News and Opinion from Sisters, Oregon
News and Opinion from Sisters, Oregon
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This year’s election cycle sees Captain William Bailey and Sergeant Kent Vander Kamp vying for the only elected law enforcement leadership position in Deschutes County. I know both candidates and have privately expressed to both my respect and admiration for their service to our community at large and their stepping up to the plate to run for office. As a leader at any level in an organization one’s first concern must be your ethical bearing. The word Ethics comes from the Greek word Ethos, meaning “self.” This is the Sel... Full story
Wildlife corridor To the Editor: As members of the Bend to Suttle Lake Wildlife Passage Initiative (B2S), we appreciate the recent article highlighting our locally driven effort, published in The Nugget on January 16 (“Initiative seeks to mitigate wildlife collisions,” page 4). Highway 20 between Bend and Suttle Lake crosses several important wildlife movement corridors for mule deer, elk and other wildlife. This section of highway sees one of the highest rates of deer and elk wildlife-vehicle collisions in Oregon. The goa... Full story
Plunging into 2024 we are at a new beginning, one that takes place every year when the clock strikes midnight on January first. With it comes resolutions to do “better” — better at the goals we’ve put in front of us. Determined, this year, we will succeed! With that in mind, consider thoughtfully the value of not succeeding. The value of making mistakes. Recently, on “Hidden Brain,” an NPR program, Amy Edmondson, a Harvard researcher and author of “The Right Kind of Wrong, The Science of Failure,” shared data that revealed w... Full story
The raindrops form tidy concentric circles in the puddles they are forming on the ice-crusted snow covering my back deck this morning. The branches above are coated with a thin layer of ice. Icicles long and short hang from gutters and deck rails. The sky is leaden gray. The outside world is painted in black and white and gray, with the only relief provided by the green of the sentinel ponderosas down on the creekbank. The view out my bedroom window hasn’t changed a great d... Full story
• Adrienne Banks wrote: I just wanted to give a shout out to the individuals and businesses who came to my aid when disaster struck Friday. I had noticed my water pressure was a bit funky the day before, but didn’t give it too much mind as this is not completely out of the ordinary. But when I saw the river rushing from beneath my garage door on Friday, I knew immediately what had happened. Panic quickly set in as I couldn’t locate the turn-off valve covered in snow. After a flurry of phone calls my neighbor John Grant came t... Full story
Remarkably, hummingbirds overwinter in Central Oregon. These toughies are Anna's hummingbirds and are amazingly stout for their 4- to 4.5-gram size. They have expanded their range into hotter and colder climates over the last 20 years. But they face real trouble in deep freeze, blizzard conditions, and icy rain. Local residents can help them survive. Due to their petite size, hummingbirds must feed every 10 to 15 minutes or starve. These quaint birds use a handy... Full story
About 10 years ago I was on an extended stay at a Eugene hotel. My mornings began with a walk to Starbucks. Along the way I passed a woman in her 60s bedding in a small alcove; we made eye contact and warmly greeted each other. On my second morning we introduced ourselves and shared conversation. On morning three we were on a first name basis, on my fourth morning I was driving back to Sisters when I decided to turn around and say goodbye. Towards the end of our farewell I handed her money, she pushed back and insisted she... Full story
Imagine To the Editor: Well, here we are again. Another election year which is quickly ramping up with both sides of the isle pointing fingers, laying blame and generating biased statements that oftentimes seem to lack the truth. Then there is the media. Conservative and liberal outlets alike appear hell-bent on creating and fostering a deeper level of divisiveness and animosity within our society. Based on a number of opinions posted lately in The Nugget it appears these factors have made it increasingly more difficult to... Full story
We’ve officially entered the stormy season — and we’re not talking about snow and ice and busted pipes. The season of storms that got underway in Iowa last week and New Hampshire this week will last through winter, spring, summer and fall. Many folks are looking forward to the 2024 election season with something approaching dread — not just at potential outcomes, but at having to endure months of nastiness as increasingly polarized Americans claw at each other on TV, on social... Full story
Do you have a favorite 2023 book? This year I curated my favorite books by themes, debut authors and favorite authors. My recommendations include creating a wife app, searching for a father and books about books. I’ve been sharing piles and piles of favorites at Library Book Pairing events at Suttle Tea, Dudley’s Bookshop Cafe, BrownBag Popcorn and PCA Art Gallery by matching a scene, event or place with a specific tea, dessert, popcorn or art piece. Favorites include “The Mystery Guest” by Nita Prose in which the murder... Full story
Visiting the Cascade forests in late fall and winter, the fluted notes of the Varied Thrush [zoreus naevius] can often be heard echoing through the forests and canyons. The elegant orange of the Varied Thrush can be seen throughout winter and are definitely a western bird. Their breeding range extends as far north as Alaska and western Canada to the forests of Oregon and Washington. They winter down the coast of California coast to Baja. The varied Thrush was first identified... Full story
Sisters is a town that means different things to different people: the (slightly larger) small town they grew up in, an opportunity to live where one plays, maybe a place to spend California retirement bucks, for many it’s where they do business, and for others it is a vacation destination. Smashing all these different visions, wants, hopes, and dreams into one community is bound to create spots of friction. Short-Term Rentals (STRs) are one of these spots. Many Sisters residents are happily tripping through life not k... Full story
