Category: ktvz-local-news

Barney Lerten

(Update: Prescribed burning underway)

La PINE, Ore. (KTVZ) — Bend-Fort Rock Ranger District firefighters were conducting up to 169 acres of prescribed burning Tuesday about five miles northeast of La Pine, near Ogden Group Camp and McKay Crossing Campground, the Deschutes National Forest said.  

Ignitions got underway after successful test firings, officials said.

Smoke may be visible from La Pine, Sunriver, Highway 97, and the surrounding area. Residents in La Pine and Newberry Estates were encouraged to keep doors and windows closed to minimize smoke impacts. Smoke impacts are most likely overnight and in the early morning hours.  

No trail or road closures are planned, officials said. Smoke impacts are possible across Highway 97 during prescribed burning operations, as well as overnight and in the early morning hours. 

Firefighters implement understory prescribed burning to reduce wildfire risk to communities. Prescribed burning reintroduces and maintains fire within our fire-dependent ecosystem by removing concentrations of vegetation and restoring forest health while increasing public and firefighter safety. 

Fire management officials work with Oregon Department of Forestry smoke specialists to plan prescribed burns. Prescribed burns are conducted when weather is most likely to move smoke up and away from our communities. While prescribed fire managers take significant preventive measures, it’s likely that communities may experience some smoke during or immediately after a prescribed burn.  

What does this mean for you? 

During prescribed burns, smoke may settle in low-lying areas overnight and in the early morning hours.  

All residents are encouraged to close doors and windows at night to avoid smoke impacts. 

If available, use a portable air cleaner. Air cleaners work best running with doors and windows closed. You can also create a DIY air cleaner. 

If you have a central air system, use it to filter air. Use high-efficiency filters if possible. 

When driving in smoky areas, drivers should slow down, turn on headlights and turn air to recirculating. 

If you have heart or lung disease, asthma, or other chronic conditions, pay attention to how you feel and if symptoms of heart or lung disease worsen, consider contacting your health care professional. 

Go to centraloregonfire.org to learn more about smoke safety and prescribed burning in Central Oregon and visit When Smoke is in the Air for more smoke preparedness resources. 

For more information on prescribed burning in Central Oregon, visit centraloregonfire.org/ and for information specific to the Deschutes National Forest, visit www.fs.usda.gov/deschutes. Follow us on X/Twitter @CentralORFire. Text “COFIRE” to 888-777 to receive wildfire and prescribed fire text alerts. 

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Kelsey Merison

BEND, Ore. (KTVZ) — Here’s a story that’s sure to make you hungry, featuring a ‘modern cowboy steakhouse’ in Bend.

And if you’re a Food Network fan, you might recognize some of these names. 

At Hawkeye and Huckleberry, customers come for the food and drinks but stay for the service and atmosphere.

Hawkeye and Huckleberry plates

“This place consistently has such great energy!” Neil Connelly, a repeat customer, said in a recent interview with KTVZ News. “The cocktails are phenomenal! The food is always phenomenal and consistent. Every single person that works here just absolutely loves working here.”

“It’s like our local ‘Cheers’ bar,” said Tomi Connelly. “I had one of the steaks – it was so good. It was like buttery.”

Tomi and Neil

That’s the goal of one of Bend’s hottest food spots, created by chefs Brian Malarkey and Carlos Anthony — who you might have seen on Food Network.

Brian (left) and Carlos (right). Credit: @chefslivetv (YouTube)

“I have worked with Brian Malarkey, our owner, for the last 17 years. This is my 15th restaurant with him,” Chef Carlos told KTVZ. “I was so excited about the opening of this place, and I came out here for a couple of weeks to help open, and I fell in love with it. Not only the restaurant, but fell in love with Bend, with the people, with all the exciting things you can do.”

Chef Carlos originally planned on being in Bend short-term, to get the restaurant off the ground.

Cooking in the kitchen

But those plans quickly changed.

