Bulletin Daily Paper 06/21/10

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Cycling’s soon-to-be stars

Ecology class, taught out in the field

Elite youngsters to race this week in Bend • SPORTS, D1

GREEN, ETC., C1

WEATHER TODAY

MONDAY

Mostly sunny High 72, Low 46 Page B6

• June 21, 2010 50¢

Serving Central Oregon since 1903 www.bendbulletin.com

Between blast and oil spill, one last flawed fail-safe

Central Oregon yurts Yurts are growing more popular, and more abundant, in Central Oregon.

Link Creek Campground 1

It was the last line of defense, the final barrier between the rushing volcanic fury of oil and gas and one of the worst environmental disasters in U.S. history. Its very name — the blind shear ram — suggested its blunt purpose. When all else failed, if the crew of the Deepwater Horizon oil rig Inside lost control of a • A new point well, if a dreadman for fixing ed blowout BP’s image, came, the blind Page A5 shear ram’s two tough blades were poised to slice clean through the drill pipe, seal the well and save the day. Everything else could go wrong, just so long as “the pinchers” went right. All it took was one mighty stroke. On the night of April 20, minutes after an enormous blowout ripped through the Deepwater Horizon, the rig’s desperate crew pinned all hope on this last line of defense. But the line did not hold. For days, technicians and engineers worked furiously to figure out why, according to interviews and hundreds of pages of previously unrevealed notes scrawled by industry crisis managers in the disaster’s immediate aftermath. Engineers sent robotic submersibles 5,000 feet deep to prod the blind shear ram, nestled in the bosom of a five-story blowout preventer standing guard over the Macondo well. They were driven on, documents and interviews reveal, by indications that the shear ram’s blades had come within a few maddening inches of achieving their purpose. Again and again, they tried to make the blades close completely, knowing it was their best chance to end the nightmare of oil and gas billowing into the Gulf of Mexico. See Oil / A5

JEFFERSON COUNTY 26

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126

Sisters

Redmond

Tumalo Three 2 State Park Creeks 3 Yurts 372 Bend 20

By David Barstow, Laura Dodd, James Glanz, Stephanie Saul and Ian Urbina New York Times News Service

Madras

22

97

The exterior of a 16-foot-in-diameter yurt at Tumalo State Park features a picnic table, covered porch and fire ring. There are seven yurts for reservation in the campground. They rent for $39 per night.

Crescent Lake Campground 31

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LAKE COUNTY

Three yurts available by mid-July for $30/night (Deschutes National Forest).

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Seven yurts available for $39/night (Oregon State Parks).

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Two yurts available, $35-$65/ person/night, winter only (Three Sisters Backcountry, Inc.).

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Three yurts available for $30/night (Deschutes National Forest).

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Andy Zeigert / The Bulletin

Deschutes National Forest will soon offer 3 more, adding to the area’s options for outdoor retreats By Lillian Mongeau

Reservations

The Bulletin

It’s becoming easier and easier for yurt fans to become yurt campers in Central Oregon. Three new yurts are planned for the Link Creek Campground in the Deschutes National Forest. These join the yurts built last fall and opened over the winter at Crescent Lake Campground farther south. Counting the two winter-only yurts available through Three Sisters Backcountry, Inc. and the seven for rent at Tumalo State Park, the new yurts bring the Central Oregon total to 15. “Everybody, basically, is looking for some sort of retreat or place to

To reserve a yurt on national forest land, go to www.reserveamerica .com or call 800-452-5687. To reserve a yurt at Tumalo State Park, go to www.recreation.gov or call 877-444-6777. To reserve a backcountry yurt for a winter ski trip, go to https:// threesistersbackcountry.com. get away, and the yurt really fills the bill,” said Alan Bair, the president and founder of Pacific Yurts in Cottage Grove. Bair’s company sold the new yurts to the Deschutes

