FRIDAY September21,2012
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Firefighters hope to keep— Po reek Fire f ames fromwatershed
Ittce starting on Sept. 9, the Pole reek Fire has burned nearly 25,000 ~ a cres southwest of Sisters.
Inside
By Dylan J. Darling The Bulletin
SISTERS — Fire lines should stop the Pole Creek Fire from burning closer to Sisters or into the Bend watershed, but it will likely continue to spread through wilderness at the foot of the Three Sis ters, fire bosses said Thursday. "Truly the only thing that will put this out is some rain," said Brian Watts, the incident commander for the fire. "And there is none of that in the fore cast for the near future." The largest fire in Central Oregon this year had burned through 24,392 acres, Watts told about 125 residents at a public meeting at Sisters Elementary School. The Pole Creek Fire is now 45 percent contained, he said, more than twice the area contained a couple of days ago.
Sisters R
16
16
THREE S I ST E RS WILDERNESS
• A plan to reduce fire risk in Whycus Canyon has been delayed by a dispute over grant money,C1
Fire origin While more than 1,200 firefighters re main assigned to the fire, Watts said, some crews have already been released as firefighting winds down. Crews strengthened fire lines in recent days by burning forest along Three Creeks Road, between the con tainment line and the wildfire, hoping to bar the fire's advance to the north and east, Watts said. That should pre vent it from reaching the Bridge Creek watershed, which supplies water for Bend, or subdivisions near Sisters. See Fire/A5
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North Sister
Pole Creek Trailhea
DESCHUTES NATIONAL FOREST
i Middle Sister
k South Sister Green Lakes
Perimeter of fire ou Thursday
16
Complete dulldozer line
Three Creek + Lake
MILES 0
Br o ken Top
Sources: LLS. Forest Senrice
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Greg Cross/The Bulletin
GETTING READY FOR THE LEAD
• Work on the water project is set for octoberafter theForest Servicerejectsanappeal to delayit By Hillary Borrud The Bulletin
The city of Bend is preparing to break ground in October on a $20.1 million upgrade of the city system to capture and deliver water from Bridge Creek following a favorable decision from the Forest Service earlier this week. Pacific Northwest Regional Forester Kent Connaughton on Tuesday upheld an earlier de cision by the Deschutes National Forest that the city water project will not significantly impact federal lands. Bill Smith, Clarence Sanders and Central Oregon LandWatch had appealed the Forest Service decision on the project over the summer. Connaughton denied the appeal, paving the way for the Forest Service to issue the city a special-use permit for the water project. "Our intent is to move forward with construc tion," City Manager Eric King said Thursday. "If we were to wait, we would have to essentially rebid out the project, as well as the resequenc ing of rebuilding Skyliners Road." The city plans to replace sections of wa terline beneath Skyliners Road before Des chutes County begins a road rebuilding proj ect in spring 2013. Fall construction plans are part of a larger city surface-water project that could ultimately cost $68.2 million. Work in the fall would include a new water intake facil ity at Bridge Creek and a 10-mile-long pipeline through Forest Service land. If the project were delayed, the cost would be "significant," King said. See Water /A6
Reb Kerr /The Bulletin
Elevation Tents and Events employee James Steel, 22, sets upone of several tents Thursday in Bend's Old Mill District in preparation for the Leadman triathlon, scheduled for Saturday. The triathlon's organizers are seeking volunteers to help with the event. Anyone interested should email rmansour©bendbroadband.corn.
Mexican ganggets inside help to stage
massjailbreaks
FORCED LABOR
Florida coun a 'perfect storm' of human trafficking
By Tim Johnson McClatchy Newspapers
By Brett Clarkson
MEXICO CITY — Needing to replen ish its ranks, Mexico's brutal Los Zetas crime gang has refined the tactic of spring ing hundreds of it s m embers in m a ss jailbreaks. But unlike the Hollywood version, the jailbreaks don't involve overcoming guards, crawling through dingy tunnels and scatter ing once outside the fence. Instead, scores of dangerous inmates sim ply walk or drive out the gates in cahoots with wardens and prison guards. The jailbreaks, including one this week in which 129 inmates fled a state prison near Piedras Negras, across from Eagle Pass, Texas, lay bare Mexico's broken peniten tiary system, where wardens either bend to organizedcrime or face death. See Jailbreaks /A6
Fort Lauderdale Sun Sentinel
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Weu serecycfed newsprint
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88267 02329
The Bulletin An Independent Newspaper
Vol. 109, No. 265, 6B pages, 7 sections
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — Recruited from the Philippines and other devel oping nations, the workers were promised jobs that paid $7.50 an hour as serv ers at the Polo Club of Boca Raton. It was a lie. After arriving in the U.S. with temporary work visas, they were shipped out in a pickup truck to a grubby trailer on the edge of the woods in Purvis, Miss., where they would work 12 hours a day, six days a week picking pine
straw, which is used to make mulch. At night, they slept in a filthy, unheated trailer with no potable wa ter. It was November 2009 and there was snow on the ground. "We were afraid,"said Regie Tesoro, 35, one of the victims. "We didn't even know about why these people were doing this to us — just for money." Tesoro is one among thousands of victims of hu man trafficking, a crime federal investigators say is growing across the country — and in South Florida. Palm Beach County, with
its agriculture and tourism industries always on the lookout for low-cost labor, is a "perfect storm" for human trafficking, investigators say. "It's a multibillion-dollar business," said Carmen Pino, assistant special agent in charge of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement's Office of Homeland Security Investigations in Miami. "It' s everywhere." Pino said the crime is creeping into everyday life in South Florida, even though many people might not real ize it. See Trafficking /A6
INDEX B usiness Et -4 Crosswords B5, F2 Local News Ct -B Sports C alendar B 3 E d itorials C6 M o vies GO! 23 Stocks B t-6 Obituaries C 7 T V Classified Ft-4 Family
Unproductive, un ovedCongress sinks out oftown By David Lightman and William Douglas McClatchy Newspapers
WASHINGTON — The most disliked, unpro ductive Congress in decades planned to leave Washington this week until after the Novem ber election, departing without agreements on virtually every big issue it deals with: taxes, de fense, spending, farms, even post office policy. Lawmakers spent Thursday pointing fingers and charging opponents with cynical political posturing. Among Congress' last decisions was a characteristic 2012 judgment: Punt action un til later. It will let the farm bill, a broad measure that sets the nation's agriculture and food and nutrition assistance policies, expire Sept. 30. Congress also exits without any serious ef fort to edge away from the "fiscal cliff," the prospect of economy-damaging budget chaos if it doesn't act by year's end. Bush-era tax cuts are due to expire, and au tomatic spending cuts will take effect unless alternatives are passed. The public is noticing, as the legislative fail ures stir uncertainty and further roil an al ready-weak economy. See Congress/A5
TODAY'S WEATHER D -t 6 E2 - 3 B2
Sunny High 82, Low 43
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TOP NEWS SYRIA: Bombs kill at least 30, A3 CHINA: Orchestrated protest? A4