Free Republic

The Blockbuster in Bend, Oregon, the last such store in America, is planning to run an ad during the Super Bowl.Instead of buying ad time during the TV broadcast, however, the proprietors of the Bend Blockbuster will stream the spot on Instagram, and also play it via a VHS tape at a watch party being held at the store, according to Ad Age. Afterwards, the VHS will be available for rent for $2 a day.“We are doing a fun, retro-style commercial that we will be releasing during the Big Game. We are featuring it during halftime in the store and...

The gunman -- identified by police as Ethan Blair Miller, 20 -- A search warrant was served on the gunman's vehicle and home, Miller said. Investigators found three Molotov cocktails in his car along with a sawed-off shotgun. Police are working with the ATF to learn if the firearms were legal. In his apartment, authorities found additional ammunition and digital devices that are currently being reviewed. CNN has identified several blog entries appearing to belong to Ethan Miller which were published on the blogging site "Wattpad" detailing a plan and reasons for the shooting. June 29 and signed with the...

At least two people were killed after a gunman opened fire in a Safeway grocery store in Bend, Oregon, Sunday night. Officers responded to reports of an active shooter at the store in northeast Bend shortly after 7 p.m., Bend Police Department spokesperson Sheila Miller told Fox News Digital. The shooter entered the parking lot of the Forum Shopping Center from a residential area behind the stores, police chief Mike Krantz said at a press conference. The suspect opened fire in the parking lot with an AR-15 style rifle. Police said no one was injured in the parking lot. The...

On September 19th, 2021, Ian Cranston was with his fiancee, Allie Butler, when he was attacked causing him to shoot and kill 22-year-old Barry Washington outside a bar in Bend, Oregon.Washington had been acting erratically earlier that night. Washington had propositioned Cranston’s fiancee, inside the bar. After a second proposition had been rejected, outside the bar, Washington attacked Cranston. Cranston displayed his firearm to deter further attack. Then Washington attacked Cranston’s friend and started to come at Cranston and his fiancee again. Cranston fired one shot. Washington went down. Reportedly Cranston immediately attempted to apply first aid, but the shot...

BEND, Ore. (AP) — The death toll from COVID-19 in Oregon is climbing so rapidly in some counties that the state has organized delivery of one refrigerated truck to hold the bodies and is sending a second one, the state emergency management department said Saturday.So far, Tillamook County, on Oregon’s northwest coast, and Josephine County, in the southwest, requested the trucks, said Bobbi Doan, a spokeswoman for the Oregon Office of Emergency Management.

A Bend Police Department officer will be investigated for allegedly violating policy by wearing a keychain connected to a far-right group while in uniform on Saturday. Bend Chief Mike Krantz did not identify the employee, though Cpl. Josh Spano is the officer seen in a photograph circulating on Reddit and Facebook. Attached to the front of Spano’s service vest is an item reading “molon labe” in Greek lettering, a phrase associated with the far-right Three Percenters militia.

With a greater focus on enforcing mask wearing on the horizon, the city of Bend has a hotline residents can call about businesses not adhering to the statewide mask mandate. The city established a complaint hotline for people to report businesses that are not following the COVID-19 related rules set back in July, during a previous peak in the spread of coronavirus. The number is 541-323-7155.Callers to the hotline must leave a message and include the name of the business, the date and time of the violation and a description of the violation, according to the city. Anonymous calls are...

Federal agents in Bend, Ore., clashed with hundreds of protesters late Wednesday night after an hourslong standoff sparked by the arrest of two men by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers, who said they were a "threat to the public." Bend's episode, which is about a three-hour drive from Portland, was the latest in tensions among protesters, local police and federal agents.The protest spanned hours, as two unmarked ICE buses were blocked by protesters who apparently witnessed the arrests. Shortly before midnight, federal agents removed the two detained men from a bus and left the scene. The protesters also dispersed,...

It's lonely at the top. That's what the Blockbuster in Bend, Oregon, discovered when the only other store in the world -- located in Australia -- announced it was closing. Although Sandi Harding, the general manager of the Oregon Blockbuster, is excited that hers is the last Blockbuster on the planet, she expressed her condolences for friends at the Australia store. "We all have a kinship with the other Blockbusters," Harding told CNN. The Oregon location has been open for more than 20 years. It offers customers the newest movie releases, but Harding says the classic older titles are the...

PORTLAND, Ore. — A single mother fatally shot her severely disabled 7-year-old son and then attempted suicide after years spent caring for her child, authorities and family friends in Oregon said Wednesday. A relative found Tashina Aleine Jordan, 28, unconscious Monday at the Bend home she shared with her son and mother. Authorities found the boy, named Mason, and pronounced him dead. Notes at the scene indicated Jordan was the shooter, police spokesman Lt. Clint Burleigh told KTVZ-TV. Jordan remained hospitalized Wednesday and clinging to life after taking a combination of pills, said Deschutes County District Attorney John Hummel.

