Month: September 2014

Evacuation levels were lowered and residents returned home Sunday as crews made good progress on the Scoggins Creek Fire, which broke out Friday and burned more than 200 acres west of Portland, in rural Washington County. The Washington County Sheriff’s Office reduced all evacuation orders to Level I, which means to be ready to leave

Residents along NW State and Congress streets should be aware that Cascade Natural Gas crews willbeworkingin the alley between the two streets all of this week. They will be working on replacing gas services, so If you park vehicles in that alley, please see they’re out of the alley the day the crew comes by

Bikers packed up and hit the road to five Central Oregon hospitals on Saturday, making their annual Santa-like delivery of dozens of stuffed animals to the emergency rooms for kids who need something soft, plush and furry to hold in troubled times. The “gang” met up at Northside Bar and Grill on Boyd Acres Road

No sidewalk, barely a shoulder along a busy road, and a few seconds every day 10-year-old Ella Kanapek holds her breath on the way to school in northeast Bend. “It’s like the wind goes by your ear and you’re like woo,” Kanapek said. “It’s actually kind of scary, because the cars are going right past

An unusual enterovirus called EV-D68 that has caused severe respiratory illnesses in over 120 children in 22 other states may have arrived in Central Oregon, officials said Friday. Over the last week, St. Charles Bend says it has treated at least two children with severe respiratory illnesses, both of whom tested positive for possible human

A California man was arrested Friday afternoon during an Oregon State Police traffic stop north of Lakeview when a trooper found about 20 pounds of marijuana in a suitcase in his SUV, troopers said. Around 2:15 p.m., an OSP senior trooper stopped a Ford Expedition displaying Minnesota license plates for failure to maintain a lane

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has proposed new rules that would relieve Oregon brewers and farmers from the threat of an end to their beneficial relationship on spent grains, Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., said Friday. “I am glad that the FDA is listening to the brewers in Oregon and nationwide and are proposing the

The Oregon Health Authority issued a health advisory late Friday due to high levels of blue-green algae in Wickiup Reservoir, located west of La Pine and 40 miles southwest of Bend off South Century Drive in Deschutes County. Water monitoring has confirmed the presence of very high levels of cyanotoxins produced by the blue-green algae,

The Oregon Health Authority said Friday it is expanding a health advisory after preliminary test results showed blue-green algae covering a stretch of the Willamette River flowing through downtown Portland is a toxic species. Officials with OHA’s Public Health Division say the advisory, first issued September 16 for the stretch of the Willamette between the

The U.S. Senate approved bipartisan child welfare legislation Thursday night aimed at reducing child sex trafficking, increasing adoptions and improving child support collections. The legislation was approved by the House on July 23 and now goes to President Obama for his signature Specifically, the Preventing Sex Trafficking and Strengthening Families Act (H.R. 4980) would encourage

A number of Oregon school districts have reported receiving requests for purchasing data that could be related to a suspected nationwide string of fraudulent billings from a company calling itself “Scholastic School Supply,” officials said Friday. On Sept. 10, Scholastic Inc., the children’s publishing and media company, issued a statement saying that the two companies

This week, Sen. Jeff Merkley, D-Ore., and Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, chairman of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, introduced legislation they say would crack down on worthless degrees peddled by unscrupulous academic institutions, many of which are for-profit colleges. The senators said Friday their legislation would ensure that students are not lured

The U.S. House on Thursday — for the third time — passed the Central Oregon Jobs and Water Security Act, a bill that author Rep. Greg Walden, R-Ore., says would deliver much needed water to Prineville for job creation and pave the way for clean energy generation at Bowman Dam in Crook County. A Senate

The Oregon Humane Society said Friday it is offering a $500 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of whoever is responsible for the “brazen theft” of a puppy from the Portland shelter on Tuesday afternoon. The 2-month-old puppy was stolen between 3 pm and 6 pm, just one day after being offered

Christy McLeod has been promoted to Chief Operating Officer for Bend Memorial Clinic. In her new role, McLeod will be responsible for overseeing day-to-day clinical operations as well as clinic growth and development. Most recently, McLeod was Chief Marketing Officer for BMC, responsible for overseeing marketing operations as well as strategic planning for the clinic.

Monte Payne has lived in his Westside Bend home off Federal Street for seven years. He’s seen neighbors come and go, replaced by tourists and vacation rentals. “My neighbor down the street is surrounded on all four sides. There are about 4-5 per block when there used to be two,” Payne, a retired firefighter, said

The Sisters School District is taking on leaky roofs, split sidewalks and unusable athletic tracks at their buildings. And this November, they’re taking on an election to try and change that. A bond measure on the Nov. 4 ballot was proposed by the Sisters School Board to address four areas plaguing the district: to improve

C-Diff, or Clostridium Defficile, is now the most common cause of infections associated with health care in the U.S. Bend Memorial Clinic is part of an effort trying to change that. “The germ was not identified until 1978,” Dr. Jon Lutz, the head clinical trial investigator at BMC, said Thursday. It lives in the human

A former Oregon State University employee turned herself in to Oregon State Police Thursday after her indictment on charges she sold nearly 400 university-owned cellphones, troopers said. Christina Marie Adams, 49, of Eugene, surrendered to OSP at the Springfield Area Command office after being notified of outstanding felony and misdemeanor warrants for her arrest, OSP

The Arts & Culture Alliance of Central Oregon is partnering with the Oregon Arts Commission to produce the first Central Oregon Arts Summit on Monday, Oct. 6, at the Riverhouse Convention Center in Bend. This marks the first regional arts summit organized by the Arts Commission, which fosters an environment for artists, administrators and community