OK, so here is the situation. You are the presiding judge of Lane County, Oregon. You have three major criminal trials coming up within the next few days. You have a Domestic Violence case, and two cases involving sexual abuse and Sodomy charges. The plaintiffs are awaiting their constitutional right to a speedy trial by a jury of their peers.
The problem is, you don’t have enough jurists to try the cases.
What do you do?
Well, if you are Lane County Presiding Judge Mary Ann Bearden, you send out your sheriffs deputies to round up the first 12 people on the street.
Judge Beardon used a little known section of The Oregon Revised Statute, 10.235(4), which allows a judge to issue immediate summonses for jury duty.
Jury Supervisor Tana Tracewell, a 25 year employee of the Lane County Courts said it was the first time in 20 years that she could remember a judge having to invoke the statute to seat a jury. Sgt Doug Osborne of the Lane County Sheriffs Office was not realy sure how to exactly go about vcarrying out the judges orders, so she gave him and his deputies very specific instructions.
“”Walk out that door onto Pearl Street and summon the first 10 or 12 people you see.”
The moral of the story is that the streets of Eugene, Oregon are just a little bit safer to walk thanks to Judge Bearden’s rather unique methods, that is, unless you are looking to skate out of jury duty.
I received an email from Reader Brent this morning regarding Jennie Brown leaving Sherwood Middle School. I have no way of confirming the information contained within it, and with that being said, I share the contents with you.
Angry,
I’ve become a friend of Jennie and from what she tells me, they made her life so difficult that she left the school in mid May (yeah!), before the school year was even over. They told her that she couldn’t rehearse in the auditorium, did petty things to her to make her unwelcome, and finally she just fell apart and couldn’t stomach it anymore. She just disappeared from school without a trace. Until this news article came out, no-one heard anything about what happened to her. There was no-one that stood up for her other than some parents like Ria Torricelli, no teachers stood up for her in fear of their jobs. She cleaned out her room late this summer and is now looking for a job. All this because the Sherwood School District needed a scapegoat to take the fall for what happened, a monumental case of ass covering by Superintendant Jamison and clueless Principal Pittioni. She only did what her drama students wanted, and it ended up putting so much egg on the face of Sherwood School District that they decided to make her life a living hell.
She started that drama program, both at Hopkins Elementary School and at Sherwood Middle School. She did it on her own time after school, I don’t think they paid her a dime extra for it. She did it out of love of the craft and for the students. One wonders if the drama program will survive without her, I don’t think it will.
This is kind of a sad story for me to write, first because I have been hearing rumors about it for the last month or two and second because it is a story that I became involved in personally.
Jennie Brown, the teacher/playwright who turned the Sherwood School Board on its ear back in the spring with her middle school production of her work, Higher Ground, will not be returning to teach in the fall. I want to thank sharp eyed reader Brent for sending me the article from The Sherwood Gazette confirming that she is leaving.
I attended a performance of Higher Ground at The Portland Center for The Performing Arts and had the opportunity to met and talk with Jenny.
I was impressed by both the work she had done with the kids and they way she handeled all the attention the play had gathered after school principal Anna Pittoni canceled performances when a few parents objected to the mature subject matter.
The students were given the option of performing a censored version of the play, which dealt with bullying and harassment in schools, but they unanimously voted to not perform.
Now, whether Jenny is leaving voluntarily or being forced out is open to debate, but it is the students of Sherwood Middle School who are going to pay the price. We keep saying we want our kids to be prepared to deal with the harsh realities of life, yet, when a teacher comes along and shows them a way, and manages to combine it with performing arts, we all of a sudden become a pack of Puritans.
With it’s stock prices down a whopping 60% from their all time high, one would think the coffee giant would be rethinking their sales strategy and offering struggling consumers a break on their high priced caffeine fix.
Not so says Steve Schultz, Chief java Pusher for the meglo-chain.
…[Starbucks] is planning to use more special deals, including discounts during certain days or seasons and limited offers for free food and drink when new products roll out.
“Customers can anticipate that we will continue to look for fun ways to offer value,” Brad Stevens, Starbucks’ vice president of customer relationship management, told Reuters in an interview.
Well, I am all about fun, and if it saves me money, well hell, they might manage to lure me back from World Cup Coffee & Tea.
Lets take a look at their last “fun” offer.
Get a $2 iced grande beverage…in the afternoon…if you bought something in the morning…and remembered to keep the receipt.
Hmmm… that seems ….simple.
When are major corporation going to realize that we are in the midst of an unofficial recession and most of us have had to cut back on our luxury items. These days, brand loyalty is going the way of $2 gas.
Steve, if you want to keep my business, give me a decent product for a fair price and I might come back.
With the announcement today by John McCain of his choice of running mate, Alaskan Governor Sarah Palin, we have to ask ourselves the question, are we really ready for a MILF in The White House. I mean, lets face it, at 77, McCain is just a cheeseburger away from the big dirt nap, setting us up for our first female president, whether we like it or not.
I have to admit that I admire McCains strategy in choosing the self proclaimed “hockey mom” and political new comer as his number two.
In her speach today, Palin said Hillary Clinton put “18 million cracks” in the highest glass ceiling in the land , “But it turns out the women of America aren’t finished yet and we can shatter that glass ceiling once and for all”.
This blatent appeal to disafected Clinton supporters, whose choice was based solely on gender, might just bring some democratic votes McCains way.
