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