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Poll funded by a GOP group tests voter views on Stiegler By Nick Budnick The Bulletin
SALEM — Greg Fulton, a Bend cabinetmaker, follows politics closely. But it wasn’t until he picked up the phone last Wednesday evening that he knew campaign season had arrived. On the line was a pollster who wanted to know Fulton’s views on politics, particularly concerning the House District 54 seat held by Rep. Judy Stiegler, D-Bend. “It started with a few questions,”Fulton said. “And about halfway through it I was getting the feeling that it was more an advertisement (for Stiegler’s opponent, Jason Conger) than a poll.” The May 18 primary hasn’t even been held, but political types are already looking to the November general election. And in Oregon, many are looking at the seat occupied by Stiegler, which political observers consider among the most vulnerable in the Legislature. The pollster who called Fulton refused to disclose his employer, but a spokesman for a campaign committee affiliated with the House Republicans conceded the company was hired by his group, the Promote Oregon Leadership PAC. The group is supporting Conger, a Bend lawyer. “We are testing the strengths and weaknesses of both candidates,” said Nick Smith with Promote Oregon Leadership. “It is a legitimate survey, and we are testing the voter sentiment in Bend.” Contacted about the poll, Conger said he was not aware of it. But after speaking with Smith, the candidate said he was told the questions were “questions people would be asking of the candidates” during the campaign. See Poll / A5
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BEDS
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Our OSU campus may take hit under new plan
An anti-suicide smock is a tear-resistant garment that is used to prevent an inmate from forming a noose.
A bed frame is constructed of solid concrete to prevent inmates from securing their clothing or other material to it during an attempt to harm themselves.
A camera monitors the activity of inmates on suicide watch 24 hours a day.
By Nick Budnick
Preventing suicide at the Deschutes County jail
The Bulletin
Jail stays vigilant for suicide risks
ELECTION
SALEM — Bend’s Oregon State University-Cascades Campus could be more vulnerable to future budget cuts or tuition hikes if lawmakers follow through on proposals to give Oregon’s state-funded universities greater independence. The Bend branch campus would have less political cover from the Oregon Legislature under a proposal being considered by Gov. Ted Kulongoski’s Reset Cabinet, which is trying to make state and local government more efficient. Members of his Reset Cabinet plan to ask next year’s Legislature to, among other things, adopt some form of greater independence for Oregon’s state-funded universities. Advocates of the idea say the schools would save money, be freed from legislative meddling, and could raise more cash if transformed into privatized nonprofit corporations. No plan has been released, so the details have yet to be hashed out. The higher ed board and Kulongoski’s Reset group plan to issue separate plans later this year. Some universities may be recommended for privatization, and others may not. But since membership of the two groups overlaps, their proposals are expected to be similar, generally calling for more independence for the universities’ leaders. See Campus / A5
RISKY WORK
A few informers pierce iron veil of North Korea By Choe Sang-hun New York Times News Service Photos by Ryan Brennecke / The Bulletin
A corrections deputy walks by the cell used to monitor inmates on suicide watch last week at the Deschutes County jail. The cell has a large glass wall that allows for close monitoring, along with a camera and a specially designed bed and light fixture.
TOP NEWS INSIDE AFGHANISTAN: Obama voices U.S. resolve in surprise visit, Page A3
‘The patients are getting more and more complex,’ says one mental health worker By Erin Golden The Bulletin
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Vol. 107, No. 88, 32 pages, 5 sections
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The suicide of an inmate last month at the Deschutes County jail was the first in more than a decade and the third since 1979. Suicide attempts at the jail, however, are a much more frequent occurrence. In the last five years, there were 43 documented attempts by inmates.
None of the incidents has sparked any sweeping policy changes, but the attempts have prompted the jail to take steps to prevent suicide, from putting cameras in cells, to building beds lower to the floor, to providing additional training for corrections deputies who are often the first to spot an inmate at risk of harming himself or herself. But jail staff say there’s no simple, fool-
proof solution for keeping inmates from harming themselves — particularly as they encounter more and more people struggling with serious mental health issues. “The patients are getting more and more complex,” said Nancy Wolf, a mental health nurse practitioner who works at the jail. “We’re getting older addicts. We’re getting people with multiple trauma in the past and drug addiction.” “In private practice, I would not see them like this, because in private practice you do not have people at their worst,” she said. “But these guys show up definitely not well.” See Jail / A4
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Overqualified? No, just happy to have a job By Michael Luo New York Times News Service
GRANDVIEW, Mo. — Don Carroll, a former financial analyst with a master’s degree in business administration from a top university, was clearly overqualified for the job running the claims department for Cart-
wright International, a small, family-owned moving company here south of Kansas City. But he had been out of work for six months, and the department badly needed modernization after several decades of benign neglect. It turned out to be a perfect match.
After being hired in December, Carroll, 31, quickly set about revamping the four-person department, which settles damage claims from moves, and creating tracking tools so the company could better understand its spending. See Workers / A4
SEOUL, South Korea — North Korea, one of the world’s most impenetrable nations, is facing a new threat: Networks of its own citizens feeding information to South Korea and its Western allies. The networks are the creation of a handful of North Korean defectors and South Korean human rights activists using cell phones to pierce North Korea’s near-total news blackout. To build the networks, recruiters slip into China to woo the few North Koreans allowed to travel there and provide cell phones to smuggle back. The work is risky. Recruiters spend months identifying and coaxing potential informants, all the while evading agents from the North and the Chinese police bent on stopping their work. See Korea / A5
Don Carroll, working with Diana Quinn, is one of several new hires at a small Missouri moving company who could be considered overqualified. New York Times News Service