News

Last month, Gov. Tina Kotek’s Prosperity Council recommended scrapping the state’s controversial Climate Protection Program—commonly called the CPP— a recommendation the governor provisionally endorsed. But the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality is nonetheless moving full speed ahead with the implementation of the program. On July 9, the agency identified the nonprofit it has chosen to […]

The honking from passing drivers was incessant during the afternoon of July 11 at the downtown Bend Peace Corner. For the roughly 50 protesters mingling at the corner of NW Portland and Wall, those honks of solidarity was a good thing, if the two recent local arrests and Houston shooting death by U.S. Immigration and […]

Since the shooting deaths in Minneapolis in January, federal immigration authorities, including U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, have kept a lower profile despite clocking record arrests throughout the country.   That changed when an ICE agent shot and killed Lorenzo Salgado Araujo in Houston on July 7. Araujo was not wanted by immigration authorities in the lead-up to the vehicle stop that resulted in an agent shooting […]

Oregon’s landmark effort allowing adults older than 21 to access psilocybin has evolved beyond “strictly medical uses” and may be allowing more people to enroll in the program than is safe, according to a new study.  Researchers at Johns Hopkins University published their findings in mid-June in the International Journal of Drug Policy, drawing upon 2025 data […]

Rachel O’Rourke, the leader of a prominent downtown Bend business group, announced plans this month to step away from her role amid a period of major upheaval for the organization.   Days before the resignation went public, the Downtown Bend Business Association also announced it would redo the process for a recent board of directors election.   The turmoil comes after discussions over the prospect of paid parking were met with fierce pushback from […]

It’s a perennial question among Central Oregonians each Fourth of July: Less if errant fireworks will spark Central Oregon’s next blaze than — how big will it be?  This year’s Fourth saw numerous fires, most predictably on Pilot Butte, on top of which commissioned pyrotechnics set off the City of Bend’s firework display while firefighters stood at the ready to douse sections that inevitably catch fire.  Consider as a sideshow attraction: The patch of Deschutes County Fairgrounds that also caught fire during the Redmond fireworks show.  Yet […]

Every year in late-July, on a clear day in Bend, you can look up in the sky and see the brilliant colors of hot air balloons floating against the crisp blueness of a summer morning dawn. The annual Balloons Over Bend returns July 24-26. The balloons launch each day just after sunrise from R.E. Jewell […]

In an effort to bring more small-scale housing projects to existing neighborhoods, the Bend City Council may ease back on what public infrastructure — like sidewalks —  developers are required to build.   A June 24 City Council discussion foreshadowed a slate of future changes aimed at spurring housing. Those could make it easier for planners to give leeway on infrastructure in the City’s development code, and expand a program where developers pay a fee instead of building new sidewalks. The Council also gave staff the […]

Oregonians proposed nearly 90 changes to state law or the Oregon Constitution for the November 2026 ballot, and a dozen of those petitions with priorities ranging from ending mail voting to enshrining civil rights for women and LGBTQ+ people in the state constitution cleared an initial hurdle.  But with a looming July 2 deadline to […]

A group of local businesspeople and hockey enthusiasts have their sights set on building Central Oregon’s first indoor ice rink — and they’re seeking $40 million to do it.   The massive nonprofit fundraising effort was announced July 1 for the Forge Community Iceplex, a year-round facility with two professional-sized ice sheets, a lounge, gym and training facility, pro shop, event spaces and room for about 1,000 spectators located in northeast Bend.  Tyler Brower, a spokesperson for […]