Month: March 2016

Daimler Trucks North America and Madras-area officials gathered on a breezy, chilly Monday to break ground on an $18 million expanded truck-testing track and facility area leaders hope will bring some added sizzle to the local economy The upgraded research and development facility will bring more than 30 new jobs to the area, the company

The Bureau of Land Management recently announced that it is seeking public nominations for open positions on 34 Resource Advisory Councils (RACs), including six in Oregon and two in Washington state, which advise the BLM on public land issues. As published in a notice in the Federal Register, the BLM will consider nominations for 45

The FBI has arrested a 23-year-old California man in a weekend shooting on northeast Oregon’s Umatilla Indian Reservation that left a Pendleton man dead and another man seriously injured, the agency said. Umatilla tribal police received a report around 5:30 a.m. Saturday that there had been a shooting on the reservation, said FBI spokeswoman Beth

TheOregon Department of Agriculture’s Pesticides Program finds itself in a muchstronger position to address issues and concerns from the public while workingproactively with pesticideapplicators to prevent problems in the first place, the agency said Monday The newly enhanced program comes courtesy of the 2015 state Legislature and an added $2 million in funding. It includes

Starting Tuesday, City of Bend crews will be working on the curb ramps and pedestrian refuges (islands in the middle of the road where pedestrians can stop while crossing the road) near the roundabout at Northeast Franklin Avenue and NE Eighth Street. The project will require some short detours and cause some traffic delays near

Sens. Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley announced Monday that Oregon will receive more than $60 million in Secure Rural Schools payments this fiscal year from the U.S. Forest Service for local education, law enforcement and roads. The distribution includes $3.82 million for three Central Oregon counties: $1.674 million in Deschutes County, $1.61 million in Crook

Only 2.7 percent of the U.S. adult population achieves all four of some basic behavioral characteristics that researchers say would constitute a “healthy lifestyle” and help protect against cardiovascular disease, a recent study concluded. In this study, researchers from Oregon State University and the University of Mississippi examined how many adults succeed in four general

Sens. Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley are urging their colleagues to improve federal air quality programs in the wake of several Portland neighborhoods learning last month that there are high levels of heavy metals in the air. “The EPA aims to protect air quality but, as we are seeing in Oregon this cannot be done

St. Charles Health System is pleased to announce it is providing $200,000 in community benefit grants to nonprofit organizations throughout Central Oregon. Schools, homeless shelters, public health and youth programs are among the 28 nonprofits in the region that are helping tackle St. Charles Health System’s strategic priorities of childhood preventive health and education, and

A pickup truck struck a power pole near on U.S. Highway 20 east of Sisters early Monday, and while the two occupants escaped injury, the crash cut power to hundreds in the area and closed the highway for more than five hours for pole replacement work. Deschutes County sheriff’s Sgt. Vance Lawrence said it appeared

A Prineville man was taken to the hospital for treatment early Monday after his pickup truck left a driveway bridge near Northwest O’Neil Highway and flipped onto its top in a water-filled irrigation canal, Crook County sheriff’s deputies said. Deputies were dispatched around 12:40 a.m. to a report of suspicious circumstances at a home on

More than 100 happiness walls popped up across the country — one in Bend — on Saturday in honor of Sunday’s UN-sanctioned International Day of Happiness. “Science has really demonstrated that happiness is a precursor to success in all parts of your life, and the United Nations has recognized that,” Bend event organizer Fran Borcalli

The first day of spring was a rainy one. But while some folks might have been out dodging those mud puddles on Sunday, others spent the day diving right in. Weather didn’t stop about 950 participants in Sunriver’s fourth annual mud run. It might have even enhanced the experience. “They can expect a lot of

U.S. Interior Secretary Sally Jewell and Deputy Interior Secretary Michael Connor will travel to Harney County on Monday to meet with employees affected by the 41-day Malheur National Wildlife Refuge occupation, as well as community and tribal leaders, the agency announced Sunday. The brief announcement said Jewell will meet “with community and tribal leaders who

Three-quarters of Oregon drivers in a recent survey admitted to driving while distracted, mostly by engagement with a cellphone. That is just one finding of a study of distracted driving commissioned by the Oregon Department of Transportation and conducted by Southern Oregon University. Nearly 1,600 Oregonians participated in last month’s survey, and most of them

A Portland man climbing at Smith Rock State Park was injured Saturday in a 15-foot fall at the bottom of a 125-foot-deep ravine, prompting the use of a high-angle rope rescue system to reach and treat the man and bring him to safety, authorities said. call-out of Deschutes County Sheriff’s Office Search and Rescue’s Mountain

Sens. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., and Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., led a bipartisan group of five senators Friday in urging the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs to extend the presumption of exposure to Agent Orange to provide more veterans who served in the Korean Demilitarized Zone access to critical health care benefits. Currently, only veterans who served

“SUSTAIN Central Oregon” is a month long a series of lectures, workshops, tours, and films to celebrate Earth Month during April. The collaboration between the COCC Sustainability Committee and The Environmental Center aims to educate and empower the Central Oregon community to embed sustainability into daily life. Focusing on a different theme each week (agriculture,

A Prineville man who recently worked as a drug and alcohol counselor was arrested in a guns-drawn traffic stop in Madras this week, accused of trafficking heroin from the Portland area to locations around Central Oregon, drug agents said Thursday. Ryan Kenneth Smith, 27, was arrested Monday by the Central Oregon Drug Enforcement Team on

Oregon Gov. Kate Brown was in Bend on Thursday to give a speech and visit a school and business as she touts the state’s economic recovery, while also raising funds in her election campaign. On the second stop of a three-day state tour, Brown spoke to the City Club of Central Oregon, sharing her 2016