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FRIDAY
Mostly clear, mild High 67, Low 32 Page C8
• April 23, 2010 50¢
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SISTERS SCHOOLS
3 Democrats vie for a shot at Luke’s commission seat Inside
By Hillary Borrud The Bulletin
In the past, Deschutes County Democrats had trouble recruiting candidates to run against Republican County Commissioner Dennis Luke. No Democrats wanted to be the piñata, one party member said four years ago. That’s not a problem this year, with three candidates on the slate for Luke’s seat in the May 18 Democratic prima-
BofA wants to suspend mortgage payments for jobless
• Meet the candidates, Page A4 ry. Luke is running for re-election, and Republican challenger Tony DeBone is also running for Luke’s seat. The Democrats include perennial candidate John Boyle, of La Pine, political consultant Dallas Brown, of Bend, and real estate broker John Gist, also of Bend. One candidate from each
party will face off in the November general election. The three Deschutes County commissioners earn $76,923 per year for the full-time position and serve four-year terms. As of Thursday, Brown had raised $2,915 for his campaign and spent $1,219, according to state campaign finance records. Gist had raised only $400 and spent $300, although he said he plans to increase his fundraising. See Commission / A4
District trying to close $600K budget gap
ELECTION • If you missed it: County commission race pits newcomer against veteran Online at www.bend bulletin.com/elections
Officials considering cuts to administrative staff, workers’ days and funds for athletics
Culinary team gets ready to defend Bend High’s title at national competition
Recipe for success
By Patrick Cliff The Bulletin
The Sisters School District is trying to avoid making program or teaching-staff cuts as it bridges a $600,000 budget shortfall for 2010-11. A recently proposed budget suggests scaling back funding for athletics and trimming administrative staff, as well as reducing the contract of all employees by two days and eliminating one position from the district office. The budget also avoids giving cost-of-living raises or increasing how much the district will pay for its employees’ insurance plans. The shortfall comes as the district faces budget pressures from several directions. The district, for example, projects that next year it will lose more than 10 percent of its enrollment, or 152 students. Also, Interim Superintendent Dennis Dempsey expects the real budget pressure to increase in 2011-12, when the district will first feel the effects of losing three charter schools. Dempsey wrote the $12 million budget, but his suggestions have yet to be considered by either the Sisters School Board or the district’s budget committee. If either group wants different cuts, the savings will have to come from slashing teachers and other classroom employees, according to Dempsey. “The whole focus was to protect the classroom,” Dempsey said. “If (the board doesn’t) like these cuts, or they want to cut more, then they’re going to have to cut staff. That’s pretty much where it’s at now.” See Schools / A4
By Stella M. Hopkins McClatchy-Tribune News Service
CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Bank of America wants to give struggling mortgage customers who are collecting unemployment benefits up to nine months with no mortgage payment. That’s right. Zero payment. C u s to m e r s would have to agree that, if Related they haven’t • Homes sales found a job get a big within the nine boost from months, they tax credits, will sign over Page B1 their house to the bank. The Charlotte bank would give them at least $2,000 to help with moving expenses. The proposal needs regulatory approval, and the bank doesn’t know when, or if, that will happen. Some experts say the plan could become an industry model and is the most substantial, creative approach yet to addressing the fallout from stubbornly high unemployment, which is driving mortgage delinquencies and foreclosures. See Mortgages / A4
Photos by Andy Tullis / The Bulletin
B
end High School culinary team members Cassie Ereman, 17, from left, Cori Ervin, 17, Jessie Blanchard, 18, and Emily Miller, 18,
Correction In a photo caption accompanying a story headlined “Who can do what?” that appeared Thursday, April 22 on Page F1, the location was incorrect. Dr. Randall Jacobs and Amee Koch work at Bend Memorial Clinic, which is where the photo was taken. The Bulletin regrets the error.
prepare a three-course meal during practice for the National ProStart Invitational, a culinary competiNew York Times News Service file photo
tion Bend High has won for three years in a row.
President Barack Obama and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev attend the START treaty signing ceremony in Prague on April 8.
This year, the event will take place in Overland Park, Kan., from April 30 to May 2.
For the U.S., tough choices ahead on global weapons
During practice, the Bend High team (which also includes senior Katelynn Cockrum) worked on a seafood trio featuring salmon, calamari, sea scal-
TOP NEWS INSIDE
lops and caviar, along with a duck breast entree, vegetables and a dessert of triple-layered panna
MINE: Hazards noted before blast, Page A3
cotta. At right, Jessie Blanchard cooks up some of
By David E. Sanger and Thom Shanker
the items on a portable stovetop.
New York Times News Service
INDEX Abby
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E1-6
Business
B1-6
Local
C1-8
Classified
F1-6
Sports
D1-6
Comics
E4-5
Stocks
B4-5
Crossword E5, F2
Weather
C6
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Vol. 107, No. 113, 72 pages, 7 sections
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EARTH DAY 2010
A mainstream event rooted in rebellion By Frederic J. Frommer The Associated Press
WASHINGTON — There was no green movement yet and little talk of global warming. Instead, the original Earth Day 40 years ago emphasized “ecology” and goals like cleaning up pollution and litter — along with a more anti-establishment vibe than today. Across the country, activists
donned gas masks or spread out in grassy parks to hear speeches about overpopulation, smog and dirty rivers. “It was brand new on the scene. We were basically using a new vocabulary,” recalled Denis Hayes, who was the 25-year-old national coordinator for that first Earth Day. “So it was all fresh.” See Earth Day / A6
Inside • Bend’s Earth Day celebration isn’t over. Find out more in today’s GO! Magazine
MUSIC : Musicians are out in force this week, PAGE 3 EVERY FRIDA IN THE BULLEY TIN APRIL 23, 2010
Join the parade Bend celebr Earth Day, ates PAG
E 10
R E S TA U A review of R A N T S : Lola’s in downtown Bend, PAGE 20
MOVIE S ’The Back- : up and five otherPlan’ open, PAGE s 26
WASHINGTON — In coming years, President Barack Obama will decide whether to deploy a new class of weapons capable of reaching any place on Earth from the United States in less than an hour and with such accuracy and force that they would greatly diminish America’s reliance on its nuclear arsenal. Yet even now, concerns about the technology are so strong that the Obama administration has acceded to a demand by Russia that the United States would decommission one nuclear missile for every one of these conventional weapons fielded by the Pentagon. That provision, the White House said, is buried deep inside the New START treaty that Obama and President Dmitry Medvedev signed two weeks ago in Prague. Called Prompt Global Strike, the new weapon is designed to carry out tasks like picking off Osama bin Laden in a cave; taking out a North Korean missile while it is being rolled to the launching pad; or destroying an Iranian nuclear site — all without crossing the nuclear threshold. See Weapons / A6