Conservative political activist Bill Sizemore, who's had his share of legal problems, just got another one: An Oregon progressive organization filed a criminal complaint today charging him and his associates with fraud in gathering signatures for initiative petitions.
More Legal Headaches for Sizemore
Posted inNews
The Weirdness Continues
Is this Central Oregon's Summer of Weirdness? First we had the Pregnant Man giving birth to a baby girl, then the Balloon Man flying all the way from Bend to Idaho in a lawn chair … and now comes news that doctors have removed a 140-pound tumor from a Redmond woman.
Posted inNews
Treasurer Race Turns Into an Alley Fight
You wouldn't normally expect a campaign for the prosaic office of state treasurer to get down and dirty, but the race between Republican Allen Alley and Democrat Ben Westlund just did.
Posted inNews
When Bicyclists Go Wild
You think things are weird in Bend? Over in Portland, open war seems to be breaking out between motorists and bicyclists.
Posted inOpinion
City Is All Wet On Watering
Does anyone else see the irony of receiving city of Bend water conservation mailings when if you take a short walk anywhere in Bend you'll find gallons of water soaking the pavement? The other night I was walking down Awbrey Dr. when a sprinkler must have malfunctioned because there was a small river flowing alongside me.
Posted inCulture
Deschutes Brewery: Black Butte Double XX
Editor's Note: This is the first in an occasional column spotlighting local beers
and breweries
My own research into beer drinking habits leads me to believe that the number of true "porter" aficionados is a small one. With its big malty body, and chocolate overtones, a good porter pretty much overwhelms the palate - it's the drinking equivalent of double fudge cake.
Posted inCulture
Roll the Film: Newfound stability in tow, BendFilm takes its show on the road
Sandy Henderson and her 400 submission.You don't have to look past the name of BendFilm to ascertain where the festival originated. While the non-profit independent cinema festival is, of course, rooted in our mountain town, this month will see BendFilm cross the Cascades for its first ever out-of-town event.
The screening of the documentary Breast Cancer Diaries in Portland at the end of the month marks a step forward for a festival that organizers say is doing well both fiscally and artistically - which they say wasn't exactly the case only a year ago.
"With the economy the way it is now it's important to reach out to other areas. I would always want it to be a Bend-based festival because I think Bend as a town provides part of the festival's charm," says Sandy Henderson, who is in her first year as executive director of BendFilm.
The screening is set for July 28 at the Portland Center Stage, and like the Indie Reels edition of the film in Bend this past winter, features an expert panel on the subject.
"We kept trying to think of a way to reach out to Portland and make the city more aware of BendFilm and breast cancer and Bend as a destination - so it's really a three-fold mission," Henderson says.
Posted inOutside
Power of One: One person can make a difference out there
Needs a friend. Back in the early '50's, not long after I rolled into Central Oregon on my old Harley, I was going to set the world afire either as a high-powered timber faller, chainsaw salesman, mechanic or naturalist. While I was trying to make all or any of that happen I got to know many good people who made their living cutting trees, among them, Leo Bishop of Bend.
Leo was a gracious gentleman, wonderful family man, Boy Scout leader, and a scaler for Brooks Scanlon – the biggest saw mill and lumber outfit left in Bend after Shevlin-Hixon shut down.
He walked many miles examining the timber sale to make sure each two-man team of fallers were granted an equal amount of trees to cut. And while he was doing that he also got a rough estimate of how much raw timber would eventually arrive at the mill to make dimension lumber.
One late afternoon, Leo came by my little saw shop in Bend, located near where Hollywood Video is today, to drop off some saws to be fixed. As he placed them on the shop floor he said, "Hey, Jim, I thought you'd like to know I found a big old Shasta Red Fir today on Davis Mountain with an active bald eagle nest in it."
Posted inOutside
Chasing DreamsMax, Tour des Chutes, Gorge Games & More
Let’s get physical. GLUTEUS MAXIMUS, MAXIMUM OVERDRIVE, MAX FACTOR
About 6 years ago, I founded the Bend Adventure Racing Klub (www.BARKracing.com). We were assembling Team BARK to race our first 24-hour Cal Eco event. Dave Schneider and Tom Schill were committed, and I was our token female, but we needed a third guy. We "interviewed" two candidates, including Max King. None of us knew Max, but he had expressed interest. He was very young and very understated, but there was something about him we liked, so we chose him. A few days later, we all piled into Dave's truck, pulling a trailer brimming with gear behind us, and headed out on the long drive to Central California. I remember our first rest stop about three hours later. As the rest of us stiffly climbed out of the truck, Max took three long graceful strides and hurdled a nearby picnic table. We all looked at each other with astonished expressions and wondered just who we had signed up. As it turned out, Max was a recent Cornell graduate who had been a stellar collegiate steeplechaser. Burned out on the track and field regimen, he wanted to try something new. I can tell you, Max is a stellar adventure racer too. There were times he had our entire team in tow, and he weighed less than any of us. He has an unflappable nature (extremely useful in adventure racing!) and he is bright, quickly mastering the art of navigation. After a couple of years having fun with adventure racing, Max returned to competitive running and dedicated himself the past two years to training for the Olympic steeplechase. He took time away from his job at Bend Research and away from his wife Dorie, living and training in Eugene. Too often in our lives we don't chase our dreams. Max finished sixteenth in the Olympic Trials in Eugene last week, but in my mind he's a hero just for giving it a go.
Posted inCulture
Call Him Lego Jones, Lego Indiana Jones: The Original Adventures
It’s okay to tell your kids about these swingers. When developer Traveller's Tales put out two Lego Star Wars titles, audiences snapped them up. So, it only made sense to tap yet another George Lucas goldmine and take Indiana Jones to Lego land, with a focus on the three original Indy films. So could the Indiana Jones games be at least as good as the Star Wars ones?
The original Lego Star Wars games seemed at first like children's games, but ended up being quite fun. The presentation for the Indy game is just as fun and is extremely well done. It does a solid job of presenting the stories of the original three movies.
Lego Indiana Jones looks great and has some solid colors, well-drawn animations and shows a nice touch with the visual effects. This game really looks fantastic on the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and even the good ol' PlayStation 2. The sound is also quite well done; you get to hear John Williams score from all three movies, along with some nice sound effects. There's nothing like hearing the crack of Indy's whip with a well-played move. The sound effects can get a little bit repetitive, but manage add to the action going on around you.