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THURSDAY, APRIL 24, 2014
Serving Oregon’s South Coast Since 1878
BY THOMAS MORIARTY The World
COOS BAY — When the Lady Washington and the Hawaiian Chieftain sail into Coos Bay this year, their annual visit will have a renewed significance. During its April 15 meeting, the Coos Bay City Council voted unanimously to designate the bay as the Tall Ship Port of Oregon. Councilor Tom Leahy spearheaded the proposal, intended to
THE WORLD NORTH BEND — Oregon’s angling community will have the opportunity to voice its opinion on a controversial fish management plan Friday at The Mill Casino-Hotel. The state Fish and Wildlife Commission is scheduled to meet at 8 a.m. to discuss, among other things, the Coastal Multi-Species Management Plan. The plan, intended to meet the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife’s obligations under the Native Fish Conservation Policy, would change the number of steelhead and salmon released from some volunteer-run fish hatcheries on coastal river systems, including the Coos, Coquille and Elk rivers. State regulators have concern that expressed hatchery fish pose a genetic threat to native fish populations, while many anglers are worried cuts or shifts in hatchery releases will undermine recreational fishing opportunities on the coast. The commission isn’t planning to make a decision until its June meeting, and will be taking public comment in North Bend.
just back off on sugar, our bodies will perform better.” LInda Hicks Community education coordinator, Bay Area Hospital
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New additions to Tall Ship Days
Fishing policy meeting Friday
“If we can
Three U.S. doctors killed in Afghanistan, A7
celebrate the city’s maritime history. Dozens of tall ships were built in the area in the late 1800s, mostly at Asa Simpson’s shipyard in North Bend. Leahy, a founding member of the Coos Bay Boat Building Center, has been instrumental in bringing the ships to the area over the years. “We’ll have a functional sheepskin proclamation that we’ll read to kick things off,” he said. Operated by Grays Harbor
Historical Seaport Authority in Washington, the Lady Washington has been visiting the South Coast annually for more than 15 years. In recent years, the Hawaiian Chieftain has also made the voyage, with the pair holding mock battles in the bay. The event, called Tall Ship Days, organized by the Coos Bay Downtown Association and the Boat Building Center, runs May 2-10. The second weekend will include an organized pub crawl
through downtown Coos Bay and, new this year, the opportunity to go up into the ships’ rigging. “We’re looking at having people being able to go aloft in a harness,” Leahy said. “It takes a lot of coordination by the crew.” Leahy said the kickoff is tentatively planned for 4 p.m. May 2, at the Coos Bay Boardwalk. Reporter Thomas Moriarty can be reached at 541-269-1222, ext. 240, or by email at thomas.moriarty@theworldlink.com.
Who needs umbrellas?
By Lou Sennick, The World
Rain does not deter four dogs and their humans from taking a stroll though Mingus Park on Wednesday afternoon. They were just as happy as the ducks and geese in this weather. The forecast is calling for more of the wet stuff between now and Sunday night.
Program aims to cut sugar consumption BY EMILY THORNTON The World
COOS BAY — They may be sweet and taste good, but might not be the best choice to quench thirst. Sugary drinks should be avoided, according to Linda Hicks, nurse and community education coordinator at Bay Area Hospital. The hospital and other area organizations will have an incentive program to encourage residents to cut back on the sweet substance. ReThink Your Drink Coos County will offer prizes for replacing high-calorie drinks
with healthier choices, like water. From May 5 to June 2, residents can tally what they drink each week for a chance to win an aluminum travel mug. A grand prize drawing of four $300 cash cards also will be offered at the end of the program. Hicks recommended drinking a quart of water per 100 pounds of body weight per day. “The more tissue you have, the more water you need to wash through,” she said. Hicks mentioned ways to make water taste better, including boiling it and letting it sit overnight without a lid; freezing it in plastic bottles (nonbisphenol A) and
drinking it as it thawed; adding slices of lemon, lime, orange or other fruit; adding no more than 1 ⁄4 cup of 100 percent juice to a 20-ounce glass of water; and using club soda. Overconsumption of sugar is linked to obesity, diabetes, heart disease, hypertension, stroke, arthritis and some cancers, Hicks said. Those diseases are prevalent in Coos County. “It’s hard for the body to compensate and maintain health (with too much sugar),” Hicks said. About 36.8 percent of Coos County adults were overweight
in 2012, according to the 2013 Community Health Assessment from the Coos County Public Health Department. There were 27.3 percent obese residents, the report said. The numbers were similar to those statewide. The assessment also said diabetes was the fourth-leading cause of premature death in the county in 2011 and affected 11 percent of residents, as compared to 6.8 percent in Oregon. Hicks said the average American ate 7.5 pounds of sugar per year in 1700. In 1900, the figure jumped to 90 pounds and
Do your part ReThink Your Drink Coos County tally sheets and dropoff boxes are available at: Bay Area Hospital, North Bend Medical Center, Coquille Valley Hospital, Southern Coos Hospital, Coos County Public Health, Bay Clinic, Waterfall Community Health Center and Bandon Community Health Clinic. For more information, visit www.rethinkyourdrinkcoos. com or call Linda Hicks at 541-266-7927 or email her at linda.hicks@bayareahospital.org.
SEE SUGAR | A8
Technology group to decide Cover Oregon’s future
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hybrid paper-online process to sign up for insurance. A Cover Oregon contractor estimated the least expensive option for salvaging Cover Oregon’s website would be to replace it with the federally run marketplace, at a cost of $4 million to $6 million. Fixing Cover Oregon’s existing system with the help of a new technology contractor would cost $25.5 million in development and maintenance costs just this year — not counting 2015 costs, according to the estimates. It’s unclear whether the state or the federal government will pay for the expense.
Earlier this month, Maryland — another state with a glitch-filled exchange site — chose to revamp its exchange by using technology that successful in has proved Connecticut. The Cover Oregon technology committee has rejected that option, with officials saying transferring technology from another state would be too expensive and take too long. So far, about 240,000 Oregonians have enrolled in coverage through Cover Oregon. More than 69,000 of those enrolled in private health plans, while 171,000 enrolled in the Oregon Health Plan,
Spilled water Francis Perry, North Bend
Obituaries | A5
A section of downtown Corvallis is flooded after a broken water main pumps 800,000 gallons of water onto the streets. Page A5
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PORTLAND — After weeks of deliberation, a committee is poised to make a final recommendation Thursday on what to do with Oregon’s botched health insurance exchange portal. The technology committee will decide whether Cover Oregon should ditch its glitch-filled website and replace it with the federal government’s health insurance marketplace, or try to fix the existing system with the help of a new IT contractor. The decision comes nearly seven
months after Oregon’s exchange was supposed to go live so that residents could use it to compare and buy health insurance plans. Cover Oregon’s website is seen as the worst of the more than a dozen exchanges; state-developed Oregon was the only state to receive a monthlong enrollment extension. With a week left to enroll, Oregonians still can’t use Cover Oregon’s portal to sign up for coverage in one sitting, despite an early start building the site and millions of dollars from the federal government. Instead, the general public must use a costly, time-consuming,
STATE
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DEATHS
BY GOSIA WOZNIACKA
the state’s version of Medicaid. An independent investigation ordered by Gov. John Kitzhaber found state managers repeatedly failed to heed reports about technical problems that prevented the exchange from launching. It also found that Cover Oregon’s main technology contractor, Oracle Corp., did a shoddy job in building the exchange. Four Oregon officials connected to the portal’s development have resigned. Cover Oregon has paid $134 million in federal funding to Oracle and has spent another nearly $7 million on the paper processing efforts.
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