Deschutes County may open clinic for workers By Hillary Borrud The Bulletin

La Pine

Photos by Dean Guernsey / The Bulletin

Yurts so good

DESCHUTES COUNTY

STRATEGIES FOR SAVING

National Forest and has supplied state and national campgrounds in Oregon with more than 190 yurts over the years. “When people discover (yurts) in their state or national parks, they come back for more, and that is creating profitability for our parks system, which is sorely needed,” Bair said. Mark Christiansen, the recreation program manager for Deschutes and Ochoco National Forests, said the Crescent Lake yurts had been filled for 90 percent of the winter weekends for the 2009-10 season, and he hoped the occupancy rates would go up in the summer months. See Yurts / A5

Deschutes County officials will consider later this month whether to join a growing number of public and private sector employers who are opening on-site employee health clinics. In search of savings, staff recently visited onsite clinics for employees at a Southern California county government, at North America’s largest berry producer and at Yellowstone National Park. The idea is not new, but it has experienced a resurgence in the past decade, as employers sought ways to rein in health care costs and specialized companies emerged that operate these clinics nationwide, said Dr. Bruce Hockstadt, a physician and consultant for the global human resources consulting firm Mercer. As of 2009, 20 percent of employers with at least 1,000 employees had on-site health clinics, according to The Kaiser Family Foundation’s Employer Health Benefits 2009 Annual Survey. A Mercer report found that 34 percent of government employers surveyed had occupational health clinics in 2009 and 7 percent had primary care clinics. County Administrator Dave Kanner believes the clinic could save the county hundreds of thousands of dollars annually. Depending on how many employees use the clinic and whether the county charges them for office visits, prescriptions and lab tests, the county could save up to $532,602 a year or lose up to $54,625, based on a county presentation. See Clinic / A4

The Associated Press file photo

Joan Woolley, of Southern Baptist Disaster Relief, pulls a tray from a portable oven in 2008 in Galveston, Texas. The group prepared tens of thousands of hot meals in the wake of Hurricane Ike.

‘U.N.’ of faith groups sets disaster-relief roles

TOP NEWS INSIDE

By Tom Breen The Associated Press

GAZA: Israel moves further toward easing blockade, Page A3

INDEX Abby

C2

Local

Calendar

C3

Movies

B1-6 C3

Classified

E1-6

Obituaries

B5

Comics

C4-5

Oregon

B3

Crossword C5, E2

Sports

Editorial

Technology

A2

Green, Etc. C1-6

TV listings

C2

Horoscope

Weather

B6

B4

C5

D1-6

We use recycled newsprint The Bulletin

The interior of a 16-foot yurt at Tumalo State Park features electricity, a heater, skylight and beds to sleep five.

RALEIGH, N.C. — For every hurricane, earthquake or flood, there is help: food, bottled water, volunteers nailing shingles to brand-new roofs. What even grateful recipients of that aid may not realize is that much of it comes from an unlikely hodgepodge of religious groups who put aside their doctrinal differences and coordinate their efforts as soon as the wind starts blowing. Southern Baptists cook meals from Texas to Massachusetts. Seventh-day Adventists dispense aid from makeshift warehouses that can be running within eight hours. Mennonites haul away debris, Buddhists provide financial aid, and chaplains with the Billy Graham Rapid Response Team counsel the traumatized and grieving. See Relief / A4

Educating Donovan: a 15-year struggle for balance

An Independent Newspaper

MON-SAT

Vol. 107, No. 172, 30 pages, 5 sections

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By Sharon Otterman New York Times News Service

Donovan Forde was dozing when the teacher came around to his end of the table. Pale winter light filtered in through the grated classroom window, and the warm room filled softly with jazz. It fell to

his teacher’s aide to wake him up from his midmorning nap. She shined a small flashlight back and forth in his eyes like a dockworker signaling a ship, and called his name. Then she put her hand on his cheek, steering his head forward as he focused, opening his eyes.

The teacher, Ricardo Torres, placed a red apple against Donovan’s closed left hand, and then held it near his nose so he could smell it. “Donovan, the fruit holds the seeds of the plant,” he said. Then Torres held a plastic container of apple seeds to Donovan’s ear, shaking it,

and placed Donovan’s hand inside so he could feel them. “And these are the seeds,” Torres said. He watched Donovan’s eyes and face for a sign he had understood. Donovan gently pulled his hand away. No one knew if he had grasped it. See Donovan / A3


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