SATURDAY, MAY 22, 2021
Baker City, Oregon
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EDITORIAL
Brighter
outlook
Baker County seems to be beating the COVID-19
pandemic.
And unlike previous periods this year when the
number of infections dropped substantially, there’s
reason to believe this downturn will be longer last-
ing.
With 35.5% of the county’s residents vaccinated
(30.9% fully, 4.6% partially), and at least 6% having
protective antibodies from a previous COVID-19
infection, the pool of vulnerable residents is much
smaller than it was this winter.
The county has made signifi cant progress during
May at controlling the virus.
From May 1-20, the daily average of new cases
was 2. That’s less the half April’s daily average of 5.4
cases. If the current pace continues through the end
of the month, May will have the lowest daily average
since October 2020.
The situation has been even more promising since
the fi rst week in May. From May 8-20 the county’s
daily average was 1.15 new cases. That period
includes fi ve days with zero cases, and six days with
only one new case.
Another positive trend is demographic.
For the fi rst 20 days of May, the county didn’t
record a single COVID-19 infection in a resident 70
or older — the age group that’s vastly more at risk
of becoming severely ill or dying. Statewide, 75% of
the deaths attributed to the virus were people 70 or
older.
For the fi rst half of May the largest share of cases
— 29.6% — was in county residents 9 and younger.
Seventy percent of the county’s cases during that pe-
riod were people younger than 40. It’s hardly surpris-
ing that that age group has a much lower vaccina-
tion rate — about 14% — than among people 70 and
older, of whom about 64% are vaccinated. Most of
those younger residents only recently were eligible to
be vaccinated, of course, and those younger than 12
still aren’t. But the statistics tell a compelling story
about the potential benefi ts of vaccination.
— Jayson Jacoby, Baker City Herald editor
OTHER VIEWS
Don’t force fact checkers to register
Editorial from The Detroit News:
A group of Michigan Republican
lawmakers is fl oating the idea of reg-
istering “fact checkers” with the state.
The bill they’ve introduced fl ies in the
face of the First Amendment, and they
should ditch this dangerous and dumb
idea.
The legislation, spearheaded by state
Rep. Matt Maddock, R-Milford, isn’t
likely to pass, but it’s troubling that
any elected offi cial thinks it’s accept-
able for the government to interfere
with the workings of a free press — one
of the most treasured rights we have as
Americans, and one that’s protected by
the U.S. Constitution.
Maddock has been a leading voice
among state Republicans who ques-
tioned the results of the 2020 election.
Maddock’s wife, Meshawn Maddock,
is co-chair of the Michigan Republican
Party.
The bill, the “Fact Checker Regis-
tration Act,” defi nes a fact checker as
someone who publishes in print or
online in Michigan, is paid by a fact-
checking organization and is a mem-
ber of the International Fact Check
Network. The network is an effort of
the Poynter Institute, which helps train
journalists and fact checkers in best
practices.
Maddock envisions fact checkers
having to fi le proof of a $1 million fi del-
ity bond with the Secretary of State.
That offi ce would have to develop a
process for registration.
Someone who believes they’ve been
negatively affected by a fact checker
could bring civil action in any district
court. Fact checkers in violation of state
registry requirements could be fi ned
$1,000 a day.
“Social media companies deplatform
people, politicians, and businesses on
the basis of ‘fact checkers’ who relish
their roles punishing those whom they
deem ‘false,’” Maddock wrote on social
media. “ ... My legislation will put fact
checkers on notice: Don’t be wrong,
don’t be sloppy, and you better be right.”
Such rhetoric could help garner
enthusiasm among Maddock’s Trump-
loving base, but it’s not the job of the
government to regulate what any
journalist does in such sweeping fash-
ion. Libel laws already exist to protect
against the intentional spread of false
information.
“Maddock’s bill is an unconstitutional
trifecta,” said Len Niehoff, professor of
First Amendment law at the University
of Michigan Law School, in an email.
“First, the requirement that certain
fact checkers register with the state
and post a $1 million bond is a prior
restraint on speech that violates the
First Amendment. Second, the bill is
so unclear about when and to whom it
applies that it violates the due process
clause. And, fi nally, by singling out only
certain fact checkers who the spon-
sor does not like, the bill also probably
violates the equal protection clause.”
These issues come up occasionally.
In 2013, a bipartisan group of legisla-
tors fl oated the idea of defi ning who
constituted a reporter as part of a well-
meaning bill to ward off ambulance-
chasing lawyers following an accident.
That language rightly got left out of the
law, as it was too close to the concept of
licensing journalists.
Maddock’s bill clearly seeks to
intimidate the work of journalists in
their pursuit of the truth by forcing fact
checkers to register with the state. It’s
an idea that needs to be quashed for
good.
Mystery podcasts help the miles pass peacefully
My kids, who normally act as
though a fi ve-minute car ride is
a more awful punishment than
banishment to a Siberian gulag,
recently pleaded with me, as I pulled
into our driveway after a 100-mile
trip, to keep driving.
I declined.
But I did briefl y consider extend-
ing our trip.
I never imagined that a phrase so
dreaded by parents — “Are we there
yet?” — might have the opposite of
its usual connotation.
This shocking development was
prompted by Olivia and Max’s fas-
cination with a mysterious episode
that happened in Northern Califor-
nia long before they were born.
(Indeed, the incident, which
occurred in 1978, preceded their
mother’s birth by about a year.)
