A4 The BulleTin • Monday, May 10, 2021
Movers
DEAR ABBY
Write to Dear Abby online at dearabby.com
or by mail at P.O. Box 69440, Los Angeles, CA 90069
Dear Abby: I am a wid-
ower. I lost my wonderful
wife of 35 years to heart dis-
ease eight years ago. I have
had no relationships with
women since then.
Recently, I had the plea-
sure of meeting a very nice
woman, “Yvonne.” She’s 11
years younger and has never
been married. We see each
other socially and enjoy each
other’s company. We are both
retired, have our own money
and neither of us is interested
in marriage.
My son and daughter, both
married with children, are
split in their opinions about
this. My son is happy for
me, but my daughter thinks
Yvonne is too young for me
and wonders why she never
married. Some of my friends
actually side with my daugh-
ter.
At our ages, I don’t think
an 11-year difference is a big
deal. Why Yvonne stayed
single is none of anyone’s
business. Since her mother’s
death, my daughter has been
protective of me. Am I wrong
for enjoying the company of
this woman after so many
years alone?
— Lonely Widower in Arizona
Dear Widower: No, you
are not wrong. If you and
Yvonne enjoy each other, you
are both unencumbered and
entitled to it. Eleven years is
not too great an age differ-
ence. Your daughter seems
to be more possessive than
protective. Seeing you with
a woman other than her late
mother — regardless of age
— may be what’s really both-
ering her.
If you want to allow your
friends to run your life, I can’t
stop you. But I see no reason
why you should allow them
to dampen your enjoyment if
all they can find wrong with
Yvonne is her age. (Could
any of these “friends” be jeal-
ous or closely tied to your late
wife?)
Dear Abby: I am the
youngest of three. My brother
is the eldest. Our sister died
of cancer 20 years ago.
It breaks my heart that he
and his wife can’t seem to
decide whether they like me
or not. Sometimes they are
warm and inviting, but for
most of my life they’ve been
cold, critical and distant.
They create imaginary prob-
lems, blame me for them and
then keep me on the outs un-
til they decide to forgive and
forget. I’ve spent many hours
crying about this.
I have finally reached the
point where I refuse to be
hurt any longer and have
chosen not to engage with
them anymore. It has been
nearly a year since we’ve had
contact. My husband sym-
pathizes with me and recog-
nizes their behavior as odd
and hurtful. However, he be-
lieves I should reach out once
more because my brother is
my only living sibling. I’m
fearful that if I do, I’ll be hurt
once again. Your advice is
greatly needed.
— Undecided in South Carolina
Dear Undecided: Your
husband is a kind and forgiv-
ing man who has not experi-
enced the pain your brother
and his wife have subjected
you to with their mind
games. Your brother may be
your only living sibling, but
it is an accident of birth. He
is incapable of the kind of re-
lationship you would like to
have had with him. Having
been hurt repeatedly, you are
right to be fearful. You will
shed fewer tears if you con-
tinue keeping your distance.
YOUR HOROSCOPE
By Georgia Nicols
Stars show the kind of day you’ll have
DYNAMIC | POSITIVE | AVERAGE | SO-SO | DIFFICULT
MOON ALERT: There are no restrictions to shopping or important deci-
sions today. The Moon is in Taurus.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY FOR MONDAY, MAY 10, 2021: You are
enthusiastic, active and a great networker. You have a strong personality but
you protect your privacy. You are also passionate and seductive. This year
will be gentler and more laid back. Nevertheless, your focus on partnerships
and close friendships will be stronger because you are starting to see how
important a close relationship to you really is.
ARIES (March 21-April 19)
This New Moon is one of the best opportunities all year to ponder
how you handle cash flow, earnings, movable possessions and money.
The proverb “A penny saved is a penny earned” is true! Do you respect
your wealth? Do you take care of what you own? Tonight: Expect money
restrictions.
TAURUS (April 20-May 20)
This New Moon is a wonderful chance to think about how to improve
your image. Take a realistic look in the mirror. What improvements might
you make? Hey, you never get a second chance to make a first impression!
Tonight: Challenges with parents and bosses.
GEMINI (May 21-June 20)
This particular New Moon is hiding in your chart, which means it’s your
chance to think about your inner, spiritual world. This is important, because
your outer world is a reflection of your inner world. Take a moment to ponder
the values that guide you. Tonight: You might feel lonely.
