GAZA OFFENSIVE At least 10 killed including two children, A7
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Activists protest at Seneca Jones plant BY THOMAS MORIARTY The World
Mostly with residents wondering if enough is being done to combat mosquito issue ■
The Associated Press
Protesters gather in front of the Seneca Jones biomass cogeneration plant off Highway 99 north of Eugene on Monday. The Sheriff’s Office reported that six people were inside the mill and two had chained themselves to equipment.
BY AMY MOSS STRONG AND CHELSEA DAVIS
EUGENE — Environmental activists fired their first directaction salvo against the sale of contested Elliott State Forest lands Monday morning in a takeover of a Eugene biomass plant. Cordelia Finley, an activist with Cascadia Forest Defenders, said
three of the group’s members were arrested after attaching themselves to equipment at the Seneca Sawmill biomass plant in west Eugene. Two people chained themselves to a dump truck. “Someone inside the plant also attached (himself) to a conveyor SEE PROTEST | A8
Ready for the show
The World
BANDON — What’s an “acceptable level” of mosquitoes, does the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service have a handle of the problem on Bandon Marsh, and how will government officials deal with the issue next year are just a few of the questions the Coos County Vector Assessment and Control Committee faces at its bi-weekly meetings. Attendance at the meetings has decreased, but those who do come report fewer mosquitoes on their properties this year compared with last. In traps surrounding the marsh, mosquitoes counts have been in the range of 270 this week after a fly-off of mature Aedes dorsalis saltwater marsh mosquitoes around July 1. Last year, that number was 2,500. Does that mean a repeat of last year’s “summer of the mosquitoes” has been precluded? By most accounts the problem is much better this year, but not completely abated, according to residents and committee members. But some still feel USFWS isn’t doing enough. At the July 1 regular board meeting in Coquille, Coos County Commissioner John Sweet said USFWS has received bids to modify the marsh, and work is set to start in mid-July. At a previous meeting, Sweet said the larvicide application by Vector Disease Control International seemed to be working. Bandon resident Rob Taylor disagrees. His nonprofit, Coos County Today, is working to establish noninvasive mosquito management practices, including lavender application. “I’m still not sure why you speak so glowingly of how U.S. Fish and Wildlife is doing such a great job down there when at the last meeting I attended they said they only have five mosquito traps out,” Taylor told Sweet at the meeting. “You can’t report mosquitoes if you don’t find mosquitoes.” Resident Don Chance also is skeptical of any reported mosquito abatement. He said spraying the larvicide Bti over 140 acres, which was done June 14 and 15, directly following the highest tide of the month, was not as effective as spraying the entire 900-some acres of the Ni-les’tun Unit of the SEE BANDON | A8
By Alysha Beck, The World
Dancers (left to right) Kiersten Martin, Anna Brechiesen, Hannah Kintner and Aime Brecheisen rehearse their number to the song “White Lightning” for the Little Ole Opry on the Bay Classic Country show, starting Saturday at 7 p.m. at Little Theatre on the Bay in North Bend.
Lighthouse agrees to middle school move Charter school will move to North Bend Middle School ■
BY CHELSEA DAVIS The World
NORTH BEND — Lighthouse School is prepared to “make do” with a total relocation to North Bend Middle School. The Lighthouse school board voted unanimously Sunday afternoon to approve the school’s move to North Bend Middle School, paving the way for district officials to order modular classrooms and put in place plans for Internet wiring, lighting, electric hookups and more. On Thursday, the North Bend school board gave the plan conditional approval, as long as Lighthouse came back with a decision by the end of the weekend.
“It’s going to be tight, but the district is doing what they can for us and we appreciate that,” said Lighthouse director Wade Lester. “They’ve been able to keep us together, which was really crucial. We’re going to be flexible and move forward with a positive attitude.” The first day of school will almost definitely be delayed, he said. The K-8 charter school was supposed to open its doors Aug. 20, but will probably open Sept. 3 with the rest of the district “unless things really fly through.” The next obstacle is getting permits from the North Bend Planning Commission to site the modulars. That can’t happen until the commission’s Aug. 18 meeting. During reconfiguration discussions this spring, Lighthouse parents weren’t fond of two of the options, which would have put their students in the middle school. “It’s very scary for us to think about this change,” said Lighthouse parent Julie Graber at a March reconfiguration meeting. “My biggest
fear, honestly, in moving is it will be very difficult for our middle school students not to want to be involved with the other middle school kids.” Lester said if he was a Lighthouse parent, he would be concerned about merging the youngest students with grades 6-8 at the middle school. “But the truth is our young kids hung out with our older kids as it were,” he said. “It’s an opportunity for the older kids at the middle school to step up and be good role models. “There’s worries, though. We really don’t want to lose what we’ve become. But in order for us to stay together as one school, that kind of trumps everything. We say we’ll be creative and flexible, and now’s our chance to prove it.” Having Lighthouse in town will be more convenient for most parents. He said 80 to 85 percent of Lighthouse families live in Coos Bay SEE MOVE | A8
State agency’s control over modified crops is limited
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rendered non-engineered crops unsellable on the export market. It came after lawmakers adopted a bill to ban county governments from regulating GMOs on their own. Jackson County was exempted from the law because a measure already had qualified for the ballot. Residents in that county voted to ban genetically engineered crops in May. State regulators say Oregon law does not require farmers to submit cropping information to the state Department of Agriculture, making the mapping of genetically engineered crops impossible. The state receives notification of pro-
Ona Smith, Langlois Travis Elbert, Coos Bay Joyce Edwards, Coos Bay James Russell, Coos County William Tankersley, Gold Beach
posed GMO field trials from the USDA — but such notifications often don’t include the county where the trials are taking place, and never include the specific locations of fields. More than a decade ago, the state established one control area for genetically engineered bentgrass in central Oregon, requiring buffer zones and other measures. The GE bentgrass was grown as part of field trials, meaning it wasn’t yet deemed safe for commercial cultivation. Oregon regulators say they can provide input and monitor trials of GE crops designed to produce vaccines, drugs, enzymes or other
Roy Baker, Coos Bay Mary Balint, Lakeside Lawrence Schneider, Bandon
Obituaries | A5
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authority over the crop. In October, Kitzhaber directed the state Agriculture Department to use its authority to deal with conflicts between GE and non-GE crops, including by creating a statewide mapping system for GMO field locations, establishing buffer zones and exclusion areas. But the department’s letter to Kitzhaber shows its authority for dealing with GE issues is limited. The governor also announced the creation of a task force to study issues related to GMOs, such as mapping and labeling. The move was spurred by several instances of genetic contamination in the region that
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PORTLAND (AP) — Oregon agriculture officials say the state has no authority over genetically modified crops once federal regulators deem them safe for commercial use. In a letter to Gov. John Kitzhaber, the Oregon Department of Agriculture said state law allows it to create “control areas” for genetically engineered crops to deal with pests and disease. But it can create such areas only for GE crops that are in the trial phase. Officials say once a GE crop is “deregulated” by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, it is deemed not to be a carrier of pests or disease — and the state loses
medicinal compounds — so-called biopharmaceuticals. But to date, the state hasn’t received notification of any biopharmaceutical crop trials in Oregon. Oregon regulators say the legislature could grant them the option to map GMOs or otherwise regulate genetically engineered crops. The governor has said he could introduce new GMO-related legislation in the 2015 session. And Oregonians could soon have a say on GMO labeling: Proponents of a ballot measure to require the labeling say they have submitted enough signatures to qualify the measure for a statewide vote in November.
Mostly sunny 67/58 Weather | A8