PIRATES ON THE RUN A SMELLY MESS Marshfield runners stand out at Tugman, B1 What is killing fish in Hawaii? A6 Serving Oregon’s South Coast Since 1878 THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 12, 2013 theworldlink.com I 75¢ County changes Bandon spray area BY AMY MOSS STRONG berry growers and conflicting information In addition, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife don’t want this, there isn’t any benefit to The World about whether the insecticide Dibrome Service plans to develop an Integrated Marsh doing it.” would prevent farmers from selling their Management Plan this fall. Commissioners A show of hands indicated about one- BANDON — A plan to conduct aerial crop due to chemical residue. passed a motion Wednesday to encourage fourth of those in attendance were in favor of spraying to kill mosquitoes in and around the “(The question is) would we be solving USFWS to stick to their commitment to spraying, with the majority opposed. Bandon Marsh National Wildlife Refuge was one economic problem to cause another,” monitor mosquito populations and treat Fears ranged from the effects of Dibrome derailed Monday night after a crowd of Cribbins said Wednesday. refuge lands, if necessary, until the restora- on humans and animals to whether it is an Bandon residents, including local cranberry The plan now, according to Coos County tion is completed. approved insecticide for the cranberry crop, growers, bee keepers and organic gardeners, Public Health Director Nikki Zogg, is to Monday night a crowd of more than 200 soon to be harvested by Bandon growers. pleaded with the Coos County Board of apply a granular form of the larvicide people gathered at the Sprague Theater with “I’m not against spraying, but I want to Commissioners to reconsider. MetaLarv on 308 acres of the Ni-les’tun Unit questions and concerns over the proposed know if (Dibrome) is labeled for cranberries,” The board met Wednesday morning and of the Bandon Marsh at three pounds per aerial spraying. said local farmer Scott Vierck. “If you spray reversed their decision to spray insecticide, acre by fixed-wing aircraft today and possi- “I think we came out here tonight with an it and it’s detrimental, then it’s too late.” but will still have a larvicide applied on a bly Friday morning, weather conditions per- open mind,”Cribbins said after the Monday Vierck and Gale Turner, also a local cran- limited area of the marsh. mitting. Costs will be paid by the U.S. Fish meeting. “We haven’t signed the contract berry grower, had concerns that their crop Commissioner Melissa Cribbins said it and Wildlife Service. yet and the truth of the matter is that we’re came down to a concern for the local cran- No adulticide application will occur. here to try to help and if the people in Bandon SEE MOSQUITOES | A10 Woman, 94, gets license after snag GOLD HILL (AP) — A 94-year-old Southern Ore- gon driver who had problems renewing her license because of anti-terror laws can now legally get behind the wheel after four months of uncertainty. Helen Mary Thomas of Gold Hill was born in rural Tennessee, no doctor was present and no birth certificate was issued. But since 2008, as a guard to prevent terrorists from getting phony IDs, the state of Oregon has been requiring drivers to prove citizenship to renew their licenses — generally by presenting a birth cer- Photos by Lou Sennick, The World tificate or passport. Dr. Steve Tersigni gets some practice in on the new da Vinci surgical system at Bay Area Hospital on Wednesday afternoon. The surgeon operates on a After Thomas couldn’t show she was a natural- patient,on the table in the back,remotely in a surgical suite set up for the system.Tersigni is one of a few surgeons at the hospital that will use the machine born U.S. citizen, the Medford Mail Tribune pub- lished an account of her difficulty. on patients for the first time in a few weeks. State transportation officials first issued a tem- porary license and then accepted Census records from 1930 and 1940, state voter registration records and her old driver’s license to prove citizenship, the Helping hands paper reported Wednesday. “Mom is back in good spirits,”said her son Dou- glas, who lives in Boise, Idaho. “She sounds like a I Bay Area Hospital as prostatectomy, hysterectomy, huge, weighty concern has been lifted from her.” cholecystectomy, oophorectomy Thomas is a widow — her husband of 46 years adds high-tech surgical and myomectomy.The robot allows died in 1996 — and none of her children live in the for minimally-invasive surgeries, area. She told the Mail Tribune in July that she system; price tag – $2M which decreases patients’ recovery hopes to drive for another year. time. It uses techniques similar to “I drive a lot less now, but I’m still a good driver,” BY EMILY THORNTON laparoscopic procedures, which she said. The World include