Standing a few feet behind the city workers, a local television news crew videotaped them, zeroing in on a burly man with a yellow helmet and a Death from Above tattoo on his bicep, lifting two bags at a time.

Downstream, a fascinated cadre of gawkers, young and old, watched the swiftly flowing waters and pointed at passing debris. Logs and branches and an old toilet scurried along as if late for a meeting. Across the river, a majestic old willow was branch-deep, the riverside pathway disappeared in the speeding muck. The elementary school beside it looked as if on an island. All the bridges, built low to the river, were dangerous, almost useless; the west side of town was close to being cut off from the central city. Police monitored the river and the traffic, and seemed to be deciding whether to shut the bridges down.

Russ watched ducks fly in, then cracked his neck and opened the galleys of the Metro section, a ball-point pen and post-it notes tucked in his shirt pocket, at the ready.

As Perry shifted again into work mode, the surrounding world was finally blocked out and his worries vanished in the hard light of labor.

Six days a week, Russ had to fill upwards of 48 broadsheet pages with national and international news, as well as local tales about crime and punishment, taxes and school bond issues, and anything else he could dredge up. On Sunday, he rested or did chores or played with his daughter or, if he was lucky, watched sports.

Filling these pages today was not a problem.

Perry was ward of twelve unfledged Sun reporters who toiled at a shade over minimum wage. He also supervised a number of freelance photographers who received next to nothing per shot. Russ was by far the most senior of the staff and had previously been employed by newspapers in Eugene, Portland, Miami, Houston, Los Angeles and, most recently, San Diego.

The Sun was a micro newspaper compared to other places he’d worked; Bend was far and away his smallest market yet. About 40,000 people resided in town, less than in his former zip code in San Diego.