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TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 2, 2014
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Reedsport planners eye code changes
Charleston man dies on fishing excursion
BY STEVE LINDSLEY The World
REEDSPORT — The Reedsport Planning Commission will have a lot of work to do in the next few months as it reviews proposed code amendments and additions to the Reedsport Land Usage Ordinance. Some of those proposed changes were outlined in a work session Aug. 25. Amendments have been proposed for the Home Occupation section, where some businesses may be operated out of homes. “We’re looking at the size and scope of some of the operations occurring in residential
NEWPORT (AP) — Oregon State Police say a 70-year old Charleston man died on a fishing trip in the Pacific Ocean. The fishing vessel Carolyn Ruth arrived at the Coast Guard station in Newport with the body of Eugene Compton of Charleston. The captain of the boat told investigators that Compton wasn’t feeling well when he went to bed Saturday. Compton got up sometime during the night, and the captain found him dead Sunday morning. Police said Monday that Compton appears to have died from natural causes, but the investigation continues with help from the Lincoln County medical examiner.
zones,” Reedsport City Manager Jonathan Wright told the commission, “and trying to figure out how we regulate them before they become an issue. How do we help people out by deregulating that don’t cause significant impact?” He said that includes notifying neighbors and the public about proposed uses. “So the applicants can be successful, as well as the neighborhood get their compatibility (issues) addressed,” Wright said. Wright said one proposal for the commission to consider would be a “minor” and a “major” home occupation. A proposal for a minor home occupation
would be a proposed business that operates within a home, the home to be used as a place of work only by residents and no customers or employees would come to the site. Examples would be writers, artists, phone orders, Internet sales and bookkeeping. “It’s grandma who does sewing,” Wright said. “She takes things in, she makes money off. She’s still required to have a business license — ‘Granny’s Sewing.’ But, she’s not really impacting the neighborhood. There’s not a lot of traffic. There’s not a lot of activity associated with her operating it.” SEE REEDSPORT | A8
Another beautiful sunset
Obama promotes economic advances BY JIM KUHNHENN The Associated Press
MEDFORD (AP) — Midway through an early harvest, one of the world’s largest pear growers says its Rogue Valley crop isn’t meeting expectations. Medford-based Naumes Inc. said the harvest is two weeks ahead of schedule and it looks like the yield will be 15 percent below normal. The company says the culprit was a two-day freeze in late March. Bartlett production, coming off a short year in 2013, was above estimates by about 12 percent, company President Mike Naumes told the Mail Tribune. But Comice yields were 20 percent under estimates, and the winter pears — Bosc, and red and green D’Anjou — will fall short of prior estimates. “We just don’t have the fruit in the trees,” he said. Local pear sales bring in $30 million to $40 million each year, and the industry’s ripple effect adds up to about 15 percent of Jackson County’s gross domestic product, according to Oregon State
University estimates. Though the harvest isn’t spectacular, the company faced bigger problems in Washington state, where a July wildfire east of the Cascade Range destroyed an employee’s home and 7 miles of deer fence surrounding 12,000 trees. “Sometimes it totally burned up a tree, and in other cases it just scorched it,” Naumes said. The company lost electricity to the site and brought in generators to run two six-horsepower pumps and a series of booster pumps to move water 1,400 feet from the Columbia River into a 9-million gallon storage tank. “We burned through $100,000 of diesel just to run the generators for a week,” Naumes said, adding that insurance did not cover the loss of the deer fence. Back in southern Oregon, Naumes said the harvest itself has gone smoothly despite a lack of pickers.
1-800-FLOWERS is buying Harry & David for $142.5M CARLE PLACE, N.Y. (AP) — 1800-FLOWERS.COM Inc. is buying Harry & David for $142.5 million to help broaden the assortment of foods that its customers can choose as gifts. The deal includes Harry & David Holdings Inc.’s brands, websites, 47 retail stores, some plants, orchards and its headquarters in Medford. Harry & David’s fruit, food and other gifts are housed under brands including Wolferman’s, Cushman’s and its namesake. Products include Harry & David Royal Riviera pears, Tower of
“That’s an ongoing problem,” he said. “The good news is that we’re right where we need to be in order
Treats gifts, Fruit-of-theMonth Club products, Wolferman’s specialty English muffins and other breakfast products and Cushman’s HoneyBells citrus gifts. brands 1-800-FLOWERS’ already include Fannie May, Cheryl’s and The Popcorn Factory. Harry & David will become a subsidiary of 1-800-FLOWERS. Its current senior management staff will remain with the business. The transaction is expected to close in October. to get the rest of the crop off in the right time frame with the maturity level spread out.”
