Here at the Source Weekly, we do our damndest to sample all the latest beers from Bend's master brewers. Shoot, we even made it down to 10 Barrel yesterday to try their "new and improved" Apocalypse IPA.

While we haven't made it in to sample GoodLife's new "29er," India Brown Ale, we plan to soon. In the mean time, we were hoping one of y'all could tell us what to expect. There is a precedent for this so-called IBA, by the way (see, Dogfish Head India Brown Ale). 

Here's how to earn a $25 gift certificate to GoodLife:

Like us on Facebook and leave us a comment describing this new IBA. No need to get all namby-pampby on us—we're not in Sideways. Just tell us how it tastes. We'll pick a winner by the end of the day.

Oh, and two thumbs up for the latest iteration of 10 Barrel's IPA. To read exactly what we thought, see Microcosmos in this week's issue, on stands today. To read brewmaster Jimmy Seifrit's description of the new brew, see below.

After breaking a rather cheap pair of Sony stereo headphones, I went on a search for decent and also good looking cans under a hundred bucks. I finally settled on the Marshall Major (on ear) headphones and just finished reviewing them. I ended up being quite pleased. But it got me wondering, what do our BENT readers use for their away from home music listening? Take a second and let us know what you think the best pair of headphones under $100 are. (Links so that we can see pictures of your more stylish choices are encouraged).

Less than two months after learning that a second helicopter ambulance service was entering the Central Oregon market, St. Charles has announced that it is getting out of the life flight business entirely.

The regional hospital announced Monday that it is closing its AirLink helicopter service and selling the business assets to a Texas-based firm that specializes in medical evacuations.

“This was a difficult decision to make,” said St. Charles Bend CEO Bob Gomes, in a press release Monday. “We have the best critical care team in the region but we feel this is the right thing to do for Central Oregon.”

According to Hospital spokeswoman Lisa Goodman the transaction should be complete by June 15. In the meantime, patients shouldn’t see a disruption in services. The new operator, Med Trans Corp. will take over the AirLink brand and intends to honor the memberships purchased by current AirLink members.

As part of the move, St. Charles will lay off  27 AirLink employees, including 10 registered nurses and 12 respiratory therapists. In Monday's press release, Goodman wrote that the hospital will "make  every effort" to find jobs for the displaced workers at St. Charles.

Another casualty of the troubled journalism industry announced defeat today. Oregon Capitol News, an online news site devoted to political and investigative reporting in Salem, said today that it will shut down immediately, according to a news release.

 “We just ultimately decided that the business model was infeasible,” said John Charles, President and CEO of the organization that sponsors the website, by phone earlier today.

Oregon Capital News began in late 2009 under the name Oregon Politico as an independent and unbiased news offshoot of Cascade Policy Institute, an Oregon-based libertarian think tank. Along with reporting, the venture also developed a large database of government documents called GovDocs for the public. Both projects were funded by outside donors who hoped to pull back support as the website became self-sufficient, said Charles.

The name of the website was changed in mid-2010 after a legal challenge by Politico.com.

After campaigns to earn grants and cash from other funding sources were fruitless, it became clear last fall that Cascade Policy Institute would soon have to take on the financial responsibility for the project, jeopardizing the credibility of the news outlet and siphoning funds from the think tank’s primary mission, according to the news release.

Dope. Enjoy the final four y'all.

Where is everyone watching today's games?

In these economic times sometimes things can feel a little dire. However, all over the country people are looking for, and sometimes finding, the pewter lining. Right here in Bend a pair of local artists working on a new formula that is designed to deconstruct artistic and economic limitations with a bold new experiment in commercial art, design and production, dubbed, fittingly The Workhouse.

Rooted in grass roots solutions, combining community, creativity, resourcefulness, and hard work to help redefine "the good life". Belying the origins of it's name, The Workhouse, love child of Stuart Breidenstein and Cari Dolyniuk, defines this union of elements.

