Month: June 2016

Flag Day, June 14 , was celebrated with the groundbreaking for the long-awaited Oregon State Police Fallen Trooper Memorial, to be built in front of the Public Service Building on the Capitol Mall. The groundbreaking was organized by White Oak Construction, the company chosen to construct the memorial. OSP Lt. Cari Boyd, leads the organization,

Deschutes County will hold a public hearing Wednesday morning on itsproposed $341.4 million budget for fiscal year 2016/17. The hearing will begin at 10 a.m. at the Deschutes Services Building, which is located at 1300 Northwest Wall Street in Bend. At the conclusion of the hearing, the Board of County Commissioners may adopt the county’s

With 56 percent of summer travelers driving to their destination and gas prices having risen nearly 40 percent in the last four months, the personal finance website WalletHub released a report Monday on 2016’s Best and Worst States for Summer Road Trips — and Oregon came out on top. WalletHub’s road-trip report compared the 50

Bend firefighters extinguished a fire that tore through a storage shed and several Dumpsters behind a northwest Bend restaurant early Monday morning, keeping the flames from reaching the structure. They later said the cause of the fire was undetermined. Fire crews responded shortly before 5 a.m. to the reported structure fire behind Brother Jon’s Public

A short road segment of Forest Road 30 at the junction with Crazy Creek, about 5 miles east of Big Summit Prairie, will be closed beginning Wednesday, and expected to stay closed into October, while contractors install a new culvert. The road will be marked as closed for a quarter-mile to the east and west

Bend motorists are advised to avoid Northwest Broadway Street between St. Helens Place and Florida Avenue this week, as Cascade Natural Gas crews are replacing old gas lines with new ones. The company said Sunday, “The going has been slow, as crew are having to hammer solid rock, and the area will be congested, with

Bend police released two surveillance images Saturday in hopes of finding two suspects caught on camera stealing items from at least two parked vehicles in the northeast part of the city. The two were caught on camera around midnight in the 63200 block of Northeast Wishing Well Lane, said Lt. Nick Parker. If caught, they

A missing La Pine man who Deschutes County sheriff’s deputies had asked the public for help finding has been found and is okay, officers said Sunday. Robert Lee Hughes, 65, was located around 9 a.m. Sunday “and was determined to be OK and is no longer considered missing,” said sheriff”s Deputy Jim Whitcomb. On Friday,

The American Red Cross Cascades Region said it sent disaster volunteers to assist four people displaced by a house fire early Saturday morning on the Warm Springs Indian Reservation, The Red Cross said it was called out around 2 a.m. to the fire that occurred in the 2000 block of Oitz Loop. Further details about

Bend police on Saturday confirmed the details of a disturbing encounter reported by a young boy on the porch of his NorthWest Crossing home with a man who stopped his pickup truck, came up and began asking very specific questions. The neighborhood association sent out a notice Friday of the Thursday afternoon incident, in which

The local band Corner Gospel Explosion was supposed to be playing at Bite of Bend Friday evening, but the concert was canceled due to a horrible tragedy that took place Thursday morning. Band member Stephen Chase Mickel was killed in a car crash south of Sunriver. “I saw him two days ago, so it doesn’t

Recovery from the Great Recession took nearly eight years in Central Oregon. The region was particularly hard-hit due to the bursting of the housing bubble. The previous expansion was built on the back of the real estate market. with a disproportionate share of job growth concentrated in the building and selling of homes. When the

Craigslist can be used for everything from selling clothing to job hunting, but real estate agents in Central Oregon are warning potential renters to be careful when using it to search for a place to hang their hat. A time-honored saying applies: “If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is,” Linda Gardner,

AChupacabramoved in at the Oregon Zoo this week, arriving in PortlandThursdayafternoon and quickly making himself at home in the carnivore ward of the zoo’s veterinary medical center. Unlike the bloodthirsty creature of folklore, however, thisChupacabrais a vegetarian. “Chupacabrais his name, but actually he’s a Patagonian mara, native to Argentina,” said Tanya Paul, Oregon Zoo program

Central Oregon’s canine ambassador has died. Fifteen-year-old Maty was a three-legged dog loved by many throughout the community. The Australian shepherd mix was brought to the Humane Society of Central Oregon in Bend after being abandoned at three weeks old. As a puppy, Maty contracted parvo virus and developed a staph infection. To save her

A Madras mother pleaded guilty to two counts of first-degree mistreatment in the death of her 1-year old daughter, Katerina Austria. Raine Austria was sentenced to 180 days in jail and three years probation during her sentencing in Jefferson County Court on Wednesday. She has already served 171 days. The toddler was found dead one

A 42-year-old Bend man arrested last week on charges of sexually explicit interactions with a Florida girl on a smartphone app was arrested again Thursday, accused of similar actions with two Willamette Valley girls, one of whom he traveled to Salem to have sex with. Joel Matthew Hoffman was contacted again around 3:15 p.m. and

A 21-year-old Bend man who decided to climb a nearly vertical wall at Hidden Forest Cave southeast of Bend Thursday night fell 10 to 12 feet and was injured, prompting a late-night rescue operation led by Deschutes County Sheriff’s Search and Rescue. County 911 dispatchers got a call just after 9:30 p.m. reporting that Erik

Three members of the Oregon Wing of Civil Air Patrol are receiving national awards at the CAP National Convention in Nashville, Tenn., in August. There are 52 Wings in CAP organized into eight CAP Regions. These award winners are considered the top in their specialty area in the nation for 2016. Maj Bradley Naas will

The Senate Appropriations Committee on Thursday passed the Financial Services and General Government appropriations bill, which includsd an amendment from Oregon Sen. Jeff Merkley and Washington Sen. Patty Murray to ensure that legal marijuana businesses can access banking services. Currently, marijuana businesses operating under state laws that have legalized medicinal or recreational marijuana have had