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About The Bulletin. (Bend, OR) 1963-current | View Entire Issue (Feb. 28, 2021)
SUNDAY • February 28, 2021 Serving Central Oregon since 1903 • $3 CROSS COUNTRY RETURNS HIGH SCHOOL SEASON FINALLY GETS UNDERWAY IN CENTRAL OREGON • SPORTS, B1 COVID-19 | FDA clears Johnson & Johnson’s single-shot vaccine, A7 REDMOND Players chase pro football dream BY KYLE SPURR The Bulletin REDMOND — Zoran Bargas paced back and forth in the 30-degree weather Saturday morning, trying to stay warm be- fore trying out for Central Oregon’s new indoor professional football team, the Ore- gon High Desert Storm. The 25-year-old from San Luis Obispo, California, had never seen snow before ar- riving in Redmond to follow his dream of becoming a professional football player. Bargas played high school and junior col- lege football in California and tried out for a few Canadian Football League teams, but the league canceled last season due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Bargas, who works at Ross Dress for Less back home, was anxious to overcome the freezing temperatures Saturday and show off his skills as a running back on a grass field outside the entrance to the De- schutes County fairgrounds. See Tryouts / A6 Ryan Brennecke/The Bulletin Timothy Norris, 27, of Salem, runs a drill Saturday during a tryout for the Oregon High Desert Storm at the Deschutes County fairgrounds. Alcohol tax Proposal threatens an industry hit hard by COVID-19 pandemic Tyler West, production manager at GoodLife Brewing in Bend, pushes a pallet of kegs into the refrigerator while working Friday at the brewery. Ryan Brennecke/The Bulletin BY SUZANNE ROIG • The Bulletin T he head of Deschutes Brewery says the proposed alcohol tax introduced in the past week to the Oregon Legislature is akin to kicking the homegrown industry while it’s down. After a year of partial openings and closings and reduced revenues from the lack of keg sales, beer brewers need every advantage to keep the doors open, said Michael LaLonde, Deschutes Brewery CEO. They don’t need a proposal to raise taxes by as much as 2,800%, as House Bill 3296 would do to tax beer, wine, cider and distilled spirits. See Alcohol / A5 Sisters teen interviews Gov. Brown, Sen. Wyden, other politicians on YouTube BY JACKSON HOGAN The Bulletin Like many teenagers, Sisters resident Kale Gardner has a YouTube channel. But unlike many other teen- agers, Kale doesn’t use that channel to stream video game play-throughs or record fre- quent blogs about his life. In- stead, he talks about climate change and education reform Ryan Brennecke/ The Bulletin TODAY’S WEATHER Partly sunny High 55, Low 34 Page B6 INDEX Business/Life Classifieds Dear Abby C1-8 B5 C3 Editorial Horoscope Local/State A4 C3 A2-3 with politicians, like U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden or Gov. Kate Brown. Kale, 14, said his politically minded interests are different from many of his classmates at Sisters Middle School. He hopes to become a trusted journalist someday. “A lot of people don’t have faith in the media anymore, and it’s sad,” he said. “Journalism isn’t Lottery Market Recap Mon. Comics B2 B4 C5-6 Obituaries Puzzles Sports A6-7 C4 B1-4 making up falsehoods; it’s telling the truth, and I want to restore faith in the news media.” Since January 2020, Kale has periodically posted video interviews with well-known politicians to his YouTube page. And not just ones from Oregon: Last January, he chat- ted with Katie Hobbs, Ari- zona’s secretary of state, and Pennsylvania state Rep. Mal- The Bulletin ù An Independent Newspaper We use recycled newsprint Vol. 119, No. 51, 26 pages, 4 sections colm Kenyatta. Kale’s first interview was with Brown, whom he met af- ter she noticed a poster of his at an election rally in 2018 and asked to take a picture with it. At the time, Kale’s family only lived a couple blocks away from the governor’s mansion in Salem, so the two developed a relationship, Kale said. See Kale / A5 SUN/THU “A lot of people don’t have faith in the media anymore, and it’s sad,” said Kale Gardner, 14, of Sisters, who has journal- istic and political aspirations. U|xaIICGHy02330rzu