…it looks like TGI Friday’s is looking for a Bend franchisee. I’ve only eaten at one once, many years ago, so I have no idea what they’re like. But they are wanting to open here, it would appear.
Category: Local
A Few Tweaks At Bend Blogs
Going through and deleting a few old feeds on Bend Blogs today (there are a lot of ones that have gone private or haven’t updated in over a year, so expect many feeds to disappear), but a couple things that you might notice over there:
- No Categories Tab: I’ve gotten rid of the “Categories” tab on the left side, as I never seemed to be able to get it to work right with feeds that had categories. Everything’s going to tags instead. Speaking of tags, remember you can submit your own tags to any entry on Bend Blogs — like I added the tag Liquor to this post. When you click on the [edit] link to submit a tag, it will offer suggestions, if it can, based on del.icio.us tags, if available.
- I’ve added ads in a few more spots. Sorry, but it has to be done. The site’s getting more and more popular, and the server’s getting pushed harder and harder.
- Aforementioned removal of feeds (work in progress).
- But the biggest thing (and the thing I’m probably going to have to tweak a bit to make it less MySQL-server intensive) is the feeds list on the left side now sorts by the latest updated blogs (or at least close to it — it all depends on when the feed’s latest item was grabbed), making it far easier to keep track of blogs that update locally more often than the rest (their www and syndicating feeds links are right there).
- A few tweaks here and there to make the site easier to browse in general.
If you have any more bright ideas or suggestions, feel free to post a comment here (and yes I know the design is a bit stale, but haven’t had time to really get down and dirty with the CSS).
The Hit-and-Run Story Gets Even Weirder
Remember the California father and son who were arrested in that nasty hit-and-run a month ago (solicited lots of comments on this site)? Well, the story gets weirder: The father, George Goodson, who allegedly helped his son and buddies dispose of the car that was involved in the incident, was found dead in a Bend hotel room. Unfortunately, there’s no story on KTVZ.com yet that I can see (correct me if I’m wrong, Barney), and the Bulletin’s story isn’t a freebie, so I can’t really point you anywhere to read this. (If somebody at the Bulletin’s reading this, which I know you are, can you get that story unlocked?) The Bend Weekly has a story here.
Just the same the brief story basically says that the death is still under investigation — not calling it a suicide or a homicide, so this just puts another twist in this already oddball story.
Cheap Plug
My wife’s uncle always tells the best stories, and he’s finally gotten around to writing a book (his family’s been nagging him for quite a while). I haven’t read the book yet, but considering the stories he tells of his childhood, I’m sure it’s a great read. And anybody who’s interested in local history (he grew up in Sisters) will enjoy it. So go buy, buy, buy so he’ll write the follow up he’s promising. Here’s the book’s description on Amazon:
The Musings of an ex-Moleque by Jeff Smith Jeff Smith’s life can easily be summarized by two distinct periods of time. “The Musings of an ex-Moleque” tell the story of the first period. This time-frame is the first eighteen years of his life where Jeff truly was the product of his family’s “old school” influence and the small town rural environment in which he was raised. In the 1950’s and 60’s, Sisters, Oregon was a small mill town of about 500 souls. Being situated in the very heart of Oregon and nestled at the foot of the Cascade Mountain Range, it offered a unique setting for a young lad to live a life of unfettered adventure, joy, and security. Jeff’s story is the story of perhaps thousands of young American lads raised in a bygone era, one which probably will never be enjoyed again as our culture continues to change so drastically, leaving no room for little rascals to run free and wild. Author’s Biography Jeff Smith was born on August 11th in the year 1952 in Redmond, Oregon. Jeff was the last of six children born to William Ray and Naomi Belle Smith. Though born in Redmond, Jeff was raised in the nearby town of Sisters. As Sisters was so small it had no hospital, so most babies in those days were born either in Redmond’s newly built hospital or in neighboring Bend. Jeff was definitely a product of his familial upbringing and the small town rural environment in which he spent the first eighteen years of his adventurous life. Shortly after high school graduation in 1970 Jeff entered a missionary training center in Bend, Oregon in pursuit of his dream of being a minister of the Gospel of Jesus Christ in Brazil. That dream was interrupted by a two year tour of duty in the US Army, having been drafted number 34 in the end of the old lottery draft system.
OK, done with the cheap plug.
I really didn’t want to comment on this…
…but now that it’s hit the Bulletin, I’d better at least comment on the whole Baltazar’s mess.
