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North Bend will tackle Grant Circle first BY TIM NOVOTNY The World
NORTH BEND — The North Bend City Council has settled on an architectural firm to make Grant Circle whole again, but details still need to be worked out. At Tuesday’s city council meeting, the council voted 7-0 to go with HGE Inc. but other parts of the project are not so clear cut. City Administrator Terence O’Connor said that the councilors
like some parts from each of the architectural designs, but it ultimately narrowed down to a vote between Crow/Clay and HGE. He said the HGE proposal best represented the design elements that the council was most interested in seeing. That said, O’Connor said the firm was asked to go back and refine their design to incorporate a few more of the items that were discussed Tuesday night. “They’d like to see a water fea-
ture, a statue, keep the current level of parking, have some greenery and it has to be low-maintenance,” O’Connor said. The public also had a chance to weigh in again at the meeting, with four residents taking that opportunity. He said all comments were positive and in favor of the project. One other recurring theme from the meeting this week was cost, as the proposals all came in higher than anyone had hoped. Initial numbers surpassed the available Urban
Renewal Agency funds, which targeted $459,581 for Grant Circle and $75,696 for Lincoln Square. The city administrator said that probably means that all of the work will be focused on reconnecting and improving Grant Circle, and then seeing if they have any funds left over for Lincoln Square. That parcel of land is already connected and covered in grass, so it may just be a matter to leave for the city to try and spruce-up; although, O’Connor said HGE may still take a
stab at it during its refinement process. The city and HGE are expected to get back together in about a month or so to check in on how things are progressing, with any actual work on the area on hold through the winter months. “It will provide a focal point for civic activities,” O’Connor added, as he looked over the drawings inside council chambers one more time. “I think it’s going to be a really good asset for the city.”
Special session plan draws critics
Turning the other way
BY JONATHAN J. COOPER The Associated Press
By Alysha Beck, The World
Charlotte Welsh watches her 3-year-old granddaughter London enjoy a popsicle at her North Bend home Tuesday afternoon. Welsh received treatment for alcoholism at Adapt in North Bend and has been sober for three years.
Addicts find support in area programs BY EMILY THORNTON The World
NORTH BEND — At age 5, Charlotte Welsh took her first sip of alcohol. At age 18, she got drunk for the first time. The experiences sparked what later became a 20-year dance with alcoholism. Now, at age 43 and with nearly three years of sobriety, Welsh enjoys sharing her story. Since September is National Recovery Month, she feels more inclined to talk. “I talk to everybody I know about my recovery,” Welsh said. About 18 percent of Coos County residents drink excessively, according to
www.countyhealthrankings.org. The county ranked 25 out of the 33 Oregon counties in excessive alcohol use. Excessive drinking accounts for unneeded hospital visits, missed days of work and accidents. Excessive drinking is a problem for many, especially when it interferes with daily activities. This also may be called alcoholism, said Welsh. Welsh’s boyfriend discovered her addiction after several months of dating and sought help for her. He found the program for alcoholics at Adapt, where she attended outpatient treatment in Grants Pass and North Bend. She thought about doing a 30-day inpatient treatment in Roseburg, but changed her mind. She felt she didn’t need it.
“I wasn’t willingly put there,” Welsh said. “I didn’t want to leave my addiction.” She lived in a 34-foot trailer with her six children on her parents’ property. “I knew I needed to lay off (alcohol). I thought everybody could see it,” Welsh said. Soon, the state took custody of her six children and she was jobless and homeless. “I knew it was serious before this,” Welsh said. She didn’t have much left. But, she did have Oregon Health Plan, which paid for her treatment, and a supportive boyfriend. She walked 8 miles round trip
SALEM — Critics are mobilizing against a package of bills aimed at cutting Oregon publicemployee pensions, revising the tax code and limiting local regulation of genetically modified crops. The deal, hashed out by Gov. John Kitzhaber and legislative leaders, comes before lawmakers in a special legislative session on Monday. Supporters, including business groups and education advocates, say it would lower costs for state and local governments and free up more money for schools. Environmental groups, unions and others who oppose the plan contend lawmakers are looking in the wrong place for ways to improve schools. To make the package more appealing to Republicans and moderate Democrats, legislative leaders agreed to include a measure that would prohibit local governments from regulating seeds and seed products. The measure is aimed at blocking efforts to create new restrictions on genetically modified crops, which farmers and agricultural companies say would create a patchwork of laws that would be difficult to comply with. Some farmers and environmentalists said they were stunned to learn the once-defeated bill made it onto the agenda. Organic farmers worry that pollen from genetically modified plants will pollinate their crops. They say they’re seeking local regulations because state agriculture officials have not created statewide regulations on genetically modified organisms. “It’s a blunt instrument,” said Ivan Maluski, director of Friends of Family Farmers. “It was put forward by groups closely aligned with out-of-state agrichemical interests, and it hasn’t been vetted.” Maluski’s organization has teamed with environmental groups and organic food proponents in urging their supporters to speak against the measure. The efforts to cut annual cost-of-living increases are being targeted by public-employ-
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Lawmakers seek to fix ‘terrorist lottery loophole’
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time for the NSA, which has been the focus of public unease over the breadth of its spying powers as revealed by former systems analyst Edward Snowden. Court-ordered disclosures of past U.S. court rulings have also criticized the NSA for failing to comply with its own rules for collecting U.S. emails and phone records. On Wednesday, four senators proposed a bill that would prohibit
the NSA’s bulk collection of every Americans’ daily phone records and open up some of the actions of the FISA court, the secret federal court that reviews government surveillance requests. The government could still obtain records of anyone suspected of terrorism or espionage and of any individual in contact with a suspected terrorist or spy. The chairwoman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, Sen.
Dorothy Moore, Coos Bay
Happy birthday
Obituaries | A5
The capitol building in Salem celebrates its 75th birthday with a celebration on Saturday.
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Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., told The Associated Press that her committee is drafting a bill that would amend the law’s Section 702 provision, which authorizes targeting non-Americans outside the U.S., to allow uninterrupted spying on a suspect for “a limited period of time after the NSA learns the target has traveled to the United States, so SEE LOOPHOLE | A8
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WASHINGTON — Lawmakers who oversee U.S. intelligence agencies are working to expand the government’s spying powers to allow it to continue electronically monitoring terror suspects who travel to the U.S. if they are already under surveillance overseas by the National Security Agency.
The proposal is intended to close what lawmakers describe as a brief surveillance gap that occasionally can occur because of varying legal standards between the NSA’s operations, directed principally overseas, and the FBI’s traditional role tracking suspects on U.S. soil. It would require changes, they said, in the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. The effort comes at an awkward
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