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Serving Central Oregon since 1903 www.bendbulletin.com
Web ad for landscape work nets $500 fine
REVISITING THE MEYER TRAGEDY
2012 LEGISLATIVE SESSION
Family’s pursuit of truth spurred case on
What’s on local leaders’ wish lists?
By Scott Hammers The Bulletin
Two lines in a Craigslist ad placed last summer have a Redmond man on the hook for $500 with the Oregon Landscape Contractor’s Board. In June, Roger Phillips posted an ad on the Bend Craigslist site, advertising his handyman and construction skills. The ad indicated Phillips could be hired to build decks and fences, install windows and doors, even build a complete home. It also included the claim that he could “fix that malfunctioning sprinkler head” or perform minor irrigation repairs, the statements that landed him in trouble with the board. State law divides landscapers into two categories. Those involved in “landscape maintenance,” such as lawn mowing, tree trimming and laying down bark, do not require a specialized license. More intensive work generally requires a “landscape construction professional” license issued by the board. State law permits an unlicensed landscaper to do some work that would ordinarily be restricted to licensed landscape construction professionals. Tasks performed by an unlicensed landscaper must be limited to “casual, minor, inconsequential landscaping work,” which includes the replacement of up to three sprinkler heads, be valued at less than $500, and be performed for a customer who primarily receives maintenance services from the nonlicensed landscaper. Phillips, a licensed contractor for more than 30 years, said his ad elicited no offers of work. See Landscape / A7
By Lauren Dake The Bulletin
By Sheila G. Miller The Bulletin
SALEM — When the state Legislature returns next month, the pace will be fast, with bills surviving or dying at breakneck speed. Local school leaders, city and economic development officials know they will need to lobby hard to see their prioritizes realized. The primary goal of the session, which is slated to last a month and can’t exceed 35 days, is to rebalance the budget. With continuing poor economic forecasts, many locals will be keeping an eye on the budget to ensure that what money was allocated to them in the last legislative session will still be delivered. Ron Wilkinson, the superintendent of the Bend-La Pine Schools, can often be seen in the Capitol’s hallways while lawmakers are meeting. This February, he said, he will be working to tightly guard the money legislators directed to kindergarten through 12grade schools last session. “We’re fearful there could be efforts to take from K-12 to fund other areas,” he said. “We want to keep the money allocated to K-12 to K-12, that’s really our primary goal.” Wilkinson is hoping a bill he worked on with Rep. Jason Conger, R-Bend, the so-called School Savings Act, could reform the Public Employees Retirement System. Conger pushed for changes to the retirement system last session with little success. Wilkinson said he knows it’s a long shot to get PERS-related legislation passed in such a short time. But it’s a shot he’s willing to take. “It’s a question of whether the Legislature will take on something of a hot potato in an election year,” Wilkinson said. “From our standpoint, it’s imperative they address the issue. It’s a cost driver they could help us control.”
Bend’s Eric King wants to monitor the budget and certain agencies for staff cuts that could affect the city.
Bend-La Pine Superintendent Ron Wilkinson wants protection for K-12 funding and changes to PERS. Economic Development for Central Oregon’s Roger Lee wants to make sure that Facebook isn’t centrally assessed by the Oregon Department of Revenue.
Redmond Mayor George Endicott, chairman of the Central Oregon Cities Organization, wants to see more industrial land made ready for development. Conger’s bill looks at different aspects of PERS, including how to stabilize the PERS account. He’s pushing the creation of a reserve fund when times are good to help offset the retirement system’s volatility. With PERS, when the stock market goes down, contributions from schools and other public employers must increase to fill the gap. Eric King, Bend’s city manager, said the city will also keep an eye on the budget, paying attention to
what will happen to certain agencies’ budgets. In particular, King said the city works with the Department of Land Conservation and Development and the Water Resource Department. “We rely on them, especially as we go through our urban growth expansion,” King said. He worries about staff cuts in the agencies. Both have field representatives locally. See Session / A4
Iranians tell of 6 weeks of fear with Somali pirates By C.J. Chivers New York Times News Service
New York Times News Service
One of 13 Iranian fishermen who was rescued.
