6A
THE DAILY ASTORIAN • FRIDAY, JUNE 23, 2017
WORLD IN BRIEF
Associated Press
N. Korea denies torturing
US detainee Otto Warmbier
SEOUL, South Korea — North Korea today denied it cru-
elly treated or tortured an American student who was detained
for more than year and died days after being released in a coma.
The comments published by the official Korean Central
News Agency were North Korea’s first reaction to Otto Warm-
bier’s death in a U.S. hospital on Monday after it released him
for what it called humanitarian reasons.
Doctors at the hospital said Warmbier had suffered a
severe neurological injury from an unknown cause. Relatives
say they were told the 22-year-old University of Virginia stu-
dent had been in a coma since shortly after he was sentenced
to 15 years of hard labor in North Korea in March 2016.
His family and others have blamed North Korea for his
condition.
Warmbier was accused of stealing a propaganda poster.
KCNA said the North dealt with him according to its domes-
tic laws and international standards.
McConnell faces hunt for GOP
votes for Senate health bill
WASHINGTON — Senate Majority Leader Mitch McCo-
nnell has finally unwrapped his plan for dismantling President
Barack Obama’s health care law. Now comes his next chal-
lenge — persuading enough Republicans to back the measure
and avert a defeat that would be shattering for President Don-
ald Trump and the GOP.
McConnell released the bill Thursday, drafted after
weeks of closed-door meetings searching for middle ground
between conservative senators seeking an aggressive repeal
of Obama’s statute and centrists warning about going too far.
Erasing Obama’s law has been a marquee pledge for Trump
and virtually the entire party for years.
The bill would cut and redesign the Medicaid program for
low-income and disabled people, and erase taxes on higher
earners and the medical industry that helped pay for the
roughly 20 million Americans covered by Obama’s law. It
would let insurers provide fewer benefits, offer less generous
subsidies than Obama to help people buy policies and end the
statute’s tax penalties on people who don’t buy policies and on
larger firms that don’t offer coverage to workers.
Supreme Court could reveal
action on travel ban at any time
WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court has almost cer-
tainly decided what to do about President Donald Trump’s
travel ban affecting citizens of six mostly Muslim countries.
The country is waiting for the court to make its decision
public about the biggest legal controversy in the first five
months of Trump’s presidency. The issue has been tied up in
the courts since Trump’s original order in January sparked
widespread protests just days after he took office.
The justices met Thursday morning for their last regularly
scheduled private conference in June and probably took a vote
about whether to let the Trump administration immediately
enforce the ban and hear the administration’s appeal of lower
court rulings blocking the ban.
The court’s decision could come any time and is expected
no later than late next week, after which the justices will scat-
ter for speeches, teaching gigs and vacations.
Repair Cafe: ‘We see the value in
getting as much life out of products’
Continued use
Continued from Page 1A
Repair Cafe is the brain-
child of Astoria resident
and Fort George Brewery’s
Director of Sustainability
Renee Johnson. She had been
involved in similar organiza-
tions before in Portland, affil-
iated with that city’s Mas-
ter Recycler program. The
monthly cafes first started
in Astoria in March and are
slowly growing in size and
scope, gaining collaborators,
volunteers and people with
items in need of repair.
“I love the idea of fixing
things rather than replacing
them and I think this model is
relevant pretty much every-
where, so why not Astoria?”
Johnson said.
Since the first Repair Cafe
event launched, the group
estimates it has helped fix
more than a dozen items and
diverted several hundred
pounds worth of stuff from
landfills.
Colin Murphey/The Daily Astorian
Community
The Portland program,
after which Astoria’s Repair
Cafe is roughly modeled,
is itself an American West
Coast version of a program
first started in the Nether-
lands in 2009. The cafes are
as much about fixing things
as they are about building a
community.
One of the things Harold
Gable says he enjoys about
volunteering at Repair Cafe
events is the chance to see
highly skilled craftsmen at
work.
“It’s meeting people that
I wouldn’t have otherwise,
who have talents that I don’t
know anything about,” he
said. “People are so open and
passionate about what they
can do and what they can
share.”
And there’s another bene-
fit, too. If something he owns
breaks, now he knows who to
go to for a repair.
