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THURSDAY, APRIL 17, 2014
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Nurse Karen is Oregon’s school nurse of the year BY CHELSEA DAVIS The World
Photo contributed by Trami Cron
The American flag is held unfolded by the honor guard.An Army veteran who served in Vietnam,Norton was buried with standard military honors.The memorial took place at Arlington National Cemetery, surrounded by a sea of white tombstones, where Jerry's ashes will be buried.
Marshfield grad leaves a lasting legacy BY TIM NOVOTNY The World
COOS BAY — Jerry Norton graduated from Marshfield High School in 1964. He went on to see, and chronicle, some of the best and the worst that this world has to offer. His many friends will tell you that Norton himself was among the best. The longtime journalist, National Press Club member, and Vietnam vet, was buried at Arlington National Cemetery on Friday. The 67-year-old died Dec.15, after a 14-month battle with a brain tumor. Rich Adamson was among his earliest friends, having met Norton in nursery school in Coos Bay. He remembers Norton as a welcoming and easy-going person. “The thing about Jerry, he was incredibly intelligent but didn’t wear his IQ on his sleeve. By Tim Novotny, The World He was just nice to Highly intelligent, friends say Norton wasn’t one to “wear his IQ on said his sleeve.” everybody,” Adamson. Speaking by phone from his Wash., Shelton, home Adamson said he can still remember something he read in Norton’s high school annual about 50 years ago. “I can’t who remember wrote it, but it said ‘Jerry, when you get to the White House, please hire me as your head janitor.’” He never made it By Tim Novotny, The World the White House, to A lifetime journalist, Jerry Norton but he sure got to see began his career as the editor of the By Tim Novotny, The World a lot of the world Marshfield High School newspaper. during his lifetime. One of his stories from high school displays the depth of understandAfter graduating ing Norton brought to the field of journalism throughout his career. Phi Beta Kappa from the University of Oregon, Norton joined the Army. After serving a tour of duty in Vietnam So he went back to school, earning a masters degree he returned home with shrapnel in his body, a purple from Columbia University, before heading back overseas to heart, and other decorations. serve as business editor of the South China Morning Post. Newspapering though was his first love, and he According to the National Press Club, he was twice returned to it with gusto. He had been a reporter and based in Singapore and twice president of Singapore’s editor for the school newspaper at Marshfield; even his Foreign Correspondents Association, besides being a graduation speech, titled “Black and White,” focused on print journalism. SEE NORTON | A8
COOS BAY — The top school nurse in the state helps kids right here on the South Coast. Karen Brown, district nurse coordinator for Coos Bay schools, was named Oregon School Nurse of the Year at the Oregon School Nurses Association’s annual conference April 3. Around 230 school nurses statewide are ONSA members. Thousands of Coos Bay students have known her as Nurse Karen for the last 20 years. Typically, she serves 1,200 K-7 students in two schools. When she’s on call, that jumps to 3,000 K-12 students. “This award is really gratifying,” Brown said. “To be acknowledged by my peers, by Coos Bay School District staff who submitted the application ... to be a rural nurse, this is an amazing honor. I see it as more of the community being honored and my fellow nurses.” Coos Bay schools special education director Lisa DeSalvio nominated Brown for the award. “This ‘I will,’ ‘Can do it,’ ‘Little Red Hen Lady’ has had a great impact on myself with her creativity and nursing work ethic bar none,” DeSalvio wrote in her nomination form. “Her never-ending innovations, promoting ideas, broad and current knowledge base on health, teaching colleagues and building relationships is all in a day’s work for her.” SEE NURSE | A8
Oracle: Don’t blame us PORTLAND (AP) — After six months of near silence about the problems at Cover Oregon, the project’s main technology contractor says it’s not to blame for the failed launch of Oregon’s health insurance exchange. In a letter to Cover Oregon’s temporary leadership last week, obtained by The Associated Press, Oracle Corp. President and Chief Financial Officer Safra Catz wrote that Oracle provided “clear and repeated warnings” to Cover Oregon that the exchange website would not be ready to launch last October. This assertion goes directly against what Oregon officials have told the public and independent investigators who reviewed the project: that Oracle was to blame because the tech giant’s staff regularly reassured the state that the portal was almost ready, asserting that the next release of the website would work. It didn’t. Despite promises that the exchange would soon launch to the public, Cover Oregon and Oracle missed deadline after deadline. More than six months SEE ORACLE | A8
Court to weigh challenge to ban campaign lies WASHINGTON (AP) — As political campaigns begin to heat up, the Supreme Court is deciding whether false accusations and mudslinging made during an election can be punished as a crime. Addressing an issue of negative campaigning that now may be a fact of life in American politics, justices will consider a challenge to an Ohio law that bars false statements about political candidates. The case being heard next week has attracted national attention, with least 15 other states having similar laws. Groups across the political spectrum are criticizing the law as a restriction on the First Amendment right to free speech. Even Ohio’s attorney general, Republican Mike DeWine, says he has serious concerns about the law. His
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