A bit of background: Last week, the local Mom2Mom group posted an entry on their site, blasting Baltazar’s, a mexican seafood place in West Bend as being not-so-kid-friendly with Baltazar Chavez (the owner) being really rude. Both Jon and BOR had good reviews of the place back in the day, but they didn’t bring their kids. Just the same, I was then sent versions of the e-mail (and other stories) posted on the Mom2Mom site, all slamming Chavez (14 different emails in all, all basically quoting the same source). The stories of the rudeness showed up on other local blogs, on Craigslist, and then now into the Bulletin.
But I generally avoided this whole thing for a few reasons (and you’ll see a bit of my journalist background here):
- I’ve been totally slammed. The last week for me has been crazy busy, both professionally and personally, and I haven’t really had the time to look at this like I’d like to. I have a job and I doubt my employer would want me spending time looking into this.
- I didn’t know any of the people involved. While I’ve heard stories about the guy being a jerk over the years, everything I was reading in these blog posts and e-mails was hearsay. I didn’t know the people, nor did any of the people forwarding me the emails. It was all “I got this from a friend-of-a-friend.” Sorry, but don’t give “friend-of-friend” stuff that much credibility, especially when I have very little time on my hands to verify claims. I have a day-job, folks.
- I didn’t know Baltazar at all. I’ve never met the guy (though I have seen him in the area), so I didn’t want to start spreading something around that I didn’t know to be true. While I had heard stories, they hadn’t happened to me, nor had I the time to verify the various stories I’d heard or even compile them all. A**hole he may totally be, I have no idea. But again, I have a day job.
- The point has already been made. The mess has already gotten a ton of coverage — did I really need to contribute? I would’ve felt like I was just following the bandwagon and doing something that all the cool kids were doing.
- I didn’t want to give the guy more publicity. The reality is that all this whole mess is done is given a fairly new restaurant more publicity (good, bad, or otherwise). I didn’t want to contribute to that. Bad publicity it may be, but he just got his picture blown up in the Bulletin’s business section, a newspaper that’s read by 52,000 folks every day. Many people are going to just read the photo caption which says “He wants to make his restaurant different from other Mexican restaurants by creating an intimate and high-end setting.” That’ll be read by a lot of the childless folks on the West side of Bend who now know that they can go there and not be annoyed by kids. I know at least three childless couples who, even if the guy is a jerk, would probably still eat there because they like not eating with kids around. This will give them even more reason.
- A boycott/protest/whatever won’t hurt him. I had heard a few folks say they should boycott the restaurant. And what would that accomplish? It’s like when PETA sends an e-mail to all its members, asking them to boycott KFC. Do PETA members actually eat at KFC? No. So does KFC care if PETA boycotts? No. Will it hurt KFC’s bottom line? No. Same deal here. My guess is that most of the people that read these posts/e-mails either a) had never been there or b) were never planning on going there or c) could never afford to go there anyway (I fall into the latter category). So you’re going to boycott someplace you’d never go. All you did was make sure that kids say out of his place, which, reading the story, is exactly what he wants.
Last time the local blog world started talking about bad dining, it was about Kanpai, the sushi/sake place over on Newport. Folks were predicting the place’s demise, and last I checked, they’re still here over two years after that original post and debate (the Kanpai mess was another reason I avoided this one).
So long story short, I don’t think this whole mess is going to really hurt him. A total jerk the guy may be, but he’s probably laughing this all up right now. He’s gotten a ton of PR, will be frequented by the local childless who hate kids, and will still be around for a while. All he had to do was call somebody a horrible name.
Discuss below or over at Bend Forums. I’ve wasted enough time on this already, so I’ll probably be sitting this out.
Two More Arrested in Area Hit-And-Run-And-Burn-Up-The-Car
So a couple days ago a father-and-son were arrested with the son being charged for the brutal hit-and-run of Kimberly Ann Potter of Bend. Now two more were arrested in association with the mess:
Two Bend men, one returning from Klamath Falls, were arrested Thursday on arson charges, accused of helping to burn a car involved in a violent, deadly hit-and-run crash on Third Street earlier this week.
The arrests of Eric Allen Brown, 20, and Robert Jennings Battles, 19, on second-degree arson charges come more than two days after a car allegedly driven by Christopher Goodson, 22, of El Cajon, Calif., struck and killed Kimberly Ann Potter, 41, also of Bend, as she rode her bike up Third Street early Tuesday.
Brown is Goodson’s stepbrother and lives at the Full Moon Drive apartment in northeast Bend where Goodson was found hiding Tuesday night, said police Capt. Jim Porter.
According to the bio/obit of Kim linked above, she frequently went out for bike rides at night if she couldn’t sleep, and was probably just taking another one of those rides that night.
