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Small schools wait as bill on exchange students stalls
Notices of default increased dramatically in Deschutes County in April, after dropping to levels during first-quarter 2011 that had not been seen since 2008. A notice of default begins foreclosure proceedings, but not all properties on which notices of default are issued are repossessed. ReconTrust, described on the company website as a “wholly-owned subsidiary of Bank of America,” filed 82 percent of the notices of default in April. In January and February, it filed none. 600 500 400
By Lauren Dake
April 2008 114
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The Bulletin
SALEM — In a couple of weeks, students who have traveled from all over the world to study at a handful of rural Oregon schools will pack their bags and head home. But before they do, Jim Green is hoping some of them will come to Salem and testify in front of state senators. Green is a lobbyist for Oregon Small Schools Association, which represents the five schools, including IN THE those in MitchLEGISLATURE ell and Spray, that currently supplement • Highlights their budgets of House Bill by housing 3359, Page international students in A5 dormitories. A bill approved during the 2009 session prohibits districts from collecting state money for such students after this school year. Rep. John Huffman, R-The Dalles, has sponsored a bill this session that would grandfather in the handful of schools that now engage in the practice. Huffman’s legislation would cap the foreign-student population in these schools at its current level of roughly 40. See Schools / A5
Notices of default up sharply in April
Deschutes County notices of default
200 100 0
April 2007 33 2007
2008
Source: Deschutes County Clerk’s Office
April 2009 346
April 2011 581 Total NODs
472
By Hillary Borrud The Bulletin
April 2010 318 NODs from ReconTrust 2009
2010
2011
Andy Zeigert / The Bulletin
A huge jump in the number of notices of default filed in Deschutes County in April could be a sign that the foreclosure crisis is picking up steam again after major lenders halted the proceedings last year to examine robo-signing and other problems.
More than 80 percent of the notices last month were filed by a subsidiary of Bank of America, according to data from Deschutes County. In January and February, the company — ReconTrust — filed no notices of default, and it filed only 15 in March. Last month’s default statistics are probably a sign that
Not quite cleared for flight
The Washington Post
Abby
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low to the ground in southwest Bend on Monday afternoon. The bird could only
fly for short distances, so U.S. Fish and Wildlife
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called to help get it back in a tree until its flying skills are better developed. As the owlet’s parent watched, Gary Landers Photos by Pete Erickson The Bulletin
with Wild Wings Raptor Rehabilitation in Sisters ran after the juvenile owl, grabbed it and carried it
four dead mice — to the tree, and placed the young owl inside, below left. The great horned owl could be just days away from being able to fly, said Nancy Gilbert with
We use recycled newsprint The Bulletin
Bend’s Fish and Wildlife Service office. But its parents nested in a less-than-optimal spot, in a small
Vol. 108, No. 130, 42 pages, 7 sections
patch of habitat, next to a road and office buildings.
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Bend city councilors decided last week to pay a local developer $6.1 million rather than continue a long-standing legal dispute involving the condemnation of a private utility. The settlement comes nearly one month after the Oregon Court of Appeals ruled that the city still owed millions of dollars to the developer after taking over the utility. The court sent portions of the case back to the Deschutes County Circuit Court for additional consideration. While the city could have appealed to the Oregon Supreme Court, Mayor Jeff Eager said councilors decided to settle rather than risk additional legal fees on a case the city might lose. He said there was also some uncertainty with the remand to the lower court, since part of that new ruling would involve reevaluating certain aspects of the case and making nuanced calculations on how much money the city might owe. “It’s just time for both parties to move on at this point,” Eager said. “I feel like it’s a better alternative than continuing with the litigation.” See Utility / A5
Service biologists and a wildlife rehabilitator were
attached a wicker basket — containing a meal of
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young great horned owl, above, flies
to a nearby tree, holding onto its feet, left. He had
Business
Bend will pay $6.1M to settle case with developer The Bulletin
By Eli Saslow
INDEX
THE CITY VS. JUNIPER UTILITY
By Nick Grube
Hunting bin Laden was a job that became personal for many in D.C. He turns on the TV for news about Osama bin Laden at 7 a.m. and keeps it playing until long after midnight, because this is a relationship that has always bordered on obsession. Michael Hurley sits in his Falls Church, Va., condominium and watches images repeat across the flat screen just as they have repeated inside his head for almost a decade. Ever since the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, thousands of government employees like Hurley have reshaped their careers and restructured their lives around the search for one man — a quest they sometimes referred to simply as “the hunt.” Hurley watches the TV screen. See Bin Laden / A4
banks are beginning to restart foreclosures after they stopped many last fall to fix problems with documentation, according to a Deschutes County recording official, staff at a nonprofit organization that assists homeowners, and members of the real estate and mortgage industries. See Default / A5
“There’s a lot of potential danger,” Gilbert said. — Kate Ramsayer, The Bulletin
Thinkstock
How much privacy do teens really have when online? Congress has passed laws to protect the youngest of Internet users from sharing much information about themselves, but once those kids become teens, the same rules no longer apply. “It’s the Wild West for teens when it comes to privacy online,” said Kathryn Montgomery, a communications professor at American University. For story, see Page A3.