Category: Local

Is the Deschutes County Sheriff still broke?

Is the Deschutes County Sheriff so broke that they need to introduce a quota “minimum performance standard” for their sheriffs? Quoting this Bend.com story:

This busy summer, Deschutes County sheriff’s deputies are being held to new “minimum performance standards” that go well beyond positive dealings with the public and living up to the agency’s ‘core values,” and include an “absolute minimum” number of traffic tickets and warnings, criminal citations and DUII arrests, Sheriff Les Stiles confirmed Wednesday.

Just about anyone who pays taxes would be glad to know that the public-sector workers those hard-earned dollars are paying for are being held to certain standards.

But when they include such requirements (for traffic deputies) of 10 citations a day, one to four DUII arrests a month and seven criminal citations a month, it’s bound to raise eyebrows, both within the department and among government critics who may well see the ugly specter of revenue-driven quotas – something Stiles resolutely denied is the case.

OK, so how is this not a quota system? Don’t they have enough money after winning the election and finding extra money afterwards?

Anybody out there good in vinyl detailing? Someone needs to make authentic looking coverups so the emblem on the side of their patrol cars says “Proudly Ticketing Our Community.” Here’s their site for reference.

Meanwhile, I’m in Deschutes County Sheriff territory on my work commute, and will probably get pulled over for this.

July 28, 2004

Just what Central Oregon needs

Another water-sucking, high-priced, yuppie-tourist attracting golf course. It will be built in the area in South-EastWest Bend burned to a crisp by the Awbrey Hall fire in 1990 — the area towards Mt. Bachelor. Thanks Rob for the tip.

July 23, 2004

Another Bend Blogger, and possibly more?

Thanks to Shannon who linked to Shoot The Bunny. It’s a young site, but good content, and a friend of Shannon’s is a friend of ours, right?

One thing about the site that I saw was on his profile is a link to other folks in Bend. Now the trick will be to see if any of these blogs are still maintained. I’ll update this post after I check them out later.

July 22, 2004

Bend Blogger Meetup

I won’t be there, but the Bend/Central Oregon bloggers are getting together tonight (Wednesday, July 21) at six o’clock at the Bend Brewing Company. Jon will be there, and I know a few more of us will be, too. If you want to keep up on Central Oregon Bloggers, I do have a mailing list so feel free to sign up.

July 21, 2004

Sad But True

When you’re floating the Deschutes River through Bend, don’t do it on air mattresses or you’ll be lucky to live.

July 20, 2004

“Biggitry [sic] isn’t a good Christian Value”

And neither is bad spelling:

Boy does that ever make me want to suport their cause (which was, by the way, to put Bend’s Equal Rights Ordanince to voters). If you’re going to protest something, at least make sure it’s an intelligent protest, with intelligent spelling.

July 19, 2004

Are My Neighbors Reading This?

I certainly wish my neighbors were reading this.

I must warn you now that I’m going to get a little “cranky ol’ man/dad/bastard” on you, here.

(more…)

July 14, 2004

Despite the Money, Inmates Still Go Free?!?

I’m glad I’m not the only one that found it a bit peculiar that the Deschutes Co. Sheriff, who blitzed us to pieces with their Sheriff’s Levy ad campaign last year, has suddenly found a bunch more money — nearly $700,000 worth of extra cash.

So they get this extra money, their levy passes, and they still had to release inmates early last month. And even with this extra money, the Sheriff says he can’t help the early release of inmates. That’s comforting.

Oh, but don’t worry — because of this new found cash, they’ll be able to hire and promote some people. Hopefully those extra helping hands will keep those crooks they let out from robbing us again. He does plan on hiring a computer forensic examiner, so if you read this blog, you’ll know there’s a way to get a degree in that area of study entirely online.

July 13, 2004

A Sad, Sad Day

I just read in today’s Chandler Drive Daily (I’m really never going to get a job there if I make jokes about it like that) that the Pilot Butte Drive-In, arguably the best burger joint in the state of Oregon, isn’t going to be open for dinner anymore. Understand, I’ve loved that place since I was a kid, and still to this day go there at least a couple times a month, generally after I get off of work — and they’ll now be closed during that time frame.

Why are they doing this? Really, I’m not sure. It’s always packed every night, so its can’t be a financial reason. The family owners say it’s a “Family decision” but later say “The good business is causing us to have slow ticket times, (food) not cooked correctly” because they weren’t there in the evening watching over everybody’s soldiers.

So what do they do? Instead of hiring a evening-shift manager that knows what they’re doing and can improve the problems they’re having, they decide to lay off staff and close six hours earlier. Brilliant, folks, absolutely brilliant.

To use an example I’m familiar with, I work for a family-owned and run company. While it’s nice when they’re there, they’ve surrounded themselves with talented employees so that if they were to up and disappear off the face of the earth, the company would still function great and nothing would falter. Why can’t they do that at Pilot Butte?

My guess is the public outcry will get Pilot Butte back to regular shift within the month, but they need to do it with better management, and, in this case, less family involvement.

July 10, 2004

Local Net-theft Scam Busted

This is actually a pretty involved scheme, and something I wouldn’t expect to see around here:

Two Madras teens have been arrested in an Internet theft scam, accused of using stolen credit card numbers to buy almost $50,000 worth of Apple Computer products and having them delivered to empty houses, police said.

[…]

Investigators learned that stolen credit cards and stolen identities were being used to buy items from Apple over the Internet, Stanfill said. Almost 50 orders had been made, with more than $48,000 worth of products ordered. Some were shipped and delivered, some were shipped and not delivered, while others were identified as fraudulent by Apple Computers and stopped, the detective said.

The orders were being sent to unoccupied homes in the Madras area, using credit card numbers and identities stolen in various ways over the Internet from victims across the country.

The numbers were stolen by phishing methods, though it’s not known if the teens were directly involved in the phishing activity, though they think they might have been part of a larger group involved — the arresting agency is also sending reports to the Secret Service and the Postal Inspection Service, as well as working with an agency in California.

July 8, 2004