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CENTRAL OREGON’S HOT SPOT
WHEN NEWBERRY ERUPTS 97
The USGS says it could happen at some point and is installing monitors, but scientists stress that doesn’t mean it’s time to sell your home and move By Kate Ramsayer
De sc hu tes Riv er
Lava flow Vent
Lava Butte Flow
Chin a Ha
t Rd.
-BWB #VUUF
Mokst Butte Flow North Sugar Pine Flow
South Sugar Pine Flow
South Kelsey Flow
The Bulletin
-BWB $BTU 'PSFTU 'MPX Hidden Flow
3FDFOU FSVQUJPOT HFPMPHJDBMMZ TQFBLJOH
Lava Cascade Flow North Summit Flow
East Lake Fissure
/FXCFSSZ hen Newberry Volcano south of East Paulina Lake $BMEFSB Bend last erupted 1,300 years Lake ago, gas trapped in sticky magma exploded from the caldera 21 south of Bend, flinging pumice #JH 0CTJEJBO Paulina and ash more than 3,000 feet up into the air. As 'MPX Peak the volcanic gases settled down, flows of lava oozed out, quickly cooling into the glassy Big 97 Obsidian Flow. About 7,000 years ago, magma spread 21 Newberry north from Newberry through a crack in National La Pine Volcanic the rock, erupting to form the Lava Butte Monument cinder cone. boundary And with the magma still heating rocks under Newberry Volcano, geologists expect more eruptions to shake the area in the future. Source: U.S. Forest Service Andy Zeigert / The Bulletin “It’s still hot under there,” said Julie Donnelly-Nolan, a research geologist with the U.S. Geological Survey’s Volcano Science Cen- across Highway 97,” she said. “The chances it’s going ter in Menlo Park, Calif. “We have no reason to believe Newberry Volcano first erupted more than 400,000 to happen any time it’s finished.” years ago — scientists can’t determine the exact date beBecause of this, the USGS is planning to add eight cause so many eruptions have covered the area with lava in our lifetime is very seismic monitoring stations next summer on Newberry since then, Donnelly-Nolan said. small. (But) imagine Volcano, which the agency classifies as a “very high The broad volcano is about 500 square miles in size, threat.” but the lava flows from Newberry cover more than douthe disruption from But that doesn’t mean new buttes or obsidian flows are ble that. More than 400 cinder cones and vents dot the just having a little lava going to pop up in Central Oregon next week, or even in flanks of Newberry. flow across Highway the next century — so people shouldn’t sell their homes, The caldera itself formed about 80,000 years ago, Donnelly-Nolan said. when Paulina Peak erupted much like Mount Mazama 97.” “The chances it’s going to happen any time in our life- did in forming Crater Lake. A pool of magma exploded time is very small,” she said, but when the volcano does in an eruption of rocks, ash and gas, before the material — Julie Donnelly-Nolan, start to rumble, it could cause a lot of damage. “Imag- settled into the crater. research geologist ine the disruption from just having a little lava flow See Newberry / A4
W
It’s similar to past midterms, though 2 local candidates say it means little to their odds By Scott Hammers
.PLTU #VUUF Forest Road Flow
The USGS considers Newberry Volcano, south of Bend, a “very high threat” due to its eruptions over the years and proximity to Bend. The most recent eruption, 1,300 years ago, created the Big Obsidian Flow, while a series of eruptions about 7,000 years ago created Lava Butte, Mokst Butte, the Lava Cast Forest and other volcanic features now within the Newberry National Volcanic Monument. The USGS is planning to install eight new monitoring stations around Newberry Volcano next summer, to measure movements in the Earth so that geologists can have advance warning if the volcano starts to becomes active.
The Bulletin
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Voter turnout in Central Oregon is on target to match or exceed recent nonpresidential election years, assuming past trends hold up. Oregon’s voter turnout has historically ranked in the top tier among all states, and since the state moved to an allvote-by-mail system in 2000, it’s been possible to measure turnout on a day-by-day basis over the two weeks or so between when ballots are sent out and Election Day. Clerks in Crook, Deschutes and Jefferson counties said ballot returns typically follow a similar pattern during every election, with a steady stream of ballots coming in during the first week, a slight leveling off during the second week and a spike during the final four days before Election Day. See Turnout / A5
ELECTION
Deschutes County voter turnout Turnout is consistently higher in presidential election years, and a large portion of ballots are submitted in the final few days before votes are counted on Tuesday. Turnout percentage Final turnout percentage through Friday by Tuesday (Election Day) before election 86.8% 86.5% 80.7% 71%
69.1% 67%
56% 40.2%
48% 40%
2000
2002
38%
2004
Source: Deschutes County Clerk’s Office
TOP NEWS INSIDE ELECTION: Parties make final push with Senate still up in the air, Page A3
Europe’s plagues traced to Far East By Nicholas Wade New York Times News Service
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Vol. 107, No. 305, 70 pages, 6 sections
The great waves of plague that twice devastated Europe and changed the course of history had their origins in China, as did a third outbreak that struck less harmfully in the 19th century, a team of medical geneticists reported Sunday. And in separate research, a team of biologists says it has established that the agent that caused the most deadly plague, the Black Death, was the bacterium known as Yersinia pestis. It has been the favored cause, but a minority of biologists and historians have vigorously argued that the Black Death differed from modern cases of plague studied in India and therefore must have had a different cause. See Plague / A4
2006
2008
2010
Greg Cross / The Bulletin
QUESTIONABLE MARKET
Debt buyers, signature mills, shaky paperwork – it’s not just foreclosures By David Segal New York Times News Service
When Michael Gazzarato took a job that required him to sign hundreds of affidavits in a single day, he had one demand for his employer: a much better pen. “They tried to get me to do it with a Bic, and I wasn’t going — I wasn’t having it,” he said. “It was bad when I had to use the plastic Papermate-type pen. It was a nightmare.” The complaint could have
come from any of the autograph marathoners in the recent mortgage foreclosure mess. But Gazzarato was speaking at a deposition in a 2007 lawsuit against Asset Acceptance, a company that buys consumer debts and then tries to collect. His job was to sign affidavits, swearing that he had personally reviewed and verified the records of debtors — a time-consuming task when done correctly. Sound familiar?
Banks have been under siege in recent weeks for widespread corner-cutting in the rush to process delinquent mortgages. The accusations have stirred outrage and set off investigations across the country. Lawyers who defend consumers in debt-collection cases say the banks did not invent the headless, assembly line approach. Debt buyers, they say, have been doing it for years. See Debt / A5