Month: September 2013

Prineville Police Chief Eric Bush has been placed on paid administrative leave “pending an investigation,” the city announced Wednesday. “Since this involves a personnel matter, no further information will be released,” the city said in a two-sentence, unsigned news release. City officials have declined to provide any details on what led to the step involving

After monitoring rainfall amounts over the past few days, fuels specialists on the Bend-Fort Rock Ranger District will use prescribed fire starting Friday to burn up to 428 acres on Wickiup Butte, 18 miles west of La Pine, near the Wickiup Reservoir Dam. Operations are expected to take two to four days and may create

WALLA WALLA, Wash. (AP) — Banner Corp. says it plans to acquire Home Federal Bancorp Inc. for $197 million in a cash-and-stock deal that will expand its geographic reach. The regional banks announced the deal Tuesday after the stock market closed. Banner, based in Walla Walla, Wash., is the holding company for Banner Bank and

After days of witness testimony for the prosecution, 911 recordings and other disturbing evidence, the Lawrence Loeffler murder trial is over. “Due to your health, I don’t know how long you are going to live,” Deschutes County Circuit Judge Michael Adler told Loeffler at Wednesday’s sentencing. “But I do know you’re going to spend the

Just a few weeks ago, a ground breaking ceremony was held for the new St. Charles Bend cancer center. It’s a building that has everything under one roof, and can accommodate a projected increase in cancer patients. “Right now, we have radiation oncology and medical oncology in two different buildings,” said Dr. Linyee Chang, medical

“Sears is truly what everyone thinks of first as the catalog.” The Sears and Roebuck catalog sales office opened in downtown Bend off Wall Street in 1954. You might recognize that space now as the FootZone, right next to the Tower Theater. “We have this national popular cultural memory of the sears catalog and that

The Oregon State University – Cascades counseling clinic now offers trauma and reintegration counseling services for veterans and their families. The free counseling sessions are provided by the graduate counseling program, provide a service to the veteran community, and allow master’s students to develop and implement expertise under the close supervision of faculty and clinical

There’s been a shuffle at the helm of the Redmond Municipal Airport, with Manager Kim Dickie replaced on an interim basis until a new permanent director is named. She will now serve as deputy director. Robert Noble, a former manager of the Eugene Airport, was named interim director on Wednesday and will start next Tuesday.

Dams have been vilified for detrimental effects to water quality and fish passage, but a new study suggests that these structures provide “ecological and engineering resilience” to climate change in the Columbia River basin. The study, which was published in the Canadian journal Atmosphere-Ocean, looked at the effects of climate warming on stream flow in

Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) introduced bicameral, bipartisan legislation Wednesday to replace the use of live animals in combat medical training. The Battlefield Excellence through Superior Training (BEST) Practices Act would require the Department of Defense to phase out the use of live animals in medical training, a practice that has been all but eliminated in

Brooklyn Nelson, a student at Oregon State University, was crowned the 2014 Sisters Rodeo Queen on Sunday, September 22, at the Sisters Rodeo grounds. In a polished and friendly speech before a crowd of sixty people, Nelson spoke of family camping trips in the Three Sisters Wilderness, the source of her fondest childhood memories. She

Central Oregon students have a chance to improve upon existing technology by participating in the 22 nd annual Inventerprise contest, sponsored by Bend Research, with support from Bend-La Pine Schools and Central Oregon Community College. The theme of this year’s contest is making technology better. The problem statement is “I can do better than that!

Oregon OSHA welcomes the Oregon Child Development Coalition, Inc. (OCDC) in Jefferson County as the latest employer in the Safety and Health Achievement Recognition Program (SHARP). SHARP provides an incentive for Oregon employers to work with their employees to find and correct hazards, develop and implement effective safety and health programs, and continuously improve. The

Local utility and pipeline companies are hosting a series of pipeline safety programs as part of an on-going national effort to increase knowledge of safe digging, damage prevention for underground utilities and emergency responses regarding pipeline emergencies. The meetings are geared toward contractors, emergency responders and public officials. To register, go to www.pdigm.com/rsvp Upcoming programs:

An 86-year-old La Pine-area man was sentenced to life in prison and at least 25 years before parole Wednesday for fatally shooting his 83-year-old wife. Deschutes County Circuit Judge Michael Adler imposed the sentence upon Lawrence Loeffler, less than a day after a jury deliberated for about an hour, then returned a guilty verdict on

The Sears store and auto center at Bend River Promenade, a shopping fixture on the High Desert for decades, is closing to the public in mid-December, the struggling retail giant announced Tuesday. The store will begin its liquidation sale on Friday, said Howard Riefs, director of corporate communications for Sears Holdings. The store’s 48 employees

A half-million dollar lure is hanging over downtown Redmond, and community leaders hope a new business will come in and snag it. Downtown Redmond has endured months of construction, a cosmetic and engineering makeover to update the city’s main “drag.” And now ,city officials are ready to bring some excitement downtown. “(There’s) not as much

A 55-year old Bend man has improved to serious condition at a Bend hospital, four days after his motorcycle ran off a remote section of Highway 20 and crashed near Hampton in eastern Deschutes County, authorities said. Oregon State Police said Saturday they were continuing their investigation into the cause of the crash, which occurred

Are you looking to learn a new skill while helping those in your community? The Volunteer Income Tax Assistance Program, or VITA, is looking for volunteers to help prepare tax returns in Bend, Redmond and Prineville for the 2014 tax season. VITA sites provide free income tax preparation for low- to moderate-income taxpayers (generally those

Deschutes National Forest fuel specialists on the Bend-Ft. Rock Ranger District plan to conduct two prescribed fires, one beginning this Friday (September 27 th ) and one early next week. Depending on the amount of rainfall received over the next few days, beginning this Friday, fuels specialists plan to burn up to 1,200 acres south