WESTMINSTER KENNEL CLUB
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2,845 dogs compete for the top spot, A7
Erin Hamlin earns first American medal, B1
WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 12, 2014
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Schools in state gaining students
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Colorful day at the Winter Olympics
BY CHELSEA DAVIS The World
Nearly 3,400 more students walked into Oregon schools last fall, pushing the state’s enrollment count slightly higher. On Tuesday, the Oregon Department of Education released its Fall Membership Report tallying student enrollment as of Oct. 1. Statewide, enrollment has hit an all-time high, inching 0.6 percent higher than the year prior. This is the second year of increases following five years of declining enrollment. Out of the state’s 197 school districts, 55 percent saw an enrollment increase, 42 percent saw a decrease and 3 percent saw no change. Six of the South Coast’s 10 school districts enjoyed an increase. North Bend’s enrollment skyrocketed this fall, with 120 students added to its roster. Coquille had the biggest dip: 43 students left the district. School leaders have long worried about significant enrollment drops, which result in state funding losses. The Coquille school board recently voted to reconfigure grades throughout the district’s three buildings as enrollment continues to decline in the town of fewer than 4,000. A 43-student loss in one year means a nearly $260,000 drop in funding from the state. Over the last decade, Oregon schools have seen more and more students in poverty, students with disabilities and minority students. More than half of Oregon students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch and minority students represent around 35 percent of the total student population. The fastest growing subgroup is Hispanic students, who now represent 22 percent of the state’s student population.
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Photos by The Associated Press
Aliona Savchenko and Robin Szolkowy of Germany compete in the pairs short program figure skating competition at the Iceberg Skating Palace during the 2014 Winter Olympics on Tuesday in Sochi, Russia.
Kirsten Moore-Towers and Dylan Moscovitch of Canada compete in the pairs short program figure skating competition .
Competitors ski past the Olympic rings during the men’s cross-country sprint quarterfinals, at the 2014 Winter Olympics on Tuesday in Krasnaya Polyana, Russia. SEE STUDENTS | A8
Communities seek to ban medical pot
Police reports . . . . A2 What’s Up. . . . . . . . A3 South Coast. . . . . . A3 Opinion. . . . . . . . . . A4
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BY JIM KUHNHENN The Associated Press WASHINGTON — It was once the backbone of the House Republican majority — the hardline stand that brought President Barack Obama to the negotiating table and yielded more than $2 trillion in deficit reduction. On Tuesday, it abruptly vanished, the victim of Republican disunity and a president determined not to bargain again. During the summer budget negotiations in 2011, House Speaker John Boehner had insisted that any increase in the nation’s borrowing limit be matched dollar for dollar with spending cuts. It became the
“Boehner Rule,” a mantra of fiscal discipline. And while it didn’t always live up to its tit-for-tat formula, it helped drive budget talks and kept deficit reduction at the fore of the Republican agenda. But there are limits to Republican power, and on Tuesday inevitability finally caught up to the speaker. Boehner let Congress vote on a measure to extend the nation’s borrowing authority for 13 months without any spending conditions — a “clean bill” that was an unequivocal victory for Obama. It passed 221-201, with only 28 Republican votes. The Senate still has to approve the extension, but that’s considered a
Deadly avalanche Joseph Smith, Coos Bay Jayden Wright, Coos Bay
Obituaries | A5
Slide in Wallowa Mountains kills two and seriously injures to more. Nationally, six people have died in avalanches since Sunday.
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SALEM — A state Senate committee hearing Tuesday focused on whether Oregon communities should be allowed to ban medical marijuana dispensaries. Advocates of the proposal said communities should have the right to decide for themselves, and opponents said local bans would be unfair to patients who need marijuana to alleviate their ailments. “I think time is what some of these city councils need to really examine this further,” Sam Chapman, a consultant who helped write the state’s dispensary law, told the Senate Judiciary Committee. “This is a large issue on their plate.”
The Legislature last year approved legislation allowing medical marijuana stores, but a number of communities don’t want the facilities and want the right to keep them from opening. Chapman said he’s been working with the Beaverton City Council to help its members better understand the dispensary law and what authority they have regarding the facilities. With Tuesday’s hearing, lawmakers have begun considering legislation that would allow local communities to regulate, restrict or prohibit medical marijuana facilities authorized under state law. Rob Bovett, legal counsel for the Association of Oregon Counties,
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The Associated Press
DEATHS
BY CHAD GARLAND
GOP abandons “Boehner Rule’ in debt ceiling vote mere formality in the Democratic-controlled chamber. Boehner’s retreat hardly came as a surprise. Conservative lawmakers had failed to back a couple of proposed attachments aimed at Obama and his fellow Democrats. One would have approved the Keystone XL oil pipeline and the other would have repealed a provision of the health care law. Either of those faced unified Democratic opposition, so Boehner would have needed 218 Republican votes to pass it in the House. But conservatives were either determined to vote against the debt ceiling increase, no matSEE VOTE | A8
Rain 54/48 Weather | A8
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