making several small inci- The state legislation followed the federal Real ID sions to extract various organs. Act of 2005. The law was aimed at stopping terror- COOS BAY — One of the most Dr. Laurie Hamilton, an ists from using illegally obtained driver’s licenses to advanced surgery systems in the OB/GYN at North Bend Medical access airports and government buildings. world is now at Bay Area Hospital. Center, said the new machine is a Now that license renewals are on an eight-year The medical center recently great addition to the hospital. cycle, Oregonians are beginning to confront the added a da Vinci Si Surgery “The visualization is so good citizenship requirement, said David House, System. It will be available for sur- with this,”Hamilton said. She said spokesman for the Driver and Motor Vehicles Ser- geries at the end of the month, but prior to this, patients had to travel vices Division. doctors have been practicing with to Eugene for robotic or laparo- It is unusual for a natural-born U.S. citizen not to it for a few weeks now. scopic surgery. have a birth certificate, but the department tries to It is the most technologically “The question was, ‘Can we work with residents in such circumstances, he said. up-to-date robot in Oregon. The $2 afford not to get one?’” Hamilton Thomas is in the final steps of getting a delayed million equipment allows doctors Several monitors are set up around the da Vinci suite with a view birth certificate from the state of Tennessee, her to perform various surgeries such SEE ROBOT | A10 of what a doctor will see. son said. Study: Wind farms killed 67 eagles in 5 years WASHINGTON (AP) — Wind wind turbines. One of the eagles for dead birds by wind-energy com- could be having on local eagle popu- led to prosecution. energy facilities have killed at least 67 counted in the study was electrocut- panies. The study also excluded the lations. And while the golden eagle The Fish and Wildlife Service, golden and bald eagles in the last five ed by a power line. deadliest place in the country for population is stable in the West, any which employs the six researchers, years, but the figure could be much The vice president of the Ameri- eagles, a cluster of wind farms in a additional mortality to a long-lived has said it is investigating 18 bird- higher, according to a new study by can Bird Conservancy,Mike Parr,said Northern California area known as species such as an eagle can be a “tip- death cases involving wind-power government biologists. the tally was “an alarming and con- Altamont Pass. Wind farms built ping point,”Millsap said. facilities, and seven have been The research represents one of the cerning finding.” there decades ago kill more than 60 The research affirms an AP inves- referred to the Justice Department. first tallies of eagle deaths attributed A trade group, the American Wind per year. tigation in May, which revealed The authors noted the study’s find- to the nation’s growing wind energy Energy Association, said in a state- “It is not an isolated event that is dozens of eagle deaths from wind ings do not necessarily reflect the industry, which has been a pillar of ment that the figure was much lower restricted to one place in California, it energy facilities and described how views of the agency,although some of President Barack Obama’s plans to than other causes of eagle deaths. is pretty widespread,” said Brian the Obama administration was failing their data was obtained from staff. reduce the pollution blamed for glob- The group said it was working with Millsap, the national raptor coordi- to fine or prosecute wind energy The wind energy industry has al warming. Wind power releases no the government and conservation nator for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife companies,even though each death is pushed for, and the White House is air pollution. groups to find ways to reduce eagle Service, a study author. a violation of federal law. currently evaluating, giving compa- But at a minimum, the scientists casualties. The study excluded 17 eagle deaths Documents obtained by the AP nies permission to kill a set number of wrote, wind farms in 10 states have Still, the scientists said their figure for which there was not enough evi- under the U.S. Freedom of Informa- eagles for 30 years. The change killed at least 85 eagles since 1997, is likely to be “substantially” under- dence. And, in a footnote, it says tion Act show that in two cases in extends by 25 years the permit length with most deaths occurring between estimated, since companies report more have since been killed at wind Iowa federal investigators deter- in place now, but it was not subjected 2008 and 2012, as the industry was eagle deaths voluntarily and only a energy facilities in Idaho, Montana, mined that a bald eagle had been to a full environmental review greatly expanding.