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SATURDAY, JULY 5, 2014
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Solid US job gains point to stronger recovery
Lighthouse School heads to North Bend Middle School
O say can you see …
BY JOSH BOAK The Associated Press
Administrators scramble to order modulars, estimate renovation costs ■
WASHINGTON (AP) — The 5year-old U.S. recovery is gaining momentum from a surprisingly robust job market and moving the economy closer to full health. Employers added 288,000 jobs in June and helped cut the unemployment rate from 6.3 percent to 6.1 percent, the lowest since 2008. It was the fifth straight monthly gain above 200,000 — the best such stretch since the late 1990s tech boom. The stock market signaled its approval. The Dow Jones industrial average surged 92 points to top 17,000 for the first time. The breadth and consistency of the job growth are striking in part because of how poorly the year began. The economy shrank at a steep 2.9 percent annual rate in the January-March quarter as a harsh winter contributed to the sharpest contraction since the depths of the recession.
BY CHELSEA DAVIS The World
NORTH BEND — The North Bend School District is in a frenzy trying to find Lighthouse School a new home, which for now will be North Bend Middle School. North Bend school board member Julianna Seldon was the only board member to vote against reconfiguration in March, citing one big unknown: Lighthouse, the disI’ve had ongoing trict’s K-8 charter school, didn’t have a concerns that permanent home. Her worries came unfortunately I’m true Monday when sorry ended up Lighthouse called off its move to the former happening. ACS/Xerox call center due to an unexpected Julianna Seldon $300,000 in addition- North Bend school board member al construction costs. The decision left the school in limbo yet again, less than two months until its first day of school. “I’ve had ongoing concerns that unfortunately I’m sorry ended up happening,” Seldon said. The school board voted unanimously Thursday afternoon to offer Lighthouse 10 classrooms and
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“This has now become a textbook jobs expansion.” Patrick O’Keefe
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By Lou Sennick, The World
Bright fireworks light up the sky Thursday night over Coos Bay. Thousands found their spots to view the annual show put on by the Mill Casino and Hotel.This time exposure of the view is from Bayshore Drive.
Hours of work precede fireworks BY THOMAS MORIARTY The World
COOS BAY — From the boardwalk at The Mill Casino-Hotel, the fireworks Thursday night seem to come out of nowhere. But tucked away in the darkness are hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of preparations for what organizers say is one of the largest fireworks shows in the state. Thursday morning, Anthony Zunino and crew were busy loading fireworks shells into mortars aboard a barge docked at Knutson Towboat Company in Coos Bay. Zunino, a former police officer who owns Freedom Graphics in Bandon, has been working on the show for 14 years as a seasonal pyrotechnician for Western Pyrotechnics, a Canby-based company that puts on shows across the country. The shells range in size from barely an inch to monster 10-inch shells, the largest they can use within the barge’s distance to the casino. “We’ve got 1,450 feet (of set-back),” he said. “It’s more than we need.” Zunino said he originally got involved in pyrotechics when Ron Elliott, a fire-
fighter with the Bandon Rural Fire Protection District, told him he needed some help. Zunino later spent four years as an apprentice before getting his pytrotechnician’s license. To be certified to operate fireworks displays in Oregon, you have be 21 years old, have no felony and convictions have assisted on three or more displays within three More online: years of your appliThe World’s Tim cation. Novotny met up You also have to with Anthony Zunio on Thursday. take an approved See the video training course and theworldlink.com. pass a written exam. The work is mostly seasonal, revolving around Independence Day and New Year’s. “We all have day jobs,” Zunino said. “There’s not a lot of Valentine’s Day fireworks.” Even though the pay is infrequent, and SEE FIREWORKS | A8
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BY AMY MOSS STRONG The World
BANDON — World War II veterans Chuck Salt and Howard Wells did not serve their country to receive recognition. But it was still a thrill for the two Bandon residents to be honored recently with an allexpenses-paid trip to visit the World War II Memorial in Washington, D.C., through the Honor Flight Project. Wells, 88, a WWII Howard Wells Chuck Salt
Gary Britt, Coos Bay Helen Long, Coos Bay Roger Harms, North Bend Evelyn Gould, Coos Bay
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By Amy Moss Strong, The World
Bandon residents and World War II veterans Howard Wells and Chuck Salt went on an Honor Flight last month to Washington, D.C, to see veterans memorials, including the WWII Memorial.
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Yet employers have shrugged off that setback. They’ve kept hiring. The unemployment rate dipped from 6.3 percent in May to its lowest level since the financial crisis struck with full force in the fall of 2008, when the Wall Street firm Lehman Brothers went bankrupt. “This has now become a textbook jobs expansion,” said Patrick O’Keefe, director of economic research at the consultancy CohnReznick. “It is both broad and accelerating.” At least one nagging doubt is dampening the enthusiasm: Can the stepped-up hiring lead to higher incomes? Wages have yet to outpace inflation for most workers. Eventually, analysts say, the falling unemployment rate should cause pay to rise more sharply. But no one knows precisely when. The jobs report did make clear that, five years after the recession officially ended, the U.S. economy is showing more vitality even as major economies in Europe and Asia continue to struggle. Last month’s solid hiring followed gains of 217,000 jobs in May and 304,000 in April, figures that were revised upward by a combined 29,000. Over the past 12 months, the economy has added nearly 2.5 million jobs — an average of 208,000 a month, the fastest year-over-year pace since 2006. Economists say the steady U.S. hiring should fuel more purchases of goods from Asia and Europe and strengthen those economies at least slightly. Much of Europe is suffering from high unemployment. And China is trying to