Serving Central Oregon since 1903$1
WEDNESDAY September16,2015
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SCOTT MOUNTAIN•OUTDOORS, D1
bendbulletin.corn TODAY’ S READERBOARD
IN D.C.
Debate on fire funding flares up in Congress
Return of vinyl Asthe music format is resurrected, the machines that makethe re› cords need to be aswell. A3
Flydoardiug 2015and still no jet pack? Try this device while you wait for one.D2
By Taylor W.Anderson
By Scott Hammerse The Bulletin
The Bulletin
The first significant changes to Bend’s bus system since it was created a decade ago are com›
A program offers classes at Deer Ridge in Madras.Ce
Cascades East Transit,
which operates the bus network, is adding three
new routes, extending weekday bus service lat›
GOP dehateS Theforum
er into the evening, and
for the top 11candidates airs tonight at 5 onCNN.Tunein at 3 p.m. for the other candidates. For more,seebelow right andA4
boosting the number of buses traveling the busiest routes during the busiest times.
Annual ridership on the
And a Wed exclusive› A Kenyan road project is taking huge bites out of a slum. beutibuuetin.curn/extras
city’s system climbed to nearly 405,000 in 2011, and
New routeswouldtarget campusesandhospital
bus routes
8 I
has since declined to just
I
The Washington Post
When the 550 students
at a private school in Virginia Beach recently returned to class, they walked into classrooms newly monitored by gun› shot-detection technology. Acousticsensorstucked high on walls listened for the distinct sound of gunfire, able to pinpoint its location and alert author›
ities. The technology also greeted students heading back to schools in Newark, California and Reynolds› burg, Ohio. These schools are among the few early adopters of military battlefield tools
that today are being de› ployed to address a night› mare scenario much closer to home: the school shoot›
ing. The technology doesn’ t stop gunfire, but supporters say it can limit the carnage by speeding up the emer› gencyresponse.Interestin thesesystems appearsto be growing, seeded by the
still on fire, with more major wildfires flaring up almost weekly during what is typically the tail end of wildfire season. Two
fires in Northern Califor› nia this month displaced thousands of people in Cal› ifornia and burned down entire neighborhoods.
8 ark’
over 366,000 in the budget
Oregon’s Democratic
year that ended in June. Scott Aycock, commu›
GgntrdlQcejgllP ge
ernmental Council
Sen. Ron Wyden hopes to highlight the 2015 fire sea› son to push a bill through
Cha Be
0 ’
opment manager with the Central Oregon Intergov› the
the Senate this fall that
would allow federal agen› cies to pay for fires without having to use money in›
me Stak
minal
Cascades East Transit›
said the rise in ridership numbers and the subse› quent leveling off tracks
tended to prevent them. "I’ ve made it clear to con› servatives that as it relates
ank i
to fire funding fixes I’m very open for ways to com› promise and find common ground," Wyden said in an
closely with enrollment at
Central Oregon Commu› nity College. Students and faculty at the college have historically been the heavi›
rihfts
v
interview this month.
est users of the bus system,
he said, and the opening of the new OSU-Cascades campus in southwest Bend
By Todd C. Frankel
Huge stretches of the western United States are
~ Route l ~ Route10 ~ Route12 ~ Existing and modified bus routes Areas no longer served
organization that oversees
For security, schoolslook to war zone technology
what may be the costliest wildfire season on record, Congress is gearing up for a fight over how best to pay for the destructive blazes.
, New Beud
The Central Oregon Intergovernmen› tal Council, which runs CascadesEast Transit, has created newweekday bus routes within Bend. The routes are being supported with funding from St. Charles Health System, OSU-Cascades, CentralOregon Community College and others.
nity and economic devel›
EDITOR'5CHOICE
next year is expected to boost rider numbers.
0 0~ , ,
08U-Ccodes t mpu
8
OSU-Cascades has
dedicated $300,000 to the expansion over the next
Busesmoreprevalent on Bendroads
three years, as has St.
Charles Health System, while COCC has pledged $150,000. Aycock said the three› year window all told, the system has secured
$3.4 million to cover the expansion over the next three years will give Cascades East Transit
urphy Rd.
