Month: October 2013

Cascade Bancorp, the holding company for Bank of the Cascades, and Home Federal Bancorp, Inc., the holding company for Home Federal Bank, announced a $265.7 million merger plan Wednesday. The transaction will be payable in a mix of cash and Cascade common stock to Home Federal’s stockholders. The combined company will have approximately $2.4 billion

Does giving a five minutes speech to a big crowd sound fun? How about having 20 PowerPoint slides that change every 15 seconds? Then Ignite Bend is the event for you. The now-annual event has been growing in popularity over the last few years. Wednesday night’s event was the 11th in Bend. “Presenters have five

Four people were arrested at Bend motels this week in a pair of unrelated prostitution cases, one a 17-year-old Madras teen who police said was provided methamphetamine and “induced” to take part in sexual conduct with others for a fee, officers said. The first case arose on Sunday, when police responded to a report of

Forest Service fuels specialists plan to conduct two prescribed fires Thursday on the Deschutes National Forest and three on the Ochoco National Forest, officials said. One prescribed fire will be located within the Lava Cast Forest, seven miles east of Sunriver. To ensure safe and successful implementation, the Hoffman Island Trail and FS Road 9720

A sold-out crowd of 425 Bend Venture Conference attendees last Friday heard the pitches of five Launch Stage finalists and six Concept Stage finalists. In addition, they listened to an inspired and insightful “fireside chat” with Steve Blank, a serial entrepreneur and one of the founders of the Lean Startup movement in entrepreneurship. All of

Crews have completed a month-long effort to clean up a 5,000-gallon fuel tanker spill following a rollover tanker crash on Highway 26 on the Warm Springs Indian Reservation, ODOT officials said Wednesday. Workers will be paving the highway on Thursday, ahead of the return to two-lane traffic in the vicinity of milepost 81, the agency

An Albany couple was injured Wednesday morning, one critically, when their car left Oregon Hwy. 22E and crashed just east of Detroit in Marion County. Around 9:25 a.m., a Honda Civic four-door driven by Lyman Lais, 71, was eastbound on Highway 22E near milepost 51. For an unknown reason, the driver lost control and the

Fifth-graders at Redmond’s Sage Elementary School learned a few tools Wednesday to deal with bullying. Cadets from the Oregon National Guard’s Youth Challenge program visited to teach them how to stop bullying in its tracks. The cadets are making sure that after kids enter school doors, bullying is the least of their worries. They used

An Oregon State Police arson investigator was called in to help look for the cause of a dozen small, suspicious fires that broke out within 2 1/2 hours Tuesday afternoon on private forestland in the area of Masten Butte, near the Deschutes-Klamath County line. Investigators on scene Wednesday found a 12th fire, which burned a

It’s a hot commodity: You don’t see rental signs around Central Oregon very often. “A lot of them are renting even before they’re able to be viewed,” Redmond resident and Bend house-hunter Michelle Valdes said Tuesday. “One had 125 applicants.” Valdes and her family have been looking for a home to rent in Bend since

A Portland man was killed Tuesday afternoon when his car rear-ended an Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife worker’s pickup truck on Highway 26 just west of John Day in Grant County, Oregon State Police said. Around 4:25 p.m., a 2012 Ford F450 four-door pickup driven by an ODFW was heading eastbound at about 55

The prescribed fire that was planned for Wednesday about 10 miles northwest of La Pine, in the vicinity of Round Mountain has been cancelled due to smoke concerns, the Deschutes National Forest announced. Four other prescribed fires still were set to occur Wednesday in the following areas: 1) Metolius Basin Research Natural Area near Camp

The annual Children’s Expedition Luncheon was held last week in support of MountainStar Family Relief Nursery’s child abuse and neglect prevention services for high-stress families with children six weeks to three years old in Central Oregon. Three hundred guests attended the one-hour event where they learned about MountainStar’s important work keeping children safe, parents successful

Bend police said this week they are investigating more than two years’ worth of storage unit thefts around town. The only details police are releasing so far is that they have identified a suspect and recovered some of the stolen property. They also say the burglaries date all the way back to 2010 and involve

High school parties are popular scenes in many Hollywood blockbusters. So in the real world, how big really is the high school drinking scene? According to a new survey conducted by Mothers Against Drunk Driving and State Farm says, 77 percent of high schoolers nationwide say they do not drink. “I definitely thought that the

Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., is on his “Listening to Oregon’s Future Tour,” visiting 11 high schools across the state. Students in Bend and Redmond had the opportunity Tuesday to ask the senator his opinion on the recent government shutdown, the future of our economy and higher education, among other topics. The purpose? To open up

The flow of water out of Wickiup Reservoir a month ago was 934 cubic feet per second (cfs). Since then, it’s been lowered slowly to 32cfs. That drop has caused some channels to dry up and thousands of fish to die, sparking a debate over how much water should be released in the fall. Monday

A man carrying a large sack used a rock to smash his way into Bend’s Westside liquor store early Monday morning and grabbed about 30 bottles of alcohol before fleeing, police said Tuesday. Officers responded around 7:45 a.m. Monday to Giorgio’s West Bend Liquor at 155 SW Century Drive and learned someone had used a

The first alligator snapping turtle found in the wild in Eastern Oregon was removed from Prineville Reservoir last week, the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife said Monday. The species, which is native to the southeastern U.S.,, is considered invasive in Oregon, officials said. It can be very aggressive and eats primarily native fish but

You can donate blood, volunteer time and contribute funds critical to disaster relief. But did you know that you can donate a vehicle in support of the American Red Cross, too? The Red Cross has launched a vehicle donation program with Insurance Auto Auctions (IAA) that converts unneeded vehicles into Red Cross donations to help