CANCER (June 21-July 22)
Each New Moon is different and gives you a chance to make differ-
ent resolutions. This New Moon urges you to observe your friends and the
groups to which you belong. Do these people help you and promote your
best interests? Tonight: Older people might be difficult.
LEO (July 23-Aug. 22)
This New Moon sits at the top of your chart, giving you your best
chance all year to make resolutions about where you are headed. Do you
have five-year goals? A one-year goal? Goals can help you achieve your
dreams. Tonight: An authority figure might be critical.
VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22)
Each New Moon is your chance to make resolutions. This New Moon
urges you to think about what further education or training would improve
your job or enrich your life. Might travel broaden your horizons? (Travel is a
great way to learn.) Tonight: Legal restrictions might chafe.
LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22)
The New Moon takes place in one of your Money Houses, making
this the perfect time to take a realistic look at your debt and how you share
money and assets with others. These financial arrangements include inheri-
tances and insurance issues. Tonight: Look at your debt.
SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21)
Today is the only New Moon that is opposite your sign all year. It’s the
perfect opportunity to ask yourself how to improve your closest relation-
ships — close friendships, business partners and marriage partners. Ideas?
Tonight: Don’t let someone discourage you.
SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21)
This is the best time all year to think about how to improve your health
as well as your job. You also might see ways to improve how you take care of
a pet. That’s because of the current New Moon that is taking place. Tonight:
Expect challenges to work and health.
CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19)
This particular New Moon is the perfect time to think about how to in-
troduce more play time and opportunities to be creative in your life. We are a
work-oriented society. What can you do to achieve a better balance between
work and play? Tonight: Children and sports demand your attention.
AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18)
Home and family are important. This current New Moon is one of the
best times all year to think about how to improve your relations with family
members and, likewise, how to improve your home. Ideas? Tonight: Respect
a family elder.
PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20)
We are social creatures. We need to be seen and be heard. We also
need to see and listen. The current New Moon is your chance to make reso-
lutions about how to improve your communications. That sounds daunting,
but it’s really just about how you talk and listen. Tonight: Guard against
negative thinking.
Continued from A1
“I think some core urban
counties like Manhattan, San
Francisco and others may have
taken a bigger brunt of pan-
demic-related out-movement,
as well as lower immigration,”
said William Frey, a senior
fellow at The Brookings Insti-
tution. “Overall, it was a year
of slow growth with selective
movement out of some urban
centers.”
Smaller metros in the Sun
Belt and West, several with
large communities of vacation
homes, saw the biggest pop-
ulation gains last year, mostly
driven by migration. Led by
the Florida retirement commu-
nity The Villages, the metros
seeing population increases be-
tween 3% and 4% included St.
George, Utah; Myrtle Beach,
South Carolina; Austin, Texas;
and Coeur d’Alene, Idaho.
Sun Belt megalopolises, such
as Dallas, Houston and Phoe-
nix, also grew last year, though
not as much as their smaller
cousins.
The Census Bureau data
captured changes in states,
metros and counties between
July 1, 2019, and July 1, 2020.
The last third of that time-
frame overlapped with the first
three months of the spread
of the virus in the U.S. Pop-
ulation-change estimates are
different from the 2020 cen-
sus, a head count of every U.S.
resident that determines how
many congressional seats each
state gets. Those numbers were
released last week. Population
changes are estimated using
data on births, deaths and mi-
gration.
Kropf
Continued from A1
Donations of this size are not
uncommon in Oregon, which
has no state-level political con-
tribution limits. Public em-
ployee unions and businesses
oppose efforts to set tight lim-
its, including through bills un-
der consideration in the Leg-
islature. As part of OEA-PAC’s
2020 endorsement process, it
asked legislative candidates to
fill out a questionnaire on is-
sues including whether candi-
dates would support a bill to
make class size a mandatory
topic of bargaining in Oregon.
That proposal is a priority for
the union this session and al-
ready passed the state Senate.
Kropf thanked The Orego-
nian for bringing the missing
contributions to his attention.
“We immediately looked into
this and my treasurer was un-
able to find any notice from
OEA of these in-kind contri-
butions,” Kropf wrote in a text
message Wednesday. “As soon
as we were made aware, my
team contacted the Secretary
of State’s Office and are posting
today. We’ll of course pay any
appropriate late fees.”
