News and Opinion from Sisters, Oregon
News and Opinion from Sisters, Oregon
Sorted by date Results 151 - 175 of 3917
The newspaper enterprise My partner in ownership of The Nugget also owns a paper that was founded by William F. Cody - Buffalo Bill. As a lifelong frontier history nerd, you can imagine how this pleases me. The photo accompanying this newsletter is the only known photo of the old scout and Western showman in the offices of The Cody Enterprise, which he launched with his friend Col. John Peake in 1899. Buffalo Bill founded the town of Cody, Wyoming, including developing the Irm...
Dissecting Page 2 Page 2 of The Nugget gets a lot of attention - as it should. It's the spot where Sisters comes to share its opinions, its grievances, and its appreciation. A fellow journalist who works in public radio said that she appreciated The Nugget's Letters to the Editor. "They're spicy!" she said. Sometimes, for sure. Our preference is to run every letter we get, and mostly that works out. I really want all the voices in the community to be heard. Sometimes people...
Working on vehicles has been a lifelong passion for Chad Van Handel of Van Handel Automotive in Sisters. "I grew up just working on engines - motorcycles, cars," he recalled. He says the satisfaction he gains from the work "really hasn't changed. When you fix something that's broken, there's a lot of satisfaction that you fixed it - you identified it; you fixed it." He's always strived for excellence in his work, beginning with completing the auto program at Chemeketa... Full story
“The morning was fair and the plains looked beautifull . . . . The air was pleasant and a vast assemblage of little birds which croud to the groves on the river sung most enchantingly. . . . Proceeded with the party across the plain to the white bear Islands . . . through a level beautifull and extensive high plain covered with immence hirds of buffaloe. It is now the season at which the buffaloe begin to coppelate and the bulls keep a tremendious roaring we could hear them f... Full story
After weeks of heated debate and discussion across the community, the Sisters City Council officially said “no” to the application by the nonprofit Sisters Cold Weather Shelter (SCWS) for an emergency shelter to be located at 192 W. Barclay Dr. in Sisters. The Council voted 4-1 on Tuesday, September 19, to adopt written findings by staff supporting denial of the application. Susan Cobb cast the sole vote in favor of the application, arguing that she believes the applicant met... Full story
The Oregon Board of Massage Therapists (OBMT) has issued a final order assessing $13,000 in civil penalties against Michael Boyle, former owner of Hop in the Spa in Sisters, and an additional assessment of Department of Justice costs to a total of $50,000. The Board had assessed a total of $14,000 in sanctions in February of 2022. Boyle appealed that regulatory action in a contested case proceeding, which took through July 2023 to resolve. Boyle also faces criminal charges... Full story
Last week I headed out to Cody, Wyoming for the annual rendezvous of the chiefs of the Mullen newspapers. Louie Mullen is the majority owner of The Nugget, with myself as minority partner. Louie owns 39 newspapers in total, most of them weeklies, with a few dailies in the mix. All are what you might call small- town newspapers. Louie is a man in his 30s — of a generation that supposedly eschews newspapers and gets all of their information online. Obviously, he retains faith i... Full story
Local firefighting professionals honored the 2023 cadre of young resident volunteer firefighters as they launch their careers in the service last Thursday, September 7. The resident volunteers successfully completed the Firefighter 1 Academy and were "pinned" with their badge as newly fledged firefighters in an hour-long Joint Recruit Academy Graduation & Recognition Ceremony held at Sisters-Camp Sherman Fire District Community Hall. Cade Heitschmidt, Madison Jones, Noah... Full story
Sisters City Council came to a 3-2 contingent decision to deny the application of the Sisters Cold Weather Shelter (SCWS) organization for an emergency homeless shelter at 192 W. Barclay Dr. in Sisters. Councilors Gary Ross, Jennifer Letz, and Mayor Michael Preedin voted to deny the application by SCWS, while councilors Susan Cobb and Andrea Blum voted to approve. The decision made in a marathon special meeting on Tuesday, September 5, is non-binding until a written decision is adopted. City staff will prepare a draft written... Full story
Our first winter in Sisters in 1993-94 was rough. My wife, Marilyn, and I were newly married and broke. We had plowed all of our sparse funds into moving to Sisters so that Marilyn could take a job working with Phil Arends at Desert Wings Travel. I didn’t have a gig. We moved into a double-wide trailer across East Cascade Avenue from Sisters Elementary School. Through Christmas, it was all new and beautiful and magical. By February, we were thinking maybe we’d made a big mis... Full story
Two Sisters athletes set national records in their class in powerlifting competition last month. Don Frosland, 68, 242 pounds, bench-pressed 264 pounds and deadlifted 405 for records. Debi Braun, competing in the 70-74 category in the 148-pound weight class, benched 110 pounds and deadlifted 171 pounds for records. Both are well enough pleased with their accomplishment at the U.S. Powerlifting Association-sanctioned Summer Strength Wars meet at the Strength Warehouse in Bend l... Full story
The Sisters City Council’s decision to hold a public hearing on the proposed emergency homeless shelter at 192 W. Barclay Dr. is the right call. Click here to see related story.. A decision of this magnitude, with the degree of public interest and concern that has been generated, deserves a public process — and the final decision should be made by elected officials who represent the community. That’s not what the governor and state legislature of Oregon wanted — the legislatio... Full story