“(Bend) really took me on, and I fell in love with it. I recently married, so as soon as my wife decided she also loved it, we moved up here as soon as we could. I’ve come up here full-time, and I’ll never look back,” Chef Carlos said. “You have to be in here every day. You have to be listening to what people are coming in and talking about because it’s easy to be a flash in the pan. It’s hard to be something that lasts and that has substance. Really, I actually feel very privileged to be here.”

Now he’s focused on bringing fresh food to the table.

“We have this incredible access to the food we serve. Having our own ranch in Tumalo is like nothing I’ve ever experienced. It’s ranch to table. And to be able to source something so connected to Central Oregon and then bring it directly to the restaurant, that’s a chef’s dream,” Chef Carlos said. “It’s not just from our ranch. There’s incredible farmers out here, incredible ranchers. We work with Rainshadow (Organics), an incredible farm down the road. I love how much Central Oregon has to offer!”

Chef Carlos

And he says he couldn’t do it without their incredible staff.

‘When you make a restaurant, it’s about 50% food, and the rest is who you hire. Having good people, good staff, good bartenders, and good servers that make that experience,” said Chef Carlos. “Listen, people will come to a restaurant for a celebrity chef, but they will come back for the service.”

“The staff here is incredible. Great energy. They bring a good time here,” Neil said.

You can check out the menu by clicking here, or head on down to Hawkeye and Huckleberry at 225 SW Century Drive.

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Isabella Warren

(Update: Adding video, comments by Garrity, KTVZ News Poll)

BEND, Ore. (KTVZ) — Service providers Chuck Hemingway and Eric Garrity, along with four other homeless people living off China Hat Road, have filed suit in U.S. District Court, seeking a temporary restraining order against the U.S. Forest Service to block the May 1 closure of China Hat Road, less than two weeks before the deadline.

“The Forest Service has now been served,” Garrity told KTVZ News on Monday.

Dozens of homeless residents in the area filed disability discrimination complaints last month, and a detailed request to delay or cancel the Cabin Butte Vegetation Management Project and related May 1 deadline for homeless people to move out of the area for its closure.

Penny Gartner and Mandy Bryant said they are long-time residents in the forest who “are about to be displaced from our homes and lose everything we have within 40 days” if the nearly 28,000-acre Cabin Butte Vegetation Project proceeds as planned.

Garrity told us Monday, “I think at the end of the day this this action, this lawsuit is intended to make sure that the Forest Service is compliant with their own regulations. And those regulations really do have a beneficial impact and keep the entire community safer and healthier and happier.”

The Forest Service announced earlier this year it would close nearly 35,000 acres south of Bend to visitors and the encampments, starting May 1, for at least a year, to ensure public safety and support critical forest restoration efforts. Many KTVZ News recently talked to said they have nowhere to go.

In the cover letter to their 81-page submission (including attachments), addressed to Bend-Fort Rock Ranger District Supervisor Holly Jewkes, the pair says the environmental documents published two years ago “failed to take into account the impact on the human environment, most importantly us.”

Below is the complaint filed with the U.S. District Court in Eugene. KTVZ News reached out to the Forest Service for any comment or statement, and has not yet heard back. We will continue to update you as we learn of new developments.

Filed District Court Case 18 April 2025 (1)Download

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KTVZ News Team

(Update: Driver arraigned, formal charges)

BEND, Ore. (KTVZ) — A late-night crash at the Deschutes County Sheriff’s Office is under investigation after a truck reportedly drove through the secure vehicle gate on Saturday.

A sergeant on duty noticed the damage at the department’s main office. They eventually found a black truck parked on the west side of the lot, with loud music coming from the vehicle. 

After looking closer, the sergeant determined the truck had barreled through the gate at a high rate of speed before crashing into a block wall.

The driver, Thomas Lee Downs Jr., 38, of Bend, was taken into custody at the scene. He’s now facing several charges, including DUII, reckless driving, first-degree criminal mischief, and violating parole.

Damage to the sheriff’s office is estimated at more than $80,000.

