A Controversial Bill Would Loosen Oregon’s Liability Laws
In 2006, 18-year-old Myles Bagley suffered serious injuries while snowboarding at Mt. Bachelor’s terrain park. He accused the resort of being negligent in its design and maintenance of the park. Prior to the injury, Bagley had signed a liability waiver — a contract that customers may sign when participating in recreational activities, which attempts to…
Bill Would Create $1 Billion Fund to Aid Utilities in Paying Wildfire Victims
After a series of low-profile meetings with Salem power brokers and utility officials, state Rep. Pam Marsh (D-Ashland) confirms to the Oregon Journalism Project that she has crafted legislation to create a $1 billion fund to help utilities pay damages to customers hurt by utility-caused wildfires. It is the second bombshell utility bill the moderate…
Burgerville Is Officially Coming to Bend
Pacific Northwest fast food chain Burgerville announced its plans on March 3 to open a new location in Bend later this year. The store will take over the building previously occupied by Del Taco on SE Third Street. This opening will mark the first Central Oregon location for the chain. “People have been asking for…
Turtle Island Coffee Shop Announces Closure
Turtle Island Coffee Shop in downtown Bend announced on Feb. 27 that it will close its doors in early March. After over a year of operating, the owners made the decision to cease operations due to “the challenging and unsustainable current economic climate.” The queer- and Indigenous-owned coffee shop is located on Oregon Avenue, next…
Partners In Care Introduces End-of-Life Doula Program
Partners In Care, the leading and most trusted provider of hospice, home health, and palliative care services in Central Oregon, will be introducing an official end-of-life doula program in partnership with The Peaceful Presence Project. Based in the Partners In Care volunteer department, the end-of-life doulas will be trained Partners In Care volunteers dedicated to…
Cascade Adventure Mountain Programs (C.A.M.P. Bend)
Announcing the second summer season of a great new resource for kids and families here in Central Oregon. Cascade Adventure Mountain Programs (or C.A.M.P. Bend) combines awesome outdoor adventures with a leadership and wellness curriculum for kids ages 10-15. C.A.M.P. Bend was started in 2024 by a local Bend father/daughter duo, Drew and Anika Hornbeck.…
Lacrosse and girls’ softball registration deadlines on March 2
Local youth are invited to participate in the Bend Park and Recreation District’s spring sports leagues, and two key deadlines are this week. The deadline to register for the Youth Lacrosse League and the Girls Softball League is Sunday, March 2. Registration is available at register.bendparksandrec.org or by phone or in person at district facilities.…
High Desert Chamber Music and Cascade School of Music Offer Free Public Master Class with Celebrated Pianist Jeffrey Kahane
Renowned pianist Jeffrey Kahane will lead a special Master Class presented by High Desert Chamber Music and the Cascade School of Music next week. This free event will take place on Saturday, March 8, at the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship (61980 Skyline Ranch Rd, Bend, OR 97703) and is free and open to the public. This…
13th Annual Pup Crawl Makes a Difference – One Pint at a Time
The Humane Society of Central Oregon’s 13th Annual Pup Crawl kicks off on Saturday, March 1, at a new location: Monkless Belgian Ales. The Pup Crawl combines community, craft brews, and compassion, all to support the animals who need it most. Gather your friends, explore some of Central Oregon’s best brewpubs, and make a difference—one…
KTVZ Announces Exciting Brand Evolution: From News Channel 21 to KTVZ News
KTVZ is proud to announce a major rebranding, transitioning from NewsChannel 21 to KTVZ News. This change reflects the station’s ongoing commitment to delivering high-quality, accessible, and community-focused news anytime, anywhere. The evolution to KTVZ News is more than a name change; it is a strategic transformation aimed at modernizing our presence, enhancing brand consistency…
Cascade East Transit Workers Call for New Contract
Employees at Cascades East Transit (CET), the region’s public transportation service, are calling for a fair contract that reflects the cost of living in the region. The union is urging community members and transit passengers to support the employees as they currently bargain for a new contract. The union represents union members and employees of…
In Extraordinary Hearing, ODOT Explains Billion-Dollar Budget Blunder
Agency presentations to legislative committees are typically routine affairs in which senior managers present unremarkable information to lawmakers whose committees have policy or budgetary oversight of them. Monday night’s presentation by the Oregon Department of Transportation to the Joint Committee on Transportation, however, was anything but routine, leaving one lawmaker sputtering in frustration. About one…
LISTEN: Bend Don’t Break with Marney Smith 🎧
In this episode of Bend Don’t Break, host Aaron Switzer sits down with Marney Smith, General Manager at Hayden Homes Amphitheater, to explore her remarkable journey in the live entertainment industry. Marney shares how she navigated her career path to eventually manage one of the most iconic outdoor venues in the Pacific Northwest. She reflects…
Heart of Oregon Corps Finds Site for Youth Development in Redmond
Heart of Oregon Corps, a nonprofit that empowers youth through employment, job training and education, announced that it closed a deal on a site for a central campus in Redmond. Celebrating its 25th anniversary, the organization launched a campaign, Legacy 25, to raise the remaining funds needed to build a regional youth workforce development campus…
Brewing Equality
In 2021, the Brewers Association, a craft brewing industry group, released the results of a demographic audit of U.S. breweries, revealing that almost a quarter of brewery owners were women, yet less than 3% of breweries were fully woman-owned. Here in Central Oregon, there is one fully woman-owned brewery: Spider City Brewing. The Bend operation…
Source Warmup
On Sunday, during a protest calling for aid to Ukraine, 27-year-old Trevor Dean Miller allegedly pointed a handgun at an individual in attendance. Bend Police responded to the incident after a person attending the protest reported that, following a verbal confrontation, a man driving a white Dodge Charger pointed a gun at him, then drove…
A Healing Practice for Women
