MIDWEEK EDITION
Tuesday January 21, 2020
www.currypilot.com
SERVING CURRY COUNTY SINCE 1946
Brookings, Oregon
Marching orders
Curry County DA resigning at month’s end C
Calla Felicity, public information officer for the Curry County Democrats, leads the chanting during the Women’s March on Saturday in Brookings. Photos by Brian Williams.
Women rally for unity Brian Williams Editor
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crowd of nearly 75 thumbed their noses at Saturday’s cold wind and threat of rain to participate in the Curry County Triple Women’s March in downtown Brookings. Similar marches were held simultaneously in Port Orford and Gold Beach, part of the fourth-annual Women’s March nationwide. After the 90-minute walk, a man was heard to ask out loud, “Was it fun?” The resounding reply from everyone within
earshot: “Yes!” Included in the event were a handful of speeches at the Bankus Fountain, on the northeast corner of 5th Street and U.S. High- Nearly 75 people march along U.S. Highway 101 in downtown way 101. Brookings on Saturday during the Women’s March. The Curry County march,” reported Calla Felicity, massive protest aimed largely Democrats organized the the Curry County Democrats’ at the Trump administration and Brookings march and had been public information officer and the perceived threat it repregearing up for weeks, holding secretary. sented to reproductive, civil and sign-making parties and spreadThe Women’s March human rights. ing the word. Participants gathMore than 3 million people in ered at the organization’s office, originated in 2017, on the first full day of Donald Trump’s cities nationally and worldwide at 619 Chetco Blvd., at 10 a.m. presidency. A crowd numbering held simultaneous protests in a Saturday before stepping out at in the hundreds of thousands global show of support for the 10:30 to march until noon. crowded the nation’s capital, a “It was a really vigorous More March on Page A5
Brian Williams Editor
urry County District Attorney Everett Dial said he’s resigning at month’s end. Dial said he had planned to serve out the final year of his term, but with his 65th birthday only Everett Dial days away has decided it’s time to spend more time with family. “My wife is from Central Oregon and has been wanting to move back for a long time,” Dial said. “We love the coast, but her family is in Central Oregon, so it’s time to move.” The Pilot talked with Dial on Wednesday morning in his second-story office in Gold Beach. He has a stunning view of the Pacific Ocean from inside the Curry County Circuit Courthouse, but since his desk faces away from the window, he rarely takes in that panoramic view. “This is really a nice view,” Dial agreed, sounding as if this was the first time he’d noticed. “I have been very busy. But not for much longer. I’ll be a sleeping-in DA soon.” Dial has been Curry County’s district attorney since his appointment in 2007 by then-Gov. Ted Kulongoski. He held the seat after winning the 2008 election, and was re-elected twice thereafter – in 2012 and 2016. He mentioned his lunch-pail work ethic as a likely reason that voters continued to support him. “I just come to work every day and do my job.” Dial, who had been in court earlier on Wednesday morning, was a district attorney for much of his career. He gravitated toward it after interning at the Deschutes County DA’s office in the late-1980s. “I could appear in court under studentappearance rules,” Dial said. “The DAs there would just hand me a case and say, ‘This is going to trial tomorrow, you do it.’ I had, like, seven trials in a row and I did okay - I got six out of seven convictions.” More Resigning on Page A5
Pelican Bay podcast brings prisoners’ stories to public E
David Hayes Staff Writer
ric Critz has long been in the business of telling other people’s stories. In 2000, he moved from San Francisco to Crescent City to take over his dad’s photography business, which told stories through images. Next, he rescued a friend’s online radio station, KFUG.com, and eventually grew that into an FM station which, in addition to playing music, shares the stories of people in Crescent City with their listening neighbors. Critz said that about the time when his operations started looking good at KFUG, he got another gig helping prisoners at Pelican Bay State Prison tell their stories. The former executive director of the Del Norte Association for Cultural Aware-
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ness was approached by the William James Association, which runs arts in corrections programs around the state, looking for someone local who had podcasting media experience. Critz was the first call. Pelican Bay’s podcast would be modeled after “Ear Hustle,” a San Quentin State Prison podcast that’s been produced now for four years. In December 2018, he went into Pelican Bay for the first time, to build the program and to get the equipment approved inside. Critz said that whereas San Quentin had corporate sponsors and a media lab for its lower-lever security facility, he’d be by himself at Pelican Bay - armed with a laptop, mixer, two microphones and a portable field recorder. That equipment stays inside a prison locker, ready for the next class. Asked at the time how big a class he might be able
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to handle, Critz threw out the number eight. So, eight inmates from B Ring and eight from A Ring made up his first classes producing the podcast. “Technically, what I do is a class,” said Critz. “It’s Audio Journalism. I had to write up a curriculum. I try to teach what I can: sound engineering, editing. But the rest is the podcast. “I’ve gotten to the point that I can set the stuff on the table, and they’ll set everything up and start recording.” Critz said a podcast really is no different from radio programming. It’s just based initially on Apple technology. “Anyone can do these incredible media things now, it just takes imagination and knowhow,” he said. His first class kicked off with two men he had asked to talk about the history of podcasting, the Iraq war,
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Pelican Bay State Prison inmates produce their introductions and tell their stories for a new podcast, Pelican Bay Unlocked. Photo by Lt. Del Higgerson. and interviewing skills. But, “I sit down, and within 10 minutes that’s all out the window.
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