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Lakeside algae issue is not going away BY CHELSEA DAVIS The World
LAKESIDE — The squabbling over solving Tenmile Lakes’ bluegreen algae problem shows no sign of stopping, even as a committee is trying to get a water improvement district on the May ballot. The debate continued Tuesday morning at the Coos County Commissioners’ meeting. Tim Bishop, who’s leading the charge to put a water improvement district to a vote, asked the commissioners
Commissioners to Tenmile Lakes water district committee: Quit bickering and come to an agreement for their blessing. But all three were hesitant to sign on since there’s still discord between Lakeside residents over what exactly causes the blue-green algae outbreaks and how they can be stopped. The committee would need 100 signatures or 15 percent of the proposed district’s registered voters to
get the measure on the ballot — and that would be nearly impossible, Bishop said, since there are only about 140 residents living within the proposed district boundaries. There are about 950 properties on the lake that would fall into the district, he said, which would generate around $95,000 a year in taxes to help improve the lake’s
water quality. The committee is looking for “neighbor-friendly ways of curing the problem,” and asking the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality to “bring the hammer down” isn’t a good idea, he said. Property owners are required to maintain their onsite septic sys-
tems according to state law. Lakefront homeowner Richard Litts said DEQ should come down on those who don’t keep their septic systems up to date. “I think the cornerstone of this commitment should be a mandatory (septic) inspection right off the bat, so we know which homes need to be fixed and which are OK,” he said. “It’s been sidelined to ‘We’ll just check them as (properties) sell down the road.’ SEE LAKESIDE | A8
First Ebola case in Texas
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BY DAVID WARREN AND LAURAN NEERGARD The Associated Press
also disclosed that shortly before the alleged intruder, Omar J. Gonzalez, scaled the fence at least two of her uniformed officers recognized him from an earlier troubling encounter but did not approach him or report his presence to superiors. On Aug. 25, Gonzalez was stopped while carrying a small hatchet near the fence south of the White House, Pierson said. Lawmakers were aghast, too, about a fourday delay in 2011 before the Secret Service realized a man had fired a high-powered rifle at the White House, as reported by the Post on Sunday. Pierson told the hearing the security plan for protecting the White House was not “properly executed” on Sept. 19 when the intruder sprinted across the White House North Lawn and through the unlocked front door of the mansion, knocking over a Secret Service officer and then running past the staircase that leads to the first family’s residential quarters. He ran
DALLAS — The first case of Ebola diagnosed in the U.S. has been confirmed in a man who recently traveled from Liberia to Dallas, sending chills through the area’s West African community whose leaders urged caution to prevent spreading the virus. The unidentified man was critically ill and has been in isolation at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital since Sunday, federal health officials said Tuesday. They would not reveal his nationality or age. Authorities have begun tracking down family, friends and anyone else who may have come in close contact with him and could be at risk. Officials said there are no other suspected cases in Texas. At the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Director Tom Frieden said the man left Liberia on Sept. 19, arrived the next day to visit relatives and started feeling ill four or five days later. Frieden said it was not clear how the man became infected. “I have no doubt that we’ll stop this in its tracks in the U.S. But I also have no doubt that — as long as the outbreak continues in Africa — we need to be on our guard,” Frieden said, adding that it was possible someone who has had contact with the man could develop Ebola in the coming weeks. “But there is no doubt in my mind that we will stop it here,” he said. Stanley Gaye, president of the Liberian Community Association of Dallas-Fort Worth, said the 10,000-strong Liberian population in North Texas is skeptical of the CDC’s assurances because Ebola has ravaged their country. “We’ve been telling people to try to stay away from social gatherings,” Gaye said at a community meeting Tuesday evening. Large get-togethers are a prominent part
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By Lou Sennick, The World
Morning fog and dew shimmers in small beads of water in the web of a cross orbweaver spider in North Bend on a recent morning. These female spiders can be found all over this time of year from door frames to shrubs and trees.According to a website from Portland State University on common spiders found in Oregon, the web spinner can roll the web into a ball before eating it and making a new web.
