STATE
8A — THE OBSERVER
THURSDAY, APRIL 29, 2021
Oscar winner ‘Nomadland’ based on book by former Oregon journalist
By AMY WANG
The Oregonian/OregonLive
Sunday’s big winner at
the Academy Awards has an
Oregon connection: The book
that inspired “Nomadland” was
written by a former reporter for
The Oregonian/OregonLive.
“Nomadland,” which fol-
lows a woman in her 60s as she
takes up a nomadic lifestyle after
losing everything in the Great
Recession, won Best Picture.
Its director, Chloé Zhao, won
Best Director, becoming the fi rst
woman of color and the second
woman ever to win that award.
Frances McDormand won Best
Actress, her third such Oscar.
To write the 288-page book
“Nomadland: Surviving America
in the Twenty-First Century,” pub-
lished in 2017, Jessica Bruder trav-
eled for several years throughout
the West and worked alongside her
Jessica Bruder/Contributed Photo
Jessica Bruder atop Halen, her van. She spent three years reporting on campsites, job
sites and other domains of those who prefer to live a life without the burden of rent and
mortgages.
subjects at low-wage jobs.
Bruder worked in The Ore-
gonian’s now-closed Clackamas
County bureau for nearly two
years between 2006 and 2008,
primarily covering breaking
news, crime and the courts.
In a recent virtual appearance
hosted by Clark College’s jour-
nalism program, Bruder, who
now teaches narrative writing
at Columbia University’s Grad-
uate School of Journalism, said of
her book, “I would love to see it
become less relevant. I would love
for people to look at it and say,
that’s crazy that things were that
way.”
She added, “Hopefully we will
actually do something about it.
I’m worried that even if we do get
to a better place, that it will come
too late for some people.”
Noting that many of the people
she met while reporting “Nomad-
land” were at or near retirement
age, she added, “I did feel sadness
for America. It was only leavened
by the creativity and amazing
spirit of people I met on the road,
which is real and tangible.”
The people she met, she said,
were at once homogenous and
“incredibly diverse” — one person
had been a McDonald’s execu-
tive in the 1970s, while others had
been on the “low wage-earning
treadmill” for decades.
“Every story was a new story
and I tried to treat it that way in
the writing,” she said.
Bruder called the book a
“dream project.” She was credited
as a consulting producer on the
movie and said she occasionally
spoke with McDormand on the set.
On her Twitter account Sunday
night, she posted a photo of her-
self clutching an Oscar in each
hand and wrote, “What a night.”
Oregon House passes bills aimed at changing policing
By PETER WONG
Oregon Capital Bureau
SALEM — Five bills
aimed at changing policing
practices, plus four related
measures, have cleared
the Oregon House by
near-unanimous votes.
All the bills go to the
Senate. Five other policing
bills, which are likely to
aff ect state agencies, are
pending in the Legislature’s
joint budget committee.
All emerged from the
Judiciary Committee and a
subcommittee focused on
policing. It follows up the
work of a 2020 special ses-
sion called by Gov. Kate
Brown after the murder of
George Floyd in Minne-
apolis last year. A former
offi cer was convicted last
week on charges of murder
and manslaughter; three
other offi cers are awaiting
trial. Floyd’s death touched
off nationwide protests for
racial justice, among them
more than 100 nights in
Portland.
Rep. Janelle Bynum,
a Democrat from Clack-
amas who leads the full
committee and the sub-
committee, said law-
makers heard from local
governments and associa-
tions of police executives
and rank-and-fi le offi cers,
not just groups advocating
sweeping change.
“I want to make it clear
this was not an opportunity
to dig in and bash,” said
Bynum. “It was an opportu-
nity to create a community
table, where people around
the state had a chance to
have some input on who
protects them and their
communities.”
Rep. Ron Noble, a
Republican from McMinn-
ville, a former police chief
of that city and a former
offi cer in Corvallis, said all
the bills should be consid-
ered in context — not indi-
vidually. He made his com-
ments while speaking about
House Bill 2929, which
requires police to report
misconduct by offi cers or
violations of standards.
“This bill by itself won’t
do anything,” Noble said.
