News
Blue Mountain Eagle
Wednesday, August 9, 2017
Walden introduces legislation to aid vets
Blue Mountain Eagle
U.S. Rep. Greg Walden (R-Oregon) has intro-
duced a new piece of legislation aimed at helping
veterans in rural areas receive better health care.
Walden introduced the Doctors for Veterans Act
early this month.
“This bipartisan legislation is a product of feed-
back I’ve heard from veterans themselves and VA
officials throughout our district about the difficul-
ties providing veterans in rural Oregon with timely
access to quality care,” Walden said. “... Especially
in rural areas, our veterans are underserved and VA
facilities in Oregon face difficult recruiting chal-
lenges. This bill will help the VA compete with the
private sector for qualified physicians to adequately
staff their health centers in underserved areas and
bring veterans the care they deserve.”
The bill would allow the VA to better recruit
medical providers by offering student loan repay-
ment benefits comparable to what is offered in the
private sector. It proposes to increase the maximum
student loan benefit that the VA can offer through its
Education Debt Reduction Program, which could
help the VA recruit and retain medical providers.
The legislation intends to address the VA’s
provider shortage by improving its ability to at-
tract qualified medical providers, and ultimately
improve access to quality, timely care for Oregon
veterans. The bill provides additional help to rural
and underserved VA centers and clinics, where the
provider shortages are often more severe due to in-
creased challenges with recruitment and retention.
A separate piece of legislation Walden intro-
duced — the VA Medical Scribes Pilot Act — re-
cently passed the House of Representatives unani-
mously. This legislation would implement a pilot
program for medical scribes at VA facilities, which
intends to administratively unburden VA doctors
and allow them to see more veterans.
Both the VA Medical Scribes Pilot Act and the
Doctors for Veterans Act seek to address issues
Walden has heard about during his recent meetings
with veterans and officials at the VA SORCC and
throughout his district.
A5
OEA drops
tax petition for
technical error
By Paris Achen
Capital Bureau
The Eagle/Rylan Boggs
U.S. Rep. Greg Walden (R-Oregon) speaks to community members during a town hall
meeting in Mt. Vernon earlier this year. Walden recently introduced legislation to help
rural veterans receive better health care.
Airport implementing restrictions for eclipse
Grant County Regional
Airport is restricting
access to runways and
terminals during the
weekend of the total
solar eclipse, Aug. 19-21.
Blue Mountain Eagle
To ensure safety, the Grant County Regional Air-
port will only be allowing fire aviation, medical avia-
tion and pilots with confirmed reservations and prior
permission to land Aug. 19 through 5 p.m. Aug. 21.
The airport terminal will be restricted Aug. 21, the
day of the eclipse.
Only airport employees and volunteers, local han-
gar owners, Forest Service airbase employees and
contractors and emergency personnel will be allowed
access to the airport. For more information, call the
airport at 541-575-1151.
Eagle file photo
A technical error has prompted
the Oregon Education Associa-
tion to withdraw a petition for
a ballot measure to enact a 0.95
percent sales tax on corporations
with annual sales of more than $5
million.
Initiative Petition 27 created
a tax framework for corporations
with annual sales of more than
or less than $5 million. However,
corporations with sales of exactly
$5 million would have had to pay
nothing, due to an error in the ini-
tiative’s language, said OEA Presi-
dent John Larson.
OEA, the state’s largest teach-
ers’ union, plans to file paperwork
for a new initiative after correcting
the proposal’s wording.
“We are not abandoning the
concept,” Larson said.
Petitioners had already col-
lected more than 1,000 signatures
at the time of withdrawal Friday,
Aug. 4.
The OEA filed paperwork for
the tax measure after it became un-
likely that state lawmakers would
raise new revenue for schools. The
teachers’ union also backed corpo-
rate sales tax Measure 97, which
failed in the November 2016 elec-
tion. Union leaders maintain that
Oregon corporations fail to con-
tribute their “fair share” to state tax
revenue.
The proposal would levy a 0.95
percent gross receipts tax on cor-
porations with annual sales great-
er than $5 million. The initiative’s
sponsors want all of the revenue to
go toward K-12 and higher educa-
tion.