In 2015, when my nephew Eli was about 9 years old, I explained “Dungeons & Dragons” to him while my daughter Alyx was present. I left the room after delivering a long-winded monologue where I told him that I’d started playing D&D when I was his age and that it had inspired me to write stories and helped me make new friends. He seemed to be chewing thoughtfully on my revelations. Later, Alyx informed me: “Dad, after you left, he said to me, ‘You know, your dad is kind of an old dork… no offense.’” In late 1993, when we l... Full story
The wolf issue continues to heat up across the West, with states like Oregon, Idaho, Montana, and now Colorado, all getting a chance to show their preferred flavor of wolf management. Here in “progressive” Oregon, wolves are continuously being slaughtered by the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife, often with the help of the U.S. Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services. This state-sponsored killing (plus private poaching) has resulted in suppressed wolf numbers and a hampered recovery effort. Oregon finished 2022 wit... Full story
It takes a village To the Editor: Sisters’ average minimum income (AMI) was $81,016 in 2021, up from $75,662 in 2020 (per Data USA). A 7 percent increase. Point2Homes.com agrees with that 2020 AMI and adds that Sisters’ 2020 average income was $99,679. Another source, Census Bureau Data reported an AMI of $84,088 for Sisters in 2020. Using a 5 percent yearly increase in AMI (rather than 7 percent), considering both 2020 AMI sources as a base, and knowing there’s far more than a percentage that can impact AMI, here is a novic... Full story
Suppose a twice-elected president sought to serve a third term despite text in the U.S. Constitution limiting presidents to two “elected” terms? Borrowing trouble? Sure, but could she succeed? Spoiler alert: Maybe so. Lawyers use fictional stories like that — called “hypotheticals” in the trade — to anticipate issues that could arise in future controversies. In Constitutional Cliffhangers, A Legal Guide for Presidents and their Enemies (2012), law professor Brian Kalt borrows six kinds of trouble in a series of what-if sho... Full story
As the population grows in Sisters Country that question comes up more frequently I find. And with our older population – median age in Sisters is just under 50, whereas Oregon as a whole it is just under 40 – it seems to be a pertinent question. We have a cemetery, in fact. Two to be precise. One most everybody knows about - the Camp Polk Cemetery - is also known as Pioneer Cemetery and has been around since 1880. Turns out, nobody owns the place. At least no person or ent... Full story
School is back in session To the Editor: I would like to extend my warm wishes to the Sisters community for a happy new year. The first school board meeting of 2024 began with a celebration of our school board members, as January is board member recognition month. We thanked our five dedicated school board members for their time and commitment to our schools. Joan Warburg, SES principal, and Joe Hosang, director of human resources and curriculum, presented the Early Literacy Grant, which will allow for additional investments... Full story
My wife enjoys watching award shows. I’d rather have each of my fingernails removed by the pincers of a medieval torturer than to sit through the Golden Globes. Not a problem — I simply retired Sunday evening to watch Cold War documentaries on YouTube. While the glitterati cavorted, I watched the fall of Dien Bien Phu. Again. This amiable arrangement didn’t let me entirely escape the cult of celebrity. I was informed at dinner that a moment had already gone viral when the h... Full story
Taurus, the brightest zodiac constellation of the winter season, rides high in the evening sky during January. The celestial Bull is one of only 12 elite constellations that lie along a strip of sky centered about the ecliptic. The sun, moon, and all the major planets are always found somewhere within this belt of the sky. The arrangement of stars in Taurus does, indeed, resemble the head of a bull. The V-shaped star cluster known as the Hyades depicts the beast's face. From... Full story
For the past 20 years or so, I've tried to go fishing on New Year's Day - even when the Ducks were playing in a bowl game on that day. Stringing up a fly rod and walking along a river just seems like the best possible way to start another year. The goal is always to catch a fish or two, but it's not a gotta-do-this deal. Some might say that starting the New Year and not catching a fish is a bad beginning. Those are the same people who think that fly-fishing is all about... Full story
Truly, Scotties and all dogs are the best friends we have. Yes, we have loyal families and spouses. But as some find out, even family members and spouses have been known to desert us. But a well-loved dog is devoted to its keeper for life. It may sound silly to some, but it seems that the many thousands of years that humans and dogs have spent together has made the once mighty wolf into a reflection of the very best that humans can be. Unless trained otherwise, a dog is... Full story
A few days ago, Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley stepped on one of the most explosive landmines in the field of American history. Asked at a New Hampshire town hall what was the cause the American Civil War, the former governor of South Carolina tried to sidestep. “I think the cause of the Civil War was basically how government was going to run, the freedoms and what people could and couldn’t do,” Haley said. “I think it always comes down to the role of government... Full story
Tree poaching To the Editor: I live in Crossroads. I wanted to correct the information in The Nugget, “Tree poachers strike in Sisters.” In this article it stated that Jeremy Fields and Therese Kollerer found the old-growth tree outside Crossroads on a survey of a volunteer clean-up. My husband, myself, and our neighbor were the ones involved in the clean-up of an abandoned homeless camp. However, it was my husband who discovered the tree on one of his daily runs. He reported the location (using Google coordinates) to the... Full story
One of the most gratifying aspects of newspaper work is the connections you make. We writerly folk are often introverts by temperament — most comfortable wandering our own mental landscape or absorbed in a book. Those of us get pushed or pulled into journalism are pushed out into a wider world, compelled by the demands of the work to enter other people’s spheres, engage with them and tell their stories. We’re lucky. I feel especially fortunate doing this work in a small town,... Full story