Gable sharpens knives,
garden tools and other imple-
ments for Repair Cafe cus-
tomers. Like the other volun-
Kelly Green fixes a lawnmower at a recent Repair Cafe.
More photos online at DailyAstorian.com
Colin Murphey/The Daily Astorian
Becky Tonkin recently volunteered her sewing skills at the
Repair Cafe to fix a customer’s pair of jeans.
teers, he does this work for
free. He doesn’t necessarily
want his regular customers —
the chefs he sharpens knives
for, for example — lining up
at a cafe, though. This work,
he said, is for people who
wouldn’t normally seek it out,
who may not have the funds,
who might think their scis-
sors or knives are too cheap
to be sharpened.
“Use — as long as pos-
sible, when possible,” said
Glen Herman, owner of Asto-
ria Makers, which has pro-
vided space for Repair Cafe
events for the past three
months. “We see the value
in getting as much life out
of products — delaying their
entry to the landfill and sav-
ing the individual from hav-
ing to buy a replacement.”
The events are a natu-
ral fit for Herman’s Astoria
Makers space, a business that
provides its members with
professional tools and work-
shop areas for everything
from woodworking projects
to metal work and screen
printing.
“Maker spaces count on
the collaboration of peo-
ple getting together to solve
problems,” he said. “Having
someone bring in something
that’s broken, and have a few
people hover around it that
have different skills to see
what’s wrong and then fix it
is satisfying.”
He says he plans to con-
tinue providing a space for
Repair Cafe events “for the
foreseeable future, as long
as the group wants to use our
space.”
Repair Cafe volunteer
Kelly Green, also with Asto-
ria Makers, said people are
often too quick to toss out old
items, and too eager to buy
shiny, new replacements.
“I think for a lot of us
a lot of (Repair Cafe) is
getting people to understand
the nature of their stuff,” he
said.
The next Repair Cafe will
take place Wednesday from 6
p.m. to 8 p.m. at the Astoria
Makers space, 34706 Produc-
tion Lane, across the street
from Brim’s Farm & Garden
on U.S. Highway 101 Busi-
ness. Volunteers will offer a
variety of services including
garment mending, computer
repairs for viruses and mal-
ware and diagnostics work,
general repairs (toys, furni-
ture, tools, etc.) and knife and
scissor sharpening.
STARTS FRIDAY, JUNE 23!
Join us for the
Relay For Life of
Clatsop County!
About the
Relay For
Life
Movement
Saturday, July 8 th , 2017
The American
Cancer Society
Relay For Life
movement is the
world’s largest
fundraising event
to end cancer,
uniting four million
people around the
world to celebrate
survivorship,
remember
lives
lost, and fight back
against this
disease. Teams
camp out and
participate by
taking turns
walking around a
track or path.
Symbolizing the
battle waged
around the clock
by those facing
cancer, the event
empowers
communities and
individuals to take
a stand against the
disease and take
action by
supporting the
Society’s lifesaving
mission.
Astoria High School Track
10:00 am - 12:00 am
Register your team today!
RelayForLife.org/ClatsopcountyOR
Learn about American
Cancer Society programs
and services.
Join others in fighting back
against cancer!
For more information, contact:
nancy.hillis@cancer.org
THIS STORE IS
CLOSING!
BIGGER SAVINGS!
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%
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ENTIRE STORE!
ORIGINAL PRICE
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*EXCLUSIONS MAY APPLY. VALID IN-STORE ONLY.
SAVE ON EVERY ITEM
IN EVERY DEPARTMENT
EVERYTHING MUST GO!
NOTHING HELD BACK!
361.676.6378
RelayForLife.org | 800.227.2345
1343 COMMERCIAL ST
ASTORIA, OR 97103
STORE FIXTURES & EQUIPMENT FOR SALE
SEE MANAGEMENT
JCPENNEY COUPONS CANNOT BE USED FOR CLOSING STORE PURCHASES. ALL SALES FINAL.
NO RETURNS, REFUNDS OR EXCHANGES ACCEPTED. OFFERS VALID AT THIS LOCATION ONLY.
DUE TO THE NATURE OF THE SALE, ADS, COUPONS AND DISCOUNTS FROM OTHER JCPENNEY
STORES WILL NOT BE ACCEPTED DURING THIS EVENT. ITEMS AT JCP.COM ARE EXCLUDED
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