A man parked his motorcycle on the sidewalk Saturday morning, ruining the aesthetic of the last remaining Blockbuster in the continental United States. "You can't park there," general manager Sandi Harding told the man as he walked into the store in Bend, Oregon. "People are trying to take pictures." The man paused for a beat. There was confusion in his response. "Trying to take pictures?" Somehow he had missed the past decade, when Blockbuster the video rental behemoth became Blockbuster the fallen victim of modernity.In 2004, at the company's peak, 9,000 Blockbuster outlets studded city blocks and suburban strip malls...

ANCHORAGE, Alaska >> Alaska’s last two Blockbuster video stores are calling it quits, leaving just one store open in the United States. The stores in Anchorage and Fairbanks will close for rentals after Sunday night and reopen Tuesday for video liquidation sales through the end of August, said Kevin Daymude, general manager of Blockbuster Alaska.

A Bend day care owner who had been accused of slipping children melatonin so that she could hit the gym and go tanning was sentenced to 21 years and four months in prison by a Deschutes County judge Friday. January Neatherlin, 32, had been running an illegal childcare operation called Little Giggles for approximately four years and pleaded guilty to 11 counts of first-degree criminal mistreatment and one count of third-degree assault, according to court records. She had also lied to parents about being a registered nurse, even though she had no such qualifications. Bend police, based on tips provided...

The American attack on Syria on Thursday unraveled China’s well laid plans for a summit meeting that would present President Xi Jinping as a global leader on par with President Trump, at once stealing the spotlight from Mr. Xi and putting him in a difficult position: choosing between condoning the kind of unilateral military action that China has long opposed, or rebuking his host. Mr. Xi’s dilemma was also acute because China has generally sided with Russia in defending Syria’s president, Bashar al-Assad, and because it worries that Mr. Trump might be prepared to order a similar strike on North...

While the iPhone SE rivals the iPhone 6s series in performance with the latest internal hardware, a new video reveals that the recently launched 4-inch smartphone is less durable than its larger 4.7-inch and 5.5-inch siblings when bent under pressure, submerged in water, and dropped on its corner. Extended warranty provider SquareTrade subjected the iPhone SE, iPhone 6s, and iPhone 6s Plus to a series of excessive bend, drop, tumble, and water tests, and the results show that its compact design does not necessarily make it more durable than the slimmer 4.7-inch and 5.5-inch iPhones. VIDEO SquareTrade noted that the...

BURNS-Law enforcement agencies are remaining mum about plans to end militiamen's occupation of the Malheur Natiomal Wildlife Refuge headquarters. A splinter group of militia in town to support a local ranching family took over the federal office Saturday afternoon in a development that stunned the community and visiting militia. Harney County Sheriff Dave Ward said in a statement late Saturday that " a collective effort from multiple agencies is currently working on a solution."........ Law enforcement response: During Saturday's rally, not a police officer was visible. And so far law enforcement agencies have not approached the refuge or blocked access...

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich on Tuesday joined a growing list of out-of-state political figures who have endorsed Portland pediatric neurosurgeon Monica Wehby in her race for the Republican Senate nomination. . . Wehby's chief rival in the Republican primary, state Rep. Jason Conger of Bend, has been promoting himself as the real conservative in the race and has been emphasizing his opposition to abortion rights. Wehby has said that she supports a woman's right to choose.

As I've written before, Portland pediatric neurosurgeon Monica Wehby has benefited from a fair amount of national buzz about her GOP senate candidacy in Oregon. But now her main primary challenger, Rep. Jason Conger of Bend, is finally getting some of his own national attention. Townhall.com, a popular conservative site, posted an article Wednesday whose headline neatly encapsulated its theme: Beltway GOP Supporting Pro-Choice Over Pro-Life Candidate in Oregon The story was inspired by a post from Gayle Atteberry, executive director of Oregon Right to Life, on RedState, another national conservative site. "It is simple," Atteberry wrote, "the Beltway GOP...

Obama is so used to assuming the position that he thinks “bow and spear” in Psalm 46 means he’s supposed to bend at the waist. As Freeper ExSabotSender noted, “If he had been familiar with text he would have know that Bow – is a reference to a weapon of war like in bow & arrow. Two more weapons of war follow in verse 9 – the spear & chariot. Instead he pronounced the word as Bow – to been at the waist, the front of a boat, or limb of a tree.” Guess they didn’t teach that verse at...

BEND, Ore. -- It was a time of mourning for a few dozen people who gathered at Bend's Drake Park Thursday evening for a memorial to honor 109 Canada geese that were euthanized last week. Those in attendance expressed their feelings, observed a moment of silence for their surviving companions and families, and discussed ideas of how to prevent this from happening again. Organizers arranged the memorial event with the intention of "bonding together to promote proven methods of non-lethal methods of goose control."