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MOSTLY SUNNY 68 • 55 | THURSDAY, JULY 9, 2020 | theworldlink.com
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Brookings man found dead in boat basin The World CHARLESTON — At about 2:30 p.m. Wednesday, the Coos County Sheriff’s Office dispatch center received several reports of a subject who had fallen into the bay at the docks in Charleston and was unresponsive. Personnel from the Charleston Fire Department, Bay Cities Ambulance, the U.S. Coast Guard and the Sheriff’s Office respond-
ed to the scene. The victim was removed from the water and life saving efforts were unsuccessful. The victim has been identified as 64-year-old Lyle G. Marrington of Brookings. Family notifications have been made and the family has expressed their gratitude for the response of all first responders to the scene. Coos County Sheriff Craig Zanni told The World there was nothing that pointed to foul play.
The Sheriff’s Office would like to thank the several citizens who were extremely helpfully during this incident.
Boats sit in the Charleston boat basin earlier this summer.
Zach Silva, The World
Layoffs remain at high level
to rein in the department and de-escalate its interactions with protesters. Davis defended the decision to use tear gas and said that the alternative was sending officers into a chaotic crowd, which would likely result in injuries to both officers and protesters. “I will be very happy if I can go the rest of my career without ever seeing us have to deploy C.S. gas,” he said, using another term for the substance. “The reason why we’re seeing more and more C.S. gas has to do with really unprecedented levels of violence that we’re seeing and not that we’re trying to
WASHINGTON (AP) — More than 1.3 million Americans applied for unemployment benefits last week, a historically high pace that shows that many employers are still laying people off in the face of a resurgent coronavirus. The persistently elevated level of layoffs are occurring as a spike in virus cases has forced six states to reverse their move to reopen businesses. Those six — Arizona, California, Colorado, Florida, Michigan and Texas — make up one-third of the U.S. economy. Fifteen other states have suspended their re-openings. Collectively, the pullback has stalled a tentative recovery in the job market and is likely triggering additional layoffs. Thursday’s report from the Labor Department showed that the number of applications for unemployment aid fell from 1.4 million in the previous week. The figure has now topped 1 million for 16 straight weeks. Before the pandemic, the record high for weekly unemployment applications was fewer than 700,000. The total number of people who are receiving jobless benefits dropped 700,000 to 18 million. That suggests that some companies are continuing to rehire workers despite job cuts by other employers. An additional 1 million people sought benefits last week under a separate program for self-employed and gig workers that has made them eligible for aid for the first time. These figures aren’t adjusted for seasonal variations, so the government doesn’t include them in the official count. Americans are seeking unemployment aid against the backdrop of a disturbing surge in confirmed viral cases, with increases reported in 38 states. Case counts have especially accelerated in four states that now account for more than half of reported new U.S. cases: Arizona, California, Florida and Texas. Applications for unemployment aid dropped last week in California and Florida, though in California they remained high, with more than 267,000 claims. That is more people than were applying each week for unemployment benefits in the entire country before the pandemic hit. Jobless claims also declined in Michigan and Colorado. Still, applications for benefits spiked in Texas, Nevada, Tennessee and Louisiana — states where confirmed cases of the virus are intensifying. They also jumped in New Jersey and New York, where the pandemic is mostly under control. The intensifying outbreaks and more stringent government restrictions have slowed economic activity in much of the country and may weigh on hiring. The government’s jobs report for June showed a solid gain of 4.8 million jobs and an unemployment rate that fell to 11.1% from 13.3%. Yet even so, the economy has regained only about one-third of the jobs that vanished in March and April. And the June jobs
Please see Portland, Page A2
Please see Layoffs, Page A2
Jillian Ward, The World
The World Newspaper Publisher Ben Kenfield scrubs graffiti off the paper’s sign, some of which read “fake news.”
Police investigate more graffiti JILLIAN WARD The World
COOS BAY — Coos Bay police are looking into two more graffiti cases, one at The World newspaper building and the other at Sunset Middle School. “Over the past several weeks, the Coos Bay Police Department has seen an increase in graffiti and criminal mischief calls,” read a department press release. “The graffiti has been found on various buildings, fences, sidewalks and business signs.” On Wednesday morning, the department was notified of new graffiti that appeared between 6:30 p.m. and 8 a.m. “The new graffiti was found at The World newspaper business located on Commercial Ave. in the downtown area of Coos Bay,” the release said. “The graffiti covered the front sidewalk and was also on (its) business sign.” The graffiti made “several offensive comments regarding The World newspaper, as well as city staff and city officials,” the release said. According to the newspaper’s
Contributed Photo
Sunset Middle School was also hit with graffiti Tuesday night. publisher, Ben Kenfield, the tagging also covered the front stairs, while window chalk was used to write on the front door and windows around the building. Most of the tagging was done in sidewalk chalk. “It reflects the frustration in this community,” Kenfield said as he scrubbed graffiti off The World’s sign. “We have a microcosm of what’s happening in the
country here in Coos Bay. “I think sometimes it’s hard to tell where to point the frustration and turn it into change.” Members of Safer as One — a grassroots organization standing for equality and a safer community — showed up to help scrub the chalk graffiti off The World’s stairs. “These are words of pain and people trying to speak out but not going about it in the most
official way,” said one member, who asked to remain anonymous for her safety. “As someone who is trying to represent and speak with the many sub-communities, I wanted to make sure we are here to help.” She asked that people who wish to get messages out that include Black Lives Matter or #Justice4Saraya, a 14-year-old Black teen who was sentenced to juvenile prison for 11 years, to reach out to Safer as One. That way, the message can be put out “in a way that all the sub-communities can be equally representing and be heard.” The Safer as One member said the organization is not associated with the graffiti, which included accusations of “fake news” and “stop black media censorship.” The tagging follows stories published by The World about a demonstration from Safer as One, efforts to put in a statue memorializing Alonzo Tucker — the victim of the only documented case of a Black man being lynched in Oregon — and Black Lives Matter protests. Please see Graffiti, Page A2
Violent protests costly for Portland businesses PORTLAND (AP) — Downtown businesses in Portland, Oregon, have sustained about $23 million in damages and lost customers because of violent nightly protests that have brought the city to its knees, authorities said Wednesday. At a police briefing, Deputy Chief Chris Davis said the intensity of the violence by an “agitator corps” and the length of the protests that are now in their sixth week are unprecedented in Oregon’s largest city. Davis made a sharp distinction between Black Lives Matter protesters, whom he said were not violent, and a smaller group of people he repeatedly called “agitators.”
“Quite frankly, this is not sustainable,” he said. “There’s a very big difference between protests and the kind of mayhem that we’ve seen every night. ... The Black Lives Matter movement is not violent. The story that we’re going to talk about today is about a small group of agitators that is attempting to hijack that message and use it as a cover for criminal activity.” Protesters have demonstrated for 41 consecutive nights against racial injustice and police brutality following the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis, and they are increasingly focusing their actions on federal properties, including Mark O. Hatfield Federal Courthouse in
the heart of the downtown business district. Authorities have declared riots several times and used tear gas to disperse demonstrators. A recently issued federal court order bans the police from using the tear gas unless a riot is declared, but critics have challenged the police on what constitutes a riot and who makes the decision to designate a protest as an unlawful event. The police unleashed tear gas last week the day after Gov. Kate Brown signed a bill into law that banned the use of it unless a riot was declared. That prompted Brown and Oregon House Speaker Tina Kotek to publicly call on Mayor Ted Wheeler, who is also the police commissioner,