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Pac Am finale from Crosswater
The volunteers of Pine Mountain Observatory • COMMUNITY, B1
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WEATHER TODAY
SATURDAY
Mainly sunny, strong afternoon breezes High 78, Low 32 Page C8
• September 4, 2010 50¢
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SODA, FOOTBALL ... TIME TO CHEER Andrew Scheafer, 9, of Bend, cheers on the Bend High Lava Bears Friday night against Lebanon. High school football kicked off around the area Friday. For local results, see Sports, Page D1.
Oregon could bypass parts of health bill for own plans State is designing its own insurance exchange, considering keeping federal requirement to buy By Keith Chu The Bulletin
WASHINGTON — Sen. Ron Wyden has written to Oregon Human Services Department Director Bruce Goldberg that Oregon could take advantage of a provision in the health care bill that lets states avoid some federal regulations, including an individual
Rob Kerr The Bulletin
Fine-tuning their mission, Army bands turn leaner By Daniel J. Wakin New York Times News Service
Modern wars need a modern military, light and fast on its feet, and the U.S. Army has changed accordingly. So has its music. The Army this summer issued an updated field manual for its lyrical forces — more than 100 bands — that formalizes a major change in the way they operate. It makes them more nimble and flexible, just as the Army has done for its fighting units. Bands have been broken down into components, like rock, blues and salsa groups; jazz bands; brass quintets; and woodwind ensembles, any of which can be sent quickly, alone or together, to remote and dangerous places. A heavy-metal quartet called the Four Horsemen of the Arockalypse, courtesy of the 3rd Infantry Division Band, even has a homemade music video. The new musical mission matches current military doctrine: the creation of smaller, selfcontained forces, like brigades of 3,000 to 5,000 soldiers, that can be put in place more quickly and rotated more easily than an entire division, which is more than three times as large. The Army talks about music in the lingo it wields for battle. A rehearsal is a “training session.” See Bands / A8
mandate to buy insurance. The discussion by Wyden, a Democrat, and Oregon health care officials of opting out of some of the health care reform bill’s mandates isn’t new. They say it will give the state flexibility to design programs that give Oregonians better health insurance at a lower cost. But some critics seized on Wyden’s let-
ter as evidence that he’s trying to distance himself from reform, just months ahead of the election. In an interview with The Bulletin, Wyden pointed out that he’s made the same argument many times over the past two years and that his own Healthy Americans Act, released in early 2007, included a nearly identical provision to the one he promoted in his Aug. 24 letter. And Wyden said he’s not distancing himself from the individual mandate, or health reform. See Health / A7
Seeking security in a short food chain
By Kate Ramsayer The Bulletin
Photos by Rob Kerr / The Bulletin
ABOVE: Windflower Farm owner Gigi Meyer checks in on some of her chickens Thursday morning in Alfalfa. Meyer supplements the chickens’ diet with greens from the gardens and grass clippings, she said, adding that customers can tell when a hen has been fed greenery, because their egg yolks will be orange. TOP: Meyer displays a French breakfast radish.
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Concerns prompt some Central Oregonians to use options to factory farms
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A chance to share ideas on eating locally
By Kate Ramsayer The Bulletin
A
t the Great American Egg booth at the Bend Farmers Market last week, Jaymie Exley-Peat, an intern at the farm, showed a customer pictures of the egg-layers at work. “They’re well-treated,” she said, flipping through shots of the chickens roaming on grass at the Powell Butte farm. The customer, Bobbi McAllister, was convinced. “You know you’re getting good food and fresh food,” McAllister said. “They’re organic, and they’re real eggs.”
Plus, with recent news about the conditions in big factory chicken farms — where inspectors found rodents, 8-foot-high piles of manure, and salmonella contamination — knowing the source of the farmers market eggs was a draw, as well. “It’s kind of scary to be buying eggs now, if you don’t know where you’re buying from,” McAllister said. With a number of farms in the Central Oregon area, producing everything from eggs to beef to vegetables to heritage turkeys, residents have a number of opportunities to check the source of what ends up on their plates. See Food / A7
Where to buy locally Websites that offer lists of local farms, or offer the chance to purchase different items, include: • www.localharvest.org • www.centraloregonfoodnetwork.com • www.localfoodmarketplace.com/bend • www.bendcsa.com Locations of farmers markets around Oregon can be found at www.oregonfarmersmarkets. org.
The Central Oregon Food Summit next week is open to anyone who is interested in food, said Dana Martin with the Oregon State University Extension Service. “And that should be everyone,” she said. The summit, which costs $20, is from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Friday at Central Oregon Community College’s Wille Hall in the campus center. It’s a chance for the community to get a sense of the challenges facing food production in Central Oregon, and also to examine new ways to get food to customers, Martin said. “It takes all of the community working together to make sure that there is a good supply of healthy food,” she said. The idea of holding the summit came from a community food assessment, coordinated by an AmeriCorps volunteer with Wy’East Resource Conservation & Development, that received the input of farmers, ranchers and others. “What we wanted to do was get some baseline information about how people access food,” said Katrina Van Dis, program manager with the Central Oregon Intergovernmental Council. The different organizations involved in the summit, which also include NeighborImpact, are looking at a variety of questions related to food in Central Oregon, Van Dis said. See Summit / A7
Drive to ban small hen cages alarms egg industry
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Vol. 107, No. 247, 66 pages, 6 sections
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By Dan Eggen The Washington Post
Even before the recent salmonella outbreak, America’s egg industry was struggling to fend off another threat: allegations that it was cruel to chickens. Egg producers are alarmed at efforts
to ban small cages for hens, a movement that has gained momentum in an increasing number of states. The 550 million eggs recalled in connection with the salmonella contamination came from hens housed in industrial-style “battery cages,” in which birds
are crammed against one another in a long battery of wire enclosures. The cages are common throughout the industry but have been increasingly targeted by animal-welfare groups as inhumane and unsanitary. But major egg producers say switching to cage-
free methods will do little to improve safety and will add to the cost of a dozen eggs. Right now, cage-free eggs commonly cost about twice as much as those produced by caged hens. See Eggs / A6