BendVoice.org

This seems like a good idea that is probably overdue, frankly: The City of Bend has launched a new online service to enhance community engagement and provide a forum for residents to offer suggestions on how to improve the way the City does business. The new Web portal, www.BendVoice.org, is … Continue reading

Bend’s new Mayor: Jeff Eager

Tonight was the Biennial meeting of the Bend City Council, and not only was it the swearing in of the new City Councilors (Scott Ramsay, Jodie Barram, and Jeff Eager), but the Council also elected Bend’s new Mayor: Jeff Eager. From the City’s meeting notes: Councilor Greene nominated Councilor Eager … Continue reading

Election results

Election results are in (or nearly so), and two good sites to keep track of what’s what are the Deschutes County results page (containing the local breakdown) and KTVZ’s statewide results. Everything is marked “unofficial” yet, and it’s always interesting to watch the numbers fluctuate as updates come in, particularly … Continue reading

Bend’s Rally to Restore Sanity

As noted on both The Source and the Bulletin’s sites, this Saturday there will be a Bend version of John Stewart’s “Rally to Restore Sanity” march-slash-comedy-show in Washington DC that same day. The Bend Rally takes place at 4pm at the Mirror Pond Plaza downtown. A description forwarded to me … Continue reading

The DMV is moving

This seems like such an odd story—how does a government operation not get its lease renewed?—but KOHD is reporting that the DMV did just that and now has to move. The Bend DMV field office is moving temporarily to the former Bend Visitor Center, now owned by another division of … Continue reading

Tax Day Tea Party

This is one of the more unusual events I’ve heard of, but it’s definitely worth blogging about. If you’re unhappy with the way the government has been handling the economy lately (among other things), this might be for you. You’ve no doubt heard of the many Tea Party Rallies being … Continue reading

Talk of the Town: Meet Your Legislators

I’m sure you’ve seen the local commercials for "Talk of the Town"—the locally-produced cable-channel "town hall" TV program—and like me, haven’t paid them much mind. After all, they’re a little goofy in that "public access television" kind of way. But this Monday’s Talk of the Town sounds pretty interesting: it’s … Continue reading

2009 State of the County

Made available on the Deschutes County website is the 2009 State of County presentation, so I snagged it and converted it to PDF for anyone who’s interested. You can get it here. It’s about 3 MB in size. Originally it was a PowerPoint presentation, which explains the slideshow format, and … Continue reading

Throwing stars

Ever take time to read the City Code for Bend? It’s definitely interesting. Like Chapter 5, Offenses, section 5.070: Possession of a Throwing Star. (1) Definition: "Throwing Star" means any instrument, without handles, consisting of a metal plate having three or more radiation points with one or more sharp edges, … Continue reading

The new face of the Bend City Council

Last night’s local elections for City Council seats were pretty tight (all except Position 4—Jim Clinton owned that one), and resulted in some surprises. Here are the results of the four seats that were up for grabs: Position 1: Peter Gramlich 13,684 (49.53%) Tom Greene 13,831 (50.06%) WRITE-IN 114 (0.41%) … Continue reading