SCHOOL SHOOTING
CROSS COUNTRY
Teacher killed trying to protect students, A7
Teams race for state bids this week, B1
TUESDAY, OCTOBER 22, 2013
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Tribes earn Hollering Place bid BY CHELSEA DAVIS The World
EMPIRE — The Hollering Place’s redevelopment has been turned over to the Confederated Tribes of Coos, Lower Umpqua and Siuslaw Indians. City Manager Rodger Craddock said the Urban Renewal Agency voted to move forward into negotiations with the tribes last week, with one dissenting member, councilor Gene Melton. Originally, the Hanis Coos Tribe established villages in the Coos Bay
area, one of which was El-ka-titc, now known as the Hollering Place, situated at Newmark Avenue and Empire Boulevard. Both Oregon Seafoods and the tribes had submitted proposals to redevelop the property that Empire residents — including Steve Skinner, a community booster for redevelopment — have wanted to revive since the (Balboa) Bay Club burned down 15 years ago. Oregon Seafoods wanted to move its seafood processing facility to the property and include an educational element; the tribes want to
Drone strikes in Pakistan criticized
build a high-end hotel, cottages, restaurant, retail plaza and promenade. Skinner is happy the city went with the tribes’ proposal, but he doesn’t want Oregon Seafoods to be brushed aside. “I would hope that all the parties involved, particularly including Tom Greaves, who lives down there and is the most impacted, who will lose his view and have to listen to pile-drivers, I would hope in the future we continue to work in the same spirit and work out our differences, if we have any, and make a
stronger project,” Skinner said. Oregon Seafoods owner Mike Babcock said he anticipated the city would choose the tribes’ project, but he isn’t disappointed. “It makes sense, obviously,” he said. “It’s a $15 million facility. And for us, you know ... I don’t know. We continue to expand our markets and are slowly running out of space. We’re looking, not only in the Coos Bay area, but Douglas County as well, maybe up even into Lane County. I don’t know at this point where we’re going to end up.” Craddock said the city will work
with Oregon Seafoods on potential sites for relocation. Skinner said the proposal isn’t exactly what the “citizen-driven initiative” had originally hoped for. “Realistically, this is the best we’re going to get,” Skinner said. “We wanted something a little smaller in scale. They’re calling it ‘The Village,’ but we wanted it to be more ‘village-y.’ But our biggest objection, the one goal we have not achieved yet that we’re still really going to advocate for, is better SEE HOLLERING | A8
Website builders saw the red flags
Eye on the prize
BY SEBASTIAN ABBOT The Associated Press
The Associated Press
By Alysha Beck, The World
A hawk watches for prey from a tall Douglas fir off East Bay Drive on a cool fall day in Coos Bay on Monday afternoon. The forecast for the area calls for more fog in the morning burning off to partly cloudy days until the sun pokes out on Friday, making way for another nice weekend.
“All dogs go to heaven: R.I.P. Tommy, 2003-2013” BY THOMAS MORIARTY The World
HAUSER — Tommy the Tibetan mastiff isn’t scared anymore. The 10-year-old dog, whose escape from a Hauser area backyard in 2010 prompted a wave of volunteer searchers from across the county, had to be euthanized Sept. 1 after he was found to have rapidly progressing cancer. Tommy’s owner, Nan Hammons, said the 120pound dog came to her and her husband severely disfigured. A former owner had kicked him in the face as a puppy. “His jaw was set on permanent open-scissors mode, he only had one eye left and he couldn’t smell much of anything,” she said. Hammons said that despite his physical injuries, Tommy displayed an amazing lack of fear and anxiety. But like many dogs, he was still frightened by thunder, and bolted from Hammonses’ backyard during a December storm. Following much door-knocking, passed-out fliers and coverage in local media — including the local television station and The World — the couple received a number of donations towards posting a reward. “People from California, we didn’t know, called to offer money to add to the reward fund,” Hammons said. Two teenage girls, Tiffany and Brittay Valdez, eventually found Tommy hiding beneath a crop of trees. The couple was reunited with her beloved dog on Christmas Eve. The girls refused to accept the reward, so the Hammonses gave the money to the animal shelter. Hammons said that although it’s sad that Tommy is gone, the community contributed significantly to his happy life in the country.
