Cover Stories
Apocalypse When?
Oregon’s beauty was created largely by the state’s rocky past: thousands of years of volcanic eruptions, wildfires and numerous large earthquakes. Although those dangers seem to be very much in the past, many continue to be real dangers. The Cascadia Subduction Zone is a constant threat to the area, and after a 2015 New Yorker article…
Child Care? Child, Where?
Several of Central Oregon’s child care centers closed their doors as the region experiences record-high COVID-19 cases, causing parents to scramble to find alternative care. The latest surge is exacerbated by Central Oregon’s lack of available childcare. A 2019 study from Oregon State University found that only 20% of children in Deschutes County had access…
Vamonos Climbing, Skiing and More
In late 2021, Vamonos Outside—the local nonprofit with a mission to connect, engage and inspire Latinx families & community into the outdoors—announced it had hired a new program coordinator, Wesley Heredia, to help connect with the community and to further the group’s mission. The Source Weekly connected with Heredia to talk about the new role.…
Chicken Husbandry and the Perfect Scrambled Egg
I’ve raised a lot of chickens. Probably hundreds. For eggs, not meat. I give them the best lives I can, including a generous retirement plan when they reach a certain age, with free room and board, yet they rarely arrive at those emerald pastures. Precious few have lived long enough to die in their sleep.…
Big-Name Authors, Central Oregon Audience
It’s one thing to read a book and be inspired by its contents. It’s another to see and hear the author talk about the writing process and their inspirations for their stories. That’s where the Deschutes Public Library Foundation’s Author! Author! series comes in—inviting authors who have graced best-seller lists, won Pulitzer Prizes and more…
Winter Nature Nights: Learn About the Natural World from the Comfort of Home
By about the end of January, many Central Oregonians start dreaming about warmer temperatures, longer days and the arrival of spring and more time outdoors. But alas, as most of us know, spring won’t be here until June—OK, maybe May—so we have to dream about spring while making it through the rest of winter that is still to…
Big Head Todd & The Monsters Come to Town
After almost 40 years of being a band, Big Head Todd & The Monsters are staying busy churning out new singles and hitting the road doing what they love most—playing rocking tunes for their fans. It’s a testament to the band’s passion that they’ve been able to amass such a dedicated following for this long. With…
Letters to the Editor 1/20/22
EEditor’s note: Every time an earthquake (or tsunami) happens off the Oregon coast, people begin to wonder once again, “Is the Big One coming?” It’s coming—but no one really knows when, or even if it’s going to be during our lifetimes. Still, Central Oregon is preparing, not necessarily as a place where we’ll experience damaging…
New Sunriver Station and Trails Funded
The Deschutes County Board of Commissioners spent a large sum of unallocated Transient Room Tax funding at its meeting Jan. 12, giving $600,000 to the Deschutes Trails Coalition for trail infrastructure and maintenance and $8 million towards a public safety building to house police and fire services in Sunriver. In Deschutes County about 30% of…
Testing, 1-2-3-4
All U.S. households could order four home COVID-19 tests straight from the U.S. Postal Service at Special.USPS.com starting January 18. The Biden administration ordered a billion tests to increase COVID-19 testing capacity, along with expanding free testing programs and attracting more pharmacies to participate in the federal pharmacy free testing program. People who order tests…
Noticias en Español
Varios centros de cuidado de niños del Centro de Oregon cerraron sus puertas porque la región pasa por el número de casos más altos de COVID-19, causando que los padres batallen en encontrar un cuidado alternativo. La ola más reciente es agravada por la falta de cuidado de espacio para el cuidado de niños disponible…
Nature Night: A Low-to-No Snow Future
Historically, mountain snow-packs have functioned as large, natural water supplies that can also provide entertaining recreational activities for local outdoor sports enthusiasts. As time continues to pass by, the snowpack in the Cascades mountain range has consistently declined—which could be attributed to the many effects of climate change. In an effort to learn more about…
Introducing Denver Says & Morrow
Sound the alarm—Central Oregon is sounding off a new band alert. And you’d better make that two new bands. Both of which have familiar faces. First up we have Denver Says. While in this form the band is new, the faces behind Denver Says might be familiar to some. They’ve got bassist Ryan Lucas (Tang,…
Funky Fauna Launches as First New Brewery in Years
During the pandemic these last two years, we’ve bid farewell to a number of cherished eateries but welcomed some new faves, too. Until now, the same could not have been said about breweries, for although we’d lost a few outside of Bend, it’s been the area’s longest period without a new brewery since 10 Barrel…
Relief Funding for Oregon Artists
When the first cases of COVID-19 began to arrive in Oregon and people headed home, artists, like everyone else, were caught in a last-minute scramble to adapt. “The majority of my work—concerts, readings, lessons, workshops—had moved online, and my creakly old laptop was barely able to function,” recalls Central Oregon singer-songwriter and poet Beth Wood,…
School Board Recall: The Dire Consequences of a Low-Turnout Election
Today in Newberg, Oregon, political gamesmanship has been elevated to Shakespeare-level stagecraft. What was once a form of national political drama that we watched unfold from far-away Washington, D.C. now firmly resides even in the tiny corners of Oregon’s political field. As we write this, voters in Newberg are turning in their ballots in a…
May The Divorce Be With You, The Flirt Locker
May The Divorce Be With You My apartment building has paper-thin walls, and I overhear a lot of what goes on between the couple next door. The man makes constant belittling remarks — calling his wife “ugly” and “stupid” and saying she’d cheat on him but no other man would want her. What leads a…
Scumbags, Slashers and Shakespeare
Normally the first few weeks of the new year see a glut of terrible movies get foisted upon us from studios that have no faith in whatever product they are shilling. But because we now exist in the Upside Down, good movies come out in January, terrible ones come out in December instead of Oscar…
Goal Setting for Home Ownership
Each January represents a fresh start, a new year, a new opportunity to set goals for the subsequent months and year. Some people start the year with resolutions; others prefer a more long-term outlook of goal setting. Whatever the method is, it is important to set a roadmap on how to attain the desired outcome.…
Free Will Astrology—Week of January 20
AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18): Self-help teachers and New Age gurus are fond of using metaphors about opening doors. They provide a lot of advice that encourages us to knock on doors, scout around for doors that are open just a crack, find keys to unlock doors, and even kick down doors. I will not be…
