Crafting the Best of Central Oregon
The theme for the 2024 Best of Central Oregon was “Titans,” in honor of the Summer Olympic Games. This year, the Source Weekly welcomed art intern Connley Sewalls for the season, who is studying illustration at the Savannah College of Art and Design. Sewalls crafted a magical world of mythically powerful women, stoic strongmen, a…
LISTEN: Bend Don’t Break with Bill Lynch 🎧
In this episode of Bend Don’t Break, Aaron Switzer sits down with Bill Lynch, the Board President of the Central Oregon Trail Alliance (COTA). Bill, who has been an integral part of COTA since 2021 and a full-time Bend resident since 2020, shares his journey from Iowa to the trails of Central Oregon. With a…
OHA announces new Chief Financial Officer
Rochelle Layton has been named the new Oregon Health Authority (OHA) Chief Financial Officer (CFO), effective Sept. 3. As CFO and head of the Fiscal Operations Division, Layton will manage the agency’s work to create the OHA over $30 billion biennial budget, establish Medicaid rates for Coordinated Care Organizations (CCOs) and conduct audits of Medicaid…
Roundabout Books Hosts Authors Katie Steele and Tiffany Browne to Discuss Their New Book “The Price She Pays” with ESPN commentator Jessica Mendoza
Roundabout Books is pleased to host former D1 athlete and author Katie Steele and co-author Tiffany Browne to discuss their new book “The Price She Pays: Confronting the Hidden Mental Health Crisis in Women’s Sports—from the Schoolyard to the Stadium” with former Olympian and ESPN commentator Jessica Mendoza. The event will be held at the…
Mid-August Fires Send Smoke Through Central Oregon
Oregon has the highest total number of large fires in the nation, according to the National Interagency Fire Center. There are 78 large active fires burning nationally with 23 of those in Oregon as of Monday. So far, acreage burned in the state tips the scales at 1,057,627. However, in Central Oregon, firefighters have managed…
City of Bend Chooses Hawthorne Bridge Design
An initiative to increase connectivity and create safer parkway crossings for bikers and pedestrians is coming along as the Bend City Council moves forward with a design concept for the overcrossing on Hawthorne Avenue. On Aug. 9, the majority of Bend City councilors voiced their preference for a “single tower cable stay” bridge design. This…
Announcing the Launch of a New 2024-25 Edition of the High Desert Food Trail!
The High Desert Food Trail, created by High Desert Food and Farm Alliance (HDFFA), is thrilled to announce a brand new edition and map, complete with new foodie-focused events, delicious culinary businesses, and self-guided itineraries to follow. The High Desert Food Trail is a collaboration with Travel Oregon and Visit Central Oregon as a part…
Locavore Farm to Table Dinner at Five Pine announces Menu
Central Oregon Locavore would like to invite you to our upcoming Meet Your Farmer Dinner at FivePine Creekside Patio in Sisters on August 21st! This event will be outside weather permitting, but an indoor venue is available if there is extreme heat or smoke. Guests will enjoy a multi-course Lebanese themed meal with ingredients sourced…
Activists Demand In-Person Meetings with Rep. Lori Chavez-DeRemer
In response to a lack of in-person town hall meetings from Oregon Rep. Lori Chavez-DeRemer, local activists and members of the Consolidated Oregon Indivisible Network are hosting a car caravan and rally to demand the representative’s presence. Chavez-DeRemer represents Congressional District 5, which includes most of Deschutes and Clackamas counties, Linn County, and parts of…
LISTEN: Bend Don’t Break with Matt Muchna 🎧
In this episode of the “Bend Don’t Break” podcast, host Aaron Switzer sits down with Matt Muchna, the Executive Director of Envision Bend. Envision Bend is a nonprofit organization focused on shaping Bend’s future through community engagement and strategic planning. Matt discusses his background in sustainability and community development, sharing insights from his work at…
Summer: A Route from Source to Sea
On a recent July day, a group of young indigenous paddlers gathered in Klamath country to train, their sights set on running the Klamath River not far away. In a matter of a few short weeks, this river will run free all the way from Klamath Falls to the Pacific Ocean. As soon as this…
Exploring Evergreen: Mt. Bachelor’s New Trail for Hikers and Bikers
Last week, I spent a delightful afternoon at Mt. Bachelor exploring the new Evergreen trail, a mixed-used path for hiking and downhill mountain biking. Taking the chairlift up to Pine Marten Lodge, I watched mountain bikers below, feeling a thrill of anticipation. From the lodge, I made my way to the trailhead just west of…
Rocking Through The Years: Smash Mouth’s Ongoing Legacy
And all that glitters is gold, only shooting stars break the mold.” You may recognize those lyrics from Smash Mouth’s late ’90s hit song, “All-Star.” Smash Mouth, an American rock band from San Jose, California, was formed in 1994 and is still rockin’ as ever. The band comes to perform at General Duffy’s on Aug.…