40,000 riders›
ger-term funding plan. He said funding could take the form of a property tax or a utility fee, and he said it’ s going to be challenging to persuade the public to sup›
35,000 .›
port a transit system that
15,000 .
won’t necessarily be a use› ful alternative to driving
for many residents.
›
30,000 "› ›
25,000›
39,749 riders
20,000›
The record number of monthly riders was set in October 2012
10,000›
See Bus/A4
shooting, the latest coming
Monday when a history professor was fatally shot by another professor at Delta State University in
Mississippi. But the technology has created discomfort, too. Its emergence is seen by some as a tacit admission that school shootings have
By Reed Abelson
"Don’t go," said Allan
2009 total: 300,959
2010 total: 343,896
2011 total: 39 I,9 I7
2012 total: 405,803
2013 total: 388,368
Source: Central Oregon Intergovernmental Council
2014 total: 2015*: 370,962 190,098 PeteSmith i The Bulletin
effort to remake the health
the third casualty among 23 insurance startups created under the federal health care
cheaper prices
law to inject competition for coveragein certain partsof
sold by large established in› surance companies in some regions. But as the new co-ops be› gin failing just a year into the
become unavoidable, that
the country.
classrooms are targets that need to be hardened. Some
Set up as nonprofits with consumer-led boards, the co›
SeeFire /A6
So how in the world do you win a debate for losers?
5,000 .
ops were designed to provide affordable insurance coverage to individuals and small businesses. They were in› tended under the law to offer alternatives and hopefully
Late last month, the Ne› vada Health Co-op became
reserves that are set aside to prevent wildfires, like forest thinning.
The Washington Post
Health moperatives find the goingtough New York Times News Service
amount, it dips into other
By David A. Fahrenthold
"It’s very much a chick›
en and egg kind of situa› tion," he said.
The House and Senate have long bickered over how to reform the way federalagenciespay to combat large wildfires like thosethatdevoured more than four dozen homes in Oregon this year. When the U.S. Forest Service spends its entire allotted
A debate with no way to win?
CASCADE EASTTRANSIT RIDERSHIP BY MONTH
the time to develop a lon›
even in its expanded form
In addition to the new routes, the Central Oregon Intergovernmental Council, which operates Cascade East Transit, is running its 33 buses later and more often on some lines to shorten wait times.
three major companies that
make the devicesand driven by school administrators grappling with how to keep students safe. Inquiries alsospikeaftereach school
While state
working to get to the end
ing Monday. Inmate entrepreneurs
SALEM
and federal firefightersare
to the plans
Louden, a debate coach, a professoratWake Forest
University and an occasion› al adviser to political candi› dates. "I’m serious."
On Wednesday evening, four long-shot Republican candidates will step on› stage and into one of the weirdest and most diffi› cult moments in the his›
tory of presidential debates. There will be no way
has promised to consider care industry with more com› ways of helping them to get
for them to confront the
petition and lower costs, some
a firmer foothold, but some
the usual tactic of an un›
policy experts and insurance executives worry that the
insurance experts doubt that government changes will
derdog. Donald Trump won’t even appear until
marketplace is still hostile to
be enough to prevent more
after they’ re finished, to
newcomers trying to break into an industry dominated by powerfully entrenched businesses. Faced with these condi›
failures.
face 10 other candidates in the night’s main event. For
tions, the federal government
"This is not a market for the faint of heart," said Sabrina
Corlette, a law professor at Georgetown University. SeeCooperatives/A4
front-runnerfaceto face,
these four long shots, there
will also be little point in confronting one another. SeeDebate/A4
schoolsafety experts doubt
the value of gunshot-de› tection technology. But the industry compares its
devices to fire alarms› common-sense measures that can save lives.
SeeSchools/A4
TODAY’S WEATHER Showers High 58, Low 44 Page B6
INDEX Business C5-6 Comics/Puz zles E3-4 Horoscope D 6 Outdoors 01-6 C1-4 Calendar B2 Crosswords E 4 L o cal/State B 1-6 Sports Classified E 1 -10 Dear Abby 06 Ob i tuaries B5 TV / Movies 06
The Bulletin An Independent Newspaper
vol. 113, No. 259, 34 pages, 5 sections
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