Month: June 2014

Next Wednesday, the 74 th Annual Sisters Rodeo will be kicking off the summer season with the Xtreme Bulls Competition starting at 6:30 p.m. Showcasing some of the best Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association competitors, Sister’s “The Biggest Little Show on Earth” attracts approximately 26,000 fans here to Central Oregon with rodeo attendance breaking records last

Central Oregon Artist Jennifer Lake has finished her painting “Redmond in Summer,” a new original painting depicting the City of Redmond during the summer. This is the second of two paintings that Jennifer has donated to the City of Redmond to help raise funds for the public art program. The first painting “Redmond in Winter”

Testimony continued Thursday in the trial against a Bend man who shot and killed his house guest in February 2013. Luke Wirkkala, 33, is accused of intentionally gunning down 31-year-old David Ryder of Bend after a night of Super Bowl partying. Much of the focus on Thursday centered on evidence presented by Oregon State Police

Ben Cannon, Executive Director of Oregon’s Higher Education Coordinating Commission, announced Thursday the appointment of Dr. Jim Middleton to a key leadership position. Beginning this October, Jim Middleton will join the statewide postsecondary leadership as Commissioner for Community College Services and Director of the Department for Community Colleges and Workforce Development. Dr. Middleton is currently

The COCC Community Learning program and St. Charles Health System Orthopedic Nurse Navigators are pleased to announce the launch of the Better Bones and Balance® program in La Pine beginning July 7. This La Pine class is largely due to a generous grant from the St. Charles Foundation that allowed for the cost of training

Deschutes Public Library has expanded its partnership with the Foundation Center in New York and now provides free wireless access to the Foundation Directory Online (FDO) at all six DPL branches. The Foundation Directory Online is a massive, comprehensive database profiling nonprofits, grants, and grantmakers. With the addition of wireless access, grantseekers and nonprofit organizations

The Redmond School District Board of Directors has ratified contract agreements with the Redmond Education Association and Oregon School Employees Association (OSEA) Chapter #84 for the 2014-2015 fiscal year for its teachers and classified employees. Both associations were able to meet, bargain and ratify their contracts before the end of May, 2014. Redmond Education Association

Recently, employees, volunteers, and contractors of the Oregon Department of Corrections were recognized for their outstanding work in supporting the agency’s mission. The annual statewide awards ceremony was held on Tuesday, May 13, to honor these individuals as part of National Correctional Officers and Employees Week (NCEW). Some of the award recipients are as follows.

The city of Bend has three vacant positions on its Affordable Housing Advisory Committee. The city is seeking one representative from the local affordable housing community, one representative from a local lending institution and one representative from the public at large. The Affordable Housing Advisory Committee is a standing committee of the Bend City Council

A transient blocking traffic near a downtown Bend intersection got in a fight with a police officer Wednesday afternoon, punching him several times before a bank security officer came to his aid, with gun drawn, and the man was arrested, officers said. Officer Wes Murphy, a 4-year veteran of the force, contacted George Melvin Flack,

The River Song School / Paul Scott Gallery Art Collaborative runs through Saturday, June 7th. Bidding will close end of day Saturday. Please check out & bid on these unique art pieces. http://tinyurl.com/ARTRiverSong River Song is a 501(c)(3). The money raised from this art collaborative will allow expansion of our summer arts program and several

As about a dozen supporters rallied outside, a man and woman protesting Republicans’ inaction on immigration reform staged a sit-in at Rep. Greg Walden’s Bend office Wednesday, saying they won’t leave until they are arrested — and they were. After police were called to the Bond Street office of the congressman, Greg Delgado and Ann

The murder trial of a Bend man accused of fatally shooting a house guest began Wednesday with graphic opening statements about what took place that fateful night at Luke Wirkkala’s southeast Bend home. Wirkkala’s defense lawyers told the eight-man, six-woman jury panel (12 jurors and two alternates) that Wirkkala had been forcibly sodomized (a reference

The Bend-La Pine Schools Summer Meals and Summer Reading program kicks off on Monday, June 16 in the Bend area and Monday, June 23 in La Pine. The program serves hundreds of local students healthy, tasty meals each weekday at 12 locations. The free lunch program, funded by the United States Department of Agriculture, expects

On May 15th-18th, the Bend Police Department Traffic Team attended the North American Motor Officer’s Association Annual Training Conference in Clackamas, Oregon. This is a conference put on every year for Motor Officers from Washington, Oregon, Idaho, and Canada. The conference consists of three days of intense training in regards to operating a police motorcycle.

Given favorable weather conditions, fuel specialists plan to conduct two prescribed fires beginning Thursday near Black Butte Ranch and Camp Sherman, on the heels of a three-day, 730-acre burn west of La Pine that sent smoke streaming into the area. About 65 acres are planned to be burned adjacent to Black Butte Ranch and mile

The Redmond School District has announced its free Summer Meals Program schedule for the summer. The program allows any Redmond children who are 18 years of age and under to receive a nutritious breakfast and lunch at no charge. No registration is required. The Redmond School District participates in the USDA Summer Food Service Program

Just in the past two weeks, the incidence of sea star wasting syndrome has exploded along the Oregon coast and created an epidemic of historic magnitude, one that threatens to decimate Oregon’s entire population of purple ochre sea stars, experts said Wednesday. Prior to this, Oregon had been the only part of the West Coast

The Central Oregon Fire Chiefs Association announced Wednesday the upcoming closure of all burning across Deschutes County. Fire chiefs from all Deschutes County municipal and rural fire departments have agreed that each jurisdiction will no longer allow outdoor burning of debris and agricultural burns as of midnight Sunday, June 15th. “In order to best serve

Cascade Natural Gas Company is starting work on Phase III of the Bend Westside Replacement Project, and that will impact traffic on Bend’s Westside early Thursday, including two short-term closures of the Galveston Avenue Bridge. Thursday morning, starting at 5:30 a.m.,traffic will be shut down for approximately one hour to allow contractor crews to set