In-kind donations
Most of the Oregon Edu-
cation Association political
action committee’s 2020 con-
tributions to legislative candi-
dates were “in-kind donations,”
which means the donor pays a
vendor such as a polling firm
or company that purchases
television ad time. Other Dem-
ocratic legislative candidates
supported by the committee
appear to have correctly re-
ported the teachers unions’
purchases of polling and ad-
vertising.
Political candidates and or-
ganizations across the spec-
trum in Oregon use in-kind
donations. Democratic leg-
islative caucus PACs and the
powerful public employee
unions, which generally sup-
port Democrats, relied heavily
on the practice in 2020. Nearly
$300,000 or roughly 54% of
Kropf’s 2020 fundraising was
through in-kind donations, ac-
cording to an analysis of state
data.
OEA-PAC purchased ad
production and broadcast time
for Kropf at the same compa-
nies where unions and Demo-
cratic caucus PACs purchased
campaign goods and services
for numerous candidates in
2020: Media Analysis in Ha-
waii, Sway in Maryland and AL
Media in Chicago.
Kropf’s failure to disclose
the in-kind donations is an ex-
treme example of the lack of
transparency than can result
from in-kind contributions.
Rick Bowmer/AP file
Rows of homes in suburban Salt Lake City in 2019. Utah is one of two Western states known for rugged land-
scapes and wide-open spaces that are bucking the trend of sluggish U.S. population growth. The boom there
and in Idaho is accompanied by healthy economic expansion, but also concern about strain on infrastructure
and soaring housing prices.
Haslag and Weagley esti-
mate that 10% to 20% of the
300,000 interstate moves they
studied between April 2020
and February 2021 were in-
fluenced by the pandemic.
Their study used four years
of long-distance moving data
obtained from UniGroup, the
parent company of United Van
Lines and Mayflower Transit.
Job-related reasons for mov-
ing dropped from 46.6% of re-
sponses before the pandemic
to 34.5% after the start of the
pandemic in the U.S. in March
2020, while the desire to be
closer to family jumped from
24.7% to 29.9%. The research-
ers theorized the jump for fam-
ily reasons was due to people
wanting to create social “bub-
bles” with family members,
and the drop in job-related rea-
sons was due to remote work-
ing and the decoupling of jobs
from offices.
“It’s not really about the in-
fection rate when it comes to
moving. It’s about all the other
things that came with the pan-
demic, whether it was to be
closer to family or work from
home,” Haslag said. “That was
really surprising to us.”
Higher-income households
moved less because of job loss
or to take a new job than for
other reasons such as lifestyle
or the ability to work remotely.
In fact, 75% of those who cited
the ability to work remotely
had annual households earn-
ings of $100,000 or more. Low-
er-income households were
more likely to move for finan-
cial reasons such as job loss or
to move to a place with a lower
cost of living, the researchers
said.
David Mann and his wife,
Lauren, had been wanting to
move to the U.S. southeast
from Dallas to be closer to
family and friends for some
time, but it was the pandemic
that made it possible. Knowing
they could work from home in
their jobs in supply-chain con-
sulting and merchandise plan-
ning, they made the leap and
moved to Atlanta last summer.
“Working from home gave
us the opportunity to move
without having to look for new
jobs,” Mann said.
The state allows donors and
campaigns to wait 30 days to
report all types of transactions,
except in specific windows
close to elections when the
timeline shrinks until it even-
tually reaches seven days. Ad-
ditionally, donors who make
in-kind expenditures can wait
up to 48 hours after they re-
port the transaction to the state
to notify the recipient of the
transaction by email or letter,
according to the Secretary of
State’s campaign finance man-
ual.
The Secretary of State’s
Office notes that the recipi-
ent must report the donation
sooner “if the candidate, trea-
surer or any agent of the com-
mittee had knowledge of the
in-kind contribution and re-
ceived the goods or services
prior to receiving the written
notification.”
Aaron Fiedler, public infor-
mation officer for the Secre-
tary of State’s office, wrote in an
email that the penalty for dis-
closing campaign contributions
this late — six months after the
transactions — would be 10%
of the transactions. Under Ore-
gon law, Kropf can use his cam-
paign funds to pay the fine.