Iraqi prime minister pledges to root out militants BY SAMEER N. YACOUB The Associated Press
BAGHDAD — Iraq’s outgoing prime minster pledged Monday to turn his country into “a big grave” for Sunni militants from the Islamic State group and commended security forces who achieved a rare victory over insurgents by ending the siege of a Shiite town. Nouri al-Maliki made the comments during an unannounced visit to the northern community of Amirli, where he was greeted with hugs. A day earlier, Iraqi forces backed by Iran-allied Shiite mili-
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tias and U.S. airstrikes broke a twomonth siege of the town where some 15,000 Shiite Turkmens had been stranded. In footage aired on state TV, alMaliki was shown sitting at a wooden desk in front of a large poster of Shiite leader Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistsani, ordering promotions and awards for those who fought in the battle. “I salute you for your steadfastness and patience against those beasts and killers,” he told a gathering of fighters in a large hall as they chanted Shiite religious slogans. He vowed to root out Sunni mili-
tants from areas they control in the country. “All Iraq will be a grave for those infidels, and we will send all the IS (Islamic State) gang to death,” he added. Hours before the visit, humanitarian aid began flowing to the town. Four trucks loaded with food and medicine arrived after being sent by the Iraqi government and the Iraqi Red Crescent, according to Ali al-Bayati, who heads the aid organization called the Turkmen Saving Foundation. Soldiers began bringing food to families in their
Tough test Phyllis Farmer, Coos Bay Margaret Brookes, Coos Bay Erivin Jacobs, North Bend
Obituaries | A5
As students head back to school, they will be facing a rigorous Smarter Balanced test in the spring. Page A5
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Oregon pear harvest coming up short
STATE
INSIDE
SEE ECONOMY | A8
By Lou Sennick, The World
The disk of the sun appears behind different layers of clouds over the Pacific Ocean as it sets Sunday evening. This view of the sunset is in North Bend in front of the BLM offices near the airport.
DEATHS
WASHINGTON — Boosted by recent economic gains, President Barack Obama is sounding more bullish about the nation’s recovery from the Great Recession and the White House is encouraging Democrats to show similar optimism as they head into the November mid-term elections. Despite turmoil in the Middle East and along the Ukraine-Russia border, the top issue with Americans remains the economy. And while consumer confidence appears to be improving, the public remains anxious over the recovery’s reach and sustainability. On Monday, Obama scheduled a Labor Day speech in Milwaukee, Wisc., to promote the economy in a state that was the epicenter of a fight over the collective bargaining rights of public employees. He’s also pressing the case for a federal increase in the minimum wage — a top issue for Democrats. Vice President Joe Biden took a similar Labor Day message to Detroit, telling hundreds of union members Monday they deserve a “fair share” of any improvement in corporate profits. Until now, Obama and his aides had been cautious about drawing too much attention to positive economic trends, worried that some may prove illusory or that, even if true, not all Americans were benefiting from them. White House aides still insist they are not declaring full victory over the lingering effects of a recession that ended five years ago. But White House officials believe it is time to highlight recent improvements, in part to strengthen what is a difficult for environment political Democrats and to counter public perceptions that are eroding the president’s public approval. Officials say Obama’s most compelling case is to compare the economy now with what he inherited in 2009 in the aftermath of a near Wall Street meltdown. “The one thing that I can say is that because of the incredible resilience and strength of the American people, but also because we made some good decisions even though they were tough at
houses Sunday night. “The situation is getting back to normal, but gradually,” al-Bayati told The Associated Press. “Some people have come out from their houses and walked in the street. Shops are still closed, but people are happy to see their city secured by Iraqi security forces.” Shiite Turkmen lawmaker Fawzi Akram al-Tarzi said the U.S. airstrikes and Iranian support for Iraqi forces “have played a positive role in defeating the terrorists,” although he said the airstrikes
Mostly sunny 65/55 Weather | A8
SEE IRAQ | A8