ALTURAS, Calif. — In the high desert of Modoc County, a remote expanse of mostly nothingness between Oregon and Nevada, almost no one wears a face mask. I figured this out one morning last week, when I strolled into the sparse but well-kept office of Sheriff William “Tex” Dowdy. He took one look at my mask, and a bemused smirk spread across his boyish — and, yes, bare — face. Then he choked down a chuckle and shrugged. “Do whatever you want to do,” Dowdy said. “You have a choice here.” Advertisement A “choice” of this sort is not something most of us get anymore — and with good reason. We`re in the middle of a pandemic that has killed more than 130,000 Americans, including 6,500...
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