Serving Central Oregon since1903 75g
THURSDAY April11,2013
oncern on ou
COllCLISSIOllS,':-'--:;, Tomorrow
HEALTH• D1
SUMMER GUIDE-
bendbulletin.com TODAY'S READERBOARD
USFS proposes Ben water permit
Unmannedaircraft — These drones will study po-
By Hillary Borrud
tatoes in Eastern Oregon.C6
The Bulletin
Nutritlon —Weall know greens are good for us, but what are the five best and what
are some goodways to prepare them?D1
PiuS —Exploring tomatoes'
city's surface water supply system, which currently provides about half of Bend's drinking water, would be at risk of failure," according to the Forest Service report, called an environmental assessment. The agency reviewed the latest city proposal after the city last fall dropped a previous plan to take more water from Bridge Creek. A
The U.S. Forest Service, in a recently completed environmental report, is proposing to issue a permit for the city of Bend's $20 million Bridge Creek water pipeline and intake project. "If the Forest Service did not issue the proposed special use permit, the
federal judge in October issued an injunction on that plan until legal issues surrounding it were resolved. Rod Bonacker,special projects coordinator for the Bend-Fort Rock Ranger District, said Wednesday that as a result of the Bridge Creek project, "more water will stay in that upper 10 miles of (Tumalo) Creek." See Water /A5
raises i s Lll Ion
ercen
cancer-fighting chops.D3
By Scott Hammers The Bulletin
The MaSterS —As golfers tee off today at Augusta, a reminder that even the best can falter there.C1
Shelter —An illegal structure near BlackCrater Lakeis unusual in its complexity.B1
Odituary —Robert Edwards, a British physiologist,
opened anewera inmedicine when he joined acolleague in developing in vitro fertilization.B5
in national news-
• It was a busy day in Washington, D.C. Here's whathappened andw hatitmeans
Reconstruction in Afghanistan an unfinished endeavor.
benddulletin.com/extras
IIIII
Adoostfordackgroundchecks ~
Firefighters taken hostage are freed.A2
And a Web exclusive-
IIIIIIIIIIIII
Wh at happened: Conservative senators from both parties announcedtheir support for expanding background checksfor gun buyers, giving a burst of momentum toadvocates of stronger restrictions. But big questions remain about whether the president can push significant gun
controls through Congress. .'~<™
The details:Wednesday's compromise betweenSens.Joe Manchin, D-WVa., and Patrick Toomey, R-Pa., boosted thechancesthat the Senatewill agree to broaden required backgroundchecks, astep guncontrol groups laud asaneffective way to keepweapons from criminals andthe mentally ill. Under theagreement: • Background checks would be expanded federally to all for-profit transactions,
including sales atgun showsandonline, with records of all sales subject to checks kept by licensed gundealers. Currently, the systemapplies only to sales bythe country's
EDITOR'5CHOICE
Civil War relic, once lost, recalls a grim era
5 5,000 federally licensed dealers, and only a handful of states (including Oregon)
Manch i n
require gun-show checks. • Exempted from checkswould be noncommercial transactions (such as betweenrelatives or neighbors).
Toom e y
• Several provisions expand rights. Gun owners could transport their weapons through states where their firearms
(such asassault weapons) areillegal. Sellers would beshielded from lawsuits if a buyer passed acheck but later useda firearm in a crime. Dealers could conduct business in states where they don't live.
There are nocurrent, definitive statistics on how manygun sales occur annually and what portion occurs without the checks. A study in the 1990s found that up to 40 percent of transactions involved no checks.
What's next:The agreementmakesit all but certain that the Senate will reject a filibuster and vote today to begin debate on legislation that would also toughen laws against illicit firearm sales and provide a small increase in school
security aid. TheManchin-Toomey proposal would bethe first amendment considered. Democratic leaders have also promised avote on anamendment to ban assault weapons. But guncontrol advocates still face an uphill battle,
Stanford Universityvia New York Times News Service
especially in the GOP-controlled House, and the NRA announced it opposed Wednesday's accord.
A new method of making the brain transparent preserves the biochemistry of the brain, allowing researchers to test it over and over again with chemicals that highlight specific structures and provide clues to past activity.
By Michael E. Ruane The Washington Post
Who knows how Pvt. Levi Schlegel lost his identity ring'?
