North Pacific seabird, starved and washed ashore on beaches from California to Alaska, researchers have pinned the cause to unusually warm ocean temperatures that affected the tiny fish they eat. Warm ocean water triggered vast seabird die-off, experts say DIEGO M. RADZINSCHI — ALM U.S. District Judge James "Jeb" Boasberg is overseeing a lawsuit filed by the Standing Rock and Cheyenne River Sioux, two Dakotas tribes who maintain the $3.8billion Dakota Access pipeline to carry North Dakota oil to Illinois threatens their drinking water and cultural sites. 6,312fans+49 this week Facebook Page YOU'LL LIKE WHAT YOU SEE ..andgrowing,everyweek! Daily News Facebook fans receive special posts of breaking news, sports, weather and road closures, clicking right to full stories and photos published on redbluffdailynews.com ... Tehama County's most-visited local website ... things that fans want to know about, sooner rather than later! "LIKE" us at www.facebook.com/rbdailynews "Like" a story or item, leave a review, make a post on the site ... and more! This could be your lucky day by helping a dog or cat find a loving home from... 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