A12 News Blue Mountain Eagle PALMER Continued from Page A1 the electronic copy of the incident report was delet- ed, Sheriff Palmer retained hard copies of the initial re- port and inal report in the records of Grant County Sheriff’s Ofice, where these public records have always been available for inspection and copying by the public, representatives of the press, the Department of Justice, and the (police licensing agency), as required by Or- egon’s public records laws.” The statement did not respond to the remainder of Gray’s complaint or the complaints iled with the li- censing agency by at least seven others. The police licensing agency forwarded com- plaints to the Oregon Depart- ment of Justice for further investigation in February. A DOJ investigation into an unspeciied complaint is on- going. Also on Friday, the Port- land newspaper The Or- egonian and its reporter Les Zaitz iled a complaint against Grant County Sher- iff’s Ofice, Palmer and civil deputy Sally DeFord in Grant County Circuit Court, seeking “to declare certain records to be ‘public records’ and to obtain disclo- sure of certain records.” “For the past two months, Plaintiffs have made routine public records requests from Defendants,” the complaint states. “... At nearly every turn, however, Plaintiffs have met a stone wall of re- sistance.” Oregon law requires pub- lic records to be disclosed, with the exception of certain records that are exempt. The lawsuit seeks pub- lic email, phone and social media records; information about the number of con- cealed handgun licenses is- sued, crimes reported and arrests; arrest reports where Palmer was the primary ar- resting oficer; communi- cations with Salvatore Cas- cuccio, Fred Grant Kelly and the Oregon Firearms Fed- eration; reports concerning the investigation and arrest of Scott Willingham; and reports about the 2015 haz- ardous materials response to a possible contaminated en- velope received by Palmer. Palmer, DeFord and county counsel Ron Yockim did not respond to requests for comment. Boyd said Hostetter Law Group is not representing Palmer in this lawsuit. Palmer submitted a lengthy public records re- quest to the city of John Day before serving the city with a tort claim notice, which serves as notice of his intent to sue and protects his right to do so in the future. City Manager Peggy Gray said as of Monday the city had not been notiied that the sheriff had iled the actual lawsuit in court. County foster statistics Here’s a snapshot look at the numbers in Grant County, and statewide in Oregon during Federal Fiscal Year 2015 — Oc- tober 2014-September 2015 — from the Oregon Department of Human Services “Child Welfare Data Book”: • A total of 17 chil- dren experienced at least one day in foster care in Grant County — eight, from ages 0-5, three ages 6-12, five ages 13-17 and one age 18 and older. Statewide, there were 11,238 children in foster care for at least one day. • Grant County’s rate of children in foster care fluctuated the past three years in comparison to the statewide rate. In Grant County, the rate per 1,000 children in 2015 was 10.6, in 2014 was 5.1 and in 2013 was 8.6 per- cent. Statewide for those years, the rate was 8.8 in 2015, 8.9 in 2014 and 9.6 in 2013. • The average num- ber of months in care in Grant County was 12 months in 2015, and 9.5 in 2014. Statewide, the number was higher: 19 months in both 2015 and 2014. • In 2015, seven children entered into the foster care program and three left. Statewide, 3,793 children came in and 3,885 left. These numbers do not include Title IV-E eligi- ble children served by Tribes. Wednesday, May 25, 2016 OYSTER FEED 2016 ESD Continued from Page A1 increases in these attacks. These attacks must be invit- ed into a system by a user, he said, often by “well-dis- guised emails designed to get the end user to click on an infected attachment or to go to an infected website.” Once the malicious com- puter code runs, it begins encrypting iles, he said, and without a key, it is almost impossible to decrypt. He said the ESD is trying to de- termine where the ransom- ware was introduced into the system. “Because