WEDNESDAY
October 3, 2012
Serving Central Oregon since 1903
Same clothes, brand-new look
75¢
Ageless golfer
SAVVY SHOPPER • B1
SPORTS • D1
bendbulletin.com
ELECTION
Bridge Creek project spurs political passions
Plea change expected in sex case By Ben Botkin The Bulletin
Michael Bremont, the former director of Redmond Proficiency Academy, will enter a new plea Oct. 23 in Deschutes County Circuit Court to charges alleging he sexually abused a female student. The court date was set after a settlement conference Monday, accord-
ing to the Deschutes County finalized.” District Attorney’s Office. Bremont’s alleged abuse of a Bremont, 39, had pleaded not student attending the Redmond guilty in June. school began in October 2009, “My expectation at this time when she was 15, and ended in is that the defendant will be Bremont February 2010, court records changing his plea,” Mary Anshow. derson, chief deputy district Court documents in the case attorney, wrote in an email to The allege Bremont’s relationship with Bulletin. “The details have not been the girl started as flirting and text
messages, leading to sexual abuse initially in his motor home during a school trip. Bremont is charged with one count of third-degree sodomy, one court of third-degree attempted rape, two counts of second-degree sexual assault and 10 counts of third-degree sexual abuse. See Bremont / A4
By Hillary Borrud The Bulletin
As construction workers prepare to install a new pipeline to bring drinking water to Bend, much is uncertain about the future of the project. It faces challenges from opponents who filed appeals in federal court and with the Oregon Land Use Board of Appeals. The project could also stall or change significantly if voters elect people who oppose the project to the City Council in November. Four of the seven council seats are up for election. In three of those races, at least one candidate has promised to stop the water project. Other candidates, including two-term incumbent Jim Clinton, say they want to re-evaluate or scale back other portions of the project. “I would say the way the project has unfolded has been disappointing to me, but we have seven councilors and if one is not onboard, it goes right ahead,” Clinton said. “It may be with different people on the council, they may choose to take a hard look at how it could be corrected, redefined.” Clinton is one of the two incumbents seeking re-election to the City Council this fall. Councilor Kathie Eckman, a staunch supporter of the water project, has been elected seven times since the late 1970s and is running for an eighth term. Eckman said she realizes the issue has galvanized opponents of the water project to run for election. A contractor for the city is preparing to begin construction on a $20.1 million upgrade of the city system to capture and deliver water from Bridge Creek on Oct. 10. See Water / A4
TOP NEWS SHOOTING: Border agent killed on patrol, A3 VOTER ID: Pennsylvania’s law delayed by judge, A3 TODAY’S WEATHER Mostly sunny High 61, Low 24 Page C6
By Scott Hammers The Bulletin
Photos by Rob Kerr / The Bulletin
Darlene Gaines, left, a volunteer at Deschutes County Republican Party Election Headquarters, stocks a container of campaign buttons Tuesday. The headquarters is at 519 N.E. Third St., Suite 120, in Bend. Meanwhile, Deschutes County Democrats volunteer Emma Farnsworth organizes bumper stickers at party headquarters, 922 N.W. Bond St. in Bend.
DIFFERING VISIONS • The economy will dominate the first debate for the president and his challenger By David Lightman and Anita Kumar McClatchy Newspapers
DENVER — President Barack Obama and Republican challenger Mitt Romney will offer voters two starkly different prescriptions for fixing the ailing economy as they duel Wednesday in their first and perhaps most critical debate. More than 60 million people are expected to watch when the nationally televised, 90-minute debate kicks off at 6 p.m. PDT, far more than watched the two major party national conventions and dwarfing the number that watched Romney in Republican primary debates. Underscoring the significance, the men will arrive at the University of Denver debate site after days of closeddoor rehearsals, Obama in Nevada
Business Calendar Classified Comics Crosswords Dear Abby Editorials Horoscope
E1-4 B3 F1-4 B4-5 B5, F2 B3 C4 B3
Local News C1-6 Obituaries C5 Oregon News C3 Shopping B1-6 Sports D1-6 Stocks E2-3 Sudoku B5 TV & Movies B2
The Bulletin An Independent Newspaper Vol. 109, No. 277, 36 pages, 6 sections
MON-SAT
We use recycled newsprint
U|xaIICGHy02329lz[
The presidential debate Where: Denver, Colo. When: 6 tonight Watch it live: ABC, NBC, CBS, FOX, PBS, CNBC, CNN, CSPAN
and Romney in Colorado. The stakes are particularly high for Romney, the former Massachusetts governor who’s stayed close to Obama in most polls but continues to trail, having struggled to find momentum. “It’s one of the few possible game changers left for him, and the only one he has a certain amount of control over,” said Tobe Berkovitz, an associate professor of advertising at Boston University.
