Local News

It's 9am and the local press is anxious. It's been 40 years since the last presidential candidate, Robert F. Kennedy, visited Central Oregon and Barack Obama will be here any minute. Gulping organic coffee and checking lenses, "Change We Can Believe In" badges pinned to our chests, the bran muffins go ignored.
 
Across the lot, PV Powered employees huddle together, a brisk wind keeping jackets zipped, overtime conversation close. They're the first for Secret Service, electronic devices aside as the magic wand swipes over bodies. They enter, but we aren't allowed: "Thank you, now stand over there - Again." 
 
And then the bus arrives - not Barack's black world-tour barge but the traveling press. Reuters and NBC, bloggers, months into this morass and better equipped, CNN and ABC bring small stepladders, wear laminated badges reading "Fired Up! Ready to go!" and "Camp Pain 2008." They sprint for the caffeine. The bran muffins still go untouched.
To my right is Jessica Slider, staring off at the three towers of the Old Mill, the Stars and Stripes swaying on high. Doing video stills and new media for the campaign since February 2007 and promoted to the plane only recently, "I feel good." she replies when asked. Grateful that she'll be home tomorrow, in Chicago for a well-deserved Mother's Day off, she then she looks about nervously - as if her personal welfare isn't approved for release. "I really shouldn't be on the record." she apologizes then disappears.
Moments later, I get the expected pat on the back, "Hi! Don't I know you?"
"No." Seeing the short, energetic man-child all too eager to know me. It's Nick Shapiro, Oregon communications director for the Obama campaign. Jessica did the requisite handoff; Nick wants to be on the record.

The field at Sawyer Park where ultimate players have been tossing the disc for years could soon be Bend newest off-leash dog area.The sight of a dog chasing down a Frisbee is pretty standard, something
you'd expect to see on a greeting card accompanied by the phrase: "Keep
your eyes on the prize!" or something equally corny. But currently in
Bend, dogs and Frisbees, or perhaps more accurately dog owners and
ultimate Frisbee players, are butting heads as the two groups vie for
use of the scenic grass field at Robert W. Sawyer Park.

The 45-acre
park, which spans the Deschutes River at the Northwest end of town, was
on the short list of parks up for consideration for Bend's next
off-leash dog area. The other options included High Desert Park and the
soon-to-be completed Pine Nursery Park, both of which are on Bend's
eastside. Currently, park district staff has recommended to the parks
board that the field at Sawyer be considered as the site of the new
off-leash area, according to Director of Park Services Ed Moore.

Bend's Westside is known for its mature ponderosa pines, quaint mill-era cottages, dirt alleys and boutique shops, and, depending on how a Bend hearings officer rules on a pending application, possibly mega churches. The Church of Latter Day Saints has already staked out its claim on the Westside with its sprawling and largely treeless worship complex on Newport Avenue and Mt. Washington Dr.
Now Westside Church is eyeing a major expansion of its buildings and grounds just a few blocks east of the LDS property.