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wa e nessover o a 'ei i i i astefulness was a central campaign theme of two of the victors in the recent Bend City Council election. Councilor-elect Nathan Boddie its efforts and the city's staff time said Bend has "been on a reckless on the critical challenges that face spending spree" and residents were the city. Boddie and Campbell have concerns about Roats' residency stuckwith the bill. that this council is choosing to Councilor-elect Barb Campbell and decide the issue. pledged to be careful with the city's But Boddie said: "Going forward, money and"pinch every penny." the next council will hopefully get Andyetnow, evenbeforethe new on with its business and not be too council takes office, city attorneys distracted by this." and staffhavebeen bogged down in In all th e d iscussions about a wasteful legal fight over CouncilRoats' unusual residency situation, or-elect Casey Roats' residency. we haven't heard any serious chalRoats sold his home and moved lenge to Roats' ability to provide temporarily outside the city limits quality representation on the couninto a home owned by his parents cil. Councilor Doug Knight, one of while hebuilt anewhome. Lawyers, the two members of the council who councilors an d c o uncilors-elect voted against Roats being qualified have all demonstrated that they are to serve, even made a special point fully capable of debating Roats' resi- of praising Roats' potential to be an dency for days. Is that truly making excellent councilor. Bend better'? We know one person'swasteful One legal challenge has been dis- spending is another's legal necesmissed. A new legal challenge is ex- sity. And that central to Boddie's pected to be filed, as of our deadline. and Campbell' s campaign concern The initial challenge was filed on about wastefulness was infrastrucbehalf of Campbell's partner, Foster ture spending, not legal spending. Fell. But it's hard to see how having to So we were pleased to read in pour more city money and time into Wednesday's Bulletin that Boddie a fight over Roats' residency is anywould like the new council to focus thingbut a wasteful distraction.
The lopsided K-12budget
G
ov. John Kitzhaber's budget proposal invests heavily in helping young children escape the effects of poverty by learning to read by a crucial thirdgrade benchmark.It's a noble goal that deserves significant attention. It'sharder to support, however, his lopsided plan to leave the rest of the K-12 system with a minuscule increase. School districts have not yet recovered from the recession, with classes too big and school years too short. We're also concerned about the budget's dependence on projected gains from health care, pension and prison changes that are far from secure. Even if all those savings turn out to be realand theeconomy continues to improve, the state needs to enhance its rainy-day fundinpreparation for future inevitable economic downturns. The governor wants to invest hundreds of millions of dollars to increase the percentage of children who canread by third grade in the expectation they will thrive later in school and in life. He proposes in-
children who meet the third-grade standard do better than those who don't, many unknowns face an initiative of this magnitude. While touting a grand investment in education, the governor leaves the rest of K-12 shortchanged. Bend-La Pine Superintendent Ron Wilkinson said the proposed allocation would leave K-12 half a billion dollars short of sustaining current programs,which haveyet torecover from recession-caused cuts. Overall, the governor's budget is slated to increase by nearly 11 percent, while total education spending shows a 9 percent rise. Fortunately, the governor's budget is only a starting point for the Legislature, where competingneeds canbe debated with input from educators and the public. Compromises might include a more limited rollout of the early learning project in select districts, saving resources for other needs statewide. That approach would have the added benefit of allowing educators to learn from those efforts before risking the kinds of losses creased spending on preschool, day the state suffered from earlier educare, home visits, early literacy, full- cational efforts such as CIM-CAM day kindergarten and more. or the health care fiasco of Cover While the evidence is solid that Oregon.
Su remeCourts ou e e m o reaccounta e By Gabe Roth
when to recuse themselves from cas- media and public access. But public es in which they have conflicts; they pressure is also needed to encourage also aren't bound to a code of ethics the justices to be more transparent. the way the rest of federal judiciary You may not have known, for exis. They can decide how much infor- ample, that Justice Clarence Thomas
Los Angeles Times
J
ustice Samuel Alito's sister is a
high-powered labor attorney who represents management in
disputes with workers. Justice Elena
mation on investments and travel to
Kagan's brother, a teacher at an elite release in their annual financial dispublic school in New York, has pro- closurereports,and they determine tested the school's admissions pro- when and where people can demoncess because of low minority enroll- strate near their building. ment. And Justice Stephen Breyer's Yet for all the flaws and impeneson co-founded a tech company that trability at the Supreme Court, the broadcasts civil court proceedings. problems could be solved rather Does having relatives involved in quickly. Unlike the consensus relabor disputes, affirmative action quired to make changes in Conbattles and cameras in courtrooms gress, the Supreme Court is largely affect how Supreme Court justices in charge of its own rules — and decide cases and manage their insti- Chief Justice John Roberts Jr. himtution? They say no, and we're sup- self could usher in most of the vital posed to take them at their word. But changes needed, induding tightenis "trust us" really good enough for ing requirements on recusals, requirthe nation's highest court'? ing the justices to adhere to the Code A confluence of recent events has of Conduct for U.S. judges, posting made the Supreme Court the most disclosure reports online, providing powerful, least accountable public advance notice for public appearancinstitution in the country. It is time to es and permitting live audio and vidmake the justices more accountable eo in the courtroom. to the Americanpeople. Roberts has been loath to impleThe court rules on wide-ranging ment any changes. Years ago, when issues fundamental to American life he was asked about the benefits of — where we can pray, who is eligible permitting live broadcasts of oral to vote and marry, how much regula- arguments, Roberts replied, "It's tion businesses should face, and who not our job to educate the public," as has accessto health insurance.And if saying he was comfortable hidwith Congress gridlocked and rela- ing behind the cast-iron doors in tions between the legislative and ex- perpetuity. ecutive branches at a historic nadir, A new organization I've launched, the court's opinions are binding and Fix the Court, will take on some of irreversible. So much for checks and what the court should be doing itself. balances. Each week, we release information In spite of this vast power, the jus- online about the justices related to tices have little accountability. Not fiveissue areas — recusals,disdoonly do they decide for themselves sures, ethics,publicappearances and
ruled on Bush vs. Gore while his wife was collecting candidates' resumes
to recommend to a new Bush administration. Or that Justice Ruth Bader
Ginsburg spoke at a National Organization for Women conference soon after ruling on a case in which the
group had submitted a brief to the court. (Ginsburg sided with NOW in the case.) These are but a few of the
examples where the justices may not have exerci sed proper discretion in hearing a case. Mustering public support for reform is the first step, and that shouldn't be too difficult: Despite
the well-documented political divisions across the country, Republicans, Democrats and Independents
are united in their desire for a more accountable Supreme Court. Recent polling found that more than 85 percent of Americans of all ideologies support requiring the justices to follow the judicial code of conduct from
which they are currently exempt. Large majorities also support cameras in the courtroom and compelling
the justices to post disdosure reports online. Supreme Court justices, rightly, can't simply be voted out of office. But the time has come to end the special rules that exempt them from
scrutiny by the American public. — Gabe Roth is executive director of Fix the Court. He wrote this for the Los Angeles Times.
