TOUGH WEEKEND
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MONDAY, MARCH 3, 2014
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theworldlink.com
BY CHARLES BABINGTON AND ANDREW TAYLOR The Associated Press
By Lou Sennick, The World
People walk across the new tile sidewalk in front of the Egyptian Theatre on Saturday during the Walk Like An Egyptian event. The new sidewalk was unveiled and people had a chance to walk across for a little while before it was covered up again for the facade work on the restoration project. The sidewalk is part of the long list of things done to the historic theater in downtown Coos Bay during the renovation project. The theater is expected to reopen for movies and shows sometime this summer. Top, Coos Bay mayor Crystal Shoji joins the group for the event. See the video at theworldlink.com/video
Medical center gets cool new cosmetic surgery procedure BY EMILY THORNTON The World
WASHINGTON — The budget gurus in Congress have failed for years to find a grand bargain to reduce the government’s long-term debt, so this year they decided to go small. Just 1 percentage point would be shaved from the annual cost-of-living increase in military pensions for veterans under age 62. That strategy failed, too. Congress promptly caved in to pressure from the powerful veterans lobby and voted last month to restore the bigger pension increases it had cut just two months earlier. It didn’t matter that the Pentagon itself called the reduction fair and necessary. Advocates of deficit reduction are discouraged. They say they fear Congress’ reversal on military pensions will lead to unraveling other recent spending cuts. “It’s tough to overstate how devastating that was,” said Sen. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., one of just three senators who voted to keep the pension reduction in place. “It’s back to the drawing board, because that was a big blow.” Vague bromides and promises about deficits and spending are easy for politicians. Real spending cuts aren’t. Despite all the national talk of needing to tackle deficit spending, the military pensions debacle illustrates how Americans and their elected officials continue to resist — often fiercely — cuts to almost any specific program, big or small.
“They picked one thing, and it stuck out like a sore thumb,” said Bob Bixby of the bipartisan Concord Coalition, which advocates lower deficits. The military pension vote signals the end of spending discipline efforts for a time, said Maya MacGuineas, president of the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, and may make it easier to reverse other cuts. Indeed, little-noticed but telling events over the past few weeks show lawmakers and the White House are backsliding on spending cuts. President Barack Obama, who’s scheduled to release his own federal budget Tuesday, reversed course on a deeply contentious proposal that would curb cost-of-living increases in Social Security. Republicans criticized Obama for backing down but then blasted the administration as it announced it was implementing a new round of Medicare cuts that Congress included in the health care overhaul four years ago. Congress also is in the process of significantly weakening changes aimed at reforming the much-criticized federal flood insurance program made less than two years ago. And defense hawks are squealing over cuts in Pentagon spending required under a 2011 budget deal that has hit the military hard. “I fear we’ll spend the next month unraveling every ittybitty bit of progress we’ve made,” MacGuineas said. Congress agreed in December SEE SPENDING | A8
Signing up seniors to receive food aid BY EMILY THORNTON
minimum received is $16 per month, with most senior households receiving $90 per month. COOS BAY — The Retired and Other support is also available, Senior Volunteer Program has such as telephone assistance and made progress in its quest to farmers’ market vouchers. Unfortunately, the efforts to sign up more elderly people for help seniors enroll in the Supplemental the program and avoid Nutrition Assistance hunger may be hamProgram. SNAP pered. RSVP didn’t Christine Coles, For more inforreceive the federal who heads up RSVP, mation on the grant they expected. It said she, Laurie Supplemental means Coles will be Voshell and Terri Nutrition Assistance out of a job June 30. Creager have given out Program or the “No one (here) got 110 applications for Retired & Senior funding,” she said. SNAP at area senior Volunteer Program, Oregon Coast centers since January. call 541-888-7353. Community Action She said they applied for the grant in explained the program and provided the first two pages lieu of RSVP doing it alone. Coles of the application to start the said they were going to add RSVP process. They have received four to ORCCA because they were of the applications back. She both nonprofit organizations. She said she was apprehensaid they plan to make the rounds again, but haven’t set sive about RSVP’s future. “It’s such a shame. It’s such dates. “It’s been very successful, an incredible program,” she said. Reporter Emily Thornton can that’s what pleased me,” Coles be reached at 541-269-1222, ext. said. She said people shouldn’t be 249 or at emily.thornton@theworried about a stigma, especial- worldlink.com or on Twitter: ly since everyone pays into it. The @EmilyK_Thornton.
By Lou Sennick, The World
Shannon Lyon, left, and Mindi Wilson are both medical assistants and they show the new Coolsculpting machine in Dr. Steven Tersigni’s office at the North Bend Medical Center. cent of their fat in treated areas, which doesn’t grow back, he said. Instead, the body rids it as it would any other waste, through urine or feces, he said. “It’s not for the obese,” Tersigni said. “It’s for those difficult pockets of fat they’ve had their whole life and can’t get rid of.” Tersigni said the area treated won’t get fat cells again; however, he said fat cells in other areas will grow if people don’t follow healthy eating and exercise habits. “The fat won’t come back in that area,” he said. “Fat cells don’t regrow ... the body distributes fat however it’s going to.” There have been about 58 “adverse event” reports made to the FDA by various patients, which may be viewed on the agency’s website. The claims vary from excess pain to injuries. Tersigni estimated about a
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million procedures have been performed. The cost varies from about $700 for a small application to about $1,000 for a larger one, Tersigni said. Since it is a cosmetic procedure, most insurers likely won’t cover it, he said. Shannon Lyon, one of Tersigni’s medical assistants, said she noticed results after one application with Tersigni and would likely have more done. She also said she enjoys its noninvasiveness. “It’s a simple process,” Lyon said. “There’s no surgical delay. There’s really no down time.” Another assistant and patient, Mindi Wilson, said she noticed results as well. “It’s taken out my distinct bulges,” Wilson said. “My clothes SEE SURGERY | A8
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COOS BAY — A relatively new trend in cosmetic surgery has arrived on the South Coast. CoolSculpting, a technique known as cryolipolysis, freezes fat cells through the skin. It will be available at North Bend Medical Center after March 11. The method has been used since 2010, when the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved the device, which is owned by Zeltiq. Now, it has worked its Free seminar way to Dr. Steven Dr. Steven A. Tersigni Tersigni’s will hold a free seminar practice. on CoolSculpting Tuesday, In the March 11, 6:30 p.m., in procedure, the conference room at a noninva1900 Woodland Drive, s i v e Coos Bay. Those interestapplicator ed in attending should resembling call 541-267-5151, ext. 1360 to reserve a seat. the suction end on a vacuum freezes the area. The skin is affected temporarily, Tersigni said. “It sucks the tissue up,” he said. “The sensation is that you feel cold for the first five minutes or so, then you don’t feel anything as the process continues.” He said the area can be numb for one to two weeks and likely will be bruised and tender. The procedure takes one or two hours, so can be done during someone’s lunch break, he said. Multiple applications usually are needed and it takes several months to see results, he said. “It’s really kind of an interesting technology,” Tersigni said. Most people lose about 20 per-
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