Maui, Hawaii, is as much home to Tristan and Gemma Marshall as Sisters is. When they saw the devastation wrought by a wildfire that destroyed the town of Lahaina, they wanted to help. But Tristan is 13, and Gemma is 11. They don't have an income from which to make a donation - so they decided to leverage their musical passion to raise funds for Maui Strong. The Hawaii Community Foundation Maui Strong fund is providing financial resources that can be deployed quickly for... Full story
It’s a hand-me-down, the thoughts are broken Perhaps they’re better left unsung I don’t know, don’t really care Let there be songs to fill the air —“Ripple,” Robert Hunter/Jerry Garcia Songs filled the air everywhere in Sisters last weekend. The Sisters Folk Festival packed the lawn at Sisters Art Works with a “community hang” featuring some of the best of Sisters Country’s local musicians. At Hardtails Bar & Grill, the classic rock band NightLife served up some stunning le... Full story
Robert Sposato is a man on a mission. Carrying a deep passion for jazz music, he has built a successful jazz series at Sisters Depot in Sisters. That series continues with Michelle van Handel’s Something Good Quartet on Saturday, August 19 from 6 to 8 p.m. at Sisters Depot. According to Sposato, “Popular keyboardist and jazz vocalist Michelle van Handel has been a staple of jazz in Central Oregon for several decades, but she rarely performs in Sisters. She brings a tal... Full story
For decades, Sisters author Greg Walker has been on a quest to track down the story of a martial arts and U.S. special operations icon. Mike Echanis (1950-1978), gravely wounded in Vietnam, rehabilitated himself through a massive effort of will, became a master of multiple martial arts, and in the mid-1970s trained America's elite warriors in hand-to-hand combatives, including DELTA Force and SEAL Team 2. He was killed while working as a CIA operative in Nicaragua in September... Full story
World War II is often hailed as “The Good War,” fought by “The Greatest Generation.” That characterization is accurate. The massive mobilization to defeat Nazi Germany, Fascist Italy, and Imperial Japan was morally justified as few conflicts in human history have ever been. Those regimes were evil and had to be crushed and wiped from the slate of history. The men and women who made the Herculean effort — and then crafted a post-war order of remarkable durability and stability... Full story
Julie Tadlock loves lifting weights. She acknowledges that she has an intense personality, and weightlifting helps her channel that intensity. "I'm able to take my intensity to the barbell," she told The Nugget. The Sisters woman took it to the barbell in exceptional fashion last month at the U.S. Powerlifting Association (USPA) national championships in New Orleans, Louisiana. Tadlock, competing in the 50-54-year-old category and the 115-pound weight class, notched four... Full story
Tragedy struck the Sisters Country firefighting community on August 1, 2013. John Hammack, a legendary logger and rodeo cowboy from Sisters, was preparing to fell a lightning-struck 64-inch Douglas fir tree on a lightning-sparked fire north of Highway 242 in the Mt. Washington Wilderness near Dugout Lake. A Forest Service report recounts that "at approximately 0911 hours, after several actions to prepare for a safe felling environment and just as John was returning to the base... Full story
There was a heated meeting at the Sisters Fire Hall Community Room on Tuesday, August 1, concerning plans to establish an emergency homeless shelter on Barclay Drive in Sisters. The State of Oregon is responsible for a lot of the heat in that room. The shelter is poised to be established under legislation designed to get around local land use planning and public input. HB2006, passed in May of 2021, requires local governments to allow siting of qualifying emergency shelters... Full story
An international story detailing Chinese funding in American public schools raised eyebrows in the Sisters community last week. The Daily Mail, a British daily tabloid, ran a story on July 30 reporting that “China is funding America’s public schools to the tune of $17 million dollars, it has been revealed, with Republicans now probing the disturbing donations. “The report by Parents Defending Education states that the close coordination between the Chinese Communist Party... Full story
A human being wrote this column. You’ll just have to take my word for it. Strange way to start a column, right? Well, we’re living in strange times. Times in which this column you’re reading might well have been created by a chat bot — and you might not be able to tell the difference. I’d like to think that I have a distinctive enough voice that you wouldn’t mistake a chat bot for me — but actually there’s enough of my writing out there in the world that Artificial Inte... Full story
Dave Alvin is a hero of mine. He was an early standard-bearer for the hybrid of country, folk, blues, and roots rock & roll that folks call “Americana” music. He played here at the Sisters Folk Festival a decade ago. Marilyn and I traveled to Portland earlier this month to catch him with another stalwart, Jimmie Dale Gilmore, at the Aladdin Theater. It was a show we couldn’t miss because there’s no knowing how many more chances we’ll get. You see, Dave Alvin should be dead.... Full story
Adriene Steffen of Sisters is closing out a stellar high school rodeo career with a trip to the National High School Rodeo Finals in Gillette, Wyoming to be held this July 16-22. She will compete in four events: Breakaway Roping, Barrel Racing, Cutting and Reined Cow Horse. Steffen is coming into the worlds largest rodeo in a strong position: She is Oregon's High School Rodeo State Champion in Breakaway Roping, Barrel Racing and All-Around Cowgirl. That designation is on goal... Full story
The Vietnam War shaped all of our lives. I have friends who fought in that war and friends who demonstrated against it. The war, in large measure, set the course of their lives. But even people only tangentially affected by the fighting and the protests — and people unborn when Saigon fell in 1975 — live in an America whose contours were mapped by the conflict in Southeast Asia 50 and more years ago. In Vietnam was born the distrust of institutions that is the hallmark of our... Full story
