Clayton Franke

U.S. Senator Ron Wyden (D-OR) gathered with local elected officials at Bend City Hall Monday afternoon to discuss wildfire response and preparedness as a smattering of large infernos continue to burn across Oregon.   After attending fire briefings in Warm Springs and Prineville Sunday and Monday, Wyden criticized the federal government’s response while praising the firefighters on the front lines.   “The so-called response by Washington, D.C., if […]

A former British airliner once suited to carry 100 passengers now skims the Central Oregon High Desert carrying only two people: a pilot and an officer trying to decide where to send 27,000 pounds of reddish-pink slurry tumbling to the ground.  They are among the first to reach the fanning flames of the Bench Fire burning on the Confederated Tribes of the Warm Springs […]

A committee appointed to help spur Bend’s housing production has come up with a set of policy recommendations the Bend City Council will discuss this month — including whether to ask voters to help subsidize affordable housing through a tax measure.  The recommendations are intended to propel Bend toward lofty home building targets established by the state. That could mean expanding property tax and infrastructure fee exemptions for affordable […]

Large and volatile wildfires burning across Central Oregon have destroyed homes, threatened thousands more and blanketed the region with smoke.   The blazes have consumed more than 1 million acres in Oregon — and about a month earlier than the state’s wildfire season usually peaks.  Earlier this month, a flurry of lightning strikes ignited tinderbox-like conditions across a Central Oregon landscape parched from a record-low snowpack.  “This year was poised to be a very active fire […]

Redmond High School students will learn in modular classrooms for the entirety of the 2026-27 school year after remodel construction shook loose dangerous amounts of asbestos from the building, the Redmond School District announced last week.   The district began construction this summer on a $53 million Redmond High modernization, funded by a taxpayer bond voters approved in 2024. The district planned on using a phased approach during construction, […]

Elijah and Xiomara Roy were at their grandparents’ house north of Sisters, about to drop the final antacid tablet into their fizzy homemade lava lamps, when they were told it was time to go.   “My grandma — we call her mi-ma — said it was time to go,” Elijah said. “I was asking what was going on, asking if it was a Level 3, and she said yes.”  He was referring […]

Bend travelers flying out of the Redmond Airport may soon have an alternative to expensive Ubers, high-priced parking spaces or coordinating early morning rides with friends and family.   Cascades East Transit, Central Oregon’s public transit agency, is pushing to bring a new direct bus service from Bend to the Redmond Municipal Airport. While logistical details still need to be ironed out, the agency hopes to begin the service within the next […]

Seven horses and a pair of goats slept in barns at the Deschutes County Fair & Expo Center Sunday night, just a few hours after they were rushed away from the flames of a newly sparked wildfire west of Redmond.   At first, it appeared the animals might soon be forced to find a different place to stay. Setup was beginning for the fairgrounds’ signature event — the Deschutes County Fair — would fill barns with award-winning livestock […]