Local News

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 […]

Throughout the country, the costs of the conflict in Iran have had wide-ranging effects, and we’re not just talking about gas prices.  Dozens of municipalities across at least seven states, including Minnesota and Michigan, have reported that their water and wastewater systems were hit with cyberattacks in the last week of July. Now we know Oregon was also hit. While federal and state officials said a preliminary investigation hasn’t confirmed Iran’s involvement, the attacks mirror those the country has waged against U.S. water systems in […]

Party at the Central Library! Just over two months after opening, the public is invited to a Grand Opening party lasting two days at the Central Library in Bend. The celebration will begin at noon Saturday, Aug. 15, with remarks from members of Indigenous Neighbor Nations, U.S. Poet Laureate Arthur Sze and Oregon Poet Laureate […]

Oregon has the highest rate in the country of babies who are given breast milk or colostrum in the first hours after birth, according to a new study.  The national average is 85.1%, according to America’s Health Rankings, based on 2023 data. Oregon’s average is 94%. The study looks at breastfeeding initiation rates, defined as […]

Oregon Gov. Tina Kotek is urging federal officials to help Oregon farmers and ranchers respond to, and rebound from, wildfires at the same scale and speed those officials delivered in Republican-controlled states hit by natural disasters this year. In a letter requesting aid that Kotek sent Thursday to Brooke Rollins, head of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, […]

It may seem counterintuitive, but local therapist Dasha Gousseva says the best way to manage stress levels heightened by Central Oregon’s wildfires is to focus on the things we can control. Fair-weather activities that ground us, such as socializing in person or devoting a few hours to hobbies, can help tamp down the adrenaline and […]

A faction of Multnomah County Democrats proposed a resolution July 30 calling on U.S. Rep. Janelle Bynum (D-Ore.) to resign her seat and drop out of the November general election. That’s a bold and surprising move at a time when control of Congress is up for grabs and Bynum, 51, a first-termer, is seeking reelection […]

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 […]