Central Oregon

Newly obtained credit card records from the Alfalfa Fire District reveal extensive travel expenditures involving former Fire Chief Chad LaVallee, including trips across the country, repeated hotel stays, rental vehicles, vacation packages and airfare purchased for members of his family.

In the week since the mass shooting that claimed four lives at Silver Rail Elementary School in Bend, questions have proliferated about what led the 16-year-old shooter, Griffin J. John II, to his former elementary school with a loaded shotgun.

Newly obtained text messages between former Alfalfa Fire District Chief Chad LaVallee and two Central Oregon Community College (COCC) officials reveal that LaVallee claimed the district was already interviewing prospective replacements for his position weeks before its governing board formally authorized advertising the job.

Police released new details Friday of Thursday's tragic shooting at Bend's Silver Rail Elementary School, including the names of a teacher and one of three boys killed by the 16-year-old shooter who attended the school.

A suspected shooter is dead and multiple people, including children, have been injured following a reported shooting Thursday afternoon at Silver Rail Elementary School in Bend, approximately 35 miles southwest of Prineville.

The Alfalfa Fire District's sale of a taxpayer-owned ambulance to Central Oregon Community College (COCC) for $15,000 is facing new scrutiny after records obtained by the Prineville Review revealed the college had apparently already paid the district before the vehicle was offered through a public auction that ultimately drew no other bidders.

The Alfalfa Fire District has finally released some of its 2026 bank records to the Prineville Review following weeks of delays, revealing nearly $90,000 in checks, a $157,420 FEMA deposit and thousands in other spending — but significant records needed to determine where some of the money went remain missing.

An 18-year-old Powell Butte man was arrested early today following a single-vehicle crash on Highway 97 in Bend that caused the vehicle to catch fire and closed all highway lanes for nearly an hour.

Alfalfa Fire District officials acknowledged Wednesday night they still do not have access to critical banking records needed to determine what happened to potentially hundreds of thousands of dollars in state and federal grant funding, while new questions emerged over former Fire Chief Chad LaVallee's continuing role with the district more than two months after his resignation.

Oregonians’ distrust of Flock cameras has intensified over the past year, with at least six cities and two counties canceling or curtailing contracts with...