Wednesday, May 15, 2019 The Nugget Newspaper, Sisters, Oregon
Bull by Bull
By Judy Bull
Columnist
" The late Pulitzer Prize-
winning author Russell
Baker wrote, <The worst
thing about being a tourist
is having other tourists rec-
ognize you as a tourist.= To
that end, while I was waiting
for a train in Germany long
years ago, an American act-
ing badly asked me if I spoke
English, to which I replied,
<Nein= all the while with
an English edition of Time
Magazine opened in my lap.
" During this same pil-
grimage across the pond, The
Eagles had a popular song
whose line, <Every form of
refuge has its price,= spoke
directly to my heart. Looking
back, at that point in my life
I had taken refuge traipsing
around the UK, Scandinavia
and Europe for months on
end in a 962 VW Bus. The
price of my refuge was one
of the best investments I
have ever made in my life.
" Judy Gage, my friend of
50 years, is a Santa Rosa fire
survivor, a caregiver to her
husband, a loving daughter
to her 94-year-old mother,
and a horse-lover through
and through. When I sent her
photos of icicles hanging off
my horse Riddle, she sent
me a photo of her washing
her horse9s feet before sta-
bling her for the night. Two
very different ways to live
the good life.
" One of the saddest
sounds I know is hearing the
whine of a winch doing its
job: pulling. Whether it9s a
tow truck at the scene of an
accident up on the pass or
the winch on a large-animal
disposal truck, like as not,
something has gone terribly
wrong. I9ve heard winches
on both rigs. That sad, whin-
ing sound and the empty
space left behind is forever
etched on my heart.
" When he wasn9t
wearing a cowboy hat,
Vernon most always had on
a snap-down-flat cap which
I9m given to don on all cold
mornings, while the warm-
ing fire heats the house we
built together. Though we
didn9t literally pound the
nails on my log home, we
poured over the architectural
drawings for hours on end,
Vernon having majored in
architecture at UC Berkeley
before going off to World
War II. Making those design
decisions together was one
of the most rewarding parts
of having my home built.
Thirty years later, I wouldn9t
change a thing.
" When I heard a man on
Art Wolfe9s Travels to the
Edge say, <You gotta wanna
be where you are,= I so
agreed. He was talking about
the rewards for the effort of
kayaking the coves of Lake
Powell and I thought about
the rewards for kayaking the
coves of life.
23
EDCO lists region’s
largest employers
Economic Development
for Central Oregon (EDCO)
has released the 2019 list
of largest Central Oregon
employers, complete with
breakouts of the top employ-
ers in each Central Oregon
community. This data, col-
lected by EDCO annually
for the past 20 years, is the
most comprehensive major
employer list in Central
Oregon.
This year, the top 50
private companies collec-
tively employ more than
21,000 Central Oregonians,
or roughly 21.5 percent of
the region9s current total
employment of 99,400 as of
Q1 2019. St. Charles Health
System tops the list again,
employing over 4,400 people
region-wide.
According to Damon
Runberg, regional economist
at the Oregon Employment
Department, 78 percent of
Oregon establishments had
nine or fewer employees and
the average private establish-
ment employed 11 people in
2018.
<This data shows that
although Central Oregon
attracts many large employ-
ers, we are still a region
dominated by smaller busi-
nesses,= said Elise Rossman,
director of marketing and
communications for EDCO.
Note: Data for the lists is
self-reported and not audited,
so are only to be used as an
informational guideline.
Some businesses chose not to
participate in these lists and
are therefore excluded.
A push to drop nonunanimous jury verdicts
By Andrew Selsky
Associated Press
PORTLAND (AP) 4
After a jury convicted an
Oregon man of having sex
with a passed-out partygoer,
one of the jurors left the court-
house and wept.
Cash Spencer and three
other jurors believed the
defendant was innocent,
but after a lunch break, one
changed her mind. Hours
later, another changed her
vote to guilty, saying she had
to take care of her children
and didn9t want to return
the next day, according to
Spencer.
That put the number of
guilty votes at 10 4 enough
to convict Olan Williams of
felony sodomy, condemning
him to a mandatory minimum
eight years in prison. The vote
of Spencer, the only African
American on the jury in which
the defendant was also black,
meant nothing.
Oregon is the only state
PIZZA
in America that allows nonu-
nanimous jury convictions.
Voters in Louisiana, the only
other state that had adopted it,
scrapped it in 2018.
Now, momentum is build-
ing for the same in Oregon,
with several lawmakers
sponsoring a ballot measure
to eliminate an amendment
to the state constitution that
allows nonunanimous ver-
dicts. In addition, a Louisiana
case pending before the
U.S. Supreme Court could
have far-reaching effects in
Oregon.
<We have evolved, and it9s
time for our criminal justice
system to reform and to move
ahead,= state Sen. James
Manning Jr., co-sponsor of a
resolution that would put the
issue on the ballot in the 2020
election, told The Associated
Press.
The amendment allowing
split-jury verdicts has roots in
white nationalism.
In 1933, Jacob Silverman,
a Portland hotel proprietor
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with a sketchy past, was
on trial for the murder of a
small-time crook. Eleven
jurors believed he was guilty,
but one voted for acquittal.
They settled on convicting
Silverman, a Jew, of a lesser
manslaughter charge.
He was sentenced to three
years, which caused a stir.
Anti-minority sentiment
was prevalent in Oregon.
The Ku Klux Klan even
helped elect a governor a
few years earlier. In an edito-
rial, the Morning Oregonian
newspaper, which cov-
ered Silverman9s trial, said
the <vast immigration into
America from southern and
eastern Europe, of people
untrained in the jury system,
have combined to make the
jury of twelve increasingly
unwieldy and unsatisfactory.=
The Legislature put the
issue on the ballot, and vot-
ers passed it in 1934, allow-
ing 10-2 verdicts for crimes
except first-degree murder
convictions.
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