Month: October 2015

An inspiring Madras High School senior was named homecoming king Friday night, to the loud cheers of his supportive classmates and community — and even got to score a touchdown. Senior Gus McCoy has a rare disease called Coffin-Siris syndrome, which affects the joints and may cause dwarfism. Many of his classmates don’t pay any

Economic Development for Central Oregon on Friday hosted the 12 th Annual Bend Venture Conference before a sold-out crowd and at day’s end announced the winners of $620,000 in investment awards, cash prizes and services. Side investment deals are still being finalized. Following is a list of the winners: Winners of the BVC, LLC, Growth

Starting as early as Monday, fuels specialists on the Deschutes National Forest intend to ignite five prescribed burn units east of Round Mountain and three units southeast of Lookout Mountain for a total of 289 acres. While ignitions will likely only take 2-3 days to complete, each of the eight units will be assessed next

Polk County sheriff’s deputies said Friday afternoon that a missing woman who took a 9-month-old girl against a court order had been found in Portland, along with the child. Earlier Friday, deputies asked the public to help them find the couple who don’t have parental rights to the child. Deputies said the case of custodial

The Oregon Health Authority Public Health Division is accepting applications for members of its Marijuana Rules Advisory Committee. The deadline to apply is Oct. 26. The RAC positions for which the OHA is recruiting include:— Physician/clinician;— Toxicologist;— Oregon Retail Marijuana Scientific Advisory Committee member;— Local public health department representative;— Local public health officer;— Public health

A Bend man suffered non-life-threatening injuries Friday when he swerved to avoid an animal and his car left Cline Falls Highway in Tumalo, striking a large tree, Deschutes County sheriff’s deputies said. Deputies and Bend Fire Department medics were dispatched around 11:15 a.m. to the reported single-car crash on Cline Falls Highway at White Rock

Juniper Swim & Fitness Center in northeast Bend was closed Friday due to a power outage, Bend Park and Rec District officials said. All afternoon and evening activities were canceled due to the outage, caused by a crash involving a power utility transformer at the site. The outage is isolated to the facility, officials said.

Residents in Jefferson County sent a message to county commissioners Thursday night: They they don’t want recreational marijuana businesses in rural areas of the county. At a public meeting, commissioners voted unanimously to direct staff to come up with an ordinance that would ban six marijuana business categories, including sales and production of pot. More

A 29-year-old man accused of assaulting his roommate at a northeast Bend duplex ran away and hid Wednesday night, prompting a search of the neighborhood and a confrontation with officers that triggered both deployment of a Taser and a bite from police dog Haras, officers said. The suspect, identified as Justin Lee Corley, had run

The Boy Scouts of America’s Fremont District will be collecting food in Central Oregon again this year on Saturday, November 14th . Food may be left out on the doorstep and Scouts will pick it up between 10:00 AM and 1:00PM. Food drives are planned in Bend, Sisters, Madras, Prineville, Redmond and La Pine.

Applications are now open for Facebook Prineville Data Center Local Community Action Grants at https://www.facebook.com/PrinevilleDataCenter . Deadline for applications is 5 PM on December 15, with decisions announced in late winter/early spring, the company said The program is limited to qualified non-profits and some public entities with short-term projects, with high community impact in Crook

Oregon’s Higher Education Coordinating Commission has finalized administrative rules to implement the Oregon Promise, which the Legislature passed earlier this year, providing up to two years of community college at no cost to the student. Applications for the Oregon Promise (SB 81) will be available to students starting on Nov. 1 . Based on current

A visitor from London on a powered paraglider flight from Madras to Bend escaped serious injury Thursday evening when the craft’s parachute struck power lines in Tumalo and became entangled, leaving him briefly suspended until witnesses helped him down. Deschutes County sheriff’s deputies and Bend Fire Department paramedics responded just before 5:30 p.m. to a

It is a fire season for the record books across the Pacific Northwest. In Oregon, there were 2,273 fires that burned 631,547 acres. “I would say this is a historic fire season in the state of Oregon with the numbers of acres burned this season,,” Doug Johnson, deputy fire staff with the Central Oregon Fire

Fire restrictions will be reduced in coming days on private and non-federal public forest and rangelands protected by Oregon Department of Forestry’s Central Oregon District. The regulated closure which has been in effect since June 19 will be terminated as of 12:01 a.m. Saturday. However, officials warn that fire season will remain in effect for

Starting Friday, Deschutes National Forests fuels specialists will be burning piles of chipped material 3 miles north of Crane Prairie Reservoir. Fuels specialists will be taking advantage of the cooler fall weather after a hot and dry summer to burn the approximately 960 acres of piles that were chipped in a former timber sale area.

Anglers will have an additional three weeks to enjoy fall fishing at North Twin Lake near Bend. The lake was scheduled to close to all fishing on Oct. 19 so it could be chemically treated to remove illegally introduced brown bullhead. According to Erik Moberly, ODFW fish biologist, the treatment is being pushed back because

The third annual Adult Abuse Prevention and Investigations report is now available. The 2014 report combines abuse information about older adults, adults with all types of disabilities and children in licensed treatment settings. The report is from the Oregon Office of Adult Abuse Prevention and Investigations (OAAPI), a shared service between the Oregon Department of

Extraordinary progress in the past decade has brought 1.6 percent of the world’s ocean to a category of “strongly protected,” Oregon State University researchers say in a new analysis. But they say the accomplishments are still far behind those that have been achieved on land – and those that are urgently needed. In a report

As thousands of fish die in the Deschutes River, a few thousand more were saved during this week’s multi-day effort that’s becoming a frustrating annual event for the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife and volunteers. On Wednesday, biologists with ODFW, volunteers with the U.S. Forest Service and others wrapped up a rescue operation for