“This bill, combined with
the others that are coming
before you, will create the
ability and the safety for
police offi cers to speak out
when others act inappropri-
ately, use excessive force,
or just generally are unfi t
for the job.”
Bynum spoke about
the experience of Elijah
Warren, who emerged from
his home in East Portland
to talk to police about the
eff ects on his family of tear
gas they used to disperse a
demonstration on Sept. 5.
While he did so, an offi cer
struck him on the ear with
a baton. The offi cer was
found later to have been
identifi ed in other incidents
of excessive force.
Bynum said the city
of Portland, as far as she
knows, has not responded
as to whether the offi cer
was disciplined.
“What we do know from
reporting is that when offi -
cers do not intervene to stop
their colleagues’ miscon-
duct, it allows law enforce-
ment to act with impunity,”
Bill aims to help forewarn police
of deaf driver during traffi c stops
By ANDREW SELSKY
Associated Press
SALEM — A deaf
driver is pulled over by
the police. The offi cer
approaches the car.
The driver doesn’t
respond to commands. The
situation escalates, some-
times with fatal results.
It’s something deaf people
worry about.
“They are scared to com-
municate with law enforce-
ment offi cers because they
are worried they would be
shot in case they ‘act’ as
if they are not listening to
the police offi cers’ instruc-
tions,” said Steven Brown,
vice president of Oregon
Association of the Deaf.
The Oregon Senate
unanimously passed a bill
on Monday, April 26, to
keep such situations from
developing. It was earlier
passed by the House, also
unanimously. It allows a
person who is deaf or hard
of hearing to have that
noted on their vehicle’s
registration and on their
driver’s license.
“The intent behind the
measure is to provide law
enforcement with this infor-
mation before they come
in contact with an indi-
vidual who is deaf or hard
of hearing,” Lindsay Baker,
assistant director of the
Oregon Department of
Transportation, testifi ed in
support of the bill.
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she said. “Whether it is
before, during or after an
incident, that is wrong.”
House Bill 2929 passed,
58-0. It specifi es who should
receive reports of miscon-
duct or violations (supervi-
sors), when they should start
investigations (72 hours),
and when they should be
completed (three months). If
there is evidence to support
them, reports must be fi led
with the state Department of
Public Safety Standards and
Training.
Other bills
Listed below are sum-
maries of the other bills and
their votes:
• House Bill 2513, 58-0:
Police must have training
in child and adult cardio-
pulmonary resuscitation,
plus training at the public
safety academy about
airway and circulatory
anatomy and physiology.
Police also are required to
summon emergency med-
ical services if “tactically
feasible” and have access to
communications.
• House Bill 2936, 54-4:
The state must investigate
the backgrounds of poten-
tial offi cers — including
fi nancial and psycholog-
ical information, and ties
with racism or racist orga-
nizations — who attend the
public safety academy in
Salem. Police agencies must
set standards for speech and
expression by offi cers on
and off the job.
• House Bill 3059, 58-0:
Police authority to disperse
“unlawful assemblies” is
modifi ed, so that if there
are arrests, police must
make them based on actual
crimes, not simply for
failure to disperse. Bynum
said, “This simple clarifi -
cation allows a declaration
of unlawful assembly to be
used as more of a tool to
prevent a disaster or mit-
igate harm to people or
damage to property.”
• House Bill 3355, 58-0:
Police assigned to work
crowd management in
cities over 150,000 (Port-
land, Eugene, Salem) must
wear identifi cation — either
a name or number — and
outerwear that signifi es the
offi cer’s jurisdiction, such
as “police” or “sheriff .”
Four more
Four other bills passed
by the House also aff ect
aspects of policing:
• House Bill 2986, 58-0,
requires police training at
the state academy for inves-
tigation of crimes based on
the gender of the victim.
• House Bill 3047, 58-0,
allows civil lawsuits and
recovery of damages for
intentional disclosure of
personal information that
is aimed at harassing or
harming a person, a prac-
tice known as “doxing.”
• House Bill 3164,
48-10, modifi es the crime
of interfering with police
to make it clear it applies to
active resistance.
• House Bill 3273,
54-4, bars disclosure of
police mug shots except
under specifi ed circum-
stances, including “law
enforcement purposes” and
convictions in court.