Serving Central Oregon since1903 75 $
SATURDAY December29,2012
Prep basketba BOWL PREVIEW0 C1
SPORTS• C1
bendbulletin.com
TODAY'S READERBOARD
Rare ro oun
Is a fiscal vote near?-
ino Mi pon
Senate leaders aremaking a final stab at compromise, with the president calling for a vote even if a deal isn't reached.A4
• Specieswon't hinder development By Dylan J. Darling The Bulletin
I e
Health reform in 2013The 2010 law's big year of changes will come in 2014. But there are five things you can
expect after the new year. A3
No hopefor AssadAccounts from inside Syria say the president is afraid, isolated
By Dylan J. Darling •The Bulletin
Snowstorms in the second half of December deepened the snowpack
— and out of sight as his regime faces collapse.A6
in Central Oregon to well over normal for this time of year.
Peek inside ane-reader
of normal at mid month; by Wednesday, it was 127 percent of normal,
plan.
The Deschutes/Crooked River Basin snowpack measured 62 percent
— What's making them more
readable at night? Andwho's the target
audience forsuch devices?
Oregon spotted frogs, which are candidates for federal species protection, are living in waters in and around the Old Mill District. Found in a stormwater pond last summer, the frogs won't cause any changes at the shopping district in Bend, said Jennifer O'Reilly, fish and wildlife biologist for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. "These aren't places people typically go," she said. "It's not like (the frogs) are living in a parking lot or something." Still, O'Reilly said the federal agency is working with the Old Mill District to craft a conservation
according to data from the Natural Resources Conservation Service, the federal agency that maintains automated snow-monitoring sites
The frogslikely won't be a concern for construction crews building the planned safe passage around the Colorado Avenue dam along the Deschutes River, just downstream of the Old Mill District, said Don Horton, executive director of the Bend Park & Recreation District. SeeFrog/A6
around the state.
'd'
A7
In national newsCongress approvedlegislation that renews expansive and con-
troversial surveillancemeasures for five moreyears. A2
Snowpack shown aswaterequivalent and as abasin-wide percentageof
Dec.14
the1981-2010 median:
t
Y
Less than 50%
I
e
: • I r~d
50%-69%
• Salem
70%-89%
And a Wed exclusiveIn Virginia, the nation's largest
untapped uraniumdeposit is pitting neighbor against neighbor. bendbnlletin.com/extras
90%-109%
Photo courtesy U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
.Eugene
.Bend
110%-129%
Oregon spotted frog DlsTRIBU TI0N
• Burns
130%-149%
The Oregon spotted frog has been, well, spotted in Though its range is thought these areas since 1990. to have been much wider, the Oregon spotted frog is curRana pretiosa
Q More than150%
EDITOR'SCHOICE
Medfor
Dec. 27Y
Guessing
Hood, Sandy, Lower Deschutes
Oregonin Deschutes,Jackson, Klamath, LaneandWasco
(56% Qn DBc 1p •
John Day
Willamette
108%
(53% on pBc 15) Eugef)e
Upper Deschute Crooked
(62% on Dec.15
(53% on Dec. 15)
a e ount Goose Lak
754'/ Klamat a i(81% o Decg5) (47%
Medford•
Malheur
Bend•
New York Times News Service
146%
95% (72% on Dec. 1 )
(45% onDec.15)
0
Rogue, Umpqua
I Grande Ronde, Powder, Burnt, lmnaha
(62% on Dec.15
Salem
By Ron Lieber
counties. This frog prefers fairly
Umatilla, alla Walla,
132%
at your tax rates? Here's how to cope This was the week we were supposed to get a grand bargain. Instead, we got an undignified stalemate. So we're left with no idea how much we'll be paying in federal income taxes in 2013, and a wide range of possibilities for taxes on investments and estates and tax deductions for mortgage interest and charitable contributions. Plenty of people will spend the next several days feeling helpless, with one eye on the stock market and the other on Washington. For all the uncertainty, though, we do know a bit about how things will change next year. For example, new taxes, some of which will help pay for Medicare, will affect a few million affluent households. We also know that in all likelihood, whatever happens in Washington in the coming days or weeks won't come close to solving the problem that tends to clear the room when you say it aloud: We are not collecting enough money to pay for the promises we've made to one another. It isn't just Medicare, either. Many states have steadfastl y refused to set aside the trillions of dollars they will need to cover benefits for public workers once they retire. SeeUncertainty /A4
rently only known to exist in
Klamath Falls Lakev)ew
on Dec15)
(55% Burn on Dec. 15) Harn e y 1 12%
Ow yhee
(67/, n Dec. 15)
86% (2 8 ' /o n Dec. 15)
Aakeviei)F ~ Greg Cross i rhe Bulletin
Source: Natural Resources Conservation Service
"It really has been impressive," said Julie Koeberle, an NRCS hydrologist in Portland. "... All of a sudden, it is like someone flipped a switch." The December snow dump this year contrasts with December 2011, when snowpack percentages, not snowflakes, were falling. SeeSnowpack/A4
Here's what yonmade ofthesnow Central Oregonians showedtheir creativity (not just snowmen, but dogs, too), and Bulletin photographers captured it in photos.See more on B2. Photo hy Ryan Brenneckei rhe Bulletin
TODAY'S WEATHER Cloudy, chilly High 36, Low 18
Page B6
•
,
1
large, warm marshes with gOOd OVerWintering areaS. It iS Source: U.S.Fish 8Wlldllfe Servlce Andy Zeigert/ rhe Bulletin thOught that reduCed aVailable habitat and the introduction of exotic predators such as bullfrogs has led to the amphibi-
an's decline.
Training, not just guns, say experts
Clues ona sexsymbol's friends, not herdeath
By Larry Margasak
By Anthony McCartney
The Associated Press
The Associated Press
The student's attack began with a shotgun blast through the windows of a California high school. Rich Agundez felt his mind shift into overdrive. People yelled at him amid the chaos but he didn't hear. He experienced "a tunnel vision of concentration." While two teachers and three students were injured when the glass shattered in the 2001 attack on Granite Hills High School, Agundez — the El Cajon policeman assigned to the school — confronted the assailant and wounded him before he could get inside the school and use his second weapon, a handgun. SeeGuns /A5
LOS ANGELESFBI files on Marilyn Monroe that could not be located earlier this year have been found and reissued, revealingthe names of some Monroe of the movie star's communist-leaning friends who drew concern from government officials and her own entourage. But the records, which previously had been heavily redacted, do not contain any new information about Monroe's death 50 years ago. They do show the bureau was aware ofthe theories. See Monroe/A5
INDEX
The Bulletin
Busines s/Stocks C7-B Comics/Puzzles E3-4 DearAbby DB Obituaries B 5 C1-6 Calendar B3 CommunityLife D1-6 Horoscope DB Sports DB Classified E 1 - 6Crosswords E4 Lo cal & State B1-6 TV/Movies
Vol. 109,No.364, 58 pages,
AnIndependent Newspaper
7 sections
+ .4 We userecycled newsprint
:: IIIII o
88 267 02329