Opening to the public on Saturday, March 31st, it is located in The Old Ironworks District, right next to Sparrow Bakery. It offers eight large work stations/studios, a community table/runway, and an equipped fashion lab which designers can rent by the month, geared to retail sales. As Cari describes it,

Come out and support the birth of this inspiring creative economic model. The grand opening is Saturday, March 31st, from 5pm-10pm at 50 Scott Street . Come prepared to enjoy free live music, with cash to purchase food from the debut of Wide Open Foods, and a beverage cup made by local potter Chad Fox ( one of the founders of the adjacent Cinder Cone Clayworks )  which entitles you to a free beverage,(eliminating disposable cups, are you hearing the theme here? ) as well the locally sourced Work of the denizens of The Workhouse.

If you can't make the opening, regular business hours, starting April 4th,10 - 5 are Wednesday - Sunday. email - aworkhouse@yahoo.com

It's been just under a year and a half since local singer songwriter Chris Beland made news when at age 31 he met his father (former Flying Burrito Brothers guitarist John Beland) for the first time. Just a couple of days later, the two of them took the stage together during Chris's sophomore record release party at The Kilns Bookstore in Bend.

Today, Chris is drawing from that experience and the months that followed by creating new songs for a third album, currently in the early stages of production. I sat down with him last week to chat about what we might expect, but even more importantly... the help he needs to make it happen at all.

Chris is using the popular site, Kickstarter to make his album a reality and currently has 38 days left to collect money from enough backers to continue moving forward. It's a unique way of getting everything from tech projects, to films, to records funded and typically, the people requesting the money don't get a dime unless they raise the total amount needed. Chris is hopeful that taking advantage of this new medium for raising money will help him finish making the album and if all goes well, it should be released early this Fall. But even if that doesn't happen... the recording will likely go on, just at a much slower pace.

During the week, you can catch Chris playing live shows around town at places like Jackson's Corner, Bend d'Vine, and Five Fusion & Sushi Bar.

I don’t know about you, but the idea of having 16 different dishes, created by 12 of Central Oregon’s best chefs, at 11 locations, in one day excites the beejeezus out of me.

This Sunday, April 1, from 4 to 8 p.m. The Foodie Crawl bursts onto the Bend scene for the first time. The folks who brought you the Sage in the Kitchen cookbook are delighting our collective palettes once again with one of the truly coolest culinary events ever.

The idea is this, with your paid admission ($60 general admission, $95 VIP access), you get a wristband, which gains you admittance to meet the chefs featured in the Sage in the Kitchen cookbook, and enjoy 16 different dishes, with beverage pairings at the 11 locations on the crawl.

Special thanks to photographers Derek Oldham who shot this week's cover image of local Blacksmith Hunter Dahlberg. 

In our rush to get this week's issue on the stands we forgot to credit Derek for his iconic and excellent image. Our bad. However, if you would like to see more of Derek's work on his Flickr or Facebook pages. 

Opponents that include organized labor, local forest advocates, a physicians group and the Sierra Club are calling on Gov. John Kitzhaber to wade into a controversial plan for a bottled water plant in the Columbia Gorge.

Multinational food corporation Nestle recently won approval from the state’s notoriously lax Department of Water Resources for a bottling plant in Cascade Locks that the company has sold as an economic boon to the small community. (It's worth noting that it was Kitzhaber who thwarted Cascade Locks attempt to build an off-reservation casino in cooperation with the Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs.)

According to The Oregonian, Nestle is promising to create 50 permanent jobs at the roughly 25-acre bottling plant that is expected to double the small town’s property tax base.

Critics, including the D.C.-based Food and Water Watch and the Sierra Club say that’s a poor trade off when considering a permanent surrender of a finite resource like the state’s water. They have successfully defeated similar proposals by Nestle in California and Washington.

Critics have also raised concerns about creating more plastic bottle waste in Oregon where the state just recently weighed a ban on plastic bags because of concerns about litter and pollution. Organized labor is opposing the plant because of Nestle’s plan to use non-union workers at the site.