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Get ready to laugh
A hiking adventure at the Gorge
3 nights of chuckles, including the Bend Comedy Competition
SPORTS, D1
Ha!
WEATHER TODAY
FRIDAY
Partly cloudy High 51, Low 18 Page C6
• April 9, 2010 50¢
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La Pine is hoping this town hall will be more congenial By Scott Hammers The Bulletin
Six months after facing an audience of frustrated south county residents at its first-ever town hall meeting, the La Pine City Council is coming back for more. Leaders say they’re expecting a more supportive, more constructive dialogue this time around, with the City Council showing signs of having learned from past missteps, and civic engagement on the rise in the state’s newest city. On Saturday, the council is inviting La Pine-area residents to a second town hall meeting at the Finley Butte Park Building. Billed as an opportunity for locals to ask questions and raise concerns, the meeting is also scheduled to feature presentations from candidates running for office in the upcoming May election. At the last town hall, in October 2009, residents railed against the city for supposedly dragging its feet on a variety of issues. Residents said the city had been slow to solve traffic problems, recruit new businesses and hire a city manager to replace Christine Nelson, who resigned from the job in December 2008 after serving for just over a year. Mayor Kitty Shields said that while councilors took a beating at that first town hall, it was ultimately “a goodwill builder,” and a turning point in the city’s relationship with the public. “I thought it was a beneficial meeting. People had the opportunity to speak their mind, get their questions out there and get immediate feedback,” Shields said. “That doesn’t always happen at our regular City Council meetings.” See La Pine / A4
Corrections In a story headlined “$18M in debt, filing bankruptcy,” which appeared Thursday, April 8, on Page A1, two photos in an accompanying graphic on Page A6 were incorrectly identified. The photos’ correct locations appear on Page A4. In a story headlined “Most of what’s left of Epic Air to stay in Bend,” which appeared Thursday, April 8, on Page A1, the day of a recent bankruptcy hearing concerning the company Epic Air was incorrect. The hearing was Wednesday. The Bulletin regrets the errors.
TOP NEWS INSIDE RUSSIA: Nuclear arms pact signed, as Iran looms over celebration, Page A3
MON-SAT
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ASPEN LAKES
Fellow commissioner didn’t sway them, planners declare By Hillary Borrud The Bulletin
Deschutes County planning commissioners did something unusual at Thursday night’s meeting: Each one declared he had not been influenced by another commissioner’s personal interests. The odd roll call was
prompted by recent questions about whether Commissioner Keith Cyrus used his position on the commission to advocate for his family’s plan to convert its Aspen Lakes subdivision and golf course east of Sisters into a destination resort. “I’d be happy to say it has not happened to me,” commis-
sion Chair Christen Brown said. “Nor I,” each of the five other commissioners echoed. Some former and current commissioners recently said that, while Cyrus is careful to recuse himself from votes on destination resort issues, he talked to them about his in-
ability to get the designation for his own property outside of formal meetings, and one of the commission’s land use proposals appeared targeted to help Cyrus. And last year, Cyrus raised the issue during a Planning Commission retreat. See Cyrus / A4
A ride along the river
5 admitted long shots for Senate are running to be heard By Keith Chu The Bulletin
WASHINGTON — Combined, the five outsider candidates running for the Republican nod in the race against U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden don’t have a day of political experience. They don’t have connections to the party’s leadership or business groups. And they all acknowledge that they’re long shots to survive the primary. They’re running, though, spending hours driving to candidate forums, filling out questionnaires and answering e-mail, because they’re fed up with the political system. They’re running because they’re frustrated with the federal government. They want to be heard. “My main goal,” said candidate Walter Woodland, 38, of Newberg, “is to try and drive the conversation, and get the right questions asked.” Lewis and Clark law professor Jim Huffman is the front-runner for the nomination by virtue of strong support from the state Republican Party, and his long association with prominent property rights and anti-regulation groups. The other five candidates are Woodland, Shane Dinkel, of Redmond; Robin Parker, of Sunriver; Tom Stutzman, of Monmouth; and Keith Waldron, of Bay City. Loren Later also filed to run as a Republican, but told The Bulletin this week that he is no longer seeking the nomination because of work obligations. See Senate / A5
ELECTION Ryan Brennecke / The Bulletin
Rich Bord, a wrangler at Sunriver Stables, guides Devon Holden, 17, on a two-hour trail ride Thursday afternoon along the Deschutes River. The guided excursions let riders explore scenic areas around Sunriver and in the Deschutes National Forest.
U.S. Senate • Today: Meet the candidates, Page A5 • Coming soon: The Democratic candidates, including Wyden • If you missed it: Professor emerging as Republican favorite to beat Wyden Online at www.bend bulletin.com/elections
Miners’ lives: security, but never peace of mind By Shaila Dewan
Inside
New York Times News Service
HORSE CREEK, W.Va. — As Janice Quarles waited for the phone to ring with news that her husband’s body had been pulled from the Upper Big Branch mine, she vowed — much as so many West Virginia mothers have before her — that her son, Trevor, 11, would never follow his father into the mines. “There just ain’t no way,” she said. But minutes later, concern for his safety was overwhelmed by another worry. “If that’s the only kind of work there is around here, what choice does he have?” said Quarles, three days after losing her husband, Gary Wayne Quarles, in the worst American mining disaster in 25 years. “He’s got to make a living just like everybody else.” Before stubbornly high levels of methane gas drove them back Thursday, rescu-
ers had come within 500 feet of where one group of miners’ bodies lie, with the authorities hoping that they would be able to restart the search Thursday night. As devastating as it has been to this mountain community, the explosion that killed at least 25 miners on Monday has done little to alter the steel-toed blend of pride, resignation and economics that defines a coal miner’s life. Even as the rescue and recovery effort continued, workers at nearby mines day and night boarded the elevators that carry them miles into the earth. See Mine / A4
The Bulletin An Independent Newspaper
Vol. 107, No. 99, 68 pages, 7 sections
Child’s play unearths a find in South Africa
• Mine safety concerns were raised on the day of the blast, Page A4
By Celia W. Dugger and John Noble Wilford New York Times News Service Luke Sharrett / New York Times News Service
TOP: “I try not to let it get to me in any way; try not to think about it. Say a prayer before I go in,” James Songer, 21, a West Virginia coal miner, said of the dangers. ABOVE: “I don’t sleep until I hear that key in the door every morning,” says Stephanie Pennington, the wife of a coal miner.
INDEX Abby
E2
Business
B1-6
Calendar
E3
Classified Comics Crossword
F1-6
Editorial
E4-5
Family
E1-6
Obituaries
Local
C1-6
Sports
E5, F2
C4
Movies
GO! 30 C5 D1-6
Stocks
B4-5
TV listings
E2
Weather
C6
CRADLE OF HUMANKIND, South Africa — Nine-year-old Matthew Berger dashed after his dog, Tau, into the high grass here, tripped over a log and stumbled onto a major discovery. Scientists announced Thursday that he had found the bones of a new hominid species that lived almost 2 million years ago during the still mysterious period spanning the emergence of the human family. “Dad, I found a fossil!” Matthew cried out to his father, Lee Berger, a paleoanthropologist who had been searching for hominid bones just a hill and a half away for almost two decades. See Hominid / A5