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Horse virus ASCOCC averts shutdown for now casts pall over equine events By Patrick Cliff The Bulletin
A possible shutdown of Central Oregon Community College’s student government has apparently been avoided, though the student organization remains on the verge of running out of money.
The Associated Students of COCC (ASCOCC) has been locked in controversy since October, when the group hired a lawyer and a public relations specialist to help define the student government’s role. The college has had a student government since the 1950s, but a formal policy on ASCOCC
did not exist until an amended constitution was approved in April. ASCOCC spent about $56,000 for the lawyer and for public relations. Though details are yet to be finalized, a deal to keep ASCOCC from shuttering for the year is near, according to Director of College Rela-
tions Ron Paradis. That deal could involve the college helping to cover some of ASCOCC’s remaining expenses, he said. Paradis said it was uncertain how much money ASCOCC has committed and how much cash it has left. See ASCOCC / A4
By Scott Hammers The Bulletin
The outbreak of a deadly equine virus has cast a pall over horse events in Oregon and across the West, with several events cancelled and attendance down at shows that are continuing. A form of equine herpes, EHV-1 was most recently detected in horses that participated in the National Cutting Horse Association Western National Championship, held in Ogden, Utah, between April 30 and May 8. Eighteen Oregon horses were at the event. Don Hansen, Oregon state veterinarian, said he has confirmed one case of EHV-1 in Oregon, in a horse that had “nose-to-nose” contact with one of the horses at the Ogden show. Five horses have died or been euthanized due to symptoms of the virus in California, Colorado, Idaho and Utah, with fewer than two dozen cases of infection confirmed in various Western states. Candi Bothum, state chairwoman for the Oregon High School Equestrian State Championships scheduled for this weekend at the Deschutes County Fair & Expo Center, said she anticipates 10 to 15 percent of the 500 competitors originally expected will skip the event due to concerns about the virus. See Horse / A5
JOHN DAY Angel Carpenter / Blue Mountain Eagle
Grant School District No. 3 Superintendent Mark Witty surveys the damage at Grant Union High School’s track Monday in John Day, after floodwaters receded. The school, along with many other businesses and homes, was damaged earlier this week. Officials are concerned the flooding could continue.
A region at risk of floods As Eastern Oregon recovers, Deschutes Basin likely to withstand large runoff
Marriages are fewer but longer-lasting By Carol Morello The Washington Post
Americans may be postponing marriage, and fewer are wedding at all. But what about the people who do get married? They’re staying together longer than they have in years. Three in four couples who married after 1990 celebrated a 10-year anniversary, according to census statistics reported Wednesday. That was a rise of three percentage points compared with couples who married in the early 1980s, when the nation’s divorce rate was at its highest. One reason for the increase, said demographers and sociologists, is that people are marrying later in life, after they have completed their education. Not only are they more mature, but they also are more financially secure. “People seem to be finding a new marriage bargain that works for 21st-century couples,” said Andrew Cherlin, a Johns Hopkins University sociologist. “It’s based on pooling two incomes, replacing the old breadwinner-homemaker bargain that worked well in the ’50s.” See Marriage / A5
BURNS
TOP NEWS INSIDE
Randy Parks / For The Bulletin
PLANETS: New research finds billions floating across cosmos, Page A3
A home northeast of Burns was flooded Wednesday. Crews used sandbags to strengthen a levee to try to prevent flooding in other areas of town, and the National Guard responded to help out.
By Kate Ramsayer
Although the Prineville Reservoir was listed as 104 percent full Wednesday, it was designed to hold additional water and spill some through the spillway. Officials don’t expect flooding to be a major problem in the Crooked River drainage.
The Bulletin
ELECTION UPDATE: Measures and races in Deschutes County, Page A4
I
n Burns Wednesday, volunteers and crews were filling sandbags to help shore up a levee
that stands between the Silvies River
Correction In a story headlined “Bond passes handily,” which appeared on A1 on Wednesday, May 18, 27th Street was misidentified. The Bulletin regrets the error.
and part of the town, and the National Guard was on its way to help out. Tuesday evening, road crews cut a
Ryan Brennecke The Bulletin
trench through U.S. Highway 20 to
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“The Silvies River has gotten out of its bank, it’s made a new lake there that wasn’t there last Sunday,” said Steve Grasty, a top Harney County official. “We have never seen the flows like this.” In John Day, water from Canyon Creek that flooded the high school and many homes and businesses is receding, reports Grant County Sheriff Glenn Palmer. But officials are leaving the thousands of sandbags in place — in case the rain and snowmelt from higher-than-
PRINEVILLE RESERVOIR average snowpacks pulses back into town. “We’re in the recovery, but we’re leaving things in place until we make sure that the water isn’t going to come back up,” Palmer said. But the Deschutes and Crooked rivers have avoided major flooding so far, although some stretches and tributaries are seeing higher than normal flows. And water managers say the geology of the local river basins, along with lighter rainfall this week, means that Central Oregon will
probably not face the flooding issues swamping parts of Eastern Oregon. “Every little stream’s a little different,” said Kyle Gorman, south central region manager with the Oregon Water Resources Department. The Crooked River Basin, however, is like the John Day River Basin in that when it rains, the water can run off the fine grained, claylike soils and cause flashy river flows, Gorman said. See Floods / A4