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Jerald Zirkel, Coos Bay Jessie Saporito, North Bend Judith Pierson, North Bend Ronald Gangewer, Coquille
Obituaries | A5
Contributed photo
Scared by a thunderstorm in 2010, Tommy was later found by two teenagers who reunited the dog with its owners on Christmas Eve.
Reporter Thomas Moriarty can be reached at 541269-1222, ext. 240, or by email at thomas.moriarty@theworldlink.com. Follow him on Twitter: @ThomasDMoriarty.
Finding their voice Publishing center at Roosevelt High School in Portland publishes its first anthology including works from students and authors.
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BY JACK GILLUM AND JULIE PACE
STATE
INSIDE
SEE DRONES | A8
President promises a ‘tech surge’ to repair the system ■
DEATHS
ISLAMABAD — Amnesty International called on the U.S. to investigate reports of civilians killed and wounded by CIA drone strikes in Pakistan in a report released Tuesday that provided new details about the alleged victims of the attacks, including a 68-year-old grandmother hit while farming with her grandchildren. Mamana Bibi’s grandchildren told the London-based rights group that she was killed by missile fire on Oct. 24, 2012, as she was collecting vegetables in a family field in the North Waziristan tribal area, a major militant sanctuary near the Afghan border. Three of Bibi’s grandchildren were wounded in the strike, as were several others who were nearby, the victims said. The U.S. considers its drone program to be a key weapon against insurgent groups that it says stages cross-border forays into neighboring Afghanistan. But the belief, widespread in Pakistan, that the strikes kill large numbers of civilians sparks resentment and complicates the two countries’ ability to coordinate efforts against militants based in the country, including al-Qaida. An even deadlier incident noted by the report — titled “‘Will I be next?’ U.S. drone strikes in Pakistan”— occurred in North Waziristan on July 6, 2012. Witnesses said a volley of missiles hit a tent where a group of men had gathered for an evening meal after work, and then a second struck those who came to help the wounded, one of a number of attacks that have hit rescuers, the rights group said. Witnesses and relatives said that total of 18 male laborers with no links to militant groups died, according to Amnesty. Pakistani intelligence officials at the time identified the dead as suspected militants. The U.S. did not respond to request for comment on the strike. President Barack Obama said during a speech in May that the U.S. does not conduct a drone strike unless there is “near-certainty that no civilians will be killed or injured.” But Amnesty said the U.S. is so secretive about the program that there is no way to tell what steps it takes to prevent civilian casualties. They say it has “failed to commit to conduct investigations” into alleged deaths that have already occurred. Several different organizations have tried to track the number of civilian casualties from nearly ten years of drone strikes in Pakistan, including the Long War Journal website, the New America Foundation think tank and the Bureau of Investigative journalism. These
WASHINGTON — Crammed into conference rooms with pizza for dinner, some programmers building the Obama administration’s showcase health insurance website were growing increasingly stressed. Some worked past 10 p.m., energy drinks in hand. Others rewrote computer code over and over to meet what they considered last-minute requests for changes from the government or other contractors. As questions mount over the website’s failure, insider interviews and a review of technical specifications by The Associated Press found a mind-numbingly complex system put together by harried programmers who pushed out a final product that congressional investigators said was tested by the government and not private developers with more expertise. Project developers who spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity — because they feared they would otherwise be fired — said they raised doubts among themselves whether the website could be ready in time. They complained openly to each other about what they considered tight and unrealistic deadlines. One was nearly brought to tears over the stress of finishing on time, one developer said. Website builders saw red flags for months. A review of internal architectural diagrams obtained by the AP revealed the system’s complexity. Insurance applicants have a host of personal information verified, including income and immigration status. The system connects to other federal computer networks, including ones at the Social Security Administration, IRS, Veterans Administration, Office of Personnel Management and the Peace Corps. President Barack Obama on Monday acknowledged technical problems that he described as “kinks in the system.” He also promised a “tech surge” by leading technology talent to repair the painfully slow and often unresponsive website that has frustrated Americans trying to enroll online for insurance plans at the center of Obama’s health care law. But in remarks at a Rose Garden event, Obama offered no explanation for the failure except to note that high traffic to the website caused some of the slowdowns. He said it had been visited nearly 20 million times — fewer monthly
Partly cloudy 57/45 Weather | A8
SEE RED FLAGS | A8