The comments on my last post about this have gotten interesting, with folks, for some odd reason, coming out in support of the alleged crooks (including an apparent comment from Christopher Goodson’s girlfriend). The problem is there are obviously some real jerks that are browsing this site and harassing people who are posting critical comments about these guys. I’ve gotten private emails from folks who have commented there who have said they have gotten threatening email from folks. Classy, guys, really classy. Those e-mails are getting forwarded to local police departments, and if anybody sends me an e-mail threat, I’ll be doing the same and helping the police find the people responsible. I did help the Bend Police arrest this morons, getting them IP addresses, videos, and helping out their IT department with conversion and such. I will have no problems with doing the same with anything that comes my way.
Feel free to comment on this story, on Kimberly, or anything, either below or over at Bend Forums.
But keep it civil and constructive, folks, because if law enforcement wants my help, they’re going to get it.
California Father and Son Arrested In Fatal Bend Hit-and-Run
You can tell Bend is becoming a big city when you hear about made-for-Hollywood crimes like this:
A father and son visiting from Southern California have been arrested in the violent hit-and-run death of a Bend woman who was riding her bicycle on Third Street early Tuesday, along with the torching of the suspect car in the woods south of town, police said Wednesday.
[…]
Christopher George Goodson, 22, of El Cajon, Calif., was found allegedly hiding in a northeast Bend apartment late Tuesday night. He faces charges of second-degree manslaughter, criminally negligent homicide, second-degree assault second-degree conspiracy to commit arson, reckless driving and reckless endangering, said Bend police Capt. Jim Porter.
George Harold Goodson, 51, of San Diego, who had reported the car stolen, was arrested and accused of hindering prosecution and first-degree attempted aggravated theft, Porter said.
Why somebody was riding their bike down Third Street at 2:30 AM is beyond me, but she’s certainly not violating any laws by doing so unless she wasn’t wearing any reflective clothing or lights or she was drunk, but I digress.
But basically (and all allegedly, of course) from what I’m reading, here’s how I see this all went down: The son, driving daddy’s Benz, drove like a maniac through town, clobbered this woman and apparently dismembered her according to the report on KFXO last night. Despite the heavy amount of damage to the car and obviously to the woman, the guy decides to get the hell out of there, tells daddy about the mess, daddy says dispose of the car. So they drive the car out southeast of town, set it on fire (completely torching it), daddy reports it stolen from the La Quinta Inn in South Bend parking lot, obviously lying to police officers. Luckily somebody tipped the police off, and they had a statement from somebody that was allegedly riding with the suspect, so they were able to trace it back to an apartment on Full Moon Ct. (just about a mile at most from my house), where they found the alleged driver, along with “a large quantity of cocaine, weight scales, a large quantity of cash and a loaded firearm.” Drug-related charges haven’t been filed yet.
Wow. Sounds like a movie script to me, but it was the reality.
And to throw some Flamebait out there, these people are tourists and/or transplants. From California.
Barney over at KTVZ sent me this picture that was provided by the Bend Police Department. It’s what’s left of the car:
There Are Jerks…(Update: Arrest Made)
…and then there are real a**holes…
Burglars likely looking for money broke into and ransacked the Bend home of Tyler Eklund on Sunday as the father of the 14-year-old paralyzed snowboarder was heading back to his paralyzed son and wife at a Reno, Nev., hospital, a family friend who is housesitting confirmed Sunday night.
If you’ve been in a hole and don’t know who Eklund is, read up.
Update on 4/16 at nearly midnight: They arrested two teenagers and charged them with breaking into the house.
Drew Bledsoe Has A Home In Bend?
When news hit the wire that Drew Bledsoe, back-up quarterback for the Dallas Cowboys, was planning on retiring, the news kept showing up in my Google search alerts for local news. Why? This quote right here:
“This is something I’ve been thinking about for quite a while,” Bledsoe said last night from his home in Bend, Ore.
So he has a home in Bend? News to me, but apparently he not only has one huge 4600+ sq. ft., million dollar house in Broken Top (Google Map view here), but he also owns a nice piece of land in the new Highlands at Broken Top (Google Map view).
If you want more detailed (and propertly more up-to-date) imagery of any of these properties, the City of Bend has a great GIS Internet Browser (MSIE only, unfortunately) that Jon has some great directions on how to use it.
Everybody Gripes About “Those Stupid Teenagers…”
But sometimes, there are some teens out there, like this local teen, who do really good things.
It was the biggest victory of Ben Watts’ young career, and he wanted to share it with a fellow Bend snowboarder who couldn’t be there with him.
After winning the overall freestyle title at the USA Snowboard Association Nationals last week at Northstar at Tahoe resort, the 13-year-old Watts was awarded a check for $500.
Watts then walked over to his coach, Hans Hibbard, and asked him to give the money to a fund for Tyler Eklund.
If you don’t know who Tyler Eklund is, read up here. But that was a really cool gesture by a good kid.