Downs was arraigned Monday afternoon on four Class A misdemeanors – DUII, second-degree criminal mischief, reckless driving and recklessly endangering another person.

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KTVZ News Team

BEND, Ore. (KTVZ) — This week, Street Dog Hero donated 500 pounds of dog food to help support pets whose families are facing financial hardship.

The organization also responded to an urgent request from the Humane Society of the Ochocos, providing them with an additional 250 pound donation.

In addition to these immediate efforts, Street Dog Hero organizes monthly dog food banks in Bend and La Pine to help families avoid having to make difficult decisions about their pets.

The next events are scheduled for May 5th and May 15th and are open to anyone in need.

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Barney Lerten

(Update: Adding video, comments from voters)

BEND, Ore. (KTVZ) — Deschutes County Sheriff Kent van der Kamp submitted documents and falsely testified on the witness stand several times about his educational background, claiming to have degrees from two universities he never attended, District Attorney Steve Gunnels said in a detailed report released to KTVZ News on Friday.

Gunnels issued the 34-page investigative report and provided KTVZ News with audio recordings of expert witness testimony less than two weeks after placing van der Kamp on the “Brady list,” a list kept by county prosecutors of law enforcement officers who have been judged untrustworthy due to past testimony and won’t be allowed to testify in future cases.

“Sheriff Vander Kamp, while serving as an expert witness in DUII prosecutions, testified falsely about his educational background, including while under oath. This misrepresentation directly compromised his reliability as an expert in multiple cases,” Gunnels wrote.

Gunnels explained that while van der Kamp’s 2024 Voters Pamphlet educational background was accurate, a prosecutor in his office advised in November that “there may be material discrepancies” between that information and what he testified to in criminal trials.

Bend resident Virlene Arnold said Monday the sheriff will need to gain back the county voters’ trust: “We live in a climate where we’re becoming so distrustful of all our authorities that it’s really incumbent upon him to prove himself to us. “

Robert Sandberg, another Bend voter, had a more blunt view of the recent revelations: “He’s a goner. I’m sorry, but you can’t lie on stuff like that.”

One focus was on a resume-like document known as a CV in which van der Kamp claimed to have received degrees from the University of Southern California and the University of Arizona.

Gunnels said he was told by van der Kamp’s attorney last Nov. 12 that the curriculum vitae he submitted in a 2013 trial was prepared by someone other than van der Kamp, and that “he failed to read it thoroughly” before providing it to Oregon State Police or testifying at trial.

But the DA said the same schools and degrees were listed in previous CVs, and wrote that “our investigation established that (he) was never enrolled as a student at these universities, nor did he receive any degrees from these universities.” The report included responses from both schools, confirming that he had never been a student at either.

The report also included transcripts in which van der Kamp testified as to attending those schools while on the witness stand, but that he never provided degrees from either school.

“After a comprehensive investigation by our office, it was determined that Sheriff van der Kamp failed to adhere to ethical and legal standards required by law enforcement officers,” Gunnels wrote.

Here is the full investigative report, released to KTVZ News by District Attorney Steve Gunnels, along with audio recordings of testimony referred to in his report, also provided to us by the district attorney in response to a public records request.

District Attorney Press Release

Audio recording 1 of Kent van der Kamp testimony in Sime caseDownload

Audio recording 2 of Kent van der Kamp testimony in Sime caseDownload

Audio recording 1 of Kent van der Kamp testimony in Miller caseDownload

Audio recording 2 of Kent van der Kamp testimony in Miller caseDownload

Audio recording 3 of Kent van der Kamp testimony in Miller caseDownload

Audio recording 4 of Kent van der Kamp testimony in Miller caseDownload

Audio recording 5 of Kent van der Kamp testimony in Miller caseDownload

Audio recording 6 of Kent van der Kamp testimony in Miller caseDownload

Audio recording 1 of Kent van der Kamp testimony in Cline caseDownload

Audio recording 2 of Kent van der Kamp testimony in Cline caseDownload

Audio recording 3 of Kent van der Kamp testimony in Cline caseDownload

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