Citizen of the Year Upward slope Former Bend funeral home owner lauded • LOCAL, C1
Bachelor sees increases • BUSINESS, B1
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• May 21, 2010 50¢
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La Pine councilors keeping quiet on meeting St. Charles posts gain of $25M “Originally, I was informed it was ‘charges,’ and then it turned into ‘complaints and concerns.’” — Adele McAfee, La Pine city councilor
By Scott Hammers The Bulletin
Those who know what will be discussed at a meeting in La Pine on Monday aren’t talking, and the woman at the center of it all says she has little idea what it’s all about. La Pine City Councilor Adele
SUNRIVER
McAfee will be the subject of the meeting, called by other members of the City Council to discuss unspecified allegations of her alleged misconduct. No agenda for the meeting has been released by the city, but an email sent by Administrative Assistant
Patti Morgan on Thursday morning promised a “very special City Council meeting” at 6 p.m. at the Midstate Electric Building on Finley Butte Road, including “discussion of complaints from other councillors against a specific councilor’s conduct.” See La Pine / A7
The hospital system’s increase comes after years of dismal performance
A TELLING PINOCHLE FACE
Murder remains a mystery
By Betsy Q. Cliff The Bulletin
St. Charles Health System posted a strong gain in 2009, after a couple of years of dismal financial performance. The organization made nearly $25 million on operations in 2009, according to its financial statements, its highest since at least 2005. St. Charles Health System is the nonprofit parent company of hospitals in Bend, Redmond and Prineville. “Our 2009 results showed that we did turn around the organization after not good operations in 2007 and 2008,” said Karen Shepard, chief financial officer. The gain represents about 5 percent of the organization’s total revenue of $477 million. That kind of margin is “healthy,” said Bill Kramer, an independent health care consultant and former chief financial officer of Kaiser Permanente’s Northwest Region. Most hospitals, Kramer said, aim for a margin between 4 and 6 percent. Shepard attributed the strong 2009 performance to an increase in the price of services that pushed up revenue and a reduction in expenses due to costcutting measures taken by the organization in early 2009. See Hospital / A6
By Erin Golden The Bulletin
More than two months after police found the bodies of three family members in a Sunriverarea home, investigators are preparing to close the case — but they still have plenty of unanswered questions. On March 11, a passer-by spotted a man hanging by a rope outside of a garage on Hermosa Road. Police later determined that the man, Joachim Steffan, had strangled his wife, Dagmar, and 7-year-old son, Pascal, and then hanged himself. Detectives searched the scene, interviewed friends and family members and read three notes left by Steffan that indicated the couple was struggling with money and worried about being deported to Germany. They determined that no one else was involved in the deaths and labeled the incident a murder-suicide. But some aspects of the crime still didn’t add up.
Senate, 59-39, approves new Wall Street rules
No signs of struggle Capt. Marc Mills of the Deschutes County Sheriff’s Office said investigators had some working theories about exactly what happened in the home and hoped toxicology tests of the victims’ blood might help. In particular, he said they were curious about why Dagmar and Pascal did not seem to have struggled before they died. This week, the Sheriff’s Office received the test results from the Oregon State Police crime lab — but Mills said the results were not what detectives were expecting. “There were no indications of any drugs in any of their systems,” he said. “If there was, it would have helped explain some things, some theories that we had. And now, of course, the (questions) that we had, we may not be able to answer.” Mills said officials still aren’t sure exactly when the Steffans died. They were last seen on the afternoon of March 10 and found the next morning. See Murder / A6
By David Herszenhorn New York Times News Service
Rob Kerr / The Bulletin
Eva Burney, 91, of Bend, covers her smirk with her cards during the Golden Age Club pinochle tournament Thursday in Bend. The club, with 61 members, according to Vice President Dick Williams, 74, plays pinochle every Wednesday through Friday from 12:45 to 4 p.m., with open tournaments on the third Thursday of every other month.
Teen media butterflies may not be such a bad idea By Melissa Healy McClatchy-Tribune News Service
TOP NEWS INSIDE AFGHANISTAN: Four high-ranking NATO officials killed, Page A3
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WASHINGTON — The Senate on Thursday approved a far-reaching financial regulatory bill, putting Congress on the brink of approving a broad expansion of government oversight of the increasingly complex banking system and financial Inside markets. • Sen. Merkley The legislation is intended to derivatives prevent a repeat of the 2008 criamendment sis, but also reshapes the role of fails without numerous federal agencies, and a vote, vastly empowers the Federal RePage C1 serve, in an attempt to predict and contain future debacles. The vote was 59-39, with four Republicans joining the Democratic majority in favor of the bill. Two Democrats opposed the measure, saying it was still not tough enough. See Reform / A6
WASHINGTON — With his gaze fixed on a tiny screen, hearing plugged by earbuds and fingers flying, the average teenager may look like a disaster in the making: socially stunted, terminally distracted and looking for trouble. But look beyond the dizzying array of beeping, buzzing devices and the incessant multitasking, say psychologists, and today’s digital kids may not be such a disaster after all.
Far from hampering adolescents’ social skills or putting them in harm’s way as many parents have feared, electronics appear to be the path by which kids today develop emotional bonds, their own identities, and an ability to communicate and work with others. In fact, kids most likely to spend lots of time on social media sites are not the least well-adjusted, but the psychologically healthiest, suggests an early, but accumulating, body of research.
The Bulletin An Independent Newspaper
Vol. 107, No. 141, 74 pages, 7 sections
In one new study, 13- and 14-year-olds were found to interact on social network sites such as Facebook and MySpace simply in ways that were consistent with their offline relationships and patterns of behavior. And of the 86 percent of kids who used social media sites, participants who were better adjusted in their early teens were more likely to use social media in their early 20s, regardless of their age, gender, ethnicity or parents’ income. See Social / A7
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— Amori Yee Mikami, psychologist
Correction
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“Parents of well-adjusted teens may have little to worry about regarding the way their children behave when using social media. It’s likely to be similarly positive behavior.”
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In updated election results that appeared Thursday, May 20, on Page A4, the winner of the Democratic primary for state treasurer was marked incorrectly. Ted Wheeler won the primary. The Bulletin regrets the error.