That could be, Bill. It's hard to know, given that the two papers can't seem to even agree on basic reality.

Oregonian: the majority saying it wanted to see administrative cuts first.

Tribune: Cruz, Naito and Rojo de Steffey, who originally countered with a proposal funding no additional beds, agreed to pay for the beds, but only after Giusto and the commissioners find sufficient savings elsewhere — which means that still there is no firm date to open a single bed.

Looks pretty similar to me. So are the headline writers smoking something funny?

Oregonian: County rejects adding money for jail beds

Tribune: County agrees to fund jail beds

Not as different as they look, and both fit both stories.

1) Oregonian headline is right. County Comm's didn't add any money.

2) Tribune headline is right. County Comm's agreed to allow money to be spent on new beds.

3) Both stories agree that money will be spent on new beds only if Sherriff Giusto makes other cuts to free up money to pay for them.

In other words, they Board gave permission to Giusto to pay for more beds if he wants to make it a priority over whatever would be cut. But they didn't make the cuts themselves, or cut something else to add money to the Sheriff's Dept. budget for beds. Bernie gets to choose, and get the heat or kudos.

Neither story says if Giusto asked for such discretion as a fallback position to his presumable desire to have additional money for beds. Neither story says if he has indicated that he intends to make cuts elsewhere to pay for new beds, given the option. If he has voiced such an intention, neither story says if he pointed to specific areas to cut. The Oregonian says "administrative cuts," but is unclear if that was specified by the Board or comes from Giusto. No info on what areas of "administration" might be cut.

Without knowing more about Giusto's role, one can't know if this was just a punt by the Board, or a relatively good decision to put the discretion with the person best able to evaluate the trade-offs, given no additional money for beds.

The Trib story is marginally more informative in that it makes clear that a majority of the Board (Cruz, Naito, Rojo de Steffey) initially did not want to give Giusto this discretion. Why not, and whether their change amounts to a "capitulation," a compromise based on reasoned persuasion by someone, or a punt again depends on knowing more back story than is given by either paper here. I do not know it, nor if either paper has presented that information previously.

Anyone know how big the county budget and the sheriff's budget are, to enable comparison to the $2.2 million cost of adding 113 beds?

Am I wrong in reading the Trib story as unusually favorable to Linn for that paper?