In this week's update, we're reviewing the Bend City Council election results and talking to the winning candidates.

Joel Wirtz is the co-executive director of the Deschutes Defenders, the public defense firm for Deschutes County. The agency handles two-thirds of all cases involving people who can't afford a defense lawyer. Wirtz has tried cases from shoplifting to murder, but he said he's most proud of his work as a defense attorney for Mental Health Court, helping people with a history of trauma, mental illness and addiction.

We invited Wirtz on to the podcast to talk about Measure 110, the proposal on the general election ballot which would decriminalize hard drugs and shift money from state marijuana taxes towards addiction treatment. Wirtz brings nearly two decades of experience working with drug offenders to explain how the current system of drug convictions and jail time shuts people out of opportunities for employment and housing. He also talks about the success of decriminalization programs in Switzerland and Portugal where the government takes a health-based approach to people struggling with addiction.

In this week's Source Weekly Update, a look back at clashes between Black Lives Matter and Trump supporters, and a change in city policy that allows for a new type of housing.

For this week’s episode of “Bend Don’t Break” we talk with Peter Sparks, professor of psychology at Oregon State University Cascades. We wanted to have Sparks on in light of Measure 109 on the general election ballot which would legalize the use of psilocybin (psychedelic mushrooms) in a clinical setting. It would make Oregon the first state to allow some legal use of the drug. (Full disclosure: The Source endorsed Measure 109.)

In this week's update, we attempt to ease local paranoia about mail-in ballots. We will discuss what to do in the event that you do not receive your ballot as well as provide some comfort with statistics on voter fraud.

For this week’s “Bend Don’t Break” podcast we talk with Tod Heisler, the rivers conservation director for Central Oregon LandWatch. Two decades ago, Heisler moved to Central Oregon from Washington, D.C., and worked for the Deschutes River Conservancy for 15 years, concentrating on restoring flows in the Deschutes River. Last year in an interview with the Source, he had this to say about his new position at COLW: "I can speak a little more freely on what the river needs and can now represent the river's perspective.”

In this week's update, voting is a hot topic. We will answer questions on how to vote as well as tackle the concern of voter fraud and thrown out ballots.

For this week’s episode of “Bend Don’t Break” we talk with Nancy Blankenship, who has been serving as the Deschutes County Clerk since 2003. Many of us know her name, but we wanted to find out more about the person behind the ballots in Deschutes County.

In short, Blankenship is an expert on voting and ballot counting. In these uncertain times, where false information about voter fraud circles endlessly around social media, we thought it would be the perfect opportunity to hear from the county’s top voting official about Oregon’s secure and inclusive vote-by-mail and motor voter systems.

In this week's update, we are covering the controversy of the mirror pond dredging. Is it worth it to dredge a pond that is historically known to refill with sediments? Also, real estate prices in bend are skyrocketing and it begs the question: are increased prices a sign of a stabilized local economy or just bad news for residents.

For this week’s “Bend Don’t Break” podcast we talk with Cate O’Hagan, a longtime champion of the arts in Central Oregon and the chair of the Deschutes Cultural Coalition. O’Hagan and her board helped decide how to allocate nearly $1 million that recently flowed into the county to support the arts from a fund the state set aside from the CARES Act.

O’Hagan has had a long career in the arts, only taking a break once for a few years to raise cattle outside of Madras. She’s an accomplished mix-media installation artist and cellist. Early in her career, she worked for the Oregon Symphony, Portland Art Museum and the Corcoran Museum in Washington, D.C. She is perhaps most well-known locally for serving as the executive director of Arts Central for 23 years.