SATURDAY • May 21, 2022
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RIDGEVIEW’S NUNES WINS STATE TITLE
THE FRESHMAN SHATTERS HER PREVIOUS RECORD • CLASS 5A JAVELIN, SPORTS, B1
U.S. military | Mental health
RACE FOR GOVERNOR
IN OREGON
Student vet designs app to combat Johnson’s
suicides among service members brigades
tee up in
‘full-court
press’
BY GARY A. WARNER
Oregon Capital Bureau
Dean Guernsey/Bulletin photos
Veteran Clay Webster conducts a preflight instrument check Thursday in the cockpit of a Robinson R-44 helicopter at Bend Municipal Airport.
BY BRYCE DOLE • The Bulletin
the Bend Municipal Airport on March 10, reading through the
Facebook post that began: “FINAL CRY FOR HELP.”
The 23-year-old student veteran at
Central Oregon Community College
scrolled with growing sadness as he
took in the story of yet another vet-
eran at the brink of suicide. The post,
written by Steven Osborne, a 32-year-
old Marine Corps veteran who served
four years in Afghanistan, described
the “internal pain, sorrow and de-
pression” that looms over many vet-
erans post-combat.
The post read: “I hope now with
this letter, it will send a message to
the (U.S. Department of Veterans Af-
fairs). And not just another forgotten
letter that the VA hides in it’s closet
full of dead souls from those who
served proudly but came home bro-
ken like me, asking for help but had
the door slammed in their face …
They pushed me to this level.”
Need help?
To get help, call the Veterans Cri-
sis Line at 1-800-273-8255 or text
838255.
Webster had never met Osborne
before he died by suicide that day. But
to him, this was a story that was all
too familiar. In 2016, his high school
friend Grant Hodge had died by sui-
cide while also serving as a radio op-
erator in the Marines. “At the time, it
seemed like a freak accident, but as
you go through enlistment, you see
that it happened more and more to
different people in different areas,”
he said.
See Veteran / A7
Bend babysitter is on
trial in assault on baby
State presents internet searches, such as
‘wanting to hit babies for no reason’
BY GARRETT ANDREWS
The Bulletin
Around midday Oct.
31, 2018, paramedics were
called to a unit in the West-
side Village Apartments in
Bend, where, they were told,
a 14-month-old child had
fallen off a bed and hit her
head.
The girl was screaming
though unresponsive, her
eyes “stuck in one spot,” the
child’s babysitter, Trishelle
Linschied, told 911.
TODAY’S
WEATHER
Linschied, then 25, ran
a small day care out of the
two-bedroom apartment
she shared with a roommate.
She was alone with the child
at the time the injury oc-
curred.
The girl, Jackson Rose
Sykes, was medically air-
lifted from St. Charles Bend
to Legacy Emanuel Medical
Center in Portland, where
she was treated for a brain
hemorrhage.
See Babysitter / A7
Partly sunny
High 66, Low 39
Page A8
INDEX
Webster, a Marine Corps veteran, wears a bracelet in
memory of a friend and fellow veteran who took his
own life.
Middle ground
Johnson has sought to stake out the
middle ground between what she called
“the shrill voices of the left and right.”
She’s lined up endorsements from the
moderate wings of both the Democratic
and Republican party.
See Johnson / A4
Hydro Flask is sued by former
employee for sex discrimination
BY GARRETT ANDREWS
The Bulletin
Bulletin file photo
In this 2017 file photo, Hydro Flask Marketing Director Yiorgos Makris
gives a tour of the Hydro Flask headquarters in Bend.
Business
Classifieds
Comics
A5-6
B6
B3-4
Dear Abby
Editorial
Horoscope
A6
B5
A6
Local/State
Lottery
Puzzles
A2-3
B2
B4
Sports
Weather
B1-2
A8
A former social media co-
ordinator for Hydro Flask is
suing the Bend-based bot-
tle-maker, alleging her boss
harassed her over a 3-year
period, while upper manage-
ment supported him.
Kelli Delperdang was hired
as a social media coordinator
in August 2016, and termi-
nated by the company in No-
vember 2020.
She alleges in a lawsuit,
filed Monday in Deschutes
County Circuit Court, that
The Bulletin
An Independent Newspaper
Vol. 117, No. 329, 14 pages, 2 sections
We use
recycled
newsprint
she was wrongfully termi-
nated after her manager
subjected her to sexual ha-
rassment, a hostile work envi-
ronment, gender discrimina-
tion and retaliation.
Delperdang, 32, is seeking
$241,000 in damages.
Hydro Flask Marketing
Director Yiorgos Makris is
named as a party in the law-
suit. A company representa-
tive said this week that Makris
was still with the company. He
did not return phone calls or
an email.
See Hydro Flask / A4
DAILY
C
lay Webster, a U.S. Marine Corps veteran, sat in his truck outside
The “Betsy Brigades” are revving up to
move into the Oregon political scene, car-
rying the message of the insurgent mod-
erate seeking to become just the second
independent governor in state history.
“We’re in full-court press,” Johnson
said in an interview on primary Election
Day. “We’re going to have
Betsy Brigades teeing up
to gather signatures in ev-
ery county.”
Johnson’s mixing of
MAY 17 basketball
and golf meta-
ELECTION phors is symbolic of what
she says Oregon needs in
All coverage
its politics: a variety.
online at
“Take the best ideas
bendbulletin.
com/elections
from Democrats and the
best ideas of Republicans
so Oregon can get its mojo back,” she
said.
She’s eager to unleash her campaign,
sending volunteers dubbed “Betsy Bri-
gades” out to connect with voters in all 36
counties.
With Democrats and Republicans ex-
hausted and depleted by primary races,
she’s jumping into the spotlight with the
largest war chest of all. Johnson has raised
more than $8 million, and currently has
$5.3 million in her campaign fund. Her
campaign has attracted large contribu-
tions from what critics have called the
“bulldozer and buzz saw” industries —
timber and construction.
The largest amount — $1.75 million
— has come from Nike co-founder Phil
Knight.
Johnson’s first campaign goal is to
gather at least 24,000 valid signatures to
submit to the Secretary of State’s Office by
Aug. 16.
“We’ll blow by that number,” she said.
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