Hi, my friends!

THANK YOU for visiting Barney's Bend Bugle, what I hope you'll find to be a fun, interesting new Central Oregon (and Oregon/Northwest) news website.

As many of you know, I co-created it with the great vibe-coding tool Base 44, after leaving KTVZ News in the spring (after a fitting, amazing 21 years!) to care for my wonderful wife in her battle with cancer. It helped me stay somewhat sane, until and especially after my dear wife Debbie passed at the wonderful Hospice House at the end of July 2026.

Anyway, for those who don't know me, I began reporting in second grade, and have always looked for ways to turn a pun/wordplay - my second-grade mimeographed newsletter was called the "Room 210 Tooter."

I've lived in Bend for half of my 70 years, after a wonderful career start at United Press International in Portland and San Francisco.

When UPI sort of ... dissolved, Deb and I moved to Bend, where I began nine great years at The Bulletin, followed by five amazing years as an online news pioneer of sorts at bend.com - which added a free weekly paper, called The Bugle. (Hence, this site's throwback name;-)

I've worked with so many wonderful people, and never went "looking" to start my own news site - but it's been a fun, rewarding, fulfilling blast. It helps keep me somewhat together in the wake of Deb's passing - no mean feat.

Besides, a certain local official (ahem) I recently ran into at the store told his wife as he left that I'm "an icon in this community." My sort of joking thought was: "That's nice - but what does being an 'icon' pay?"

I do NOT want to just be another site, reporting the same stuff as the paper, KTVZ etc. Sure, I'll do some of that - but really want to share unique stories as much as possible (without fully diving into the deep buckets of stress I swam in for a half-century or more.)

To newcomers, I humbly promise a mix of local and regional news and features, quirky discoveries, some useful information and the occasional (oh who am I kidding?) pun, joke or anecdote that probably seemed funnier in my head;-)

By the way, I want to make clear - when my name is the byline, it's written by me - NOT AI! That tool has helped make this amazing website, and I use my favorite "always cites its sources" tool, Perplexity, to help research interesting topics. But you can tell - for better or worse - that it's me at the keyboard, not a "robot."

So I have two small favors to ask: One, if you have some interesting questions, topics, issues or personalities you haven't seen addressed in local media, please drop me a line. I can't promise to always get answers and write some deep-think 2,000-word opus, but I'll try to make sure "news as a conversation" isn't just some trendy thing in the Age of AI. It's as real as it gets!

Second, if your mailbox isn't TOO overflowing - like mine - please subscribe to the Daily/Breaking Bugle Blasts, from the link you can find on the home page and at the bottom of every page. My "output" will vary from day to day, as I try to build a new chapter in my life, but I will be eternally grateful - just as I am that God brought Deb into my life - twice - and the second time, I didn't let go for 43 wonderful years.

Thanks for stopping by, and please keep in touch!

Contact

If you have a great tip or story idea, please reach out by email to barneylerten@gmail.com.