Laurel Brauns
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Listen: EDCO’s Roger Lee on the Ups and Downs of the Bend Business Scene 🎧

How has the pandemic affected the local economy? New businesses relocate here every year and the Zoomtown migration continues…
Avatar photo by Laurel Brauns and Aaron Switzer

For this week’s “Bend Don’t Break” podcast we spoke with Roger Lee, CEO of Economic Development of Central Oregon. EDCO is a nonprofit dedicated to creating a diversified economy and it helps recruit businesses from outside the area which will ideally provide middle-class jobs for the region’s workforce. Lee has been with EDCO for 21 […]

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Listen: Ascending Together – Twin Sisters Fiona and Isabel Max on Running Through COVID 🎧

The Max sisters talk about expanding their talents beyond athletics, dealing with running injuries and their freshman year at Princeton
Avatar photo by Laurel Brauns and Aaron Switzer

For this week’s “Bend Don’t Break” podcast we spoke with Isabel and Fiona Max. These fraternal twins are record-breaking runners from Bend who started their Freshman year at Princeton University this fall… remotely. They often finish within seconds or split seconds of each other in races, though Isabel is known for wins in shorter sprints, […]

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Listen: The Story Behind Central Oregon Gives 🎧

Aaron Switzer of Central Oregon Gives and Rys Fairbrother of What If We Could joined forces last year to create an online giving program that raised hundreds of thousands for local nonprofits
Avatar photo Laurel Brauns and Aaron Switzer

For this week’s episode of “Bend Don’t Break” we spoke with Rys Fairbrother of What If We Could, and Aaron Switzer, the Source Weekly’s publisher and founder of Central Oregon Gives. Both Switzer and Fairbrother have been working to help nonprofits for years through sponsorships, marketing and storytelling. The Central Oregon Gives program combines all […]

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Listen: Anthony Broadman on Getting Kids Back in the Classroom 🎧

Bend City Councilor-Elect Anthony Broadman is part of a bipartisan group in Bend putting pressure on Gov. Kate Brown to support in-person classes regardless of COVID statistics
Avatar photo Laurel Brauns and Aaron Switzer

For this week’s “Bend Don’t Break” podcast we spoke with City Councilor-Elect, Anthony Broadman who also works as an indigenous rights attorney. Broadman has already developed a reputation for leadership in Bend: He helped spearhead a plan to expand outdoor seating for restaurants throughout the City and introduced a proposal to provide childcare for community […]

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Listen: Ryan Houston of the Oregon Natural Desert Association 🎧

The federal government controls millions of acres of public lands in Oregon, but who benefits? The executive director of ONDA describes the work of keeping the Bureau of Land Management accountable and preserving high desert wilderness.
Laurel Brauns

For this week’s episode of “Bend Don’t Break” we talk with Ryan Houston, who has been serving as executive director of the Oregon Natural Desert Association since 2018. Growing up in California, Houston developed an early interest the desert environment and eventually earned a master’s in ecology from the University of Arizona. He has a […]

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Listen: Working Across the Aisle with Former Oregon House Rep. Judy Stiegler 🎧

Stiegler offers wisdom about how to collaborate with the other side during an era of heightened polarization
Laurel Brauns

For this week’s episode of “Bend Don’t Break” we spoke with Judy Stiegler who served in the Oregon State Legislature for House District 54 from 2009-2011 and is now an instructor of political science at OSU – Cascades. (This district covers the City of Bend and was won by Deputy District Attorney Jason Kropf in […]

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Listen: The Politics Behind the Local Real Estate Industry with Tyler Neese 🎧

The government affairs director of the Central Oregon Association of Realtors (COARS) weighs in on local and state real estate policy
Laurel Brauns

For this week’s episode of “Bend Don’t Break” we spoke with Tyler Neese, the government affairs director for the Central Oregon Association of Realtors, also known as COAR. After the recent election we wanted to catch up with some local PACs that had an impact on the political process and COAR was one of the […]

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Giving Goes Viral ▶ [With Video]

Donations to Central Oregon Gives eclipsed all expectations in 2019. Two top fundraising nonprofits from 2019 share how they saw success
by Laurel Brauns

Last year, two Bend entrepreneurs joined forces to raise $50,000 for local nonprofits. Instead, they raised more than 10 times that amount, with donations totaling $575,000 by December 31, 2019. The funds went directly to 72 organizations ranging from children’s advocacy groups to environmental watch dogs. For more than two decades, the Source Weekly has […]

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Parents Protest School Closure

Thousands of Oregon parents unite in an effort to re-open schools by Jan. 6
by Laurel Brauns

As local COVID-19 cases spike, Bend-La Pine Schools is no closer to opening its doors than it was in September. That has some local parents frustrated enough to take to the streets in protest, while simultaneously organizing an online effort to demand action from elected officials. Local organizers Kelly Vlach and Indu Fairbanks of the […]

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City May Fund Services for the Unhoused

Bend City Council considers a tax levy to fund social services for people without homes
by Laurel Brauns

The Bend City Council debated various building tax levies for funding services for the unhoused during its Nov. 4 City Council meeting. The number of local people experiencing homelessness went up by 60% since 2015, according to the Central Oregon Homeless Leadership Coalition, to an estimated 969 people in 2020. City Manager Eric King introduced […]

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