Local rumble: Madras vs. Crook Also in Sports: College preview: Oregon takes on Arizona State; OSU and Boise State • D1
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SATURDAY
Abundant sunshine High 86, Low 42 Page C8
• September 25, 2010 50¢
Serving Central Oregon since 1903 www.bendbulletin.com
Walden, Segers talk economy, help for Oregon and more What By Keith Chu The Bulletin
ELECTION
Oregon’s Second Congressional District has more land area than many U.S. states. It encompasses all of Central and Eastern Oregon, from the Columbia River in the north down to the California border. Since its creation, the district has
Trees killed by beetles a greater fire risk? Or is it less clear-cut?
been the only reliably Republican seat in the state. This year’s contest pits the sixterm incumbent, U.S. Rep. Greg Walden, R-Hood River, and first-time candidate Joyce Segers, an Ashland retiree running as a Democrat. As a member of the minority party, Walden hasn’t passed much legis-
lation since 2009, but he has climbed the ranks with the House GOP over the past two years and taken on a key role in plotting the party’s campaign strategy for this fall. Segers, meanwhile, has argued that Walden has a record of voting against his constituents’ interests. See House / A6
Joyce Segers
Greg Walden
B B OKTOBERFEST
end’s
avarian bash
The Bulletin
The Bulletin
Rob Kerr / The Bulletin
ning at Oktoberfest along Minnesota Avenue in downtown
Bend. The event continues today from noon until 10 p.m., with wiener dog races at 4 p.m., a yodeling contest at 7 p.m., and food, drink and music
Or s R. eg Deschute Mi on nn Av es e. ota Av Fra e. nk . lin Rd Av va a L e. FEET
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throughout the day.
Minnesota Avenue will be closed until midnight between Wall Street and Lava Road for Bend Oktoberfest.
t.
laugh after showing off their costumes to friends Friday eve-
Street closure
W all S
icole Mann, 24, middle, and Steve Nunnemaker, 30, right,
Oktoberfest is free to attend. For more information, call 541-788-3628 or
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300
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visit www.downtownbend.org. Andy Zeigert / The Bulletin
TOP NEWS INSIDE TAXES: Pelosi floats idea of voting to extend cuts for middle class, Page A2
INDEX Abby
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Business
Local
‘Eat your vegetables’: old battle with new tactics
C1-8
C3-5
Movies
B3
Classified
F1-6
Obituaries
C7
Comics
B4-5
Sudoku
B5
Community B1-6
Sports
D1-6
Crossword B5, F2
Stocks
C4-5
Editorial
C6
TV listings
B2
Horoscope
B5
Weather
C8
By Kim Severson New York Times News Service
We use recycled newsprint The Bulletin An Independent Newspaper
MON-SAT
Vol. 107, No. 268, 66 pages, 6 sections
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Christopher Smith / New York Times News Service
Jamie Niven auctions off crates of heirloom vegetables Thursday at “The Art of Farming” event at Sotheby’s in New York. The auction, which saw Lady Godiva squash going for $1,000 each, raised nearly $250,000 to help hunger organizations, immigrant farmers and children without access to vegetables.
The Redmond/Bend one has quirks that are a growing issue By Patrick Cliff
By Kate Ramsayer On the mountain slopes along the Cascade Lakes Highway, patches of red and gray have crept into the evergreen lodgepole forests. Outbreaks of mountain pine beetles have killed acres of trees across Central Oregon forests in the last 15 years or so, leaving swaths of dead trees that, to some, might look like they’re just waiting to ignite in a wildfire. “Conventional wisdom would be that when you see brown or red trees, they’re going to be more flammable,” said Geoff Babb, fire ecologist with the Central Oregon Fire Management Service. But researchers across the West, including some in Central Oregon, are taking a closer look at the question, to see if the conventional wisdom is actually right, and if the mountainsides of dead trees do pose a greater risk of dangerous wildfires. What the scientists learn could help land managers decide where to focus efforts to reduce the risk of fire near communities or other valuable areas. “We need to be able to look at a landscape or a stand of trees and say with some certainty that, in fact, is going to be more flammable or more of a fire hazard,” Babb said. “It’s definitely a problem that managers are aware of, and we’re trying to get a better handle on.” See Beetles / A7
to do for peculiar school borders?
It’s been a busy week for vegetables. The baby-carrot industry tried to reposition its product as junk food, starting a $25 million advertising campaign whose defining characteristics include heavy metal music, a phone app and a young man in a grocery cart dodging baby-carrot bullets fired by a woman in tight jeans. In Manhattan, crates of heirloom vegetables with names like Lady Godiva squash were auctioned for $1,000 each at Sotheby’s, where the wealthier are more accustomed to bidding on Warhols and Picassos than turnips and tomatoes.
Both efforts, high and low, are aimed at the same thing: getting America to eat its vegetables. Good luck. Despite two decades of public health initiatives, stricter government dietary guidelines, record growth of farmers markets and the ease of products like salad in a bag, Americans still aren’t eating enough vegetables. This month, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued a comprehensive nationwide behavioral study of fruit and vegetable consumption. Only 26 percent of U.S. adults eat vegetables three or more times a day, it concluded. (And no, that does not include french fries.) See Vegetables / A6
REDMOND — A schoolchild living in Alfalfa will travel near several Bend schools, including Bear Creek Elementary and Bend Senior High, on the way to class at Tumalo Community School. It’s a course determined by long-standing school district boundaries. The Alfalfa route dates back to at least the summer of 1987, when the Redmond School Board voted to shutter the town’s school — a victim of a budget crisis at the time. Tumalo was the closest school to Alfalfa, so the children in Alfalfa began making the trip. School boundaries can take unexpected shapes, but the Redmond/Bend boundary is particularly odd. Near Tumalo, there is an island of property in the Bend district that is surrounded by the Redmond district. And in several areas, property in the Redmond district is south of land in the Bend district. About 200 students transferred from Redmond schools to Bend last year. And as the Redmond district prepares to open a new 1,400-student high school in 2012, student transfers and the boundaries have become a more pressing issue. Redmond School Board member Cathy Miller has raised both the transfer policy and the question of whether district boundaries should change. See Boundaries / A7
GMAC’s errors leave foreclosures in question By David Streitfeld New York Times News Service
The recent admission by a major mortgage lender that it had filed dubious foreclosure documents could inspire a broad legal furor against hasty foreclosures, which have prompted complaints nationwide since housing prices collapsed. Lawyers for distressed homeowners and law enforcement officials in several states Friday seized on revelations by GMAC Mortgage, the country’s fourthlargest home loan lender, that it had violated legal rules in its rush to file many foreclosures as quickly as possible. Attorneys general in Iowa and North Carolina said they were beginning separate investigations of the lender, and the attorney general in California directed the company to suspend all foreclosures in that state until it “proves that it’s following the letter of the law.” See GMAC / A7