Avatar photo

Nicole Vulcan

Nicole Vulcan became Editor of the Source in 2016 and was promoted to Editor in Chief in 2024, managing the Editorial Board and the news team's many investigative projects. She's also at work on her debut book of journalistic non-fiction, titled "Self Medication," which traces Oregon's drug decriminalization efforts in the 21st Century, and tells a parallel tale of her own family’s losses from fentanyl addiction in the age of Measure 110. With all of that on her plate, send snacks. Catch up with the adventures at her book's Substack, called Self Medication.

nicole@bendsource.com
Posted inOutside

Peterson Ridge has a new trailhead—with parking and bathrooms

New access point for people arriving via motor vehicle
Avatar photo Nicole Vulcan

Sisters’ Peterson Ridge trail system has a new access point for people arriving via motor vehicle. Those who’ve visited the trails probably remember the drill: Get to the trailhead early, or risk wandering the residential streets of Sisters looking for parking. That routine officially goes by the wayside this week, as the Deschutes National Forest […]

Posted inNews

Five Central Oregon Deaths Reported in a Single Day

Oregon Health Authority reports five more deaths, bringing state total to 303
Avatar photo Nicole Vulcan

Five more people in Central Oregon have died from COVID-19, the Oregon Health Authority reported Tuesday. Before mid-July, Deschutes, Crook and Jefferson counties had reported zero deaths from the virus. That spiked later in the month, after an outbreak at Mt. Bachelor Memory Care in Bend, where three residents died last week.   The deaths reported Tuesday include […]

Posted inNews

Bend Man Charged in Alleged Racial Bias Incident; Friend Sets Up Fundraiser for Victim ▶ [with video]

An alleged incident outside Bend’s Red Robin leads to charges for a Bend man
Avatar photo Nicole Vulcan

Deschutes County District Attorney John Hummel has charged a Bend man in an alleged incident of racial bias. On Monday, Hummel’s office announced that it had charged 35-year old Bendite Jeremiah McBride with bias crime in the second degree, harassment and criminal mischief, related to an incident that started at the Red Robin restaurant in […]

Posted inNews

A Night in Portland, as Federal Troops Remained ▶ [with video]

A Bend journalist spends a night in Portland during Black Lives Matter demonstrations, and tear gassings
Avatar photo Nicole Vulcan

You can smell what’s ahead before anything else. A slight whiff of pepper—or perhaps more like the scent of RoundUp, left in an enclosed shed over the summer. Next is the boom of a crowd chanting: “Enough is enough. Enough is enough….” And then the loudspeakers, on this night, announcing that Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler […]

Posted inNews

Burning One Down, Without Smoke

Last year, the vape crisis was big news. It might be off the front page, but officials have still been working to make vapes as safe as possible.
Avatar photo Nicole Vulcan

Remember late last year, when the biggest thing on the health-concern horizon centered around vaporizers? In what feels like one million years ago, but was really only 2019, at least two Oregonians died from a mysterious lung illness that researchers now believe is linked to dangerous and unregulated additives. A series of raids at illegal […]

Posted inCulture

Source Suggests These Books

“A Master Class in the Essay”
Avatar photo Nicole Vulcan

Beth Alvarado, author and writing instructor at OSU-Cascades chats about her recent win in the Oregon Book Awards In late June, Beth Alvarado, author and faculty author at OSU-Cascades, won an Oregon Book Award in the Creative Nonfiction category for her book, “Anxious Attachments.” In this interview with the Source Weekly, she talks about kicking […]

Posted inNews

The Virus and Bend’s Sewage

With COVID-19 able to live on in sewage, does Bend’s untreated wastewater pose a risk?
Avatar photo Nicole Vulcan

Plenty has been said about the transmission of the novel coronavirus via the things that come out of our mouths and noses. Several months into this global pandemic, researchers also know that the virus can also be found in human feces—up to 33 days after a previously infected person has tested negative for the virus, […]

Posted inFood & Drink

Bringing the N-A Game

Deschutes Brewery delivers a non-alcoholic dark beer
Avatar photo Nicole Vulcan

Non-alcoholic beer drinkers resigned to drinking lagers and light beers, check it out: Deschutes Brewery is going dark for you. On July 8, Bend’s oldest craft brewery released a non-alcoholic Irish Stout—offering a style of N-A beer that, while not unique among the non-alcoholic beer options out there in the world, is not a style […]

Posted inFood & Drink

Munching While Masking

Wear a mask indoors, but take it off while eating or drinking. Say what, now?
Avatar photo Nicole Vulcan

Since July 1, Oregonians across the state have been required to wear masks when inside public buildings—but with some of those public spaces being places we go to eat and drink, the rules can get pretty confusing. Take the mask off too early and risk being publicly shamed by a zealous mask-wearer. Wear it while […]

Sign up for newsletters

Get the best of The Source - Bend, Oregon directly in your email inbox.

Sending to:

Gift this article