HER RIGHTFUL SPOT
TIGERS TRAPPED
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WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 25, 2013
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Ivanoff accepts plea deal
Future harvests
Coos Bay man will serve 75 months in death of Jesse Hayes ■
BY TIM NOVOTNY The World
Photos by Alysha Beck, The World
A worker with Boulder Creek Timber Co. uses a shovel to stack logs onto a truck at the Wintergreen Commercial Thin, a 600-acre timber sale on Blue Ridge near Sumner. Legislation that passed the U.S. House last week could boost timber harvests on more than a million acres of federal lands currently under tight logging guidelines.
DeFazio plan still faces hurdles The World
“Coos Bay has some of
COOS BAY — Despite recent victories in both Houses of Congress, the South Coast’s man in Washington says it’s unlikely the region’s timber industry can ever be fully restored to its former glory. Rep. Peter DeFazio, D-Springfield, said that increases in automation over the last two decades has increased productivity to the point that mills no longer have a need for the large workforces of 40 years ago. “I probably have two mills left that haven’t dramatically updated their equipment,” he said. “We’re never going back to the really high levels (of employment in the timber industry).” DeFazio’s comments come just days after the O&C Trust, Conservation and Jobs Act — which DeFazio co-sponsored with Reps. Kurt Schrader, D-Canby and Greg Walden, R-Hood River — passed the House on Friday. The plan would place approximately
the greatest potential for alternatives that never happen.” Rep. Peter DeFazio, D-Springfield
1.5 million acres of federal lands into a trust for managed harvest on behalf of the state’s impoverished timber counties. The House vote followed action by the Senate advancing a one-year renewal of the Secure Rural Schools Act of 2000 to continue emergency funding of public services in Oregon timber counties. The extension was tacked onto the Senate version of the Helium Stewardship Act passed by the House in April. The bill now heads back to the House for reconciliation.
DeFazio said he’s still waiting on Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., to introduce a companion bill to the O&C Trust Act in the Senate. Wyden’s office has said he wants a bill that will make it across the president’s desk — a concern that appears warranted following a veto threat on the House bill prior to Friday’s vote. Last Wednesday the Office of Management and Budget issued a policy statement recommending the veto. Among the concerns, analysts thought the act would undermine protections for threatened and endangered species and put the government at risk of lawsuits. DeFazio said he knew the bill would be controversial, but remained hopeful that a compromise could still be worked out with the Senate that would pass OMB muster. The counties’ predicament tracks back to the late 1800s, when the U.S. govern-
by Democrats to defeat the “Obamacare” provision. The mechanics of advancing the bill were overshadowed by Cruz’s speech, which
MEDFORD (AP) — A proposal by the Coquille Indian Tribe to open a casino in Medford has drawn criticism from the chairman of the U.S. House Subcommittee on Indian and Alaska Native Affairs, who says it’s an example of proliferation that could eventually harm Indian interests. The tribe’s proposal to open its second casino has met with opposition from public officials and a second tribe, the Cow Creek Band of Umpqua Indians, in Southern Oregon. The Cow Creek Band of Umpqua Indians operates a casino north of Medford on Interstate 5 and fears losing business to one in the city. Oregon has nine casinos, each owned by a different tribe. The Coquille tribe has a casino in North Bend and plans to turn a Medford bowling alley into a casino with video gambling. The congressional panel considered the proposal at a Sept. 19 hearing. It recommended rewriting portions of the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act of 1988 to make it more difficult for tribes to set up distant casinos, said Chairman Don Young, an Alaska Republican. He predicted a proliferation of casinos eventually could harm tribal gambling enterprises by breaking their hold on casino gambling, the Medford Mail Tribune reported. “Eventually the states are going say, ‘To hell with it’ and say, ‘We will legalize gambling,”’ Young said. The Coquille casino in North Bend is about 165 miles northwest of Medford. The tribe has asked the U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs to place the Medford land in a government trust, which would start a process that could lead to reservation status for the site. Brenda Meade, chairperson for the Coquille tribe, said the 1989 restoration act for her tribe specified that Jackson County was one of five that the tribe could conduct its business in.
