The Boot

Whether you were headed north or south on Highway 97 at Deschutes Junction just north of Bend, the brilliant shocking-pink building by the side of the road was pretty impossible to miss.
If the color didn't get your attention, the signs would: “LIVE NUDE GIRLS!!!” “Sensual Rubdowns,” “Shower Shows,” “Pole Dancing,” and “Erotic Dungeon.”
Other signs proclaimed that the old building, which more than a decade ago was home to Buffet Flat, a funky and quirky antique-cum-junk shop, was about to be reborn as the “Pussycat Ranch.”

The U.S. Army's proud boast is that it never leaves an injured comrade behind on the field. But it looks as if it's been leaving many of its comrades in the Oregon National Guard behind when they need medical care.
Members of the Oregon Guard's 41st Infantry Brigade Combat Team have complained to Oregon's congressional delegation about the shabby treatment they were given at the Madigan Army Medical Center in Joint Base Lewis-McChord near Tacoma, WA, before and after deployment to Iraq.

“Exclusion zone” – it sounds like such a great idea. Define certain people as “undesirables,” draw a line around the area where you don't want them to go, and tell them that if they're caught in that area they'll be charged with trespassing.
In practice, though, exclusion zones often don't work as well as they do on paper. And they can lead cities that adopt them into a dense thicket of civil liberties issues.
For years, downtown Bend merchants and businesses like the non-profit Arts Central have been annoyed and frustrated by people hanging out in the plaza off Brooks Alley and the breezeway between the alley and Wall Street. They smoke, they sometimes drink, they occasionally panhandle, they sometimes behave obnoxiously toward passersby. There have been more serious reports of drug use, drug sales and vandalism. This situation, some people very reasonably conclude, is not good for business.

For critics of the Oregon Liquor Control Commission, Jason Evers – well, we suppose we should call him “John Doe” now – is the gift that keeps on giving.
Evers/Doe is the former Bend regional manager of the OLCC who was exiled to Nyssa, a tiny town near the Idaho border, after behaving like a tinpot dictator toward bar and restaurant proprietors here. His career then continued its downward trajectory. At this writing, he's sitting in a jail cell in Idaho.
It appears that TMWCHJE (The Man Who Called Himself Jason Evers) adopted the identity of a 3-year-old Ohio boy who was murdered 28 years ago. The fraud came to light when the U.S. State Department checked statements he made on a passport application against Ohio state records.

The City of Bend needs to crack down harder on panhandlers. Those guys from the Central Oregon Builders Association hanging around City Hall with cardboard signs and tin cups are getting really annoying.
COBA has been begging for handouts from the city at least since the summer of 2008, when it persuaded the city council to give builders a nine-month deferral on having to pay their SDCs (Systems Development Charges, or fees assessed on new developments to help defray some of the costs of growth, such as improvements to streets, sewers and water systems).

Keith Cyrus is chairman of the Deschutes County Planning Commission. There's no problem with that. He also has a golf course subdivision that he wants to turn into a destination resort – no problem with that either.
But when Keith Cyrus, the chairman of the planning commission, uses his position to push the agenda of Keith Cyrus, the would-be resort developer, that's a problem. A big one.
Cyrus, whose family has farmed in Central Oregon for nearly a century, has been trying for years to convert his Aspen Lakes subdivision near Sisters into a destination resort. To accomplish that, he needs to have it included in the county's map of areas designated for such purposes.