Issuu

SERVING CURRY COUNTY SINCE 1946

www.currypilot.com

WEDNESDAY, DECEMER 17, 2025

Brookings, Oregon

CLIMATE HISTORY ON PAGE 4!

BONUS PUZZLES STARTING ON PAGE 5!

Rescue helicopter will return, remain in Newport, Oregon’s US senators say tative had given him unsatisfactory answers attributing the change in facility operations to a lack of adequate staffing. On Thursday, he shared on X that the Coast Guard had reversed course. “This is a big win to keep fishermen as well as Oregonians and tourists visiting the Newport area safe when they are enjoying the Pacific Ocean,” Wyden said in a statement Thursday. “I’ll keep watchdogging this Coast Guard commitment and battling against any move by the Trump administration to site an ICE detention facility in Newport or anywhere else on the Oregon Coast.” The homeland security department and U.S. Coast Guard did not immediately respond to a request for comment Thursday. The helicopter’s removal quickly sparked opposition from residents. The coastal city of Newport is home to Oregon’s largest commercial fishing industry, with cold and rough waters occupying the Yaquina

SHAANTH NANGUNERI Oregon Capital Chronicle

The U.S Coast Guard has promised to indefinitely return a life-saving rescue helicopter to its facility at Newport’s Municipal Airport, Oregon’s two U.S. senators said Thursday, Dec. 4, capping weeks of angst in the town ahead of a dangerous crab fishing season. The U.S. Coast Guard removed the helicopter in late October with no public explanation from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security for why it was relocated to a North Bend Coast Guard facility nearly 70 miles away. U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden, Rep. Val Hoyle and local officials have all previously said they were trying to find out why the helicopter was removed amid speculation that the Trump administration could be repurposing the site for Oregon’s first long-term immigration detention facility. Wyden told reporters on Nov. 23 that a Coast Guard represen-

U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden speaks to reporters in Newport at the city’s municipal airport on Nov. 23.

Please see RESCUE Page 3

Another ODOT funding gap

looms if enough signatures collected for gas tax petition MIA MALDONADO

Oregon Capital Chronicle

Petitioners say they’ve gathered well more than enough signatures to block planned increases to the state’s gas tax, vehicle registration and title fees and a transit payroll tax until voters have a chance to weigh in next November. No Tax Oregon petition organizers have until Dec. 30 to collect signatures to refer to the ballot a recently passed suite of transportation tax and fee hikes, and they announced last week that they’ve gathered more than 150,000 signatures, nearly double the 78,116 signatures needed. The Oregon Secretary of State still must verify the signatures. If they’re valid, then the challenged portions of Oregon’s new transportation funding law

wouldn’t take effect until the election, when voters would vote to approve or reject it. Petitioners are challenging a transportation funding law Gov. Tina Kotek signed that will raise $4.3 billion over the next decade to fund road maintenance and operations. Democratic lawmakers during a fall special session passed the policy to fill in an estimated $350 million deficit within the agency caused by declining gas tax revenue and rising maintenance and construction costs. “If the secretary of state ultimately certifies that the petitioners have gathered enough signatures, the emergency funding that the legislature provided to keep Oregon’s roads, bridges and transit systems safe and working will be suspended immediately,” Please see ODOT Page 5

Elizabeth Camara, a No Kings rally counter protestor holds a sign protesting against the transportation package Democratic lawmakers passed during a special session earlier this year in Salem, Oregon.

Phone umber: 707-460-8655 • Email: Circulation@CountryMedia.net

INDEX Police Blotter Calendar of Events

Classifieds Crossword Answer Crossword Puzzle