Snowboarding star’s story • D1
Making a tough call when your kid is sick, E1 NOVEMBER 11, 2011
FRIDAY 75¢
Serving Central Oregon since 1903 www.bendbulletin.com
BRIDGE CREEK
Ex-mayors join forces with foes of Bend water project
Blaylock convicted of murder • Jurors are unswayed by the argument that the Bend man killed his wife in self-defense By Sheila G. Miller The Bulletin
Steven Blaylock faces a sentence of 25 years to life after a jury found him guilty of murder in the 2010 killing of his wife, Lori “Woody” Blaylock.
By Nick Grube
Steven Blaylock was convicted Thursday in the 2010 murder of his wife, Lori “Woody” Blaylock. Blaylock, 47, faces a sentence of no less than 25 years for killing his wife, who worked as a respiratory therapist at St. Charles Bend for more than 20 years. “Obviously, I’m extremely pleased with the verdict. It took extraordinary time
and effort,” said Deschutes County District Attorney Patrick Flaherty, praising the Bend Police Department and Deputy District Attorney Kandy Gies, who served as lead counsel on the case. “It was a difficult, challenging case, and we all worked together.” Lori Blaylock’s friends mingled outside the courtroom after the verdict, hugging and talking about the friend they loved. “It turned out the way it should have,”
said co-worker Julia Bachofer. Roseanne Hammer, another co-worker, attended the trial daily. She felt justice was done and said she’ll always remember her friend in happy times. “The first day I met her, she was skipping down the back hall (at the hospital),” Hammer said. “I’ll always remember Woody skipping. I will not remember her rotting in a river.” See Blaylock / A5
The Bulletin
Standing next to a bathroom sink in the parking lot of Bend City Hall on Thursday, seven former mayors unfurled a list of 1,000 people who signed a petition opposing the $68.2 million reconstruction of the Bridge Creek water system. The showing was part of a campaign to persuade city leaders to stop the project, and instead look at what opponents believe are cheaper and more environmentally sound alternatives that don’t rely on water that would otherwise pour into Tumalo Creek and the Lower Deschutes River. A suggested alternative is a switch to all groundwater, which today provides about half the city’s annual supply and is the main source of water in the summer, when demand is highest. “We really need to reconsider what is going on,” said Ruth Burleigh, who was Bend’s mayor in 1978 and 1981. “We’re simply asking the city to do that.” Some former mayors expressed concern with the studies city officials used when deciding to rebuild the Bridge Creek water system. One was performed by HDR Engineering Inc., which at the time had a vested interest in the Bridge Creek project because it could have its contract increased from $1.66 million to more than $12 million should the city stay the course. There was also concern that the price tag — which includes replacing a 10mile-long pipeline, building a high-tech water treatment facility and installing a hydropower generator — is too high. See Water / A5
HONORING OUR
VETERANS
New York Times News Service
Photos by Rob Kerr / The Bulletin
U.S. Army veteran Gary Soules watches the Crook County High School Veterans Recognition Concert on Thursday night. Soules was among the local vets students interviewed as part of a history project. Below, the NJROTC Color Guard, with Alexandra Martinez in front, stands ready in the wings as the concert begins.
• After learning from vets, Crook County students salute them in concert The Bulletin
PRINEVILLE — he Fine Arts Department of Crook County High School banded together Thursday night to commemorate Veterans Day in a Veterans Recognition Concert that included music, song and speech. The school’s choir and bands played tribute to veterans in the audience through their performances of patriotic songs while drama students recounted their interviews with five local veterans.
TOP NEWS
T
OIL: Decision on pipeline is delayed, A3 RHINOS: One species is declared extinct, A3 TODAY’S WEATHER Cloudy, showers High 58, Low 27 Page C6
The interviews took place over several weeks and were part of a veterans history project the class created, said drama teacher Anita Hoffman. The class plans to assemble transcripts of the interviews, along with historical photographs and memorabilia, and send them to Washington, D.C., to be archived in the Library of Congress. Hoffman said the project and concert were a way to bring students closer to local veterans and their experiences. “It was pretty cool,” she said. See Veterans / A5
Inside • A history of the holiday once known as “Armistice Day,” A2 • Veterans Day closures, C1
INDEX Horoscope E3 Local News C1-6 Movies GO! 38 Obituaries C5 Oregon News C3 Sports D1-6 Stocks B4-5 TV E2
The Bulletin An Independent Newspaper Vol. 108, No. 315, 74 pages, 7 sections
MON-SAT
We use recycled newsprint
U|xaIICGHy02329lz[
Scandal inquiry put governor in a tough position By Jo Becker
By Duffie Taylor
Business B1-6 Calendar E3 Classified F1-4 Comics E4-5 Crossword E5, F2 Dear Abby E3 Editorials C4 Family E1-6
PENN STATE
Perry’s ‘oops’ the latest in long line of debate gaffes GOP presidential candidate Rick Perry reads the “Top Ten” list on the “Late Show with David Letterman” on Thursday. John Paul Filo / CBS via The Associated Press
By Jeff Bliss Bloomberg News
WASHINGTON — “Sorry. Oops,” Texas Gov. Rick Perry said Wednesday night when pressed during a Republican presidential debate to name the third federal agency he would eliminate if he won the White House. “Commerce, Education and the — what’s the third one there? Let’s see,” said Perry, who has repeated the trio of
Inside • Will Perry’s campaign end not with a bang but with an “oops?” A4
agencies on the campaign trail innumerable times. This wasn’t the first such misstep for Perry — and it joins a long history of gaffes during televised debates that have become a central and unforgiving element of modern American presidential campaigns.
For Perry, the mistake may be fatal to his presidential hopes, said Susan Tolchin, a public policy professor at George Mason University in Fairfax, Va. The lapse in remembering the Energy Department for Perry, the governor of a top energy-producing state, “really rendered him toast in this campaign,” she said in an interview. See Perry / A4
For months, Gov. Tom Corbett of Pennsylvania had reason to suspect a sex abuse scandal was going to explode at Penn State University. He also had no way to talk about it, or to prepare for it. Corbett, as state attorney general, had begun an investigation in 2009 into allegations that a former Penn State assistant football coach had abused young boys, and that university officials might have covered up the scandal. He had convened a grand jury, and his prosecutors had taken testimony. Corbett But when he ran for governor, and even after he Related took office, he • Should was obligated Saturday’s to keep the game be investigation called off? secret, even D1 as he saw the university officials at the center of the investigation doing little to address the substance of the inquiry. “He was upset about the inaction,” said Kevin Harley, a longtime aide who worked with Corbett in the attorney general’s office and is now his press secretary. “He knew what witnesses were going to the grand jury even though he was running for governor. So then he became governor, and he knew at some point that this day would be coming. He just didn’t know when it would be.” That day came last Friday, when the charges became public against the former coach, Jerry Sandusky, and two senior university officials. Suddenly, though, Corbett faced a new challenge: As governor, he was effectively a member of Penn State’s board of trustees, the body that would decide how to handle the crisis, when to act, and whom, if anyone, to fire; but he also knew information about the investigation that he could not share with anyone, including other trustees, and was still bound by rules prohibiting prosecutors from making possibly prejudicial statements. See Penn State / A6