News and Opinion from Sisters, Oregon
News and Opinion from Sisters, Oregon
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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...
Hello Nugget supporters: The staff here at The Nugget thought it would be fun and interesting to share some of the inner workings of the paper with those who have stepped up to support our work. Hence, this newsletter. What's news: The big news item this month should be a planning commission ruling on the Space Age Gas renovation. The City of Sisters Planning Staff has recommended denial of the application on the basis of incompatibility with the neighborhood. The PC left the...
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
Though he died more than a half-century ago, Jimi Hendrix continues to influence virtually everyone who picks up an electric guitar with intent to rock. Few have been as powerfully influenced as Randy Hansen, who will bring his tribute to the rock legend to Hardtails Bar & Grill on Saturday, July 29. Hansen's journey with the guitar began when his father was killed in a car wreck when Randy was 10 years old. His father, who was a coach and mentor, was hit head-on by a drunk... 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
When Corb Lund's boots hit the boards on the Big Ponderoo stage on Sunday, June 25, he'll be serving up the eclectic range of "Americana" music that defines Sisters' newest festival. Backed by the crack band The Hurtin' Albertans, the Canadian songwriter throws down rocking alt-country barn-burners and elegiac ballads, the writing shifting from comedic to poignant without ever mashing the gears. The through line in all his music is the lifeways and landscape of the North... Full story
It was, as the Duke of Wellington described the Battle of Waterloo in 1815, “the nearest-run thing you ever saw in your life.” The series of events that went down 40 years ago, in 1983, carried much bigger potential consequences than any single battle ever did. The stakes were the continued existence of humanity. Had a couple of decisions gone another way, had individual men not kept a cool head under pressure, it might well have been lights out for the human race. Most fol... Full story
"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness -That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed - That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to insti... Full story
Stetson Wright of Milford, Utah, took All-Around Cowboy honors at the Sisters Rodeo last weekend. That meant he went home with an exquisite equine sculpture sponsored by the Sisters branch of U.S. Bank, and carved by Sisters artist J. Chester "Skip" Armstrong. The exceptional trophy is a reflection of the homegrown quality of the Sisters Rodeo - one of the aspects of the event that draws the top competitors and sold-out crowds. The event is staged by hundreds of volunteers... Full story
Last Saturday, I had the honor of joining my fellow songwriters and musicians Lilli Worona and Mike Biggers in presenting "Songs from the Shelf" for the Deschutes Public Library. We spent an hour at Sisters Fire Hall with a wonderful, engaged audience serving up original songs inspired by books. We introduced each song with a little exploration of what inspired them, and how we built them: Greek mythology, history, the etymology of common phrases. I've always been... Full story
The first of Jeff Guin’s books that I discovered was “The Last Gunfight: The Real Story of the Shootout at the OK Corral and How It Changed the American West.” It’s an outstanding read; Guinn takes a story you think you know and digs in past the crust of myth to find the pure ore. In recent years, Guinn has turned to crime. He brought a sharp journalist’s eye to the biography of Charles Manson. I would not have thought any time spent in the company of that sordid little co... Full story
Dozens of people traveled from across the Pacific Northwest to Sisters last week to testify before the Oregon Board of Forestry. The Board conducts its meetings at locations around the state, and Wednesday-Thursday, June 7-8 was Sisters’ turn. The public testimony that the Board took at the beginning of an all-day session at FivePine Lodge & Conference Center on Wednesday was impassioned — and it had nothing to do with anything that was actually on the board’s agenda. The p... Full story