Details of presidential security lapses evolve BY EILEEN SULLIVAN The Associated Press
WASHINGTON — The embarrassing disclosures about lapses in presidential security just keep coming for the Secret Service. Despite more than three hours of questioning by House lawmakers on Tuesday, Secret Service Director Julia Pierson neglected to mention another security breach that occurred just days before a knife-carrying Army veteran climbed over the White House fence and sprinted into the executive mansion. On Sept. 16, an armed security contractor with three convictions for assault and battery rode on an elevator with President Barack Obama and his security detail at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, violating Secret Service protocol. The Washington Examiner and The Washington Post reported the details of that breach just hours after Pierson left a House hearing. A Secret Service spokesman confirmed the Atlanta elevator incident late Tuesday but did
not elaborate, citing an ongoing investigation of the episode. It was not clear whether the president or Pierson herself knew about the incident until recently. Pierson got a vote of low confidence from the lawmakers, who called for additional reviews into the agency’s poor response. The chairman of the House committee with oversight responsibilities for the Secret Service called for an independent commission to do a “top-to-bottom” review of the agency. “I am deeply concerned with the lack of transparency from the Secret Service regarding the recent security breach at the White House,” Rep. Michael McCaul, R-Texas, the chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, said of the Sept. 19 incident. “This latest episode adds to the growing list of failures from an agency plagued by operational challenges, cultural problems and reporting difficulties.” At Tuesday’s hearing, Pierson said she is the one who briefs Obama on threats to his personal security and said she had briefed him only once this year, “for the Sept. 19 incident.” She
Some medical pot users wary of legalization in Oregon
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PORTLAND (AP) — Alex Pavich is the last person you’d expect to be on the fence about marijuana legalization. The 39-year-old is a longtime marijuana consumer, using it to treat old injuries and calm his nerves. Pavich and his girlfriend, Aligra Rainy, 28, opened one of the first medical marijuana dispensaries in Portland, helping to launch what is now a regulated industry in Oregon. Today their
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shop, Collective Awakenings, is among the more well-known medical marijuana retailers in the state and bustles with patients. But Pavich isn’t sure whether he’ll vote for Initiative 91. The measure on November’s ballot would open the door to recreational marijuana in Oregon and make the state one of only three in the U.S. to allow anyone over 21 to possess pot. Pavich, a medical marijuana grower, worries recreational pot will shift the focus from patients to profit.
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“We are in the 21st century gold rush,” he said. “I see a lot of dollar signs in people’s eyes.” Medical and recreational marijuana users may seem like natural allies in the campaign for legalized pot, but Pavich’s ambivalence underscores mixed feelings and even misgivings among members of the medical cannabis community. Some worry recreational marijuana will overshadow and sideline the state’s medical marijuana program. They worry small-scale medical marijuana growers who
Daniel Handran, Coquille Duane Davis, Coos Bay Laura Perry, Vernonia Lowell Meyer, Bandon Lawrence Hammonds Jr., Lakeside
focus on producing high-quality cannabis for the chronically ill will be squeezed out of the market. They fear if recreational pot turns into a money-maker for the state, lawmakers may take a hard look at medical marijuana’s relevance. Then there’s the bottom line concern about more competition. “The growers like the status quo,” said Don Morse, who operates Human Collective II, a Southwest Portland dispensary. “They are able to maintain certain price points and (Initiative 91) could open up too much competition.
Margaret Perkins, Coos Bay James Beck, Falls City
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There are a lot of them that are not interested in seeing 91.” In Oregon, one of 23 medical marijuana states, patients may possess up to 24 ounces of cannabis at any time. They can grow up to six mature marijuana plants and 18 immature ones, or have someone do it for them. With few exceptions, medical marijuana sold in Oregon’s dispensaries is not taxed. Patients must see a doctor annually to renew their medical marijuana card and they must have one of a
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