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Trent Messerle loses battle with cancer BY CHELSEA DAVIS The World
COOS BAY — Never surrender. That was the message throughout Trent Messerle's battle with glioblastoma multiforme, a rapidly growing brain tumor. The 26-yearold Coos Bay native was diagnosed with GBM three years ago. Trent died Saturday afternoon, said his
cousin, Amee Springsteen. A recent round of 18 radiation treatments had shrunk the tumors, which doctors said was a good sign. They planned on giving him an MRI every three months to see how he was progressing. While he had lost some of his eyesight and coordination on his right side, his mother, Betsy Messerle, said he was fighting for
recovery. He died just a day after his name was thrown into the local limelight. The North Bend and two Coos Bay Dutch Bros. Coffee locations sponsored "Dutch Love for Trent" on Friday, donating a dollar from every drink toward his medical expenses. "Trent was a genuinely wonderful person who will be missed very much by a lot of people,"
Springsteen said. A spaghetti feed, silent auction and dessert auction are still being organized for next month. The event is planned for 2 p.m. Oct. 19 at the North Bend Community Center. Cost is $10 for adults, $5 for children 4-10 and free for kids 3 and under. Chair massages will be provided by Serenity Therapy for $1 per minute. Local country music
band Border Patrol will provide live entertainment and guests are asked to dress in western gear to honor Trent. All proceeds will go to the Messerle family. Drop-off points for items, including those for the silent auction, are at Shear Heaven, 357 S. Second St., in Coos Bay, and Edward Jones, 2195 Broadway St., in North Bend.
Grant helps DUII patrol
One that didn’t get away
Multi-agency funds allow local departments to patrol on overtime, with having to cover the extra cost ■
BY TIM NOVOTNY The World
By Lou Sennick, The World
Harold Wornath, in the back of the boat, fights and lands a coho salmon Monday morning at the mouth of the Coos River near Catching Slough. Another fisherman in the same boat missed catching a salmon a few minutes earlier after a sea lion grabbed the fish off the line.
Immigration
Efforts to oust Assad on hold
Schools scramble to help teens
BY JULIE PACE The Associated Press
BY KIMBERLY HEFLING The Associated Press
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The Associated Press
Sen. Jeff Merkley, D-Ore., seen here in 2013, has become one of Congress’s strongest champions for progressive causes, from cracking down on Wall Street to promoting gay rights.
Now a progressive champion, Merkley eyes second term BY JONATHAN J. COOPER The Associated Press
PORTLAND — Jeff Merkley, who was chosen by the Democratic Party establishment over a liberal activist in his first run for U.S. Senate, makes an unlikely hero for the party’s left wing. But in the six years since going to Washington, he has become one of Congress’ strongest champions for progressive causes — from cracking down on Wall Street to promoting gay rights. Merkley is back on the campaign trail asking Oregonians for another term as he faces a Republican who looked to pose a serious threat to his tenure. But Portland neurosurgeon Monica Wehby has been held back by a series of embarrassing stories from her campaign and personal life. She’s made Merkley’s popularity with liberals a central
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DEATHS
FRANKFORD, Del. — American schools are scrambling to provide services to the large number of children and teenagers who crossed the border alone in recent months. Unaccompanied minors who made up the summer spike at the border have moved to communities of all sizes, in nearly every state, Federal data indicates, to live with a relative and await immigration decisions. The Supreme Court has ruled that schools have an obligation to educate all students regardless of their immigration status, so schools have become a safe haven for many of the tens of thousands of these young people mostly from central America living in limbo. Delaware’s rural Sussex County has long attracted immigrants, partly because of work in chicken factories, and soybean and corn fields. The district’s population is more than one-quarter Hispanic, and for years has offered an early learning program for non-English speakers. Still, officials were caught off guard by about 70 new students mostly from Guatemala — part of the wave crossing the border — enrolling last year, mostly at Sussex Central High School. The
