A Newport nonprofit that supports commercial fishermen joined with Lincoln County to file a lawsuit Friday against the U.S. Department Homeland Security, seeking a judge’s order to return the U.S. Coast Guard rescue helicopter to the coastal city.

The state of Oregon plans to file a similar suit on Monday, Attorney General Dan Rayfield said.

The suit comes after the Newport Fishermen’s Wives and Lincoln County learned the U.S. Coast Guard had either ceased or drastically reduced its operations at the Newport Air Facility and moved its rescue helicopter about 70 miles south to North Bend.

They’ve asked a federal judge in Eugene to bar the removal or reduction of the rescue helicopter’s presence before the Dungeness crab fishing season starts in mid-December.

“The abrupt removal of t

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