Bulletin Caily Paper 11/9/11

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NOVEMBER 9, 2011

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Councilor Greene doesn’t shy from bankruptcy By Nick Grube The Bulletin

Bend City Councilor Tom Greene keeps a list. It’s four pages long, and populated with famous people. Some of the names are highlighted.

Concern, support for Bend schools’ bonus plan

Abraham Lincoln. Mark Twain. Walt Disney. Johnny Unitas. Each person has something in common with Greene. They all declared bankruptcy. “I’m not alone,” Greene said

as he leafed through the names. “I mean, geez, when I was a kid in Baltimore, Johnny Unitas was my hero.” Greene carries the list in a leather binder. He looks at it from time to time to cheer him-

self up and remind himself he’s in good company. As someone in real estate during Bend’s boom and bust years, he knows all too well how heartbreaking it is to believe in an illusion. See Greene / A4

Greene

Chimp checkup

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• A blanket campus ban has been denied by the courts The Bulletin

The Bulletin

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OUS says it won’t appeal on guns By Patrick Cliff

By Patrick Cliff

Bend-La Pine School Board members heard Tuesday night about the district’s new bonus-pay plan, expressing both concern and support. The district is participating in national research looking into whether teacher performance bonuses affect how well students learn. Teachers and principals at half of the research schools will be eligible for bonuses of up to 15 percent. The other research schools will receive across-theboard 1 percent bonuses. But, because of federal guidelines, nine district schools are ineligible for the bonuses. Board member Peggy Kinkade worried that teachers who will not receive bonuses will feel cheated. The system, though, is designed so it will be difficult for teachers to receive the maximum bonus. “It’s not going to be as dramatic as it potentially could be,” Kinkade said. The bonus research is part of Bend-La Pine’s work in the Creative Leadership Achieves Student Success — or CLASS — project, an initiative of the Chalkboard Project, a nonprofit that works on issues relating to the state’s public schools. Through its CLASS work, the district recently instituted new teachermentor systems and a new approach to evaluations for the entire district. The work, including the bonus research, is funded with more than $5 million the district received from the federal Teacher Incentive Fund. That money carries requirements with it, including that the district participate in the bonus research. The federal governmenthired firm determined which district schools were eligible and randomly divided those into groups. “The nature of any federal grant is you do have some schools who are left out,” said Superintendent Ron Wilkinson. The bonus plan looks different than district officials originally planned. The recession was yet to hit when the district first discussed the bonus research. See Bonuses / A5

OREGON UNIVERSITIES

Photos by Andy Tullis / The Bulletin

D

ental hygienist Mary Wren cleans the teeth of Thiele, a 25-year-old chimpanzee, while medical assistant Suzie O’Neal looks on. Thiele

was getting a checkup during which she received a full physical, had a

The Oregon University System will not appeal a state Court of Appeals decision invalidating a rule that banned firearms from the system’s campuses. In the September decision, the court said the Oregon State Board of Higher Education’s rule banning guns and explosives from campus was a violation of state law. The court ruled the state law giving the Legislature authority to regulate firearms trumped the system’s administrative rule, which had been in place since 1991. The system will not appeal that decision because of the cost of doing so. Still, the system’s leadership plans to keep existing campus policies that limit firearms in specific instances. Staff at state universities are also looking for ways to expand those rules, and new ones could be in place sometime in the next nine months, according to OUS spokeswoman Di Saunders. Examples of those rules include one against carrying firearms into games at the University of Oregon’s Autzen Stadium or into residence halls on some campuses, according to Saunders. She pointed to a 2009 Oregon Court of Appeals ruling that said the Medford School District could enact policies to prevent employees from carrying guns into school. See Guns / A5

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right, Dr. Soma I.

Hard-fought votes watched for 2012 clues

Lilly holds Thiele’s

By Katharine Q. Seelye

hand.

Voters turned a skeptical eye toward Republican-supported measures across the country Tuesday, rejecting an anti-labor law in Ohio, an anti-abortion measure in Mississippi and a crackdown on voting rights in Maine. Even in Arizona, voters were on the verge of ELECTION: turning out of office the NOV. 2011 chief architect of that state’s controversial anti-immigration law. State Sen. Russell Pearce, a Republican power broker and a former sheriff’s deputy known for his uncompromising style, came close to conceding the race Tuesday with a look of shock on his face. “If being recalled is the price for keeping one’s promises, then so be it,” he said. His opponent had declared victory. Pearce, the president of the Senate, was a hero to the tea party movement, and apart from his anti-immigration efforts, he had introduced numerous bills to nullify federal laws. See Votes / A4

removed from her right hand and had her teeth cleaned Tuesday at Chimps Inc. in Tumalo. At

New York Times News Service

Multiple missteps led to drone killing Marines in Afghanistan By David S. Cloud and David Zucchino McClatchy-Tribune News Service

WASHINGTON — On the evening of April 5, a pilot settled into a leather captain’s chair at Creech Air Force Base in southern Nevada and took the controls of a Predator drone flying over one of the most violent areas of southwestern Afghanistan. Minutes later, his radio crackled. A firefight had broken out. Taliban insurgents had ambushed about two dozen Marines patrolling a bitterly contested road. The Air Force captain angled his joystick and the drone veered toward the fighting taking place half

a world away, where it was already morning. He powered up two Hellfire missiles under its wings and ordered a crew member responsible for operating the drone’s cameras to search for enemy fighters. It didn’t take long to find something. Three figures, fuzzy blobs on the pilot’s small black-and-white screen, lay in a poppy field a couple of hundred yards from the road. “Hey now, wait. Stand by on these,” the pilot cautioned. “They could be animals in the field.” Seconds later, tiny white flashes appeared by the figures — the heat signature of gunfire. “There they are,”

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Vol. 108, No. 313, 36 pages, 6 sections

Los Angeles Times file photo

The decision to fire a missile from one of the growing fleet of U.S. unmanned aircraft is the result of work by ground commanders, pilots and analysts at far-flung military bases.

he said, now sure he was looking at the enemy. See Missteps / A5

INDEX Business Calendar Classified

B1-6 E3 F1-6

Comics E4-5 Crosswords E5, F2 Editorials

C4

Local News C1-6 Obituaries C5 Shopping E1-6

TODAY’S WEATHER Sports D1-6 Stocks B4-5 TV & Movies E2

Partly cloudy High 53, Low 23 Page C6

Inside • $14.5 million Culver school bond fails, C1 • Two nominated for David Wu’s seat, A4 • Failed “personhood” measure divided even supporters, A4

TOP NEWS CAIN: Says he won’t bow out, A3 DOVER: Air Force faulted, A3


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