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About The Blue Mountain eagle. (John Day, Or.) 1972-current | View Entire Issue (July 12, 2017)
GRANT COUNTY CELEBRATES INDEPENDENCE DAY – PAGES A3, A18 The Blue Mountain EAGLE The Eagle/Rylan Boggs Float riders toss out candy during the Dayville Fourth of July parade. Grant County’s newspaper since 1868 W EDNESDAY , J ULY 12, 2017 • N O . 28 • 18 P AGES • $1.00 www.MyEagleNews.com Over the Rainbow Sheriff ordered to pay $28,000 in public record suit By Sean Hart Blue Mountain Eagle The Eagle/Rylan Boggs Several Rainbow Gathering attendees form a “hippie roadblock” to collect any trash people might be carrying. Bliss for campers, a headache for the Forest Service Public safety personnel respond for deaths, stabbings, beatings, drugs By Sean Hart Blue Mountain Eagle The Rainbow Gathering has come and gone, for the most part. More than 13,000 people descended on Flagtail Mead- ow on the Malheur National Forest south of John Day last week for the annual gathering surrounding a July 4 prayer for peace. As of Monday, only 785 remained to clean up and repair the site. Forest Service resource specialists will meet with the cleanup crew to ensure the rehabilitation is up to feder- al standards, and the goal is to return the site to as close to original conditions as possible, according to a Monday update from the Forest Service. Offi - cials said previously, regardless of the group’s intent to leave the land better than they found it, ecosystem damage would be inevitable from so many people in such a small area. The event was not only tax- ing on the environment. Over the last several weeks, local public safety personnel have responded to a variety of inci- dents from medical emergen- cies to shoplifting to violence. Grant County Sheriff Glenn Palmer said his deputies and others have been “running nonstop” with few days off since mid-June. “Mental health has just been slammed. The ambulance has been swamped. The hospi- tal has been swamped. The jail See RAINBOW, Page A8 Amanda Peacher Oregon Public Broadcasting OPB/Amanda Peacher Rancher Justin Galbreath is permitted by the U.S. Forest Service to graze cows in the meadow where the 2017 gathering of the Rainbow Family of Living Light is taking place. He says he’s frustrated with the gatherers’ presence. On a 90 degree evening in the Malheur National For- est, a 55-year-old woman trudged along a dusty Forest Service road toward the main meadow of the Rainbow Family of Living Light annual gathering. She wore a bikini top with tie-dye pants, and hoisted a box of raw bacon on her shoulder. “Family members,” as Rainbow-goers refer to them- selves, called out as she passed. “Yeah, meat!” cheered a shirtless man. “I’m bringing home the bacon!” said the woman, who, like many at the Gathering, went by a pseudonym: “It’s Not Lit,” she called herself, a reference to the joint she often keeps tucked between her lips. It’s Not Lit was trucking the bacon to one of at least 20 makeshift camp kitchens at the Rainbow Gathering, an event that draws hippies, peace activists and vagabonds See HEADACHE, Page A8 A judge has ordered Grant County Sheriff Glenn Palm- er to pay $28,000 in attorney fees to The Oregonian news- paper after it sued him over public records. Grant County Circuit Court Judge William D. Cramer Jr. said in a June 28 opinion letter both parties partial- Sheriff ly prevailed Glenn in the lawsuit Palmer fi led by The Oregonian seeking disclosure of certain public records from Palm- er. The Oregonian requested $78,000 in attorney fees in November 2016 after the case had been dismissed because Palmer produced the request- ed records after the suit had been fi led. “I fi nd that Sheriff Palmer had responded timely to some parts of the many requests, some prior to the lawsuit,” Cramer said in the opinion. “... However, I fi nd that the lawsuit was necessary to gen- erate an accurate response as to all the requests in the com- plaint and the complete pro- duction of documents.” An attorney for The Or- egonian said in court docu- ments the newspaper began requesting public records from Palmer and the sheriff’s offi ce in February 2016, but Palmer did not provide all the documents requested, includ- ing email, phone and other records. The attorney said Palmer displayed a “complete lack of cooperation,” and the lawsuit was necessary to com- pel the disclosure of the pub- lic records. Palmer said in a Jan. 13 declaration the sheriff’s offi ce See PALMER, Page A8 New laws hit the books as legislature adjourns By Jade McDowell EO Media Group Another legislative session is in the books, and with it comes hundreds of new laws. Many of the more than 850 bills passed won’t have a no- ticeable impact on the average citizen’s day to day life, but others could result in a strang- er smashing in your car win- dow or fi nally having to learn how to pump your own gas. Starting Oct. 1, it could also result in a $2,000 fi ne for checking sports scores on your phone while driving. Previously it was only illegal to text and drive, but House Bill 2597 outlaws all hands- on use of a mobile electronic device while driving, includ- ing but not limited to posting on social media, taking pho- tos, inputting a destination on GPS or scrolling through a playlist on your phone. The maximum fi ne for violations is $2,000, and third-time of- fenders will be charged with a misdemeanor instead of a traffi c violation. Before the legislature ad- journs on Monday, here is a small sampling of other new rules that might affect you: In your vehicle • For everyone who wish- es they could pump their own gas in Oregon, House Bill 2482 allows self-service fuel- ing at gas stations 24 hours a day in counties with a popula- tion of less than 40,000 east of Multnomah County, including EO Media Group/E.J. Harris House Bill 2746 passed in April increased the deposit on cans and bottles from five cents to 10 cents. Morrow County, starting Jan. 1. Stations with a retail space such as a mini-mart must still provide an employee able to dispense fuel between the hours of 6 a.m. and 6 p.m. • If you spot a toddler or pet locked in a dangerous- ly hot car with no parent in sight, House Bill 2732 allows you to break into a car to re- move them if the person acts in good faith believing that the child or animal is in im- mediate danger. The person must have fi rst confi rmed that the doors were all locked, pro- ceeded to do the least amount of damage needed and called law enforcement as soon as “reasonably practical.” The bill took effect immediately upon passage. • It’s not just police cars you’ll be required to move over for starting on Jan. 1. Senate Bill 34 requires drivers on roads with more than one lane in the same direction to move to a lane non-adjacent to any vehicle pulled over with hazard lights fl ashing, fl ares set out or other indi- cations of distress. If there is only one lane, passing drivers must slow down by at least fi ve miles per hour instead. • If you get into a crash, Senate Bill 35, effective immediately, increases the threshold for reporting mo- tor vehicle crashes to law enforcement from $1,500 to $2,500 worth of damage. The legislature also passed House Bill 2403, requiring drivers to exchange insurance informa- tion after all crashes. If leav- ing a note for a vehicle owner who is not present, the note must include the insurance carrier and policy number. • Anyone who fancies See LAWS, Page A8
