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About The Bulletin. (Bend, OR) 1963-current | View Entire Issue (Dec. 14, 2022)
A4 The BulleTin • Wednesday, decemBer 14, 2022 Gas prices Continued from A1 The average price in Oregon was $3.98, an 18-cent decline from last week and the ninth largest weekly drop in the country, according to AAA. In Bend, however, the average price is $4.02 a gallon, com- pared to a week ago when it was $4.18, according to AAA. Pendleton was $4.01 a gallon this week, according to AAA. Nationwide the average price per gallon was $3.24, compared to $3.38 a week ago, a far cry from the $5.01 a gal- lon set on June 14. “Drivers in Oregon and across the county are getting an early holiday gift in the form of falling gas prices,” said Marie Dodds, AAA gov- ernment and public affairs di- rector. “AAA expects prices to continue to decline through the holidays, barring any un- expected glitches in supplies. “That’s good news for the millions of Americans plan- ning holiday road trips.” AAA estimates that nearly 113 million Americans will take a holiday vacation this year, an increase of 3% from a year ago. Since many of Cen- tral Oregon’s visitors arrive by car, lower fuel prices could translate into more visitors seeking the snow and a winter OSAA Continued from A1 The question surrounding the media credential policy arose after Grant Magazine, published Cost of Coverage, a story highlighting the conduct of Eric Watkins, the owner of the Elite Oregon Girls website. The story written in the monthly magazine by three Grant High students — Claire Coffey, Ava Siano and Veron- ica Bianco — detailed Wat- kins’ inappropriate conduct toward high school students by way of his popular sports platform dedicated to ex- clusively covering girls high school sports in Oregon. Between Instagram and Twitter, Elite Oregon Girls had a following of over 10,000. Coffey, Siano and Bianco OSU-Cascades Continued from A1 Coffin said the program in- cludes hosting speakers to talk about different industries, and gives students opportunities to apply for internships and tour companies through the school’s career development office. “When you study in the life sciences field at OSU-Cascades it’s a won- derful place to study because of the faculty the students “The customers are superhappy. They say this is an awesome price now. I’m getting a line all the time now.” — Sabbi Johal, station owner, Space Age Fuel on Grandview Drive in Bend holiday. “They can’t hurt,” Courtney Braun, Wanderlust Tours co- owner said of lower gas prices. “I’m assuming a lot more peo- ple will travel with lower gas prices.” Bookings for the tour com- pany, which leads nighttime and daytime snowshoeing tours, are already on pace with last year’s holiday season, Braun said. The year-end holiday sea- son is from Dec. 23 to Jan. 2. Since the Christmas and New Year’s Day holidays are being observed on Mondays, both will be long weekends. In the first few months received screen shots of direct messages between Watkins and five girls that could be deemed too personal for an exchange between a member of the media and high-school aged girls. Paula Hicks, who had two daughters in the Bend High volleyball program in fall of 2021, remembers an uncom- fortable encounter with Wat- kins at a volleyball match in Salem. Watkins was seen hanging around and asking questions to members of the Lava Bears’ freshman volleyball team out- side of the team’s locker room, Hicks said. It left observers feeling uneasy about the inter- action, she said. “My daughter doesn’t re- member the conversation,” Hicks said in an email to The will work with. We are small enough where faculty will get to know the students and their hopes and dreams,” Coffin said. “We have active researchers who teach stu- dents and who will engage students in their research and they will also encour- age students to take on their own undergraduate research projects. And they do it all in brand new state of the art fa- cilities here in Bend.” █ jsiess@bendbulletin.com, 541-617-7820 Commutations Continued from A1 A list of inmates with death sentences provided by the gover- nor’s office had 17 names. But the state Department of Corrections’ website lists 21 names. One of those prisoners, however, had his death sentence overturned by the Oregon Supreme Court in 2021 because the crime he committed was no longer eligible for the death penalty under a 2019 law. Officials in the governor’s office and the corrections depart- ment did not immediately respond to an attempt to reconcile the lists. Your guide to food, arts and entertainment in Central Oregon Pick up Thursday’s Bulletin for weekly event coverage and calendars dean Guernsey/The Bulletin Michael Bennett serves customers Tuesday at Space Age Fuel, where a gallon of gas had dropped to $3.57 a gallon. of the Russian invasion into Ukraine, the world saw gas prices skyrocket. Russia is one of the world’s top produc- ers of oil and was the leading cause of the market volatil- ity, according to AAA. Crude oil reached a high of $122.11 a barrel in June, causing the spike in prices. This month, crude prices plummeted to $72 a barrel, the lowest price since De- cember 2021, according to AAA. Nationwide, for the third week in a row, Hawaii is the state with the most expen- sive gas at $5.14 a gallon, ac- cording to AAA. Conversely, the cheapest price of gas is in Texas as $2.69 a gallon. Bulletin. “She just remembers that he kept asking questions/ talking to keep the conversa- tion going. She and another outspoken teammate said come on guys we need to go, creating an excuse to get the team out of there.” In Watkins’ write up on the Lava Bears following the match, there was no mention of the freshman games, only the varsity games. A few months later, in May of 2022, the Salem-Keizer school district banned Wat- kins from all the school properties. OSAA was in communication with the Sa- lem-Keizer district, regard- ing the concerns it had with Watkins and the inappropriate messages between a man in his late 20s and teenage girls. But because no formal press- pass policy was in place, Wat- kins was able to attend games anywhere else in the state with his OSAA issued press pass. “At that time we consulted with our legal counsel and reached out to state associa- tions in 11 western states to inquire about their media cre- dentialing policies, as OSAA did not have a formal creden- tialing policy,” Weber wrote. “Once we gathered and re- viewed the information from the other states, along with in- put from legal counsel, OSAA staff drafted a new board pol- icy and took that to our Board for adoption.” At the OSAA executive board’s work session this past Sunday, the board told Wat- kins his press pass had been revoked. He will no longer be able to attend high school games in Oregon as a creden- tialed media person. On Dec. 5, Watkins an- nounced on his website that he would stop running Elite Oregon Girls, citing that he was feeling undervalued, while being physically and mentally drained. Watkins told The Bulletin on Tuesday that he was un- aware of the OSAA policy and could not comment about it. But he cited a comment he made to Willamette Weekly about his work with Elite Ore- gon Girls: “Nothing has tarnished my legacy or work with Elite Ore- gon Girls, and I never had any expectation of personal ben- efit for my work,” Watkins is quoted as saying. “All of these things boil down to individ- ual interpretation, and there’s nothing that I regret. It was done out of heart and passion for the work that I accom- plished.” Watkins has since pivoted from running Elite Oregon Girls, to a new platform called Empowerment Sports Media, a similar all-female sports cov- erage destination focusing on junior college sports in Ohio. █ █ Reporter: 541-633-2117, sroig@bendbulletin.com Reporter: 541-383-0307, brathbone@bendbulletin.com
