Get ready for cycling
Banning plastic bags? Here’s what local retailers think of it GREEN, ETC., C1
Mark your calendar for an array of events in 2011 • SPORTS, D1
WEATHER TODAY
MONDAY
Partly cloudy High 31, Low 10 Page B6
• January 3, 2011 50¢
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2 years in D.C.: What Walden, Wyden and Merkley did Bend Oregon — Democratic U.S. Sens. Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley and Republican U.S. Rep. Greg Walden from Hood River — were more successful at steering the political conversation than passing their own legislation. Here’s an overview of the lawmakers’ accomplishments the past two years:
By Keith Chu The Bulletin
IN CONGRESS
WASHINGTON — With the end of the 111th U.S. Congress, it’s time to take stock of how Oregon lawmakers spent their past two years, what they accomplished and how they voted on the biggest bills. On the whole, the federal lawmakers who represent Central
Sen. Ron Wyden What Wyden did: Wyden got the most attention over the past two years for bills that never received a vote. He proposed a handful of health care reform proposals, including the Healthy Americans Act, the Free Choice Act and a bill to let states
waive many of the new health care law’s requirements. He proposed simplifying the U.S. tax system, limiting deductions and lowering rates. And Wyden brokered a compromise between the timber industry and some environmental groups over Oregon forests east of the Cascades. See Congress / A4
takes stock for a likely tough ’11 By Scott Hammers
BETWEEN A ROCK AND A RIVER
The Bulletin
Bend City Manager Eric King said last week the city achieved most of its goals for 2010, but will still face a challenging 2011 as stagnant revenues butt up against the growing cost of providing services. Early each year, the City Council assembles a list of goals and priorities for the coming year. The 2010 list included a range of items falling under four broad categories: financial stability, economic development, growth management and priority programs. King described what progress the city made toward meeting its targets over the last 12 months, and what’s left unfinished as the new year begins.
Financial stability
Andy Tullis / The Bulletin
Jack Cramer, 23, of Corvallis, climbs a route known as “Teddy Bear’s Picnic” on Sunday at Smith Rock State Park for “one last hurrah” before going home. “It’s a nice, beautiful day. I’m happy to get to climb today, January 2, 2011,” Cramer said.
Smart phones in prison In a remote French village, – outlawed but thriving a fallen hero retreats at last By Kim Severson and Robbie Brown New York Times News Service
ATLANTA — A counterfeiter at a Georgia state prison ticks off the remaining days of his threeyear sentence on his Facebook page. He has 91 digital “friends.” Like many of his fellow inmates, he plays the online games FarmVille and Street Wars. He does it all on a Samsung smart phone, which he says he bought from a guard. And he used the same phone to help organize a short nonviolent strike among inmates at several Geor-
gia prisons last month. Technology is changing life inside prisons across the country at the same rapid-fire pace it is changing life outside. A smart phone hidden under a mattress is the modern-day file inside a cake. “This kind of thing was bound to happen,” said Martin Horn, a former commissioner of the New York City Department of Correction who teaches at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice. “The physical boundaries that we thought protected us no longer work.” See Prison / A5
TOP NEWS INSIDE CONGRESS: With GOP in a better position to push its agenda, what will be the effects? Page A3
INDEX
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Vol. 108, No. 3, 30 pages, 5 sections
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Abby
C2
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C5 B1-6
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Crossword C5, E2
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Philippe Petain is widely reviled for his role in the Vichy government. In fact, just one street in France bore his name. Now it no longer will, but not everyone is happy.
Illicit diamonds enrich Mugabe with another vote on horizon
By John Tagliabue New York Times News Service
TREMBLOIS-LES-CARIGNAN, France — The municipal council here on the edge of the Ardennes Forest recently voted to change a third of the village’s street names. Tremblois has only three streets, and they are named for three French heroes of World War I: Marshals Ferdinand Foch, Joseph Joffre and Philippe Petain. The problem is that Petain had a second act as head of state during World War II, when his administration in the unoccupied part of the country that was known as Vichy France collaborated with Nazi Germany in eliminating its enemies, notably the Jews. So under pressure from the national government, veterans and Jewish groups, the council voted unanimously to drop the name Petain from a little street about 600 feet long, renaming it Rue de la Belle-Croix, for a chapel at its foot. After World War I, virtually every town in France had its Rue or Avenue Petain. So vast was his fame that a dozen or so towns and cities in the United States also named streets for him. But when the signs here change this month, the last street in France bearing his name will be gone. Not everyone is happy with the decision. See Street / A4
The city started 2010 looking for a way to address what King calls “structural problems” in the budget: expenses that are projected to grow markedly faster than the city’s revenues. Although King said he had hoped the city would be further along in addressing the issue by the end of 2010, a cost-containment plan that could cut $15 million from the general fund over six years has been proposed by the city’s public safety committee. The plan includes some cuts to personnel and employee benefits, refinancing of outstanding debts, and the creation of a street utility fee to fund street maintenance. The City Council rejected a proposal for a street utility fee two years ago, King said, but will be considering the latest version of the plan soon. If it is approved, street maintenance would no longer consume a share of the general fund, freeing up a portion of that money for public safety purposes. See Bend / A4
By Brian Latham and Fred Katerere Bloomberg News
Giovanni Del Brenna / New York Times News Service
Jean-Pol Oury, the mayor of Tremblois-LesCarignan, stands in front of the town’s World War I memorial. Oury received hate mail and threats as the mayor of the last town in France with a street named for Philippe Petain. World War I, the conflict where Petain earned widespread fame, left deep scars on the town.
VILA DE MANICA, Mozambique — Enos Chikwere spills nine uncut diamonds from a bag at Restaurante Piscina in Mozambique near the Zimbabwe border and says they’re worth $75,000. “I can supply all the diamonds you need,” said Chikwere, explaining that he sneaked them into Mozambique after buying them from Zimbabwean soldiers. Chikwere and hundreds of other border smugglers are part of a chain whose money flows back into Zimbabwe, whose president for three decades, Robert Mugabe, has ruled over four violent and disputed elections since 2000. Mugabe’s policies of land seizure helped cause the economy, once the second-biggest in southern Africa, to shrink by 50 percent in eight years. See Diamonds / A5