I am to blame.
More specifi cally, my preference
for listening to podcasts when I’m on
my daily walk is responsible.
In my generally aimless meander-
ings through the myriad offerings
on iTunes — there are multiple pod-
casts for every topic you can think
of, and for a whole lot you probably
can’t — I came across the saga of the
Yuba City 5.
The story involves fi ve men
from Yuba City, California, which
is between Sacramento and Chico,
who went missing after watching a
college basketball game in Chico the
evening of Feb. 24, 1978.
The men ranged in age from 24 to
32, and each had either mild devel-
opmental disabilities or psychiatric
issues. They all lived independently,
JAYSON
JACOBY
however, and two were licensed to
drive.
They failed to return from the bas-
ketball game, even though the drive
between Yuba City and Chico was a
simple and direct highway trip.
Several days later their car was
found, abandoned, on a road in the
snowy Sierra Nevada mountains
about 70 miles from Chico and far
off the route from there to Yuba City.
The car wasn’t stuck. The tires were
infl ated. Although the keys were
gone, police hot-wired the car and it
started immediately and had no me-
chanical problems. There was plenty
of gas in the tank to get them back to
the highway.
The quartet’s whereabouts
remained unknown until early June
1978, more than three months later.
A group of motorcyclists found the
body of one of the men in a Forest
Service trailer about 19 miles from
where the car was abandoned. A
medical examiner estimated the
man had lived for at least several
weeks after the disappearance, based
on the amount of weight he had lost,
and the length of his beard.
A subsequent search turned up
the bones of two of the other men
near a road about 11 miles from
where the car was left, and eight
miles from the trailer. The remains
of a fourth man were found in yet
another location, this one about two
miles from the trailer.
The fi fth man has never been
found.
It’s a tantalizing tale.
I suggested, with no small amount
of trepidation, that we listen to a
podcast about the Yuba City 5 during
a road trip.
I wasn’t at all convinced that
either Max, who’s 10, or Olivia, who’s
almost 14, or my wife, Lisa, would
fi nd the story as compelling, and
perplexing, as I did.
I needn’t have worried.
We all listened to the podcast
with rapt attention.
It proved so popular, in fact, that I
downloaded multiple episodes, from
several different podcasts, all involv-
ing other incidents when someone
went missing.
One of these was to me at least as
interesting as the Yuba City 5 case,
and with two bonus attributes — it
happened not far from here, and the
resolution was happy rather than
tragic.
I fi nd it passing strange that the
bizarre case of Keith Parkins isn’t
better known in Oregon.
Here’s what happened:
On April 10, 1952, Keith, then two
years old, was visiting his grand-
parents’ cattle ranch near Ritter,
along the Middle Fork of the John
Day River about 70 air miles east of
Baker City.
Keith and his two older brothers
had gone to a barn to see a newborn
calf. The older boys returned to the
house around noon, but Keith didn’t.
When the boys’ mother searched
the barn and surrounding area she
couldn’t fi nd her youngest son.
Several dozen people volunteered
to search for Keith. Several hours
later, and about three miles from
the barn, searchers found footprints,
their size consistent with a toddler
wearing the shoes Keith had on.
The search continued, and about
7 a.m. the next day — approximate-
ly 19 hours after Keith was last
seen — a search party that included
Keith’s father, Allen, found the boy
lying face down in a patch of snow.
Except Keith was alive.
Hypothermic, not surprisingly,
but very much alive.
A private plane fl ew Keith to the
hospital in Pendleton, where he
fully recovered.
The place where Keith was found
was about eight miles, measured in
a straight line, from the barn. But
Keith didn’t travel in a straight line,
as his footprints were found well to
one side of that hypothetical route.
Searchers estimated that he covered
about 12 miles during the 19 hours
he was missing.
Keith, not surprisingly, remem-
bers nothing of that 19-hour period.
According to contemporary ac-
counts, when an adult asked him
how he came to have scratches on
his face, Keith replied that a cat
had scratched him.
On the podcast we listened to
one of the hosts speculated that a
cougar might have dragged Keith.
This theory could potentially
explain the scratches, Keith’s re-
sponse about a cat, and the consid-
erable distance between the barn
and where the boy he was found.
I know little of cougars. But noth-
ing I’ve read about these predators
suggests that one would carry an
item — and one that could only be
prey — for any signifi cant distance
and leave only some facial scratches.
I don’t doubt that even a toddler
could cover 12 miles in 19 hours.
(I chased my grandson, Caden,
around recently, and although he
won’t turn 2 until July 31, I’m pretty
sure he covered almost that distance
in 45 minutes.)
It’s plumb strange, to be sure.
But it’s not implausible.
Even my tentative venture into
the labyrinthian world of podcasts
revealed immense quantities of tales
similar to those of the Yuba City 5
and Keith Parkins.
Some podcast hosts are prone to
attributing such events to super-
natural forces, a direction that holds
little interest for me. The world
is a strange place, to be sure, but
I’m confi dent that even abnormal
events can be attributed to means
that rest solidly in the realm of the
empirical.
But I’m no critic of podcasts.
I’m just grateful they exist. I ap-
preciate that their creators — the
vast majority of whom, so far as I
can tell, don’t get paid for their time
— make it possible for me to avoid
backseat mutinies.
I might end up spending more for
gas, sure.
But I’ll be saving on ibuprofen.
Jayson Jacoby is editor
of the Baker City Herald.