Infrastructure Bill in Oregon
The federal government is sending over $1.2 billion of transportation funding to Oregon through the bipartisan infrastructure bill that President Joe Biden signed into law on Monday. With the ink still drying, no specific projects are yet approved in Oregon, but the bill mandates a couple areas where funding must go. However, about a third…
This Event is Going to Be “Lit”
Sponsored story: 100,000 square feet of holiday lights. Six tunnels, filled with festive cheer. Two 30-foot Christmas trees. And one happy Santa, ready to greet kids and adults alike. That’s just some of the fun visitors will find at the Holiday Light Experience, debuting at the Deschutes County Fair & Expo Center on Nov. 19.…
Listen: School boards and public input with Supt. Steve Cook and Board Chair Melissa Barnes Dholakia 🎧
School boards across the country have faced increasingly hostile public input this year over the purported inclusion of Critical Race Theory in K-12 schools, indoor masking and a host of other topics—and the school board in Bend and La Pine has definitely seen more than its usual share of this type of input. In this…
Give Guide 2021
Every year, the Source Weekly teams up with local nonprofits to launch a massive giving campaign. Supporting their work is important all year round, but it’s at the end of the year, with holidays upon us and tax time looming, that many people take to donating in earnest. This year’s Give Guide features 80+ nonprofits,…
More than Just Child Care
Mention child care in Central Oregon and someone is bound to remark about the vast shortage of available spots for kids in the area. The advent of the pandemic only made that shortage more acute, with some of the region’s most vulnerable families forced to put kids in less-than-ideal care, to stay home and face…
Redmond’s First Permanent Shelter Nears Completion
A statewide program that converts old motels into shelters for people without homes was a novel idea for many Oregonians when it debuted during the pandemic—but Bethlehem Inn has been in that business for quite some time. The nonprofit turned a motel on the old Highway 97 in Bend into a shelter in 2007, bringing a…
Letters to the Editor 11/11/21
Editor’s note: Americans donated more than $471 billion to charities and nonprofits in 2020—up 5.1% from the year before, according to the personal finance site WalletHub. This week, the site also noted the top states for giving, with Oregon ranking as the fourth-most charitable state in the nation, coming in behind Utah (#1), Maryland (#2)…
Noticias en Español
El día lunes, luego que la Administración de Fármacos y Alimentos (FDA por sus siglas en inglés) de los Estados Unidos anunció que la vacuna había cumplido con los estándares de seguridad y eficacia, presentados por un estudio clínico con aproximadamente 3,000 niños, proveedores de atención médica de la zona comenzaron a vacunar a niños…
Criteria Set for Managed Camps
The Bend City Council set guidelines for a managed houseless camp at its regular meeting Nov. 3. The City is attempting to fast track the process, hoping to have an operating camp established by winter to shelter the growing houseless population. The City is exploring eight different sites, but the most expedient option is to…
Roads, Bridges, Water and Broadband Were on the Line. Bentz Voted No. But Why?
Whether it’s out of genuine interest or just for optics, politicians in Oregon sure do like to talk about “rural issues.” Every election season, political hopefuls will trot out the talk about rural Oregon’s shortage of quality rural jobs, sub-par or inequitable education, the lack of investment in basic services and more. Mentioning these issues…
Over + Under Improvements
Countless home improvement shows populate the networks, presenting viewers with all of the possibilities of remodeling. Most of these shows do give a “realistic” view of what is entailed in renovating a home, but there is one topic that is often overlooked: over or under improving a home. This occurs when a home is updated…
A Marked Increase in Need
It’s been an intense couple of years at Saving Grace. Domestic violence cases went up nationwide during the pandemic, and those numbers bear out in Central Oregon, too. The year 2020 brought a record number of domestic violence cases in Deschutes County, said Saving Grace Executive Director Cassi MacQueen. And based on law enforcement data,…
Bend’s Best Maple Doughnuts
It’s a bit of culinary irony that maple syrup is synonymous with fall foods but is harvested during the spring thaw. That said, it’s precisely when colder temps set in that maple trees themselves begin to feed on their own sap as a way to provide the sustenance they need to make it through wintertime.…
Those Glorious Tarzan Days
Hang on, good people, we’re headed back to the days of Johnny Weissmuller, who was a magnificent Tarzan of the ’30s, keeping company with his beautiful film-version mate, Jane, portrayed by Maureen O’Hara as they met in “Tarzan the Ape Man,” filmed in 1932 with a pet chimpanzee named “Cheetah.” In 1932 I was only…
Big Sky’s Big Upgrade
Big Sky Park on Bend’s east side already has a lot to offer. There are sports fields for football, soccer and baseball, a BMX track, a playground and an off-leash dog park. Now, an expansion will improve the park’s infrastructure and add amenities for cyclists. A lot of the biking opportunities are on the west…
Regal Roundup
Sometimes the movies I end up seeing at the theater are just a product of what time they’re playing over whether they’re a film I really want to see in the first place. The theater is still a bit of a spontaneous decision for me, so sometimes I will just catch whatever is showing right…
Neil Young Continues to Inspire
It’s that time of the year again, folks! This Friday is Neil Young’s 76th birthday, and as locals have come to find, there’s no better way to celebrate the artist than by jamming out at Church of Neil. This year marks the 18th happening of the sacred event, happening this year at Worthy Brewing. If…
Awakening Your Inner Hero
I apologize from the get-go. I wrote something like this message in one of my earlier columns, but I promise, from the bottom of my heart, to take you on a much different journey this time. This is our eleventh month living in beautiful Bend, Oregon. A lot has happened during our time here…and a…
Smoke Doesn’t Have to be a Bad Thing
The summer wildfire season is well behind us—and it’s fairly safe to say that most people are happy to see it go. Still, an upcoming event is bringing smoke into the equation again… but this time, it’s in the beer. Fans of “rauchbier,” otherwise known as smoked or smoke beer, will be in their element…
All About Avalanches and How to Avoid Them
Central Oregon is known for its abundance of winter activities. Skiing, snowboarding and other frosty recreational sports dominate the mountains that surround Bend. Even though these mountains can represent peace and fun, they can also showcase a darker slope: avalanches. To help educate the mountain community on the deadly subject, the Central Oregon Avalanche Center…
Required Reefer Reading
As we exit “Croptober,” the annual period which sees sun-grown cannabis harvested, weed education website Leafly has released a new number-filled report to help put into perspective just how valuable the plant is as an agricultural crop. Not valuable as in, “Without cannabis, some people jumping on my last nerves in this office would be…
Con Juan & Uneven Steven
Con Juan Lately, women’s magazines keep mentioning “sociopaths.” What is a sociopath? From what I’ve read, it seems like both my exes were sociopaths. How do I avoid attracting others? —Wary Woman When a guy asks you on a date, it would be great if you could check him out on LinkedIn and be all,…
Free Will Astrology—Week of November 11
SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21): Scorpio theologian Eugene Peterson cleared up a mystery about the nature of mystery. He wrote, “Mystery is not the absence of meaning, but the presence of more meaning than we can comprehend.” Yes! At least sometimes, mystery can be a cause for celebration, a delightful opening into a beautiful unknown that’s…
