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• September 17, 2011 75¢
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Leaving benches ... and legacies By Hillary Borrud The Bulletin
After more than two decades on the bench, Deschutes County Circuit Court Judge Stephen Tiktin is preparing to hang up his robe and hit the slopes. “I am hoping to buy my first season pass at Mt. Bachelor in 23 years,” said Tiktin, 64, in an interview Thursday. Tiktin plans to retire at the end of the year.
“I’m retiring because I want to be able to spend some time with my wife, seeing some things and doing some things we have not been able to do,” Tiktin said. The judge said he wants to spend more time with his five children and four — soon to be five — grandchildren. The desire to spend more time with family also contributed to Judge Michael Sullivan’s decision not to seek re-
election in 2012. Sullivan, 63, said recently that he hopes to travel with his wife. During two decades as Deschutes County Circuit Court judges, Sullivan and Tiktin presided over some of the most closely watched local cases, from a murder in which the body was never found to a lawsuit over inequities in school funding. See Judges / A7
Ryan Brennecke / The Bulletin
Deschutes County Circuit Court Judge Michael Sullivan won’t seek re-election after serving 23 years.
Ryan Brennecke / The Bulletin
Inside • Looking back at both judges’ most notable cases in Deschutes County, Page A7
Senior group says it should have a stake in new center
Rattled but still resolute
By Nick Grube The Bulletin
Visit Bend’s Community Center around noon on a weekday and you’ll find dozens of senior citizens talking, laughing and eating lunch. Depending on the day, you might even find a few of them dancing to a live band. This might indicate that moving a popular lunch program from the Bend Senior Center on Southeast Reed Market Road to Bend’s Community Center on Northeast Fifth Street has been successful, but some seniors feel they were slighted. They’re mainly the ones involved with the United Senior Citizens of Bend, a nonprofit advocacy group formed in 1973 to help seniors access various services. About 10 years ago, USCB raised funds and gave up nearly everything it owned — including the Bend’s Community Center building — to help build the Senior Center. That facility is now owned and operated by the Bend Park & Recreation District. While USCB rented space at the Senior Center, it moved out when the lunch program left. Since then there’s been a sense that USCB has an ownership stake in the building and that it should be compensated for the loss. “I think they should have bought us out,” USCB member Evelyn Brown said at a recent senior lunch at Bend’s Community Center. “A lot of people put a lot of money into that building.” Last week, USCB retained Bend attorney Bill Buchanan to help resolve the issue. Buchanan, of Karnopp Peterson LLC in Bend, is researching the history of the Senior Center and has contacted the park district’s attorney. See Seniors / A6
“We put everything we had into that new building. We willingly, willingly, gave up everything we owned.” — Virginia Reddick, president of United Senior Citizens of Bend
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Deschutes County Circuit Court Judge Stephen Tiktin will retire at year’s end after serving 22 years.
Teen bitten by a rattlesnake near Madras says she can’t wait to go camping again By Duffie Taylor The Bulletin
Portland teenager Chelsey Oquist was expecting to enjoy a late-summer camping trip in Central Oregon before the start of school. Instead, she encountered an 18-inch rattlesnake. Chelsey and a crew of family and friends drove to Pelton Park campground near Madras the afternoon of Sept. 9 with plans to stay for the weekend. At about 9:30 that evening, the 17-yearold was headed to the restroom when she stepped off the campground’s paved road to let a park ranger vehicle pass. When she stepped off the road, it wasn’t grass she stepped on, but something else. Pain immediately radiated through her left foot. “When it sunk its teeth in, it was like a stinging. I screamed and then ran over to my campsite,” Chelsey said. Her brother and two of their friends were with Chelsey and heard the rattle as she ran. Using flashlights, they spotted the snake, which darted under a rock. See Rattlesnake / A6
QUITE A FRIGHT At her home in Portland on Friday, Chelsey Oquist, 17, holds her phone showing a picture of the rattlesnake that bit her last week. The 18-inch snake bit Chelsey in the left foot after she stepped on it in the dark while camping at Pelton Park near Madras.
ON THE MEND Chelsey points to her left foot, where she was bitten. Her mother, Nicole Oquist, was camping with Chelsey and called 911 after identifying the wound. Photos by Greg Wahl-Stephens / For The Bulletin
“This was the scariest thing that’s ever happened to me.” — Chelsey Oquist, a Portland high school senior who was bitten by an 18-inch rattlesnake on her left foot
Family asks how soldier died from rabies By Matthias Gafni
and very treatable disease. Shumaker told his parents he was treated for rabies at the base, but the series of injections was not completed. His family members, who live in Castro Valley, Calif., want answers from the Army as to how he died from such a preventable disease and to make sure no more soldiers meet the same fate. “I would not be without my son if the proper treatment was given to Kevin,” his mother, Elaine Taylor, said Wednesday. “Rabies is 100 percent preventable with the right vaccine, but without that treatment you die.
Contra Costa Times
WALNUT CREEK, Calif. — Had Army Spc. Kevin Shumaker died from a mortar blast or insurgent fire while serving in Afghanistan, that would be devastating but fathomable. Instead, the decorated 24-yearold from Livermore, Calif., was dealt a fatal blow in January while breaking up, of all things, a dogfight at his Afghanistan base. Eight months after a stray dog bit his hand, Shumaker died from rabies in a New York hospital, the only death this year in the United States from the rare
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“If he would have died from an enemy attack, we would’ve been devastated, but we knew he was in harm’s way when he was deployed.” In May 2010, Shumaker was deployed for his first tour in Afghanistan, working as a cook at a base in the mountains of Chamkani. Among other duties, Shumaker was assigned to feed two base dogs, which had been vaccinated against rabies, Taylor said. In January, stray dogs attacked the base dogs, and one bit him on the hand as he tried to break up the fight, Shumaker told his mother. See Rabies / A6
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By Kate Zernike New York Times News Service
In the 100 years since Constitution Day was established, most Americans have lumped it with holidays like Grandparents Day and Administrative Professionals Day — a noble cause, lightly observed. But this year, with the tea party making the Constitution sexy again, the holiday (which, for those rusty on their civics, occurs today) has become occasion for battle. Tea party groups, armed
with lesson plans and coloring books, have been pushing schools to use the day to teach a conservative interpretation of the Constitution, where the federal government is a creeping and unwelcome presence in the lives of freedom-loving Americans. Progressive groups, accusing the tea party of selectively reading the founding document, have responded with a campaign to “take back the Constitution.” See Constitution / A6
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AIR SHOW CRASH: 3 killed in Nevada, Page A2 AUTO WORKERS: New deal is reached, Page A3