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398 have died, 12,000 homes collapse, A7
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MONDAY, AUGUST 4, 2014
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Mother’s New commanders for Coast Guard ashes stolen
local Coast Guard command, with two new THE leaders already in place and one more change coming this week. It all becomes official during a change of command ceremony. CHARLESTON — The According to the Coast United States Coast Guard Guard, the ceremony is a is a vital, and constant, time-honored tradition, presence on the Oregon representing a total transcoast. It is also a fairly tranfer of responsibility, sitory occupation for the TIM men and women who make NOVOTNY authority and accountability. it their career. Typically, At one ceremony June after three years at a partic20, Chief Warrant Officer Kary ular post, the time comes to move Moss relieved Chief Warrant to a new location.
New leaders have different backgrounds, same goals ■
A recent Coos Bay burglary shows thieves are reaching new depths of depravity ■
BY TIM NOVOTNY
By Lou Sennick, The World
The World
COOS BAY — He was out of town when it happened. It was a neighbor who discovered Scott Forde’s nightmare. Sometime around June 13 a thief, or thieves, broke into his home and ransacked the place. They took just about everything that wasn’t nailed down. “Whoever came, went through the house drawer by drawer, emptying drawers many times,” Forde said, as he sat and recounted his ordeal. “I don’t even know all they took, because they just emptied drawers.” He didn’t have insurance, but no amount of money could ever recoup all of what he lost. A steel Halliburton suitcase and an antique 1931 Mills watermelon nickel slot machine are worth thousands of dollars, and he’d like to get them back. But, he says, his primary desire is to get back the last link he had to his mother. After her death in 2011, he kept her ashes, with a lock of her hair, inside a green velvet bag on her old bed. Upon getting the call from his neighbor, describing the state of the house in the 1200 block of Embarcadero Circle in Coos Bay, his mind started racing. “I was just sick,” Forde said. “I said, ‘Would you look on top of mom’s pillow?’ Because the only thing I really cared about in the whole house is her ashes. He said they’re not there. “Why would they take mom’s ashes? It was just a meanness.” He and police have their theories, but the investigation remains suspended for now. There was no sign of forced entry, and police believe whoever is responsible entered through a dog door. Coos Bay police Sgt. Eric Schwenninger said that, while what was taken certainly makes this an unusual crime, break-ins are all too common. “Break-ins can happen anywhere across the city, and we see them in all neighborhoods,” he said. Sometimes, he said, a burglary is a crime of opportunity, when people are away, other times it comes at the hands of someone with an intimate knowledge of the home. “We hire people into our homes all the time, and you want to have some concept of who those people are,” Schwenninger said. There are several ways to do just that, he said. “Make sure they are licensed and bonded, and have a good repSEE ASHES | A8
Two new commanders have taken over duties here in the Bay Area for the U.S. Coast Guard. Lt. Samantha Gordon, left, is the new commander for the Cutter Orcas and Chief Warrant Officer Kary Moss is the Charleston lifeboat station commander.
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Such is the cycle that has made this a particularly busy year for the
SEE COMMANDERS | A8
Flying high at DuneFest
By Alysha Beck, The World
Spectators shoot video as Robert Haslam flies over the crowd during a freestyle performance at DuneFest on Friday night.The five-day event annually brings thousands of visitors to Winchester Bay. See the photo gallery for DuneFest at theworldlink.com.
Destructive wildfires near Lassen BURNEY, Calif. (AP) — Firefighters were focusing on two wildfires near each other in Northern California that have burned through more than 100 square miles of terrain — one of which was menacing a small town and prompted the evacuation of a long-term care hospital. The Shasta County sheriff had Burney on an evacuation watch after ordering residents of three small neighboring communities to leave Saturday night. The state Department of Forestry and Fire Protection said more than 700 residences were threatened. The two fires, among 14 burning in the state, started within a day of each other in Lassen National
Forest and had expanded into private property. About 102 square miles had been scorched as of late Sunday night, up from 39 square miles a day earlier. Burney was threatened by the more destructive of the two, prompting officials at Mayer Memorial Hospital to evacuate their 49-bed annex for patients with dementia and other conditions requiring skilled nursing. The patients were transferred to a hospital in Redding, about 55 miles away, the hospital reported on its website. Authorities reported that eight homes had burned. Evacuations also remained in effect for a community on the edge
of the second fire, which was sparked by lightning Wednesday. About 40 homes were at risk, officials said. State Department of Forestry and Fire Protection spokesman Dennis Mathisen said Sunday that the two fires were burning through timber and brush left parched by the state’s extended drought. He predicted that the coming week promises not to be any easier. “Today we are looking at slightly cooler temperatures, but Northern California continues to be hot and dry and breezy in some areas, and in fact we are looking at a fire weather watch going into effect Monday morning for a large portion of Northern and northeast
California and possible thunderstorms, which could mean more lightning,” he said. Gov. Jerry Brown declared a state of emergency Saturday, saying the circumstances and magnitude of the wildfires are beyond the control of any single local government and will require the combined forces of regions to combat. Siskiyou County, which borders Oregon, also was contending with two major fires, both started by lightning last week. One of them, which began in Oregon, threatened hundreds of structures and charred nearly 58 square miles in both SEE FIRES | A8
U.S. sent Latin youth undercover in anti-Cuba ploy
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found: Cuban authorities questioned who was bankrolling the travelers. The young workers nearly blew their mission to “identify potential social-change actors.” One said he got a paltry, 30-minute seminar on how to evade Cuban intelligence, and there appeared to be no safety net for the inexperienced workers if they were caught. “Although there is never total certainty, trust that the authorities will not try to harm you physically, only frighten you,” read a memo obtained by the AP. “Remember that the Cuban government prefers
to avoid negative media reports abroad, so a beaten foreigner is not convenient for them.” In all, nearly a dozen Latin Americans served in the program in Cuba, for pay as low as $5.41 an hour. The AP found USAID and its contractor, Creative Associates International, continued the program even as U.S. officials privately told their government contractors to consider suspending travel to Cuba after the arrest of contractor Alan Gross, who remains imprisoned after smuggling in sensitive
Young entrepreneurs Parks and Recreation Department in Bend helps kids learn about business, finance and charity. Page A5
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WASHINGTON — An Obama administration program secretly dispatched young Latin Americans to Cuba using the cover of health and civic programs to provoke political change, a clandestine operation that put those foreigners in danger even after a U.S. contractor was hauled away to a Cuban jail. Beginning as early as October 2009, a project overseen by the U.S. Agency for International Development sent Venezuelan, Costa Rican and Peruvian young
people to Cuba in hopes of ginning up rebellion. The travelers worked undercover, often posing as tourists, and traveled around the island scouting for people they could turn into political activists. In one case, the workers formed an HIV-prevention workshop that memos called “the perfect excuse” for the program’s political goals — a gambit that could undermine America’s efforts to improve health globally. But their efforts were fraught with incompetence and risk, an Associated Press investigation
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technology. “We value your safety,” one senior USAID official said in an email. “The guidance applies to ALL travelers to the island, not just American citizens,” another official said. The revelations of the USAID program come as the White House faces questions about the oncesecret “Cuban Twitter” project, known as ZunZuneo. That program, launched by USAID in 2009 and uncovered by the AP in April,
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SEE CUBA | A8