ABOARD THE FISHING VESSEL AL MULAHI, in the Gulf of Oman — Late Thursday afternoon, as the U.S. destroyer Kidd loomed alongside this hijacked Iranian dhow, the warship’s loudspeaker issued a command in Urdu to the dhow’s frightened Urdu-
speaking crew. U.S. sailors stood ready, weapons in hand. If you have weapons aboard, the voice boomed, put them where we can see them, on the roof of your wheelhouse. Fifteen Somali pirates were also on board Al Mulahi, crouched and cornered on the very vessel they had seized in November to use as their
mother ship. They had knives, a pistol and four assault rifles. But they did not speak Urdu. For a moment, the captors depended on their captives. They asked their Iranian hostages what the U.S. sailors had just said. One of the hostages, Khaled Abdulkhaled, answered without pause: “They said they are
about to blow this ship up.” The pirates panicked. Their unity broke down. Each man hoped to surrender, find cover or hide. Discarding their weapons, nine of them crammed into a hold beneath the wheelhouse. Six huddled near the open bow. Soon armed U.S. sailors climbed aboard. See Pirates / A7
With Pentagon confronting cuts, one potential casualty could be invention By Binyamin Appelbaum New York Times News Service
Military spending has transformed the faded farmlands of Northern Virginia into a land of glass-block office parks, oversize homes
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and sleek cars. Household incomes here are among the highest in the United States. The wellspring of this prosperity is not just the Defense Department’s vast payroll, nor just the fat profits of its
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contractors. It is also the Pentagon’s unmatched record in developing technologies with broad public benefits — like the Internet, jet engines and satellite navigation — and encouraging private companies
Vol. 109, No. 8, 46 pages, 7 sections
to reap the rewards. As the Pentagon confronts the prospect of cutting its budget about 10 percent over the next decade, even some people who do not count themselves among its allies
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warn that the potential impact on scientific innovation is being overlooked. Spending less on military research, they say, could reduce the economy’s long-term growth. See Invention / A6
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It sounds like a paperback murder mystery. A well-to-do elderly couple, one vanished, one dead. A missing bronze statue. A recycling bin filled with shredded documents. A failed polygraph test. The deaths A shocking discovery. But the details sur- of John rounding Sandy Mey- and Sandy er’s disappearance and Meyer murder in March 2011 last spring were not pulled from were ruled the pages of a novel. a murderThey were real, and suicide. police records show that while the Bend Police Department keyed in on Sandy’s husband John Meyer early in the investigation, it was the family’s untiring pursuit of the truth that ultimately helped solve the crime. New information obtained by The Bulletin sheds more light on one of the most talked-about stories of 2011. Police records paint a picture of a meticulous and thorough investigation that chased down every lead, no matter how bizarre. Detectives described how John Meyer’s behavior led them to believe he was responsible. And for the first time, police talk about how they felt they failed when the family, not them, found Sandy’s body.
Where’s Sandy? John Meyer called police at 8 a.m. March 10 to report his wife missing. He told detectives she’d left their home in southeast Bend around 6:15 p.m. on March 9, heading to a book club meeting at Velvet, a downtown lounge. Meyer said he’d gone to bed and discovered the following morning that his wife was not home. By 9 a.m. police had sent out an “attempt to locate” for Sandy Meyer. Her car was found at 11:30 a.m. in the Old Mill parking lot near Red Robin. By 1 p.m., the police had listed her as a missing person in a nationwide system and created a missing person flier. See Meyers / A4
Timeline of the tragedy March 10, 2011: John Meyer, 71, reports his wife, Sandy Meyer, 72, missing. Her car is found at an Old Mill parking lot. Search and rescue crews begin combing the area. March 15: John Meyer is taken to the Bend Police station for an interview and a polygraph test. He fails it. March 16: John Meyer is found dead of a self-inflicted gunshot wound in his house. April 20: Family members find Sandy Meyer’s body in an underground utility box for a water feature in the Meyers’ backyard. An April 21 autopsy showed Sandy had suffered a blow to the head that caused blunt force trauma, then been shot once in the head.
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