Room for more retail?
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Why stores (a revived Gottschalks, maybe) like Bend • BUSINESS, B1
SPORTS, D1
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THURSDAY
Increasing cloud cover, remaining mild High 78, Low 34 Page C6
• October 14, 2010 50¢
Serving Central Oregon since 1903 www.bendbulletin.com
City Council candidates differ on Bend UGB
COCC
Student council employs lawyer
MAKING WAVES FOR THE HOME SHOW
By Nick Grube The Bulletin
There were shades of disagreement about how Bend should grow among some Bend City Council candidates during a Wednesday forum at the Bend Park & Recreation District headquarters. Chuck Arnold, who is running for Position 7 against Scott Ramsay, said he believes the city should focus its efforts on increasing density within Bend’s existing limits, while Position 7 incumbent Mark Capell said there should be a more moderated approach. These views were expressed in the context of Bend’s proposed urban growth boundary expansion, which is something the city spent more than $4 million on and has been fighting the state over for the past several years. “The thing that we really need to look at are the opportunities for infill development within the existing UGB,” Arnold said. “If we sprawl out and make the mistakes of other communities, I really think we’ll see it down the road.” Position 7 challenger Ronald “Rondo” Boozell agreed with Arnold on expanding the city’s UGB, and said that any future growth that occurs in Bend should be on the back’s of developers. Those developers, he said, should “pay the lion’s share” of the costs. Neither Scott Ramsay, who is running against Arnold, nor Mark Moseley, who is vying for Capell’s seat, were present at Wednesday’s forum. Bend is in the midst of trying to expand its urban growth boundary to comply with Oregon law that states a city must have a 20-year supply of land for housing and economic development. See Forum / A4
Counsel asked to clarify group’s autonomy, power By Sheila G. Miller
ELECTION
The Bulletin
Central Oregon Community College’s student government has hired an attorney and a public relations consultant with an eye toward clarifying its role at the college and its ability to administer student fees. The Associated Students of Central Oregon Community College (ASCOCC) will use student fees to pay for the lawyer’s services. “We want some definition,” said Brenda Pierce, who is currently in charge of student government’s marketing and communications. “We want to know where we stand.” In a memo sent Tuesday to student council adviser Taran Underdal, ASCOCC’s executive and general council announced it would appropriate student funds to hire Miller Nash LLP attorney Greg Lynch as an advocate. See COCC / A4
Photos by Andy Tullis / The Bulletin
S
culptor Curt Grant, 54, finishes an 8-foot-tall stainless steel wave he was building at his Bend home earlier this week. Grant, who recently moved to Bend from Maui, works as a commission artist, creating art from glass, metal and stone.
CHILE: Last miner pulled to safety after 2 months underground, Page A2
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We use recycled newsprint The Bulletin An Independent Newspaper
Vol. 107, No. 287, 42 pages, 7 sections
MON-SAT
McClatchy-Tribune News Service
WASHINGTON — Since he was first elected to the Arizona state Senate eight years ago, Manny Alvarez has burned through four cars at the rate of 40,000 miles a year. Alvarez, a Democrat from the southeastern tip of the state, represents the 25th district, an area that snakes along the Mexican border from the New Mexico line to Yuma County, more than 300 miles to the west. “To be honest with you, it stinks,” he says. “It’s very, very hard, but I still manage to do it.” If recent census figures are any indication, Alvarez and other rural lawmakers have extra reason to be concerned in the coming decade. Not only are their numbers declining, but in many cases their districts also are likely to become so geographically huge that representing constituents could become a trial of endurance. See Rural / A5
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Business
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By David Harrison A surfer for 15 years, he created this untitled piece to represent the Pipeline surf spot on the north shore of Oahu. “This originated out of the idea of having a wave in my shop with a surfboard on it, that I could sit on and eat my lunch, and not miss the ocean as much during the off season,” he said. The sculpture will be on display at his Crossfire Arts booth at the Central Oregon Builders Association Home & Garden show, Friday through Sunday at the Deschutes County Fair & Expo Center.
TOP NEWS INSIDE
As redistricting looms, politicians in rural areas try to stay in touch
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Banks ignored looming foreclosure crisis By Eric Dash and Nelson D. Schwartz New York Times News Service
At JPMorgan Chase & Co., they were derided as “Burger King kids” — walk-in hires who were so inexperienced they barely knew what a mortgage was. At Citigroup and GMAC, dotting the i’s and crossing the t’s on home foreclosures was outsourced to frazzled workers who sometimes tossed the paperwork into the garbage. And at Litton Loan Servicing, an arm of Goldman Sachs, employees processed foreclosure documents so quickly that they barely had time to see what they were signing. “I don’t know the ins and outs of the loan,” a Litton employee said in a deposition last year. “I’m not a loan officer.”
As the furor grows over lend- Inside ers’ efforts to side• Oregon joins other step legal rules in states in foreclosure their zeal to reclaim inquiry, Page B1 homes from delinquent borrowers, • Insurance proving these and other crucial amid banks insist that mortgage crisis, they have been Page B3 overwhelmed by the housing collapse. But interviews with bank employees, executives and federal regulators suggest that this mess was years in the making and came as little surprise to industry insiders and government officials.
The issue gained new urgency Wednesday, when all 50 state attorneys general announced that they would investigate foreclosure practices. That news came on the same day that JPMorgan Chase acknowledged that it had not had not used the nation’s largest electronic mortgage tracking system, known as MERS, since 2008. That system has been faulted for losing documents and other sloppy practices. The root of today’s problems goes back to the boom years, when home prices were soaring and banks pursued profit while paying less attention to the business of mortgage servicing, or collecting and processing monthly payments from homeowners. See Mortgages / A5
“In hindsight, we were all slow to jump on the issue. When you think about what it costs to add 10,000 people, that is a substantial investment in time and money along with the computers, training and system changes involved.” — Michael Heid, co-president, Wells Fargo Home Mortgage