His choice also brought an interesting sort of balance to the race. By choosing Palin, who’s previous political experience was as the mayor of a small Alaskan town, casts him as the experienced statesman guiding the neophyte. By contrast, Obamas choice of Biden does almost exactly the same thing. McCains choice also would seem to negate his argument that the newcomer Obama is not “ready to lead” due to his lack of experience . Placing Palin as 2nd in command places another newcomer in a poition to have to lead the country.
In either case, the choices have been made, and the race is on. It will be interesting to see who comes out on top.
Brother John correctly identified the film from the latest trivia challenge as All That Jazz, starring Roy Scheider, as the fictional Broadway producer Joe Gideon. The film was a semi biopic on the life of famed Choreographer Bob Fossee.
I have held off on saying anything about Russia’s incursion into the independent, state of Georgia because I wanted to see how things played out, but with Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin accusing the United States of instigating the war to benefit an unnamed presidential candidate, well, maybe the time has come.
And friends, it does not look good for our side.
The fact of the matter is, I don’t think we have the forces to fight off the Russian Bear, or at least hold him in check.
Now, back in my day, at the height of Cold War, The Soviet Union was THE enemy. All our forces were geared to keeping the Russians from getting froggy. Most of the time it worked. We had SAC, B52’s orbiting “Fail Safe” points, Ballistic Missile submarines cruising the seven seas. Our A10 tank killers were poised to smash the armored units of The Red Army that were going to come crashing through The Fulda Gap into Germany. Ronald Regan was building a 600 ship Navy to counter the Soviet buildup, at one time we had 10 carriers operating to the Soviet Unions one.
Well folks, times have changed.
The days of being able to face down The Bear with our superior might have long gone the way of the Pet Rock and the Mood Ring. Our doctrine used to be we would always have the forces to fight two major wars plus a brush fire war, such as what we are doing in Afghanistan. Today, we can not fight the war in Iraq without extending troop tours out to 16 months. Our military had rebuilt itself to try and meet the needs of The War on Terror, not another Cold War.
Add to that the will of the American people.
Are Americans going to jump on the “stop the commies” bandwagon?
I doubt it.
The seeming lack of concern by average Americans over the Russian incursion into Georgia leads me to believe that we just don’t care anymore. Our war weary nation is not going to get behind any president who calls for an increase in military spending to meet the threat posed by another Russian attempt at empire building.
Our response to the Russian aggression seems to be limited to harsh words and a few ship loads of relief supplies.
Will we care when Russia makes a move on Estonia? How about Ukraine? Poland perhaps.
Some will argue we encouraged the whole mess by making an agreement with Poland to base missile defense systems there.
Well, not according to Mr Putin, remember.
He says we instigated the war to benefit what most observers call the candidacy of John McCain, who just happens to be a long time friend of the Georgian President.
Washington state republicans may have stooped to a new low when this $3.00 bill was found for sale at the GOP booth at the Evergreen State Fair in Monroe, Washington.
Gerri Modrell, the head of the Snohomish County Republican Party, says she had no idea how the bills magically appeared at the GOP’s booth.
In other monetary news, the Treasury Department today announced the upcoming release of their newest coin, the George Bush plugged nickle.
Well friends, this going to be another one of those touchy feely posts about the crap going on in my life, so if you are looking for a laugh, move onto the next posting. I’m slowly pulling out of another downward spiral.
I wish I could tell you what brings them on, but to be honest, I usually am not able to tell until after the fact.
In this case it was combination of too much work, not enough self care, overdoing the bottle, and some disappointments in my personal life. For a few days there, things were really black, hearkening back to the dog days of last July. No hope, no hope for hope, only a desire to end the pain. I was caught up in the comfortable, deadly routine of wake up, write, work, drink, sleep repeat.
Little or no social interaction, plans with a friend that never came off, all of a sudden every little ache and pain was magnified, my temper was simmering, just waiting for some one to lift the lid off the pot, I could sense the coming explosion, but did not do anything to stop it. I just wanted it to end, but did not have the strength to pull out of the emotional nose dive I was in.
Yesterday I forced myself to face what was going on and take steps to end it. I forced myself out of the house, went down to the coffee shop and lucked into a remedy that almost always works, I had a 3 hour conversation with a total stranger.
I met a remarkable young woman who just recently returned home to Portland from Japan to give birth too her first child. As we talked I could feel myself reconnecting to the world, longing again to interact, realizing that the path of isolation I was on was the road to self destruction. I know this sounds a bit overly dramatic, but it is the best I can do to describe the profound effect this most simple of acts had on me. I don’t know if she will ever read this, but I do owe her a great debt of thanks for helping me to get over this hump.
So, today is my day of rest, my day to acknowledge that I do have a purpose, even though it is not always clear to me what exactly that is. I need to remind myself contentment lies within myself, not in the hands of the other people who populate my life. If I can’t be OK with myself, how the hell can I hope to worth anything to anyone else.
Lastly, I need to accept the fact that my old patterns can only lead me down the same road they always have. Old roads never lead anywhere new. I have a lot of apologies to make, to friends, family, coworkers and to the cast of thousands of total strangers who have borne the brunt of my barely concealed hostility these last few weeks.
OK, you can start reading again, no more self serving touchy feely.
It’s showtime folks.
It’s Angry Jew Trivia Time, what late 70’s film was that last line lifted from? I will give you a little hint, John Lithgow had a bit part as a Broadway director.