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Senate heads toward ‘Obamacare’ vote The Associated Press
INSIDE
WASHINGTON — The Democratic-controlled Senate is on a path toward defeating tea party attempts to dismantle President Barack Obama’s health care law, despite an overnight talkathon on the chamber’s floor led by Texas Sen. Ted Cruz. The freshman Cruz and other conservative Republicans were trying to delay a must-pass spending bill, but were virtually sure to lose a test vote on that legislation planned for later Wednesday. Since Tuesday afternoon, Cruz — with occasional remarks by Sen. Mike Lee, RUtah, and other GOP conservatives — has controlled the Senate floor and railed against The Affordable Health Care Act. By 9 a.m. EDT Wednesday, Cruz and his allies had spoken for more than 18 hours, the fourth-longest Senate speech since precise record-
Despite Cruz’s tea party stalling effort, a test vote is likely this afternoon keeping began in 1900. That surpassed March’s 12hour, 52-minute speech by Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., like Cruz a tea party lawmaker and potential 2016 presidential contender, and filibusters by such Senate icons as Huey Long of Louisiana and Robert Byrd of West Virginia. Paul, who has questioned Cruz’s tactics, gave the admittedly tired Texan a respite Wednesday morning by joining the debate and criticizing “Obamacare.” Republican leaders and several rank-and-file GOP lawmakers had opposed Cruz’s time-consuming effort with the end of the fiscal year looming. They fear that Speaker John Boehner and
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House Republicans won’t have enough time to respond to the Senate’s eventual action. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., downplayed the significance of Cruz’s speech after arriving at the Capitol Wednesday morning. “He raised some money with the tea party folks,” Reid said. “That’s what it’s all about.” The House-passed measure is required to prevent a government shutdown after midnight Monday and contains a tea party-backed provision to “defund” implementation of what’s come to be known as “Obamacare”. Cruz is opposed to moving ahead on it under debate terms choreographed
The Associated Press
Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas speaking on the Senate floor on Capitol Hill in Washington on Wednesday. Cruz led an overnight talkathon in an attempt to dismantle President Barack Obama's health care law.
Astoria is rockin’
STATE
BY ANDREW TAYLOR
Casino plan meets with skepticism
Astoria man creates the rocking chair that was given to pitching great Mariano Rivera during recent retirement ceremonies.
Page A5
FORECAST
BY THOMAS MORIARTY
COQUILLE- The second of the three men accused of killing 34-year-old Jesse Hayes last February has reached a plea agreement with prosecutors. George Ivanoff, 48, pleaded guilty Monday to a lesser charge of second-degree manslaughter and was sentenced to 75 months — a little over six years in prison. Ivanoff’s plea agreement comes after Michael Gertson, 32, was sentenced to 10 years in prison for the same charge. Assistant District Attorney Mark Monson said that the Measure 11 sentencing guideline calls for the 75-month sentence for seconddegree manslaughter. In Gertson’s case, the longer sentence came after the two sides agreed to an “upward departure” from the guidelines. The reason for the difference is that Gertson is believed to have raised the level of violence in the attack. The autopsy ruled that Hayes died from blunt force trauma and ligature strangulation. “The evidence we had indicated that the defendants were going to testify that Hayes ‘wasn’t dying fast enough,’ so Gertson started to strangle him,” Monson said. Hayes’ body was found covered with trash outside a Coos Bay warehouse four days after he died. Police believe though that he was actually killed inside apartment No. 1 at 675 Hemlock Ave. Coos County District Attorney Paul Frasier told The World earlier in the case that various transients were known to have stayed in that apartment. While a neighbor said alcohol, drugs and fights were commonplace. Jesse Longhenry, 46, is the last defendant left facing a murder charge and has a seven-day trial scheduled for Feb. 3, 2014. He is being held on $1.5 million bail.
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