Bank of the Cascades announced Thursday that it is pledging to make a billion dollar's worth of loans to small businesses and other customers in its Oregon and Idaho markets over the next three years.

New CEO Terry Zink, who recently took over the leadership of the Bend-based Bank from longtime CEO Patti Moss, said in a press release that the decision to commit to the aggressive lending strategy was based on the bank’s belief that increased lending is key to the region’s economic recovery.

“We know that business lending creates jobs and strengthens our local ecomonies. As a community bank, that’s exactly what we do. We invest in our communities and the people who live here,” Zink said in a press release.

Like other banks in the region, and across the country, BOTC was heavily hit by the housing collapse and flirted with insolvency just a few years ago. However, a successful stock sale has left the bank well capitalized and ready to lend, according to Zink.

However, the company is still dealing with so-called toxic assets and reported a $54  million loss in the third quarter because of charge offs related to non-performing loans (defaults). The company's stock closed at $5.47 yesterday, down from a 52 week high of $12.58, but above the low of $3.50

I just got back from sitting in on a bible study group (20 rosy-cheeked youngsters), conducted during school hours in a trailer just a couple hundred short yards from the front door of Tumalo Community School (a Redmond public school, K-8). 

The Good News Club, which hosts the bible studies, is an "outreach ministry" for the world-wide organization, Child Evangelism Fellowship (whose seal states: "Therefore go and make disciples of all nations").

The GN club is acting in accordance with the law, and the students can only attend these clubs with the written consent of their parents.

But the close relationship between faith-based organizations like CEF and public schools underscores the difficulty of defining the line between church and state in contemporary society as some religious groups make a renewed push into the public square.

Next week we'll take a look at where the line is drawn locally and who is in charge of making sure that it isn't crossed.

It seems as though Bend’s rapidly expanding craft beer industry has done nothing but import brewers over the last few years. So it was probably time that we started exporting again. And it appears the first to go is longtime Silver Moon brewmaster, Tyler West, who’s been hired by Oakshire Brewing in Eugene.

West, who began as a home brewer, has worked at Silver Moon for over a decade, starting as an employee in the old Division Street homebrew shop.

He has served as the head brewer since roughly 2004, according to owner Tyler Reichert, who says that West leaves on great terms.

“It was a good move—a change of scenery, and I’m happy for him,” Reichert said.

It’s not immediately clear who will succeed West at the helm of Silver Moon’s brewing operation. Reichert said he has yet to sit down with his staff to discuss that. But assistant brewer Brett Thomas remains on staff, Reichert noted. West and Thomas teamed up on the Dark Side Stout recipe that earned a coveted Gold Medal at the Great American Beer Festival last year.

*Photo: West, Thomas and Reichert at the GABF from Silvermoonbrewing.com

Not sure when National Geographic got into the overplayed town rankings business that seems to constitute Outside Magazine’s business model, but they apparently have and “surprise” Bend is on the mag’s list of top 25 ski towns—in the world… Yes, according to National Geographic we’re right up there with Banff, Aspen, Telluride, Crested Butte not to mention Chamonix and Zermatt, Switzerland. Don’t get us wrong we love our town, which is actually a metro area with a population of almost 80,000 souls, and we love our little butte that was re-branded as a mountain for marketing purposes by Bill Healy and the gang back in the day. But come on. Seriously. Are we really supposed to believe that Bend is simultaneously the golf, microbrew, fly fishing, mountain biking, skiing, and possibly yoga capital of the world? Somebody is going to hit the bullshit button on this marketing campaign pretty soon. Maybe then we can just be good old Bend, a good place to visit and fine place to live.

The summer of super heroes is fast approaching. In major cities across the globe, lucky fans of the web-slinging teenager were recently treated to a six-minute preview of Marc Webb's The Amazing Spider-Man. The preview draws comparison to the prologue released by Warner Bros. for the upcoming The Dark Knight Rises. Following suite with the Bat, Spidey's new trailer hit the web today.

Along with The Avengers, whose new trailer debuted during the Superbowl, these three comic book powerhouses are putting together a more competitive race than the GOP nomination.  Needless to less, the comic book industry is going to make a pretty penny this summer.

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Finally the two things American’s love more than anything else: Spaghetti and World War II vets.

Okay, maybe the first one is up for debate, but Bendites have a great opportunity to send some of the surviving members of the greatest generation to Washington, D.C. to see the relatively recently installed WWII Memorial

And all you have to do is chow a bowl of spaghetti to help. Jakes Diner will be hosting the feed on Sun. Feb. 19 at 4 p.m. Cost is $10 per plate with all proceeds going toward the local “Honor Flight”

This is the second such event. Last year’s event fully funded the Honor Flight for 10 local vets.

You're been reading her sage-like advice for years in the dead-tree edition. Now hear Advice Goddess Amy Alkon dish on life and love via the interwebs with her weekly on-line radio show. This week's episode:  Evolutionary psychologist Dr. Gad Saad on sex, “sensitive men,” and why you have to buy her an engagement ring and she doesn’t have to buy you an engagement boat.

You're been reading her sage-like advice for years in the dead-tree edition. Now hear Advice Goddess Amy Alkon dish on life and love via the interwebs with her weekly on-line radio show. This week's episode:  Evolutionary psychologist Dr. Gad Saad on sex, “sensitive men,” and why you have to buy her an engagement ring and she doesn’t have to buy you an engagement boat.

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The nonprofit arts education and advocacy group Arts Central will soon vacate its longtime home at Mirror Pond plaza, according to the group which sent out a press release on Thursday announcing its pending departure. The organization, which operates the Art Station in the Old Mill, the artists in residency program in the Bend schools and the mobile outreach program, Van Go cited challenges programming the current site on Brooks Avenue as the main reason for the departure. Programming, however, wasn’t the only challenge at the site. A dispute with Deschutes County assessors led to a bill for back taxes in excess of $10,000. The city of Bend, which owns the historic building where Arts Central resides, paid the bill upfront and Arts Central has been paying the city back. According to story in Thursday's Bulletin, The city has agreed to forgive the balance of the debt if Arts Central can help find a tenant for the space that the city had leased to the organization for $1 per year.

Property taxes weren’t the only challenge; in order to preserve its non-profit status and virtually rent-free arrangement with the city, the organization was also prohibited from allowing local artists to display art and offer it for sale within the building, known as the Rademacher house – something that Arts Central had long done. Executive Director Cate O’Hagan had complained also about the vagrancy and criminal activity that occurs around the plaza area and had called for more emphasis on public safety.

The organization has not yet identified a new home for its operations.

You don't have the chance every day to photograph a ski champion like Evelyn Dong at your studio.

To show her muscles and that cool turtle tattoo I decide to shoot her backside  with some back light to frame her physique.

The idea was to showcase her athletic body and show that strong is beautiful. Again it shows how great it is to live in place where you have all these athletes and fit people around.