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• July 9, 2010 50¢
Serving Central Oregon since 1903 www.bendbulletin.com
Region’s veterans have trouble finding jobs
Low turnout at Walmart meeting
A soggy sanctuary
Company hears opinions on Bend store’s expansion
By Erin Golden The Bulletin
Three months after they returned from a yearlong deployment to Iraq, half of the soldiers in a Bend-based Oregon National Guard unit are unemployed. Some are taking a break before returning to the work force, while some are heading back to school. But others — like many of their civilian counterparts — are on the hunt for work and facing a particularly challenging job market. Over the last year, the number of veterans from Crook, Deschutes and Jefferson counties enrolled with the local Oregon Employment Department office has surged by nearly 62 percent, from 1,110 to 1,795 people. Most of the currently enrolled veterans are claiming unemployment benefits. Now, military officials are working with local employers to try to reverse the trend. On Saturday, the Guard’s Yellow Ribbon Reintegration Program will host a job and benefits fair at the Deschutes County Fair & Expo Center in Redmond. Lt. Jay O’Connor, a Bend-based project officer with the Yellow Ribbon program, said organizers are expecting at least 44 employers and more than 150 soldiers and veterans to attend the event. Though the fair is open to all local veterans, it is aimed at the newly returned soldiers from the Guard’s 41st Infantry Brigade Combat Team, which included about 110 Central Oregonians who served with the Bend-based 1st Squadron, 82nd Cavalry. “(The event’s purpose is) to get our soldiers employed, bottom line,” O’Connor said. “We have a 50 percent unemployment rate right now for our squadron. It’s basically to provide them a place they can go and make it easier, because if they’re sitting at home it’s going to be a lot harder to connect to resources.” See Veterans / A4
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We use recycled newsprint The Bulletin An Independent Newspaper
Vol. 107, No. 190, 70 pages, 7 sections
MON-SAT
Nearby residents are largely unconcerned about Walmart’s plan to expand its Bend store, judging by low attendance and even tempers at a preliminary neighborhood meeting Thursday evening. Walmart plans to add groceries, and a bakery and deli to its store at Pinebrook Road and U.S. Highway 97 in south Bend, which already includes a pharmacy and outdoor garden center. In the past, such stores were called Supercenters, but the company has stopped using that name. The plan calls for an approximate 38,000-squarefoot expansion on the back and corners of the existing 126,000-square-foot building, for a total of 164,000 square feet. By comparison, the Walmart in Redmond is 218,000 square feet. Construction would not start until the spring or summer of 2012, a spokeswoman said at the meeting, and the store would remain open during the remodel. See Walmart / A4
State education board mulls area university plan By Sheila G. Miller The Bulletin
D
eschutes County Sheriff’s deputies, from left to right, Keith Slater, Ron Brown and
In a graphic headlined “Changes coming to waste centers,” which appeared Thursday, July 8, on Page A1, incorrect closing information was included. The West Bend/Simpson recycling depot will close at the end of July, and the Negus Transfer Station and Knott Landfill are open Monday through Saturday. The Bulletin regrets the errors.
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The Bulletin
Scott Hammers / The Bulletin
Correction
Abby
By Adrianne Jeffries
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Dan Bilyeu, carry a crucifix from the sanctuary of Nativity Lutheran Church in Bend after a nearby water main broke and flooded the church Thursday afternoon.
Pastor David Nagler said the church was unoccupied at the time of the break, and thoroughly inundated by the time he arrived at around 4:15 p.m. The sanctuary, fellowship room and kitchen were all flooded, as was a recently planted outdoor garden and orchard. Nagler said damage is likely minimal, unless water draining into the ducts through the vents in the
floor damaged the heating system. Jason Wick, vice president of Avion Water Co. in Bend, said the 18-inch pipe that broke spilled between 4,000 and 5,000 gallons of water per minute. He said he expected the pipe to be repaired by late Thursday, and the damaged portion of Knott Road to be repaved sometime today.
Arrest in ‘Grim Sleeper’ killings fans debate on DNA policy
PORTLAND — A Central Oregon plan to create a freestanding, four-year university in the next two to three decades met with general support — and some concern — at the State Board of Higher Education meeting on Thursday. Board members were mostly enthu- “There are lots siastic about the pro- of ideas and posal, which includes more shared services suggestions in with Central Oregon this report that Community College and increased bach- don’t necessarily elor degree offerings have budget at COCC’s education centers throughout the implications but region. But they were do have timing also concerned that implications.” approving the report quickly could lead to — Kirk Schueler, problems because of Brooks Resources Corp. lack of discussion by the board or lack of consideration by other parties in the Oregon University System. Kirk Schueler, the president of Brooks Resources Corp. and a member of the state board, presented the Higher Education Assessment Team’s recommendations to the board Thursday. See University / A4
THE WILD, BLUE YONDER
By Jennifer Steinhauer New York Times News Service
LOS ANGELES — The arrest in the case of the “Grim Sleeper” — a serial killer who terrorized South Los Angeles for two decades — has put one of the hottest controversies in U.S. law enforcement to its first major test. Only two states, Colorado and California, have a codified policy permitting the use of familial search, the use of DNA samples taken from convicted criminals to track down relatives who may have committed a crime. It is a practice that district attorneys and the police say is an essential tool in catching otherwise elusive criminals, but that privacy experts criticize as a threat to civil liberties. See Grim Sleeper / A5
Suspected killer was friendly, with dark side Los Angeles Times LOS ANGELES — Lonnie David Franklin Jr. was a small-time crook, but his neighbors didn’t worry about a guy who could get you a nice price on a flat-screen TV and who kept a “don’t ask, don’t tell” supply of car parts stashed behind his spearmint green house. See Neighbors / A5
Rob Kerr / The Bulletin
Paragliding pilot Tim Reynolds turns a tandem wing climbing in elevation from winds along Pine Mountain near Millican last Wednesday as another paraglider flies in the background. Read more on Page D1.