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raternities, ourna ism an intros ection By Cameron Barr The Washington Post
raternities are having a r eal-
F
ly bad year. First came Caitlin Flanagan's cinematic takedown
in the March issue of The Atlantic, a
much-discussed and very long screed that began with an opening anecdote that captured much of what is wrong with fraternity culture, at least from a
certainpoint of view: "One warm spring night in 2011, a young man named Travis Hughes stood on the back deck of the Alpha Tau Omega fraternity house at Mar-
shall University, in West Virginia, and was struck by what seemed to him — under the influence of power-
ful inebriants, not least among them the clear ether of youth itself — to be an excellent idea: he would shove a
bottle rocket up his ass and blast it into the sweet night air. And perhaps it was an excellent idea. What was
not an excellent idea, however, was to misjudge the relative tightness of
a 20-year-ol d sphincter and the pro- of the many. But when healthy young college students are gravely injured or rocket. What followed ignition was killed, it's newsworthy. When there is not the bright report of a successful a common denominatoramong hunblastoff, but the muffled thud of fire in dreds of such injuries and deaths, one the hole." that exists across all kinds of campusThat is the sort of beginning that es, from private to public, prestigious effectively generates propulsion. The to obscure, then it is more than newsreader is sent hurtling along Flana- worthy: it begins to approach a nagan's grand tour of the many fail- tional scandal." ings of fraternities — chiefly hazing Then came a W h ite H ouse-endeaths, sexual assault and the volumi- dorsed national discussion of sexual nous ingestion of alcohol — and how assault on college campus, a debate powerful alumni and weak-willed in which Greek houses figure more university administrators sustain prominently as problem, or even as a systematic avoidance of liability. crime scene, than as solution, and the Based on a year of reporting, she news that the Justice Department was builds a case for change, noting that investigating dozens of universities stories like hers are not infrequent: for failing to adequately investigate "Articles like this one are a source sexual violence. Last month, a Rollof profound frustration to the fraterni- ing Stone piece recounting an alleged ty industry, which believes itself deep- gang rape at the Phi Kappa Psi fraterly maligned by a malevolent press nity house at the University of Virginintent on describing the bad conduct ia. The piece and the ensuing uproar of the few instead of the acceptable prompted university president Teresa — sometimes exemplary — conduct Sullivan to suspend fraternity and sopulsive reliability of a 20-cent bottle
rority operations until January, mak-
ing UVA one of several institutions to take action against the Greek system this year. But as sometimes happens in the wake of a story with singular impact, journalists began to scrutinize
the piece. Author and editor Richard Bradley, a onetime editor of the famed journalistic fabricator Stephen Glass,
ly gave to Slate in which she sounds evasive on the matter of contacting the alleged attackers for comment. Wemple rendered judgment: "The
charge in this piece, however, is gang rape, and so requires every possible step to reach out and interview them, including emails, phone calls, certified letters, FedEx letters, UPS letters
article in a blog post on Nov. 24. "I'm not sure that I believe it. I'm not con-
and, if all of that fails, a knock on the door. No effort short of all that qualifies as journalism." Rolling Stone, in a statement to Wemple, defended its
vinced that this gang rape actually happened. Something about this story
story about the woman Erdely called "Jackie," citing the author's "extensive
doesn't feel right," Bradley wrote.
reporting and fact checking."
conveyed his misgivings about the
Washington Post media reporter Paul Farhi noted in a profile of Sabrina Rubin Erdely, the freelancer
Journalism, as an institution, is in
no way immune from lapse or failure or malfeasance. But journalism has
who wrote the Rolling Stone piece, one thingover the Greek system — a that she wouldn't say in an interview whether she knew the identities of the
talent for introspection, sometimes for
ment. Erik Wemple, the Post's media
— Cameron Barris an editor at The Washington Post.
inquisition, played out in public, for all alleged attackers or whether she had to see. Fraternity brothers and univerapproached the ringleader for com- sity administrators should take note.
blogger, dissected an interview Erde-