Bulletin Daily Paper 05/15/11

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COMING MONDAY

New map tells a tale of 2 Bends Credit error? It pays to be on a VIP list

La Pine’s big

‘welcome home’

By Tara Siegel Bernard New York Times News Service

The credit rating bureaus, whose reports influence everything from credit cards to mortgages to job offers, have a two-tiered system for resolving errors: one for the rich, the wellconnected, the well-known and the powerful — and the other for everyone else. The three major agencies, Equifax, Experian and TransUnion, keep a VIP list of sorts, according to consumer lawyers and legal documents, consisting of celebrities, politicians, judges and other influential people. Those on the list — and they may not even realize they are on it — get special help from workers in the United States in fixing mistakes on their credit reports. Any errors are usually corrected immediately, one lawyer said. For everyone else, disputes are herded into a largely automated system. These consumers who have trouble fixing errors through the dispute process can quickly find themselves trapped in a Kafkaesque no man’s land, where the only escape is through the courts. See VIP / A5

for a wounded U.S. Marine

The Associated Press

By Kirsten Grieshaber The Associated Press

BERLIN — Germans have for decades confronted the Nazi era head-on, paying billions in compensation, meticulously teaching Third Reich history in school, and building memorials to victims. The conviction Thursday of retired Ohio autoworker John Demjanjuk, who was a guard at a Nazi death camp, drives home how the Holocaust is still very much part of the German psyche. But most Germans have skirted their own possible family involvement in Nazi atrocities. Now, more than 65 years after the end of Hitler’s regime, more and more are trying to pierce the family secrets. See Nazi past / A7

SUNDAY

We use recycled newsprint

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By Kate Ramsayer The Bulletin

While the cold, wet spring might seem annoying to hikers itching to get out on mountain trails, it’s a boon for water managers who have measured reservoir levels not seen in the last decade for this time of year. “We’ve had a very good water year so far,” said Jeremy Giffin, Deschutes Basin watermaster. “The upper basin reservoirs are looking great; the natural flows are up. … This cold spring has kind of prolonged the runoff longer than we’re used to.” As the warm weather melts the high elevation snow, water managers could start to refill the reservoirs again this spring instead of drawing them down like usual. The large Crescent Lake Reservoir, for example, could reach its capacity of 86,000 acre feet as the snowpack continues to melt and run off into local waterways. “We will probably fill it this year, which will be the first time in a decade,” Giffin said. “And we’ve only just begun melting off those areas above 5,000 feet, so we’ve got a lot of runoff yet to occur.” See Water / A5

How to feed 10 billion? Biotech may be an answer

Alexandra Senfft wrote the book “The Pain of Silence.” The cover shows a picture of her mother with Nazi officers.

65 years after Hitler’s demise, Germans delve into Nazi pasts

2011 on track as a good year for water

By Georgina Gustin Photos by Ryan Brennecke / The Bulletin

On Saturday, dozens of motorcycles escorted Kyle Thompson, left, and his family to La Pine’s American Legion Post 45, where the Marine corporal and 2005 La Pine High School graduate was treated to a large homecoming celebration.

By Leon Pantenburg For The Bulletin

LA PINE — arine Cpl. Kyle Thompson returned home Saturday to La Pine, and to a hero’s welcome. A reception and “welcome home” party was held in his honor at American Legion Post 45. This was after Thompson and several relatives were escorted to the post by members of the Deschutes County Sheriff’s Office and an honor guard of about 50 motorcyclists from the La Pine American Legion Riders and Patriot Guard motorcycle clubs. For Thompson, the reception was more than he expected.

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“It’s almost a little too much. But I appreciate everybody’s efforts,” he said. “I’d really been looking forward to coming home and getting to flyfish.” Thompson graduated from La Pine High School in 2005, worked for a while, then enlisted in the Marines. The family has a tradition of military service, starting with his greatgrandfather, Fred Teela, a World War I Marine who was wounded at Belleau Woods. His grandfather, Tom Teela, of Bend, was a World War II Marine wounded at Peleliu. Thompson’s father, Michael Thompson, of Vancouver, Wash., broke with tradition and served in the Army. Both Thompson and his grandfather served in the 3rd Battalion, 6th Marines, 2nd Division.

Thompson was trained in reconnaissance, and he worked with a team of about 15 to 22 Marines and soldiers, frequently on long-range operations where they would be in enemy-held territory for up to 30 days at a stretch. Thompson was sent to Iraq in 2008 and completed his tour in 2009. His enlistment was almost over, but Thompson extended for four months so he could go to Afghanistan with his team. “I joined the Corps to get in on the fight, and I was a team leader,” he said. “The guys in my team were well-trained, but they didn’t have any combat experience, and it would have been bad for me to jump out just then.” See Marine / A7

“It felt like we were making a difference. ... I have no regrets.” — Marine Cpl. Kyle Thompson, who was injured by an IED blast in October

The Bulletin An Independent Newspaper

Vol. 108, No. 135, 46 pages, 7 sections

INDEX C2

Community C1-8

Local

G1-6

Crosswords C7,E2

Milestones

C6

Perspective F1-6

TV listings

C2

Classified

E1-6

Editorial

Movies

C3

Sports

Weather

B6

F2-3

B1-6

ST. LOUIS — The numbers have become a familiar refrain: 9 billion people by 2050; 10 billion by 2100. For aid organizations and policymakers, the figures raise an alarming question: How to feed them all? For agricultural corporations like Monsanto, they offer a huge market opportunity. Missouri-based Monsanto, the world’s largest agricultural biotech company, has for years made clear that it could benefit from a rising global population and rising food demand, particularly in developing countries. And recent spikes in food prices worldwide, combined with a protracted economic downturn, have sparked debate over whether biotechnology represents the answer to feeding the world. Critics counter it doesn’t. Regardless of the controversies surrounding biotechnology, questions over global food security, which last surfaced with the food price spikes of 2008, have become more urgent once again. See Food / A6

TOP NEWS INSIDE

Business

Abby

St. Louis Post-Dispatch

Obituaries

B5

D1-6

Stocks

G4-5

PAKISTAN: Rift with U.S. deepens, Page A2 OIL: Obama moves to speed up drilling, Page A3


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