The melodic chirping of our feathered friends has been silenced by the roaring buzz of area chainsaws. Thankfully, City Councilor John Hummel has proposed that a tree ordinance be placed on the city books. A municipal tree ordinance is long overdue in Bend. Developers and homeowners alike have had too much leeway in hacking away our most treasured trees. With no regulations currently in place, it’s time for The Bend City Council to take clear ... [full story]

Sam Walton said it best when he said, “…we’ll lower the cost of living for everyone, not just in America, but we’ll give the world an opportunity to see what it’s like to save and have a better lifestyle, a better life for all.” Sadly enough, Wal-Mart’s smiley face logo is no longer smiling. To see horns protruding from the happy little guy would be no surprise these days. According to area Wal-Mart critics, the ... [full story]

There’s no tiptoeing around the matter. Former Steptoeville, known now as “the town so nice they named it twice”, Walla Walla’s residents are hell-bent on blaming Bend for their recent outbreak of rurbia. A phenomenon occurring throughout the West, rurbia is a blending of urban, rural and suburbia. The fate of nearly 360 acres of Walla Walla farmland lies in the hands of county commissioners. If approved, the development will include 365 new homes, a ... [full story]

No reasonable person would deny that a government and a country at war against international terrorism must cloak some of that war in secrecy. That's especially true on the vital matter of intelligence gathering, the decisive front in identifying and defeating an unconventional, hidden enemy that operates by stealth. We also have a cherished Constitution whose Bill of Rights begins with a First Amendment guaranteeing a free press, an institutional bedrock of American liberties. That free press ... [full story]

The president of a major union is, in essence, a politician beholden to his members. Like all politicians, he survives by delivering good news, not bad. So, it's notable that Ron Gettelfinger of the United Autoworkers Union left the sugar-coating off his annual address at the union convention in Las Vegas. "The challenges we face aren't the kind that can be ridden out," he warned his membership. "They're structural challenges, and they require new and farsighted solutions." He ... [full story]

With congressmen allegedly accepting bribes, drug-runners crossing the border and Osama bin Laden on the lam, the FBI has a lot on its plate. So it seems a bit odd that agents just spent two weeks looking for Jimmy Hoffa. Remember him? The Teamsters kingpin with alleged Mafia ties vanished in 1975 and hasn't surfaced since, though for a while postmortem Hoffa sightings were second only to Elvis apparitions. Hoffa's remains are thought to have been ... [full story]

In the face of intense globalization in virtually every level of society, it is important to keep in touch with local news and community events.  It seems that the smaller our world becomes, the more important it is to maintain a feeling of what we can actually see happening around us with our own eyes.  This is precisely the vision of Bend Weekly • keeping journalism local.  Who better to report on the topics that ... [full story]

Kids are fatter today than they once were. Lifestyle changes are doubtless to blame. One such change involves the ready availability of sugar-rich soda in many schools, where formerly the choices were just water and milk. Happily, that trend may be reversed. In a deal brokered by former President Clinton and the American Heart Association, the big makers of soft drinks have agreed to a strategic retreat from the nation's schools. The pact banishes almost all ... [full story]