theme of her case against him. Merkley doesn’t talk up his clout on the left or present himself as a progressive crusader. He focuses on his working-class upbringing. “I still live in a blue-collar community and there are very few senators who do,” said Merkley, who lives in far east Portland, miles from the craft breweries and Craftsman bungalows that have drawn young people to the inner east side. “We need more legislators who live with working people, who live in those communities.” Born in Myrtle Creek, Merkley reminds voters he’s the son of a millworker who lost his job when the mill closed. After a stop in Roseburg, his family settled in east Portland, where his dad worked as a mechanic. He’s financially comfortable
Laura Perry, Vernonia Neil Strandquist, Coos Bay Robert Arnold, North Bend Patricia Evans, Coos Bay Sean Cawley, Coos Bay
WASHINGTON — By President Barack Obama’s own admission, U.S. efforts to oust Syrian President Bashar Assad have been pushed to the back burner by a bombing campaign against Islamic State militants that could ultimately help him stay in power. “There’s a more immediate concern that has to be dealt with,” Obama said of Assad in a broadcast interview that aired Sunday. While the White House continues to call for Assad’s departure and has consistently condemned his actions in a three-year civil war, diplomatic negotiations to oust him have largely stalled and Obama has shown no appetite for using military power to force him out. Even when Obama was considering strikes last year in retaliation for Assad’s chemical weapons use — a plan he ultimately rejected — officials made clear that regime change was not their goal. But Assad’s future is coming under fresh scrutiny as the U.S. and its allies launch airstrikes against militants who have gained a stronghold in Syria amid the chaos of the civil war that has left 200,000 people dead. Given that the Islamic State group is one of the Syrian government’s strongest opponents, the strikes have created an unexpected alignment between Obama and Assad that
SEE MERKLEY | A8
Deborah Larsen, North Bend Norman Carlson, Coos Bay Lou Ann Lovell, Eugene Frederick Paxton, Coos Bay John Morris, Coos Bay
COQUILLE — Police say four arrests in Coquille over the last week highlight the benefits of local law enforcement having some extra funding on-hand to provide for extra patrols. The first arrest came last Thursday, Sept. 25, when a Coquille Police Officer working some overtime under a DUII grant observed a vehicle pulling out of a known drug house. According to Coquille police, the officer ran a license plate check and found that the vehicle’s registration had expired. The car was pulled over at state Highway 42 and North Birch Street, and narcotics dog Kara performed a search that uncovered a meth pipe and hypodermic needle. That led to the arrests of Jody Houglum, 35, of Port Orford; and Steven Swan, 49, of Bandon. Both were charged with unlawful possession of methamphetamine. The driver also received multiple traffic citations and another passenger was cited for possession of less than an ounce of marijuana. The next night, Sept. 26, at about 8:15 p.m., a car was stopped at Highway 42 and Rink Creek Road for failing to maintain a lane. Coquille police say that when the officer approached the vehicle he observed the driver had red, bloodshot and watery eyes. When asked a question, the suspect slurred his speech. Suspecting that the driver was driving while impaired, the officer notified the other officer on duty. Available thanks to the grant funding, that officer responded and performed the standardized field sobriety tests, which the subject failed. Kevin Austin, 31, of Sheridan, Wyo., was charged with driving under the influence of intoxicants in what turned out to have been his second DUII within a few hours that night. The arrests culminated Sept. 27, when a 2011 Toyota was spotted by a grant-funded Coquille officer working on Cape Arago Highway. The Toyota was clocked at 16 miles per hour over the speed limit, and was also failing to maintain a lane. That culminated in the arrest of the driver, Michael Newson, 24, of Coos Bay, for driving under the influence of intoxicants — drugs. Coquille Police Chief Janice Blue said these arrests were made possible by that DUII grant funding. It comes courtesy of
SEE SYRIA | A8
Daniel Handran, Coos Bay Trent Messerle, Coos Bay
Obituaries | A5
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