Month: March 2017

The Oregon Department of Environmental Quality said Tuesday it has penalized Toploc Asphalt Maintenance LLC $2,375 for discharging wastewater containing petroleum products and other hazardous substances into its drywell, located at 821 NE Second Street in Bend. The company does business as Central Oregon Asphalt Sealing. Last September, DEQ officials said, the company disposed of

Bend Park and Recreation District is seeking adult volunteers to coach youth lacrosse for the 2017 Youth Lacrosse League. Program participants are boys and girls in first through eighth grades. Program enrollment is at an all-time record high with more than 670 youth participating. Several teams are in need of volunteer coaches. The lacrosse season

Owners and workers at some businesses on Bend’s Westside expressed concerns Monday about what they consider dangerous aspects of the busy street, in the wake of a serious-injury car-pedestrian crash. On Friday evening, a 72-year-old southern Oregon man was struck by a vehicle on the corner of Northwest Galveston Avenue and 12th Street. The pedestrian

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) – The Oregon Supreme Court has heard arguments over the constitutionality of Portland’s art tax, which funds nonprofit arts programs and public school art teachers. The Oregonian/OregonLive reported Tuesday (http://bit.ly/2mT6vc1) that retired attorney George Wittemyer sued in 2013, saying the tax violates a state provision against a “head tax.” Portland voters approved

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) – Officials in Portland are calling for an investigation into Uber’s use of software to identify and reject hails from city code enforcers when it was operating illegally in the city. The Oregonian/OregonLive reports (https://goo.gl/60G1Yf ) the investigation could make public more details of Uber’s anti-regulation tactics as the company is asking

Fisheries managers announced Tuesday that the popular spring Chinook fishery on the Deschutes River will not open this year. The spring Chinook fishery on the Deschutes is closed under permanent rule but opens in years with strong returns forecast. But according to Rod French, district fish biologist with the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife,

All basins in Oregon are experiencing above-normal to well-above-normal snowpack, with a statewide average of 38 percent above normal, according to the March water supply outlook report released Tues day by the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service. Snowpack conditions have been above normal all winter for most locations in the state, the agency said. February

Record snow across the region in January had little effect on Central Oregon’s employment situation, the Oregon Employment Department reported Tuesday. Monthly job losses were consistent with seasonal norms and unemployment levels were little changed on a seasonally adjusted basis, said Regional Economist Damon Runberg. Crook County: The unemployment rate remained little changed at 6.6

Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., urged the White House and the Secret Service on Monday to continue the previous administration’s policy of releasing White House complex visitor logs so the American people can know who is influencing their government. Wyden was joined in making that request in two letters to the president and the Secret Service

An audit released Monday by Secretary of State Dennis Richardson, finds that ODOT could potentially realize significant savings by tracking unbalanced bid items. When contractors submit abnormally high or low prices for individual line-items in construction contracts, it is called an unbalanced bid. These bids can lead to cost increases if construction projects are later

Rep. Greg Walden, R-Ore.,chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, released legislation Monday as part of House Republicans’ effort to repeal and replace Obamacare through a budget process known as reconciliation. The legislation, part of House Republicans’ American Health Care Act, creates a new and innovative Patient and State Stability Fund to help low-income

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) – Somali immigrants in Oregon are reacting to President Trump’s revised travel ban with dismay and fear. Musse Olal, president of the Somali American Council of Oregon, said Monday the ban is discriminatory and will further isolate Somali immigrants from American society by making them feel targeted. President Donald Trump’s revised executive

BOISE, Idaho (AP) – Idaho residents are helping to boost the economy of a small Oregon town by purchasing marijuana from the town’s two dispensaries, which lie along the border between the two states. The Idaho Statesman reports (http://bit.ly/2meGwdw) that Huntington, Oregon, has 435 residents, but the city’s pot shops can serve up to 600

SALEM, Ore. (AP) – Oregon policymakers are considering establishing a statewide data-collection system on police stops, searches and arrests as well as requiring all law enforcement officers to undergo cultural and bias training. The bipartisan proposals – crafted over 18 months by a law-enforcement task force chaired by state Attorney General Ellen Rosenblum- laid out

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) – The Portland Trail Blazers-Minnesota Timberwolves game has been postponed due to a slippery court. The Timberwolves announced shortly before the scheduled tip on Monday night that the game could not be played. A combination of unseasonably warm temperatures in the Twin Cities and ice laid under the court for Disney On Ice

Bend city councilors soon will resume council “office hours,” the second year they have offered an opportunity to sit down and talk with one or two of your elected leaders in an informal setting. Drop-ins are welcome and there is no agenda. “Council office hours offer a refreshing interaction with the people we represent. Visitors

Some residents living east of Bend voiced their concerns Monday over the possibility of a marijuana production facility being built next to them as Deschutes County commissioners heard both sides during a public hearing. “We have to see if it’s a harmonious thing for the neighborhood. This strikes me as so disharmonious,” one resident said.

President Trump signed a new executive order Monday on a revised travel ban, after the original order was halted by a federal circuit court. The federal government said the 90-day-period would give officials more time to properly vet immigrants coming in from countries such as Sudan, Syria, Libya, Somalia, Iran and Yemen. The new ban

As they did the original order, Sens. Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley, D-Ore., were sharply critical Monday of President Trump’s revised executive order blocking refugees and immigrants from six majority-Muslim nations. “Today’s order is little more than a warmed-over rehash of the original,” Wyden said. “It remains a barely disguised religious ban that will do

A fire heavily damaged a La Pine duplex Saturday afternoon while its owners were away, and while neighbors let the dogs out, a cat was found upstairs later and could not be revived, officials said. La Pine Rural Fire District crews responded just after 3 p.m. to the report of smoke coming a duplex unit