Serving Central Oregon since1903 75 $
THURSDAY june13, 201 3
Your DNA SPORTS• C1
HEALTH• D1
bendbulletin.com TODAY'S READERBOARD Caffeine doost —Isthe trend of adding the stimulant to kid-friendly foods healthy?D1
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buy-in.
TheBulletin
Lawmakers have three weeks before they are expected to approve the next two-year state budget. Formal talks between the parties have come to a halt. Republicans want steeper cuts to the Public Employees Retirement
SALEM — While lawmakers struggle to strike a "grand bargain" on the state budget, Republicans are bracing themselves for what they consider a Democratic effort to raise taxes without their
System; Democrats want to increasetaxes. Both sides blame the other for the impasse. Meanwhile, Democrats, who control both chambers of the Legislature, are eyeing other options to funnel more money into the state budget.
One option involves working with a range of tax credits about to expire. Here's the gist: About $50 million in tax credits, ranging from the political contribution credit to the Oregon cultural tax credit, will end in 2014, unless lawmakers vote oth-
erwise. By extending those credits, lawmakers effectively take revenue from the state
budget. To offset that loss, Democrats would then enact other measuresto raise the same or lesser amount in revenue. See Budget/A5
IN D.C.
DNA evidence —Locallaw enforcement collections are likely to grow after the recent Supreme Court ruling.AS
Merkley aims to close visa loophole
Alpha Centauri —That planet orbiting our nearest stellar neighbor? It may not be there after all.A3
ln SportS —Oregon State University baseball and the start of the U.S. Open.D1
The Mirror Pond Steering Committee 4L:rs .•
released a series of images on Wednesday, offeringa glimpse intowhat Mirror Pond
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By Andrew Clevenger
could look like years into the future.
The Bulletin
In LOCal —Census data shows Central Oregon's aging population.B1
NSA surveillance —Doz-
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WASHINGTON — Sen. Jeff Merkley, D-Ore., introduced anamendment Wednesday to the massive immigration bill under consideration in the Senate that would tighten loopholes that Oregon companies used to hire foreign workers to complete local forestry projects. The amendment is virtually identical to the American Jobs in American Forests Act, a bill Merkley introduced in May. Merkley's legislation would require companies to make an extensive effort to hire American workers
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ens of attacks were foiled, the
agency's head tells Congress in testimony.A2
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And a WedexclusiveCreating an official list of Da-
mien Hirst's "spot paintings" — and the ire it maydrawfrom those who find they have fakes.
bendbulletin.com/extras
EDITOR'5CHOICE
before they could apply for
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'1st shutoffs
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begin for I(lamath irrigation
an H-2B visa. The H-2B visa program, which received a major injection of stimulus funding from the 2009 American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, authorizes American companies to import for-
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eign workers for nonagri-
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cultural seasonal work if they are unable to find U.S. citizens to fill the positions. See Jobs/A6
In each of these renderings, Mirror Pond appears asseenfrom the Riverfront Plaza area. By Jeff Barnard The Associated Press
GRANTS PASS — With rivers in Oregon's droughtstricken upper Klamath Basin flowing far below normal levels, state water officials started telling ranchers Wednesday they must shut off irrigation to leave water for native fish held sacred by the Klamath Tribes, a federal irrigation project and wildlife refuges downstream. The shutoffs are the first for the upper Klamath Basin, where 38 years of litigation ended in March with recognition by the stateWater Resources Department that the tribes have the oldest water rights on rivers flowing through lands that were once their reservation. The tribes issued their call in concert with the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, which needs water to supply the Klamath Project, and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, which has wildlife refuges that draw water from the irrigation project. Douglas Woodcock of theOregon Water ResourcesDepartment said watermasters had completed measuring streamflows to verify the need to start shutting off some irrigators and were beginning to notify ranchers
along the Sprague River and its tributaries. SeeKlamath /A5
Aboveis the pond pictured after dramatic changes — about five years after the Newport Avenue Dam is removed, but left in its current
configuration and not dredged. Theslopes down to the river are gradedand replanted as required by federal andstate regulations. Marsh areas
Hands-free
that are left isolated by the receding water are planted with riparian shrubbery. Belowis what Mirror Pond could look like in the same time frame under the three scenarios that keep the dam in place:
OPTION A1:DO NOTHING
OPTION B1:REMOVESEDIMENT
distracting drivers,too?
OPTION C1:REUSESEDIMENT
. 4.' at.
By Matt Richtel and Bill Vlasic &1 s
New Yorh Times News Service
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As concerns have intensified about driver distraction from electronic gadgets, automakers have increasingly introduced voice-activated systems that allow drivers to keep their hands on the wheel and eyes on the road. But a new study says that the most advanced of these systems actually create a different, and worse, safety risk, by taking a driver's mind, if not eyes, off the road. These systems let drivers use voice commands to dictate a text, send an email andeven update a Facebook page. Automakers saythe systems not only address safety concerns, but also cater to drivers who increasingly want to stay connected. SeeDrivers/A6
Images courtesy Jim Figurski, Mirror Pond Management Board
OnPageA4 See renderings of all existing scenarios, with options for keeping the dam and removing it.
Atissue
What'snext
Created100 years ago with the construction of the Newport Avenue Dam, Mirror Pond was last dredged in1984. The resulting silt accumulation over nearly 30 years
A new outreach process will begin next week with a public meeting 5 p.m. Monday at City Hall and a public
has been raising water temperatures to the detriment of fish, creating shallows that
openhouseat5p.m.WednesdayhostedbytheBend
are slowly filling in with aquatic plants and, overall, changing the look of a Bend landmark.
Park 8 Recreation District, the first of several opportunities for locals to weigh in on the proposals over
The renderingsarethe result of a process from earlier this year, inwhich anonline survey and a series of public meetings were used to determine what local residents who
respondedvaluedmost about Mirror Pond.GreenWorks, aPortland-based landscapearchitecture firm, createdthe imagesto reflect the rangeof preferences expressed, including
the next fewmonths. Bylatesummer,the steering committee aims to find something resembling a community consensus on the preferred Mirror Pond of the
future, andbeginidentifying possible funding sources. — Bulletin staff reports
alternatives with and without the dam remaining in place.
TODAY'S WEATHER Chance of storms High 62, Low 37
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