BULLDOGGER OFF TO NATIONALS
The
PAGE A9
Blue Mountain
EAGLE
Grant County’s newspaper since 1868
W EDNESDAY , M AY 11, 2016
FBI arrests
man in JD
with stolen
.50-caliber
machine
gun
By Sean Hart
• N O . 19
• 18 P AGES
• $1.00
www.MyEagleNews.com
County vows to defend ‘Squaw Meadow’
State Legislature pushed for term to be removed in 2001
By Sean Hart
Blue Mountain Eagle
Grant County offi cials have threat-
ened to sue over a federal board’s de-
cision to rename geographic features
that contained the word “squaw.”
The U.S. Board on Geographic
Names rendered decisions on 13 pro-
posals to rename features in Grant
County April 14. Eight of the new
names were proposed by the county.
The other fi ve names were proposed
by the Confederated Tribes of the
Umatilla Indian Reservation.
The county did not submit propos-
als for two of the fi ve features ulti-
mately named by the Tribes, instead
hoping to retain the original names of
“Squaw Meadow” for the 95-acre fl at
about 7 miles southeast of Bates and
“Squaw Creek” for a stream through
the meadow. The board, however,
selected the Umatilla Tribes’ pro-
posals of Wíwaanaytt Meadow and
Wíwaanaytt Creek.
In an April 27 letter to the board,
members of the Grant County Court
vowed to retain “Squaw Meadow,”
a “vitally important” historic recre-
ational site revered by local citizens.
“We will defend the meadow,”
the letter states. “But before we are
forced to sue, our legal advisor rec-
ommended that we go through every
possible administrative procedure to
avoid a lawsuit.”
See SQUAW, Page A18
Blue Mountain Eagle
The FBI arrested an Idaho
man Friday in John Day for
possessing an unregistered
machine gun with the serial
number removed.
Michael Ray Emry, 54, was
arrested after agents served a
federal search warrant on his
trailer, truck
and car at the
Grant County
Fairgrounds
and RV Park
where he had
been staying,
according to
Michael
an FBI press
Ray
Emry
release. The
Bureau of Al-
cohol, Tobacco, Firearms and
Explosives, the John Day Po-
lice Department and the Oregon
State Police provided assistance.
The criminal complaint fi led
by Special Agent Miguel Perez
states agents found a fully auto-
matic .50-caliber Browning M2
“Ma Deuce” machine gun with
an obliterated serial number.
The weapon was not registered
to Emry in the National Fire-
arms Registration and Transfer
Record, as required for fully
automatic fi rearms.
After being arrested, Emry
said the gun could fi re 550-
650 rounds per minute and
that he took it from a shop
where he worked in Idaho, ac-
cording to Perez’s complaint.
Perez also said Emry took
the gun without the shop own-
er’s knowledge and obliterated
the serial number before trans-
porting it from Idaho to Oregon.
Emry is charged with un-
lawful possession of a machine
gun not registered to him and
unlawful possession of a fi re-
arm with an obliterated serial
number. He was transported to
Deschutes County Jail and was
scheduled to be transferred
Monday to Eugene, where he
will make his initial appear-
ance before a federal judge.
According to an article on
The Voice of Idaho News web-
site, Emry was the proprietor of
that organization, as well as The
Voice of North Idaho and The
Voice of Grant County, Oregon.
A Facebook post Friday
from the The Voice of Grant
County confi rms he was ar-
rested: “We don’t know the
charges — presumably it was
because of the Malheur Occu-
pation. Michael was there as
media and nothing more.”
STRUTTIN’
ALONG
Participants lace up for friendly competition
Strut, Stride draws
support for hospice
By Angel Carpenter
Blue Mountain Eagle
J
OHN DAY — There were 70
walkers, runners and bicyclists
ready with a smile for Saturday’s
Strut, Stride, Straddle and Stroll.
Whether they participated in
memory of a loved one, such as Kar-
la Colson who “strided” for her mother
Barbara Salisbury, or just for the fi tness
aspect, all appeared to enjoy the event
that has become a tradition in support of
the nonprofi t Blue Mountain Hospice.
This year, the event raised $1,440 for
the program.
The proceeds support Hospice pa-
tients whose expenses exceed what their
insurance pays.
Sylvia Ross, a registered nurse and
director of Blue Mountain Home Health
and Hospice, organizes the event with
lots of volunteer help. She said her moth-
er, Sherri Dowdy, and Michelle Gibson
“really pulled it together.”
Dowdy is a hospice volunteer and
Gibson is a social worker at hospice.
“It’s a neat event and fun to get the
community out to help hospice and enjoy
each other,” Dowdy said. “We make it a
dog-friendly event, too.”
Buses drove participants to the start-
ing points of the race from the Blue
Mountain Hospital parking lot: the
“straddle” portion started in Prairie City
(16 miles), “striders” were near Pine
ABOVE: Starting the
“strut” portion of
Saturday’s Strut, Stride,
Straddle and Stroll
event east of John Day
are, from left, Thomas
Wunz, Nathan Wunz,
Lydia Wunz, Julie
Proctor with her dog
Indy and Karla Colson.
RIGHT: Taking the
“stroll” portion of
Saturday’s Strut,
Stride, Straddle
and Stroll event are
Brianna Proctor,
Mary McDaniel and
Chrystal Grant,
pushing her 3-month-
old daughter, Jade, in
the stroller.
Eagle photos/Angel Carpenter
See STRUT, Page A18
Congress trying to address opioid epidemic
By Kathy Aney
Opioid statistics
EO Media Group
Rep. Greg Walden asked
for advice this week on a sub-
ject that is grabbing plenty of
headlines these days — abuse
of prescription painkillers.
Walden met last week
with health care providers,
pharmacists, hospital admin-
istrators, law enforcement
and others at Good Shepherd
Medical Center in Hermiston
for an opioid roundtable. He
had similar conversations in
Bend and Medford last week
and is working with his con-
gressional colleagues through
12 proposed bills to tackle the
opioid addiction epidemic.
“I don’t think the general
• 2.1 million people in the U.S. abuse opioids
• 200,000 people overdose on opioids each year in the U.S.
• 15,000 people die from opioid overdoses each year in the U.S.
EO Media Group/E.J. Harris
Congressman Greg Walden listens as Dwight
Holton, CEO of Line for Life, explains some of the
issues with pain killer addition in the state during a
roundtable discussion with health care providers,
pharmacists, hospital administrators and law
enforcement last week at Good Shepherd Medical
Center in Hermiston.
public knows how bad this
is,” he said. “I think my col-
leagues didn’t know until we
started to get into it.”
Dwight Holton, sitting
on Walden’s left, provided
some stats. Holton is CEO of
a non-profi t called Lines for
Life which works to prevent
suicide and drug addiction.
He said the toll of opioid
abuse is horrendous.
“About 15,000 people die
from prescription opioid over-
doses every year in America,”
he said. “Basically, it’s a jet-
liner of people every week.”
The culprits are painkill-
ers such as Hydrocodone and
Oxycodone. Opioids work
by changing the way people
perceive pain. Once lauded
as a less-addictive alternative
to morphine, synthetic opi-
oids are now getting a hard
look. The U.S. Department of
Health and Human Services
reported that the country is in
the midst of an opioid over-
dose epidemic with more than
See OPIOID, Page A18