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They called him the Colonel and while I figured he probably never attained that rank during his time in the Army, he seemed to command the respect of everyone on that exceptionally cold spring morning earlier this year. I remember that, and how he appeared out of nowhere, it seemed, as volunteers from the Central Oregon Veterans Outreach (COVO) arrived in a makeshift Bend homeless camp, as they do every week, with food, camping gear, fresh water, toiletries and other supplies.
He cheerfully greeted the three volunteers, whom he clearly had come to know quite well during the few months since he'd been living in the camp. Soon he got to talking about life as a homeless veteran in Central Oregon. The cheerfulness immediately disappeared when he told me about a friend of his who'd recently died in the camp. Emotion was coming over him as he mumbled, “They're dooming us to failure out here.”

Embattled District Attorney Patrick Flaherty got more bad news this week in the form of a formal criminal investigation into allegations that he abused the grand jury process and wrongfully terminated a long-time investigator in his office.
Flaherty announced via press release on Monday evening that Oregon State Police are investigating his office at the behest of Attorney General John Kroger. According to Flaherty, OSP is looking into the grand jury proceeding that Flaherty called last year during a dispute with county attorney Mark Pilliod whom Flaherty had accused of leaking sensitive material to the media. The matter was eventually settled when Pilliod agreed to issue a statement of apology.
The issue was one of several flashpoints between Flaherty and Deschutes County brass who have fought Flaherty's attempts to assert more independent control of the district attorney’s office. The issue came to a head early in Flaherty's tenure when employees in his office sought the county's help in forming a union after Flaherty made known his intention to dismiss nearly half a dozen of Dugan's former staffers.

Given the dismal housing market, it could be years before the next destination resort breaks ground in Central Oregon. However, Deschutes County commissioners have set the stage for the next wave of construction if it ever arrives.
Meeting before the Thanksgiving holiday, commissioners voted to pare down the total number of acres available to prospective resort developers, trimming the county's official resort map from 112,000 acres to a little more than 20,000 acres.
The original map, which dates back more than two decades, determines which lands are eligible for resort development and which are off-limits. Commissioners had sought to adopt a map that more closely reflected which lands were actually viable for development.