It was 2008. I was in college working toward my math degree at San Jose State University in California. During the weekdays, I worked as a math tutor to help make some extra money while putting myself through college. I was always told I was good at math. That might have been the only thing…
Bend vs. Portland vs. Seattle
In the Pacific Northwest, Bend is a top destination for millennials looking to escape the high costs and other problems of big cities like Portland and Seattle. But what exactly is drawing them to Bend? Let’s break down the key reasons millennials are making the move. Career Opportunities and Professional Networks Remote work has transformed…
‘Wrapping Arms and Resources and HeartsAround Communities'
Jordan Kent is vice president of Bend Pride Coalition, the nonprofit organization that produces Bend’s Summer Pride. Ruth Vernotico is the founder of SUS, a local nonprofit working to increase visibility for 2SLGBTQIA+ people through print media, community engagement, education and celebration. In a conversation with the Source Weekly for our Women’s Issue, the two…
Turning Up the Volume for Women
The past few months have been undeniably hard for many of us. Watching any amount of national news can be both disorienting and panic-inducing as the systems we’ve relied on for our entire lives are threatened by an overly empowered group of (mostly) super-rich, white men. Being from a marginalized community — or at the…
Going Forward After Dissolving a DEI Initiative
Janice Garceau is the director of Deschutes County Health Services, and Ashton Varner is a diversity, equity and inclusion strategist who also chaired the Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Access Committee that the Deschutes County Board of Commissioners dissolved in early February. The Source spoke with Garceau and Varner about the effects of that decision on…
Just an Honor to be Nominated
The time has arrived for the 97th annual Academy Awards, and you have more options than ever to watch them. You can either tune into your local ABC affiliate, stream it live on Hulu or YouTube TV or you can attend the BendFilm Gala and Watch Party (which starts at 3:30pm at the Unitarian church)…
Meeting the Moment for 19,000 Children and Families
The Deschutes Children’s Foundation, through its four campuses in Bend, Redmond and La Pine, house a total of 23 partner organizations that serve over 19,000 children and families each year. As part of our Women’s Issue focuses on meeting the moment, and how local nonprofits are feeling the effects of changes at the federal level,…
The Psychedelic Frontier: Mothers of the Mushroom
Mikaela de la Myco is an educator, mother, folk herbalist, community organizer and entheogen facilitator centering ancestral healing modalities, sacred earth medicine and sensual assault advocacy. As the founder of mushWOMB, she provides education for birthing people, queer folks and BIPOC in the sacred earth medicine space and full spectrum womb care space. In all…
Turning Our Backs on American Infants and Mothers
American women continue to have the highest rate of death before, during and after childbirth, compared to any other high-income country in the world. The worst part: about 80% of those deaths are likely to be preventable, according to a 2024 brief from The Commonwealth Fund. This has been a crisis since before the current…
Planned Parenthood Awaits Potential Impacts to Care
In 2022, when the U.S. Supreme Court decided to overturn Roe v. Wade, states gained the right to restrict or ban abortions. In 2023, Oregon expanded its law giving people the right to make their own decisions about their reproductive health. Since then, Oregon has seen a steady increase in its demand for all reproductive…
Funky Fauna Artisan Ales Brings Farmhouse Brewing to Bend
Funky Fauna Artisan Ales, a microbrewery celebrated for its bold, fruit-forward farmhouse ales, is making the move to Bend. Co-owners Michael Frith and Danielle Burns originally launched the brewery in Sisters, crafting small-batch ales that blend traditional craftsmanship with modern brewing artistry, using Oregon-grown malted barley and hops. Now, Funky Fauna is setting up shop…
Letters to the Editor 02/27/2025
Guest Opinion: Public Lands Are Under Attack Like Never Before Between funding freezes, budget cuts, firing thousands of federal public lands employees and legislation and regulations to weaken bedrock environmental laws like the Endangered Species Act, National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) and Antiquities Act, the Trump administration and Congress have wasted no time in their…
Horoscope Week of February 27, 2025
PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20): Octopuses have three hearts, each with a different function. Every one of their eight limbs contains a mini-brain, giving them nine in total. Is there any doubt, then, that they are the patron creature for you Pisceans? No other zodiac sign is more multifaceted than you. No other can operate with…
Central Oregon’s Bluegrass Scene Unites
Austin Quattlebaum plays what he calls “weird-grass. More accurately, it’s probably indie folk with a bluegrass edge,” he explains. He’s been performing in Bend for over a decade — often with James Rossi on fiddle, Josiah Payne on mandolin and Mark Karwan on bass — and always had the desire to create a local bluegrass…
Snow, Sparkles and Celebration: Winter PrideFest Returns
Snow, sequins and celebration: Winter PrideFest is back, and bigger and bolder than ever. Since 2018, OUT Central Oregon has hosted the vibrant festival to honor Pride, inclusivity and a shared love of the outdoors. From March 6-9, the festival transforms Central Oregon into a winter wonderland of LGBTQ+ joy, featuring skiing, dancing, snowshoeing, comedy…
Ensuring Safety for Immigrant Survivors
At Saving Grace, we believe that every survivor of intimate partner and sexual violence deserves safety, support and a pathway to healing — regardless of where they come from or what language they speak. But for many immigrant women in Central Oregon, seeking help isn’t just difficult; it feels impossible. Immigrant women in our community…
The Medicine Cabinet Within: Hot Springs Healing
The experience of soaking in mineral-rich hot springs is one that not only inspires deep relaxation and a sense of internal unwinding, but in many ways also supports greater health and vitality. For millennia, Native Americans and other Indigenous and ancient peoples, including the early Greeks, Romans and Egyptians, have soaked in hot springs that…