we have a heightened sense of paranoia, we are proceeding quite cau- tiously to bring servers back online,” he said. “It’s a slow process. We can’t always pro- tect the end user from them- selves, and that’s why ran- somware is as successful as it is — human nature makes us curious and we oftentimes click on links or open emails that we shouldn’t.” Waltenburg said the ESD has tightened security on its email servers, implemented domain-wide ad blocking on browsers and disabled the ability to run executable iles from removable media. He also encouraged peo- ple using the ESD’s services not to allow macros to run in Microsoft documents re- ceived via email or the inter- net and to back up iles on an external drive weekly. An added attraction to keep youngsters entertained at this year’s Oyster Feed was a bounce house at Seneca Park. Chad Holliday unloads another batch of oysters to be cooked up for the hungry crowd. Eagle photos/Cheryl Hoefler A muddy softball game was among the many activities at the 25th annual Seneca Oyster Feed. NEED Continued from Page A1 “Being a foster parent is the only stability some of these kids will ever see,” she said. She said there are so many kids out there in need and wishes more people would step up and foster. She hears many people say it would be too hard to let the kids go, but Copenhaver said people should also take into consid- eration “all the love, joy and laughter.” She said their own bio- logical children realize how blessed and how wonderful their lives are, too, from the experience. “It’s a family choice,” Co- penhaver said. Local foster parents will be recognized at an appreciation barbecue on May 31. For more information about child welfare data, visit http://www.oregon.gov/dhs/ children/child-abuse/Pages/ Data-Publications.aspx. For information about be- coming a foster parent, visit http://www.oregon.gov/DHS/ CHILDREN/FOSTERCARE/ Pages/become-fosterparent. aspx. The Oregon Department of Human Services ofice in John Day is at 725 W. Main St., Suite C. For more infor- mation, call 541-575-0728, ext 248. Thank you, Grant County for your support and kind words. A life of public service is as much a gift to the person who serves as it is to those he is serving. Chris Labhart Paid for by the Committee to Elect Chris Labhart X-MEN: APOCALYPSE PG-13 We would like to thank everyone who attended the spaghetti feed and auction that was held for Curt Pereira. It was a great success! A special thank you goes to the Mennonite ladies for their generous donation of desserts. We also want to thank all of the businesses and individuals who donated. Sincerely, Curt & Lisa Pereira T H A N K Y O U The Seneca Oyster Feed Committee would like to give a big “THANK YOU” to everyone who helped make the 25th Annual Seneca Oyster Feed such a Big Success. All the donations, hard work and donated time were greatly appreciated. This year was wonderful because of you. Thank you, City of Seneca FRI & SAT (12:45) (3:30) 6:30 9:30 SUN & MON (1:10) (3:30) 6:30 TUES-THURS (12:45) (4:20) 6:60 ALICE THROUGH THE LOOKING GLASS PG Alice returns to the whimsical world of Wonderland and travels back in time to save the Mad Hatter. Robbins Farm Equipment FRI & SAT (12:45) (4:00) 7:00 9:35 SUN & MON (1:10) (4:00) 7:00 TUES-THURS (12:45) (4:20) 7:00 ANGRY BIRDS PG Animation. Comedy. Find out why the birds are so angry. FRI & SAT (12:45) (4:10) 7:10 9:40 SUN & MON (1:10) (4:10) 7:10 TUES-THURS (12:45) (4:20) 7:10 $9 Adult, $7 Senior (60+), Youth 03945 T hank Y ou With the emergence of the world’s first mutant, Apocalypse, the X-Men must unite to defeat his extinction level plan. 3850 10th St. Baker City 10218 Wallowa Lake Hwy. La Grande 1160 S Egan Burns 86812 Christmas Valley Hwy. Christmas Valley 541-523-6377 541-963-6577 541-573-6377 541-523-6377 N EVE R F O R G ET We salute our nation’s fallen veterans and all the brave soldiers of our military who have served and continue to serve in our defense G RANT C OUNTY V ETERANS S ERVICES A heart of caring in the heart of the city . Located at the Grant County Courthouse • 541-575-1631 Open Mon, Wed & Fri - 10 a.m. - 4 p.m.