PREFONTAINE RESULTS
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BY NIGEL DUARA The Associated Press
Photos by Lou Sennick, The World
Many members of the North Bend High School marching band sport Prefontaine moustaches as they march through downtown Coos Bay on Saturday for the Bay Area Fun Festival parade.
Fun Festival crowns more than just the fastest runner Winners among the parade entries named and Teen Idol closes its 11th season ■
BY TIM NOVOTNY The World
COOS BAY — When the weather is as beautiful as it was for Saturday’s Bay Area Fun Festival, one could argue that everyone is a winner. Technically, though, the number of champions is much more manageable, with three main festival events leading to first place finishes. The Prefontaine Run, of course, you will find in the Sports section, but titles were also on the line in the Fun Festival parade and after the final performances in the Bay Area Teen Idol competition. By the time the last of the runners made their way to the finish More online: line, the Bay Area Dennis Emerson built a small wooden stage coach and covered wagon and took top honors Saturday for the Bay See Lou Sennick’s Rotary Club judges Area Fun Festival parade. galleries from the already had begun judgBay Area Fun ing entries in its annual Festival at were set to sing for the chance to be named formances. parade. theworldlink.com. Afterwards, Thomas reflected on the hard The theme of this Bay Area Teen Idol. The 11th annual event featured a first- work it took to reach the top. was festival year’s “I’m just really excited,” she said, among “Cindi Miller Time,” place prize package valued at more than and more than 50 par- $2,000, including cash, a term of tuition at well-wishing hugs and with a beaming ticipants were being Southwestern Oregon Community College, smile. “I was disappointed when I didn’t judged on creativity and food and other prizes. The second-place place top three in the first one this year. prize package included $250 in cash. The (But) I just kept trying to improve myself use of theme. First place went to Dennis Emerson, who third-place finisher received $150 in cash and improve myself and I ended up here.” Stephanie Kilmer, the event organizer, built a replica “Wells Fargo” stagecoach and and other prizes, with fourth-place winning a package valued at $100, including $50 said it was another high quality year for the covered wagon. Which fits in perfectly with program. the miniature Western town at his home cash. After four years of competing, this would “We had a very talented group,” Kilmer that he has built, called “Fort Little Foot.” turn out to be the year to shine for Karissa said. “These four who were in the finals Christ Lutheran Church finished second, North Bend High from junior The Thomas. back and forth between first flip-flopped while the combined efforts of the “SaintsSchool topped fellow North Bend junior and fourth throughout the season. They N-Aints” and “Sets in Order” square dance Allie West to win the title. But it was a fierce were all really consistent. Even some of the clubs garnered third. competition, at least talentwise, as Michelle kids who had been eliminated before this Adamson and Rosa Gutierrez-Camacho, came really close.” Bay Area Teen Idol rocks! After the parade, attention shifted third and fourth respectively, also wowed towards Coos Bay City Hall, where four girls the crowd on the final day with sterling per-
PORTLAND — In the months before a marijuana legalization measure goes before voters, the leadership of Oregon’s largest agencies quietly convened highlevel meetings to discuss how to deal with it. The legalization measure would touch every corner of state government, from the Oregon State Police, who would no longer make minor marijuana arrests, to the Oregon Liquor Control Commission, which would administer the program. “They’re trying to not get caught flat-footed,” said OLCC spokeswoman Christie Scott. The agencies in attendance were the liquor control commission, the state police, the departments of agriculture, revenue, transportation and justice, and the Oregon Health Authority. Preparation for the legalization measure, which would tax and regulate commercial recreational marijuana, also included state officials who spoke to their counterparts in legal marijuana states, Colorado and Washington state. They sought to learn lessons from the mistakes of those two states. “Thank goodness Colorado and Washington went first,” said OLCC chairman Rob Patridge. “But we’re different. We’re way different.” Colorado, like Oregon, has commercial medical dispensaries, which provided an infrastructure for the fledgling commercial recreational business. Washington, by contrast, had to build a system from scratch, a long and tortuous process that has crashed the initial exuberance of legalization with the reality of a grinding bureaucratic slog. Patridge and Scott said the meetings were necessary — if the measure passes, there’s a short timeline between the vote in November and the January 1 kickoff of legalization. Patridge said he also expects a number of questions when the Legislature convenes on Feb. 2. The “Yes on 91” campaign and its petitioning group New Approach Oregon raised at least $2.3 million when they were last required to report their fundraising in late August. The opposition did not report a single contribution or dollar spent by the August deadline. Marion County Sheriff Jason Myers, the petitioner of the opposition campaign, did not return repeated calls seeking comment. The pro-legalization campaign will spend the money on getout-the-vote efforts in Oregon,
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Syria vote isn’t last word from Congress on war
INSIDE
WASHINGTON — As far as Congress is concerned, President Barack Obama’s Mideast war strategy isn’t in the clear yet. The president got what he wanted this past week when the House and Senate overwhelmingly approved arming and training moderate Syrian rebels to fight Islamic State militants. But the goahead is good for less than three months. And many lawmakers want a say over the rest of a plan
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force to complement U.S. airstrikes expires Dec. 11, at which point the training effort won’t even have begun. American military leaders say the operation needs up to five months to get off the ground. Authorization for the training program is also included in a version of this year’s defense policy bill, but its passage is not guaranteed. Although some recent polls suggest a swing in U.S. attitudes toward backing foreign intervention, the scars of 13 years of war in Iraq and Afghanistan haven’t fully healed. Public and congressional support may only be temporary, heated after the beheadings of two
American journalists by Islamic State group militants. Twenty-two senators and 156 House members, Republicans and Democrats included, opposed the provision last week. Several in both chambers said they voted “yes” half-heartedly. “I know it’s not a perfect plan, but I think we need to start somewhere,” Rep. Jim Langevin, D-R.I., told Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel at a hearing. November’s elections will have a significant impact. If Republicans win the Senate majority, they may delay reauthorization until January when newly elected senators are in
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The Associated Press
featuring more than 1,600 U.S. military advisers in Iraq and airstrikes expanding into Syria. Congressional authorization for military action is “long overdue,” said Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois, the No. 2 Senate Democrat and the most senior member of Congress to question Obama’s legal basis for intervening in the Middle East. “We are living on borrowed time, and we are traveling on vapors.” A showdown looms when lawmakers return to the Capitol after midterm elections — and no one knows yet how it’s going to play out. Permission to prepare vetted Syrian opposition units as a ground
NATION
BY BRADLEY KLAPPER AND DONNA CASSATA
place and they are able to leverage concessions from Obama on foreign and domestic policy matters, including possibly a new round of sanctions on Iran. If they fail to net six seats and remain in the minority, Republicans may emerge less determined to cooperate with the president. For Obama, Democrats are also unsteady allies now. Most in close Senate races voted for the Syrian training mission, but several leading doves bucked the trend. And many said they hoped to revisit the
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