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MONDAY, APRIL 28, 2014
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Becoming “Civil”-ized In historic year for Civil War buffs, local man shares his knowledge ■
BY TIM NOVOTNY The World
By Alysha Beck, The World
Water washes over a chunk of steel at a minus tide April 18 in the Coos Bay channel off Boat Basin Road in Charleston.John Hartman, who teaches an American Civil War adult education class at Southwestern, said he has identified the remnant as a piece of the Gussie Telfair steamer, a decommissioned Civil War ship that wrecked in Coos Bay in 1880.
COOS BAY — The country is in the midst of the sesquicentennial anniversary of the Civil War. And 150 years after the conflict that determined the fate of the nation, one local amateur historian is finding that it still resonates across generations.
John Hartman is a retired instrumental music director for the North Bend School District who, since 2010, has been teaching a community education class on the Civil War at Southwestern Oregon Community College. “I originally started out with one class, one term, and that covered the most important battles of the Civil War and then everybody said I should do a second term,” he said, after his most recent class got underway March 31. “And that’s kind of evolved to the point where I’m in my third go-round on this
three-term course for the Civil War.” He says people have taken an interest in his class for a variety of reasons. For many, it is the chance to connect with ancestors who played a role in the battles. Hartman himself falls into that category. “My family came from the area around Chattanooga, Tenn. Tennessee was a secessionist state but my family were Unionists and they sent six sons to the Union army, one son to the Confederate SEE CIVIL WAR | A8
4 in 5 U.S. students graduate
Bay Area shows it cares
BY KIMBERLY HELFING The Associated Press
WASHINGTON — U.S. public high schools have reached a milestone, an 80 percent graduation rate. Yet that still means 1 of every 5 students walks away without a diploma. Citing the progress, researchers are projecting a 90 percent national graduation rate by 2020. Their report, based on Education Department statistics from 2012, was presented Monday at the Building a GradNation Summit. The growth has been spurred by such factors as a greater awareness of the dropout problem and efforts by districts, states and the federal government to include graduation rates in accountability measures. Among the initiatives are closing “dropout factory” schools. In addition, schools are taking aggressive action, such as hiring intervention specialists who work with students one on one, to keep teenagers in class, researchers said. Growth in rates among African-American and Hispanic students helped fuel the gains. Most of the growth has occurred since 2006 after decades of stagnation. “At a moment when everything seems so broken and seems so unfixable ... this story tells you something completely different,” said John Gomperts, president of America’s Promise Alliance, which was founded by former Secretary of State Colin Powell and helped produce the report. Education Secretary Arne Duncan said Monday the country owes a debt of gratitude to teachers, students and families whose hard work helped the country reach the 80 percent mark. “But even as we celebrate this remarkable achievement, our students have limitless potential and we owe it to all of our children to work together so they all can achieve at higher levels,” Duncan said in a statement. The rate of 80 percent is based on federal statistics primarily using a calculation by which the number of graduates in a given is year divided by the number of students who enrolled four years earlier. Adjustments are made for trans-
Photos by Lou Sennick, The World
See the video for this story online at theworldlink.com/video
Delia Davila, front, and Emily Larsen trim hedges at a North Bend home Saturday morning. The two students from Southwestern Oregon Community College were helping the Zonta group for the Day of Caring through the United Way. About 215 volunteers fanned out around the Bay Area to mow lawns, clean guttters, haul trash and anything else that needed to be done at homes of seniors or the disabled who needed a hand with chores at 65 houses. Top, Miss Coos County Rande Jones,right,has some help weeding at a Coos Bay home from Emma Villegas,left,and Rhenner Stocker.
SEE GRADUATION | A8
GOP race for governor all but decided
Wheeling for a cause
INSIDE
He turned his hobby into raising money for a cause. Will King is bicycling from Vancouver, British Columbia, to Mexico and collecting funds for the Cystic Fibrosis Trust and Anthony Nolan charities, which help cystic fibrosis and cancer patients. “Vancouver to Mexico seemed doable,” King said. He arrived in Coos Bay on Friday, putting him nearly one-third of the way on his trip, or about 600 of the 2,000 or so miles. He said his goal of
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50 to 60 miles per day has been hampered by rainy weather. King began his journey April 14 and plans to break up the trip in two segments: The first ends right before Mexico and the second ends in Columbia. Since he wasn’t sure how the roads would be once he got further south, he decided to take a bus part of the way. He also isn’t collecting donations for the second leg. The whole trek required a fivemonth sabbatical from his job at a mining brokerage in London. The farthest he’s bicycled was SEE WHEELING | A8
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SALEM (AP) — Republicans will vote in the coming weeks on a nominee for governor, but the race was really decided last month, when former state party chairman Allen Alley said he wouldn’t jump in the race. That leaves state Rep. Dennis Richardson of Central Point to run against five political newcomers who have very little name recogni-
By Alysha Beck, The World
Will King is bicycling from Vancouver, British Columbia, to Mexico to raise money and awareness for the Cystic Fibrosis Trust and Anthony Nolan charities. He rode through the Bay Area on Friday on the trip that he estimates will take him about seven weeks.To learn more about the charities go to www.willgoeswandering.com.
Deadly twisters A powerful storm rips through the central part of the U.S., causing tornadoes which killed 16 people. Page A7
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