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Jennifer Baires

Jennifer was a features and investigative reporter for the Source Weekly through March 2025, supported by the Lay It Out Foundation. She is passionate about stories that further transparency and accountability in our region. A nerd at heart, Jennifer enjoys diving into wonky topics and messy data. Away from her computer and reporting notebook, she can be found chasing her two young children around parks and soccer fields.

features@layitoutfoundation.org
Posted inSpecial Issues & Guides

Family-Friendly Happy Hours

While Bend has plenty of food truck parks and pubs open to families, these places stand out with dedicated play areas for little and big kids
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Lifty’s on Chandler Avenue, just off Mt. Washington Drive and across from Skyline Park, is an ideal spot to hang out with kids while still feeling like an in-the-know adult. Opened in March 2022 by local Chris Justema, the restaurant includes a large beach volleyball court tucked away on the side of the patio, which […]

Posted inNews

Nowhere to Stay

A young person experiencing a mental health crisis in Central Oregon has just one option: Go to the nearest emergency room and wait for days — sometimes weeks — for an in-patient treatment bed to open on the other side of the mountains
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Last August, on a clear, sunny day, a group of elected officials and health experts gathered at St. Charles Medical Center in Bend for a presentation on emergency services for youth experiencing a mental health crisis in Central Oregon. The information they left with was bleak. Emergency departments at all St. Charles hospitals in Central […]

Posted inNews

One Woman’s Approach to Healing Chronic Pain

From New York to her home-based studio in Bend, Vance Bonner has spent the last half-century teaching people the Vance Stance — how to stand up straight
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Vance Bonner has been teaching people how to move for 50 years. Her life’s work, helping people learn to move in ways that will heal and prevent pain, began in 1974 in New York. Bonner, in her early 20s and just out of college at the time, happened to take an exercise class filled with […]

Posted inNews

Why a Float in a Pod Might Reduce Anxiety

ChillWell in Bend offers the region’s only commercially available reduced sensory stimulation tanks, and the health claims are many
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The start of a new year brings resolutions aplenty. Among the top for many is focusing on health by eating cleaner and moving more, but a recently opened spot in Bend offers a lower bar to entry for health and wellness — floating away built-up stress, anxiety and troubles one hour at a time. ChillWell […]

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Historic Skyliners Lodge to Close in June

The Bend landmark announced it is canceling reservations and shuttering this summer
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Skyliners Lodge, built in 1935, is set to close in 2025. The 90-year-old lodge is run by the High Desert Education Service District under a long-term lease with the U.S. Forest Service. In November, HDESD announced that it would return the lease to USFS and shutter the lodge, canceling all reservations after June 30. HDESD […]

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The Top Central Oregon Stories of 2024

From fires to elections, this year was full of compelling local news. Here are the top 15 stories that impacted our region.
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A City Tax Exemption Program Indefinitely Pauses In early January, the Bend City Council approved a nearly $10.6 million, 10-year tax exemption for Jackstraw, a large mixed-use development near the Box Factory with over 300 apartment units and 16,000 square feet of retail planned. The exemption was requested by developers Killian Pacific via the City’s […]

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Sheriff-elect Kent Vander Kamp Loses Lawsuit Against County for Attorney Fees

Deschutes Circuit Court Judge finds that the County and the Sheriff’s Office were within legal rights to release Vander Kamp’s California personnel records
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Friday brought a close to a drawn-out legal challenge sheriff-elect Kent Vander Kamp initiated against Deschutes County, the Deschutes County Sheriff’s Office and Oregon Public Broadcasting, as well its local reporter, Emily Cureton Cook, with a judge ruling in the county and OPB’s favor. The legal battle began on October 9 when Vander Kamp’s lawyer […]

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City Engineer Resigns Following Internal Investigation into Partnership with Macher Developers

The head of Bend’s Private Development Engineering Division stepped down after residents in a southeast Bend subdivision questioned her involvement with a proposed development in the neighborhood
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A city employee who led Bend’s Private Development Engineering Division resigned last month, on the heels of an internal investigation into ethics violations for her participation in a development group with former executives at Pahlisch Homes. Deedee Fraley, an engineer with the City from 2017 until her November resignation, was the assistant city engineer in charge […]

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Avalanche Monitoring Center in Central Oregon Expands Forecast Services

Central Oregon Avalanche Center wins a grant to expand weekend forecasts to Paulina Peak, site of a deadly avalanche in 2023
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Last year was a devastating year for avalanche accidents in Central Oregon, with two deaths happening less than two weeks apart in March. The first occurred in Deschutes County at Black Crater, west of Sisters, on March 2 and was the first fatality in the area since 2014. The second avalanche fatality was a Bend […]

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Helicopter Santa

A behind-the-scenes look at what it takes to bring Santa to life at the Old Mill each year
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Every year, for the last 10 years, Paul Evers has woken up the day after Thanksgiving to begin the ritual of becoming Santa Claus. He dons a plush red suit with ample stuffing, suspenders (added after an unfortunate incident of drooping bottoms) and a thick, curly, white-as-snow beard. Carefully applied makeup helps transform his face […]

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