The ring bearing his name, company and regiment — a Civil War version of a dog tag — was found near Fredericksburg, Va., a place Schlegel had only passed through on his way home a month after the war ended. Did he misplace it in camp there? Or discard it — divorcing himself at last from the butchery he witnessed in the closing weeks of the war? On Tuesday, 148 years after the war ended and 81 years after Schlegel died at the age of 91, the ring that married him to the conflict was returned to his family in a modest ceremony at his grave in Reading, Pa., where he had lived. It was handed over by John Blue, 40, a heavyequipment operatorand relic hunter from Manassas, Va., to Ernest Schlegel, 49, a candidate for Reading City Council, who believes he is a distant cousin. "To know what this person went through and get back here ... and to know what he went through in battle ... it's an amazing feeling to have this right here in my hand," Schlegel sard. See Civil War /A5
Central Oregon Community College students will see their tuition climb by just over 6 percent next year, though the school will remain one of Oregon's most inexpensive community colleges. On Wednesday night, the college board of directors agreed to raise the price of a single credithour from $82 to $87 for students who live within the COCC district, with proportional increases to the higher tuition rates paid by out-of-district students. According to college spokesman Ron Paradis, 87 percent of current COCC students pay in-district rates. The board also approved increases in room and board rates on Wednesday. The approximately 100 students who live in oncampus housing and utilize the school's meal service will see their total bill rise from $8,384to $8,641, an increase of 3.1percent. Once the new rates go into effect, COCC is expected to have the second-lowest tuition rates of Oregon's 17 community colleges. A student taking a full class load at COCC would pay $4,226 for a year's tuition and fees next year, just under $100 more than a student at Clackamas Community College, but nearly $1,000 less than a student at Southwestern Community College in Coos Bay. College President James Middleton acknowledged the increases are not ideal, but said COCC remains an excellent value. SeeCOCC/A5
Odama's dudgetplan
Saturdaymail delivery
What happened: PresidentBarackObama proposeda
What happened: Thefinancially beleaguered U.S.Postal Service backpedaled on its plan to end Saturday mail delivery, conceding I Iik on Wednesday
$3.8 trillion budget on Wednesday that would raise taxes on wealthy Americans and trim Social Security benefits for millions.
The10-year budget plan would cut spending by about $1.2 trillion
over that time to replace the indiscriminate across-the-board
Revenues Spending $3 trillion $3.8 trillion
that its gamble
cuts, known as sequestration, that took effect March1. The proposed
to force congressional app-
changes to Social Security and
roval of the switch had failed. As a way
Medicare were a first, as the
president cast his proposal as a compromise offer to Republicans. Readmore:For an agencyby-agency breakdown, go to H denddulletln.cam/extras.For an analysis of Obama's proposal,sea Page A4.
' I)
to save about $2 billion ayear, USPS had planned to switch to five-day-aweek deliveries beginning in August
for everything except packages. At issue: USPS, an independent
See full graphic on A4.
agency, is subject to congressional control. It lost nearly $16 billion last year. And in March, Congress
At issue:House Republicans and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., criticized the proposal. McConnell called the cuts to Social Security and Medicare too "modest" to justify Obama's bottom-line demand for nearly $700 billion in new taxes on the wealthy. Meanwhile, the compromise offers on Social Security and Medicare drew objections from Democrats.
passed a measure requiring USPS to continue delivery six days aweek. What's next:USPS likely will
consider raising mail prices and reopen negotiations with unions to lower labor costs. Even so, the
What's next:While the budget proposal will not prompt any immediate congressional action, it will probably surface this
summer whenRepublicans areexpected to demandadditional
board said it's not possible to meet its goals for reduced spending
reductions in the deficit in exchange for increasing the nation's borrowing authority.
schedule.
without altering the delivery
Sources: The Assoaated Press, New York Times News Service, NBCnews.com, The Washington Post
TODAY'S WEATHER Mostly sunny High 56, Low 28
Page B6
By James Gorman New York Times News Service
The visible brain has arrived — the consistency of Jell-O, as transparent and colorful as a child's model, but vastly more useful. Scientists at Stanford University reported Wednesday thatthey had made a whole mouse brain, and part of a human brain, transparent, so that networks of neurons that receive and send information can be highlighted in stunning color and viewed in all their three-dimensional complexity without slicing up the organ. Even more important, experts say, is that unlike earlier methods for making the tissue of brains and other organs transparent, the new process, called Clarity by its inventors, preserves the biochemistry of the brain so well that researchers can test it over and over again with chemicals that highlight specific structures within a brain and provide clues to its past activity. See Brain /A4
4 P We userecycled newsprint
INDEX D1-5 Obituaries Business/Stocks C5-6 Comics/Puzzles E3-4 Health Calendar B2 Crosswords E 4 H o roscope D6 Sports Classified E1 - 6 D ear Abby D6 Lo c al/State B1-6 TV/Movies
Transparent brain may 0pen a new scientitic frontier
AnIndependent
B5 C1-4 D6
Vol. 110, No. 101,
s sections
0
88267 0232 9
1