Most polls show Obama remains vulnerable — his Gallup job approval rating Sept. 28-30 was 47 percent, about where it’s been for some time, and a Quinnipiac Polling Institute survey released Tuesday, taken Sept. 25-30, put him ahead of Romney 49 percent to 45 percent. Obama also faces high expectations. Regardless of political spin from the campaigns, Americans by a 2-to-1 margin expect Obama to win the debate, according to polls. Romney has not engaged in a oneon-one political debate since he ran for governor of Massachusetts 10 years ago, while Obama debated Republican John McCain three times in 2008 and is a familiar presence on American television. See Debate / A5
‘FUSION CENTERS’
Intelligence initiative found wanting By Robert O’Harrow Jr. The Washington Post
INDEX
Bray victim will drop suit, says attorney
THE DEBATES: READY FOR ROUND ONE
An initiative aimed at improving intelligence sharing has done little to make the country more secure, despite as much as $1.4 billion in federal spending, according to a two-year examination by Senate investigators. The nationwide network of offices known as “fusion centers” was launched after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks to address concerns that local, state and federal authorities were not sharing information effectively about potential terrorist threats. But after nine years — and regular praise from officials at the Department of Homeland Security — the 77 fusion centers have become pools of ineptitude, waste
and civil liberties intrusions, according to a scathing 141-page report by the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs permanent subcommittee on investigations. The creation and operation of the fusion centers were promoted by the administration of President George W. Bush and later the Obama administration as essential weapons in the fight to build a nationwide network that would keep the country safe from terrorism. The idea was to promote increased collaboration and cooperation among all levels of law enforcement across the country. But the report documents spending on items that did little to help share intel-
ligence, including gadgets such as “shirt button” cameras, $6,000 laptops and bigscreen televisions. One fusion center spent $45,000 on a decked-out SUV that a city official used for commuting. “In reality, the Subcommittee investigation found that the fusion centers often produced irrelevant, useless or inappropriate intelligence reporting to DHS, and many produced no intelligence reporting whatsoever,” the report said. The bipartisan report, released by subcommittee Chairman Carl Levin, DMich., and ranking minority member Tom Coburn, R-Okla., portrays the fusion center system as ineffective and criticizes the Department of Homeland Security
for poor supervision. In a response Tuesday, the department condemned the report and defended the fusion centers, saying the Senate investigators relied on out-of-date data. The Senate investigators examined fusion center reports in 2009 and 2010 and looked at activity, training and policies over nine years, according to the report. The statement also said the Senate investigators misunderstood the role of fusion centers, “which is to provide state and local law enforcement analytic support in furtherance of their day-today efforts to protect local communities from violence, including that associated with terrorism.” See Fusion / A5
A civil suit filed against convicted rapist Thomas Bray will be dropped, the attorney representing Bray’s victim said Tuesday. Bray, 38, was convicted in July of the February 2011 rape of a 23-year-old woman he’d met through the online dating service Match.com. Friday, Bray was sentenced to serve 25 years in prison. During Bray’s trial, his attorneys noted the $1.975 million suit the woman had filed against him, and suggested she had a financial motive for fabricating the rape accusation. The woman — whom The Bulletin is not identifying — testified that she’d filed the suit as a way of holding Bray accountable in the event he was acquitted on the criminal charges. Attorney Jennifer Coughlin said the woman asked her to withdraw the suit Monday, and that she plans to file the papers to do so later this week. The woman feels vindicated by the outcome of Bray’s criminal trial, Coughlin said, and does not wish to go through another trial. “I don’t feel like it was her intention from the beginning to drop it if he was acquitted.... I think at this point, she’s reached closure, she’s just done,” Coughlin said. “Litigation is not a fun thing.” The woman sought damages for both physical and psychological injuries, such as post-traumatic stress disorder and paranoia, during and after the attack. Bray, a former anesthesiologist, did residency at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore. In Bend, he was a parttime anatomy instructor at Central Oregon Community College for a single term. The woman, who now lives near Seattle, has been undergoing counseling since the rape. Traveling to Bend to attend court hearings during the criminal trial interrupted her counseling schedule, Coughlin said, and her counselors have advised her it will be difficult to address her psychological issues as long as the legal proceedings are under way. Separately, as of midafternoon Tuesday, Bray was no longer listed on the Deschutes County Jail inmate roster, or on the list of state prison inmates maintained by the Oregon Department of Corrections. Jail staff said for security reasons they do not publicly share information about when inmates are being transferred. — Reporter: 541-383-0387, shammers@bendbulletin.com