Cardinals force Game 7 • D1
Find your weekend Halloween happening OCTOBER 28, 2011
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Bend-La Pine mulls bond for upgrades, new school By Patrick Cliff The Bulletin
When Bend-La Pine Schools last considered floating a bond, a committee said district buildings needed $79.6 million in upgrades. The site and facilities committee made that estimate about two years ago, when district trends looked different. In 2009, district enrollment declined for the first time in two decades and the need for new buildings was not a priority. Enrollment has rebounded since then by more than 460 students, nearly a full elementary school. In part because of that upturn, the district will launch a site review soon and possibly place a bond on ballots in the next two years. There is no price tag attached, but that bond could look much different from the 2010 version. The biggest addition could be a new middle school, likely at a cost of about $37 million. Success of previous bonds has built good will with voters, said Bend-La Pine School Board member Peggy Kinkade. If board members eventually vote on a new bond, each has to be certain more debt will not embitter voters. “I think the Bend-La Pine Schools community has been very supportive. We don’t want to ruin that track record by coming out with a bond at the wrong time.” See Bond / A4
Ex-staffer says junkets were common By Nick Grube The Bulletin
When a local parts supplier took a city of Bend public works employee on an all-expense-paid hunting trip to a private ranch in northeastern Oregon a few years ago, it was considered business as usual for the company.
Rob Jackson, a former salesman for Consolidated Supply Co., said the firm commonly organized such junkets for many of its customers. Like any trade show, he said it was an attempt to put the company’s clientele in contact with vendors who
were selling new products. “It’s a way to get a captive audience,” Jackson said. “You’re just trying to teach them about new stuff and new technologies. It just happens to be that it’s at a nice place.” Some of the trips, including the one Bend Utilities
Friday, October 28th, 2011
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This weekend: costumed cyclocross
MON-SAT
Spooky cycling? • The Halloween Cross Crusade brings costumed cyclocross racing to Central Oregon this weekend The Bulletin
Halloween is coming to Central Oregon a little early this year. This weekend, hundreds of cyclists bedecked manner of costumes will in all converge on Bend’s Old trict for the Halloween Cross Crusade, part of Mill Diseight-race cyclocross an annual series based It is tradition, race director in Portland. Brad Ross says, to move the series to a location outside of Portland at Halloween. So after spending the past four years in for the holiday, the party Astoria loves its ’cross. The seriesis coming to Bend — a town that made a previous stop in Central Oregon in the mid-2000s. The Cross Crusade races, now in their 18th year, staged on Saturday and will be Sunday and are one part Day of the Dead Cyclocross of the three-day the Super D Championshi Festival. The festivities begin today with Sno-park, and the Cross p of the Universe, based out of Wanoga Culture Bike + Art Love downtown Bend. celebration in See Cross / Next page
Cyclocross competitors dressed as the music group Rob Kerr / The Bulletin the 2009 Halloween Cross Devo Crusade race near Astoria. compete at
Photos by Rob Kerr / The Bulletin
RAMPING UP THE FUN
Bill Warburton, left, and race director Brad Ross work on the assembly of a large ramp for this weekend’s Day of the Dead Cyclocross Festival. Hundreds of cyclists will converge in Bend this weekend for the festival. Events begin today, with the Cyclocross Super D Championship of the Universe based out of Wanoga Sno-park from 1 to 4 p.m. On Saturday and Sunday, cyclocross events will be held on the former national championship course through the Old Mill and by the Deschutes Brewery.
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• The Bulletin
By Amanda Miles
• Events kick off today for Halloween fun in and around Bend • Your guide inside
By N.C. Aizenman
We use recycled newsprint
Depending on the hunt, they can also camp in large canvas tents with dutch oven meals, or spend evenings in a rustic, six-bedroom lodge that sits atop a bluff overlooking a nearby valley. See Junkets / A5
Halloween Cross Crusade In Bend • Saturday and Sunday
State spending on Medicaid rises sharply The expiration of federal stimulus funding for Medicaid has dealt a blow to states still struggling to recover from the economic downturn, according to figures released Thursday. To compensate for the loss of extra federal Medicaid dollars this June, states have increased their spending on the program by an average of 29 percent in the current fiscal year. Nearly every state also has turned to tough measures to trim Medicaid costs, such as eliminating benefits, reducing payment rates to doctors and hospitals, and increasing the co-payments they charge the poor and disabled served by the program. Even so, more than half of state officials surveyed said there was a 50-50 chance their Medicaid programs, which are financed with a combination of state and federal funds, would face a budget shortfall as enrollment continues to rise. Though widely anticipated, the findings reported in an annual survey of state officials by the nonpartisan Kaiser Family Foundation underscored the stress Medicaid has placed on state budgets. See Medicaid / A4
Construction Supervisor Chris Brelje took while he was an assistant supervisor, were to Ruggs Ranch in Heppner. There, hunters can ride on horseback as they stalk pheasant and elk through the scenic grasslands of the 80,000-acre game preserve.
SETTING THE STAGE John Flett, 26, below, sweeps a staircase as he and Javier Ramirez assemble the structure for this weekend’s Day of the Dead Cyclocross Festival in and around Bend. A party called the Monster Ball begins at 9 tonight at the Century Center.
Hoarders: World autocrats edition Drifting along, tumbleweeds are piling up across the plains
By Joshua E. Keating Foreign Policy
U.S. federal agents moved to seize the $30 million Malibu mansion of Teodoro “Teodorin” Nguema Obiang Mangue, son of Equatorial Guinea’s strongman president this week. The house contained a host of luxury goods, not least a $1.1 million collection of Michael Jackson memorabilia, including the King of Pop’s “white crystal covered ‘Bad Tour’ glove” and his MTV Music Awards “moon man” trophy. Whether it’s tacky erotic art, fast cars, or fancy weapons, autocrats have often displayed something of a penchant for collecting. See Hoarders / A4
The Bulletin An Independent Newspaper
Vol. 108, No. 301, 78 pages, 7 sections
By A.G. Sulzberger New York Times News Service
Associated Press file photo
An anti-Gadhafi insurgent holds a golden pistol he said belonged to Moammar Gadhafi. Libya’s dictator for 42 years isn’t the only strongman to collect luxury goods.
INDEX Classified F1-6 Comics E4-5 Crosswords E5, F2
Dear Abby Editorials Family
E3 C4 E1-6
Horoscope E3 Movies GO! 38 Obituaries C5
CIMARRON, Kan. — The ubiquitous swerving and darting forms making their hopscotch journey across the landscape here in recent days are one of the most storied — and least celebrated — natural migrations on the Great Plains. Yes, the tumbleweeds are on the move again. Over the coming weeks, more and more of these
TODAY’S WEATHER Sports Stocks TV
D1-6 B4-5 E2
Chance of rain High 66, Low 38 Page C6
vagabond bundles of brush, immortalized in film and literature as the mascot of the middle of nowhere, will take to the wind, somersaulting across roads, catching on barbed wire and piling up in huge numbers throughout communities like this one. People here will roll their eyes as they swap stories, new and old, about these consistently troublesome mischief makers. See Tumbleweeds / A5
TOP NEWS STATUE OF LIBERTY: Turns 125, A2 LIBYA: U.N. to end intervention, A3