Horoscope Week of August 8, 2024
LEO (July 23-Aug. 22): I love the fact that Antarctica doesn’t belong to anyone. Thirty nations have research stations there, but none of them control what happens. Antarctica has no government! It has a few laws that almost everyone obeys, like a ban on the introduction of non-indigenous plants and animals. But mostly, it’s untouched…
Letters to the Editor 08/08/2024
Bend Works! I grew tired of passing two beat up old chairs someone had dumped in my neighborhood. (Putting a “free” sign on junk doesn’t make it not-junk). I called the City and they sent me to their website to find a page called Bend Works. I submitted a request, with the location and a…
Baldy’s Expands to La Pine
A Bend (and Redmond) staple — which has won a plethora of awards in our past Best of Central Oregon readers’ polls — is now set up in La Pine. Baldy’s Barbecue began serving up its delicious meats and sides outside Legend Cider Co. in La Pine as of late July. The “soft open” included a…
Prep Bend is for Sale
Prep Bend, the space used by food purveyors around Central Oregon, is for sale. The business announced Tuesday the sale of the building along NE Second and Revere. The building is listed for sale at $2.75 million. The space contains coolers, freezers and numerous cooking spaces that allow business owners without their own commissary space…
Seeding Resilience
What is so tiny that you can hold hundreds of them in a single handful, yet holds the key to restoration and climate resiliency in Oregon’s high desert? A seed. Or rather, millions of tiny seeds, each of which holds the potential to grow into a native bunchgrass and help restore resilient, thriving desert grasslands.…
Fire and Water are the Troubles of Our Time. Local Governments are Seeing the Clock Tick.
Several years ago, the Source Weekly began an effort to uncover and publish the largest users of water in our communities. Our effort was focused on individual users, and ultimately, a local judge ruled that some users in the city did not have to disclose their usage to the public. We lost that fight, but…
Underdogs No More
You know, it’s funny. I watch everything. Everything. From Slow Cinema masterpieces like “A Ghost Story” and “Memoria” to every new Adam Sandler movie that comes out to all the random art and schlock in between. Comic book movies, South Korean revenge stories, queer Western romances, science fiction slapstick comedies…all movies deserve a chance to…
Nathaniel Rateliff Bares His Soul
South of Here” may refer to a physical place—Hermann, Missouri, to be specific—but it also occupies a space in Nathaniel Rateliff’s mind. “I grew up in Missouri, which the Mason-Dixon line runs through,” Rateliff explains. “So, you know, it’s the Midwest, but it’s also a bit of the South.” Located on the banks of the…
La activación de incendios aumenta en el Centro de Oregón Órdenes de evacuación vigentes en varias comunidades del Centro de Oregón
Según Central Oregon Fire Info, tormentas eléctricas destructivas llegaron al Centro de Oregón el fin de semana provocando varios incendios nuevos y haciendo retroceder los esfuerzos para controlar algunas llamaradas grandes en la zona. Y las altas temperaturas y el clima seco durante los próximos días podrían provocar un aumento en los incendios y una…
Inflation and Your Home
As a local real estate agent, I often get asked about the benefits of locking in a fixed-rate mortgage, especially with inflation on everyone’s mind. Let me break it down for you: locking in a fixed-rate mortgage is not just about securing a home; it’s a strategic financial move that can pay off significantly over…
Understanding Intimacy
Dear Dr. Jane, I’m in love with my wife. We have a pretty good relationship and we both like sex, but intimacy’s been difficult this summer. We’ve only had sex once since the kids got back from camp. There’s always something in the way. It seems like they never sleep, or if they do sleep,…
Source Warmup
Bend Power Customers Experience Outages Nearly 5,000 Pacific Power customers in Bend experienced power outages on Aug. 6 at about 9am. According to the Pacific Power operations team, the power outage occurred after a squirrel got into its substation serving the Bend area and caused some damage, resulting in a blown fuse. Power was restored…
It’s Huckleberry Time. Where Are You Getting Yours?
We can’t all have huckleberries. These notoriously fickle plants only grow in the mountains of the Northwest, and refuse to submit to domestication. The deep purple berries have a unique aroma that’s unlike any other fruit, but its cousin, the blueberry, offers the closest comparison, and is a worthy substitute in most cases. So, when…
Brewing Sunshine
There’s something magical about summer: the warmth, the longer days and the leisurely pace that invites us to savor every moment. One of the best ways to capture the essence of summer in a glass is by making sun tea. This simple, old-fashioned method of brewing tea using the sun’s natural heat results in a…