Another ballot measure propos-
al by the OEA — Initiative Petition
26 — is still in play. The initiative
would eliminate the constitutional
requirement to garner a three-fifths
majority vote in both chambers of
the Legislature to pass new taxes,
when educational funding dips un-
der than a certain threshold. The
threshold is “a sum of money suf-
ficient to ensure the state system
of public education meets quality
goals established by law.”
C OPS AND C OURTS
Grant County Sheriff
The Grant County Sher-
iff’s Office reported the fol-
lowing for the week of July
27 to Aug. 2:
• Concealed handgun li-
censes: 8
• Average inmates: 16
• Bookings: 5
• Releases: 6
• Arrests: 1
• Fingerprints: 3
• Civil papers: 19
• Warrants processed: 1
• Asst./welfare check: 4
THE NUT JOB 2 PG
Surly and his friends must stop the
mayor from destroying their home to
make way for an amusement park.
FRI - THURS (12:45) (4:20) 7:10 9:35
DETROIT R
The story is centered around the
Algiers Motel incident, which occurred
in Detroit, Michigan during the racially
charged 12th Street Riot of 1967.
Directed by Kathryn Bigelow.
FRI - THURS (12:45) (4:00) 7:30 9:35
DUNKIRK PG-13
Allied soldiers from Belgium, the
British Empire and France are
surrounded by the German army and
evacuated during a fierce battle in
World War II.
FRI - WED (12:45) (4:10) 7:00 9:30
THURSDAY (12:45) (4:10) 7:00 9:30
$9 Adult, $7 Senior (60+), Youth
06003
Justice Court
The Grant County Justice
Court reported the following
fines and judgments:
Violation of the speed
limit: Santo Domingo Vargas
Sanbria, 34, Medford, June
27, fined $200; Gabriel Jack-
son Helwig, 21, Belleville,
Illinois, 65/35 zone, July 8,
fined $260.
Violation of the basic rule:
Dalton James Reimers, 21,
John Day, 70/55 zone, fined
541-523-6377
Vernon, June 6, fined $435.
Failure to drive within
lane: Ben G. Luethe Jr., 73,
Mt. Vernon, July 18, fined
$260.
Dispatch
John Day dispatch worked
172 calls during the week of
July 31 to Aug. 6. Along with
the various traffic warnings,
trespassing, injured animals,
noise complaints and juvenile
complaints, these calls included:
• John Day Police De-
partment
July 31: Dispatched to a re-
port of a dispute at America’s
Best Value Inn. Responded to
an accident at the stoplight in
John Day.
Aug. 3: Received a report
of kids jumping off the Patter-
son Bridge. Received a report
of a month-old shoplifting in-
cident at Suzie Q’s.
Aug. 4: Responded to a
non-injury hit and run acci-
dent in John Day.
Aug. 5: Responded for
Grant County Sheriff’s Office
with Oregon State Police and
Burns/Paiute Tribal Police to
a report of domestic violence
in Canyon City. Responded to
a report of abuse in Strawber-
ry Village.
541-963-6577
541-573-6377
Aug. 6: Received a report
of a gunshot wound from the
hospital, but no crime had
been committed. Arrested a
57-year-old Salem resident
for failure to renew sex of-
fender registration and cited
him for speeding.
• Grant County Sheriff’s
Office
July 31: Dispatched to a
report of a dispute in Canyon
City. Took a report of harass-
ment in Mt. Vernon.
Aug. 5: Removed haz-
ard cows from Highway 26
near milepost 198. Arrested a
31-year-old Eugene resident
on a warrant after responding
to a report of harassment.
Aug. 6: Advised of a report
of illegal hunting.
• John Day ambulance
Aug. 1: Responded for a
73-year-old male who was
unresponsive.
Aug. 4: Responded with
Long Creek ambulance, Long
Creek Fire Department and
Oregon State Police to a sin-
gle vehicle accident on High-
way 395 North.
Aug. 5: Responded with
Long Creek ambulance for a
71-year-old male with a pos-
sible heart attack. Responded
with Prairie City ambulance
for a 51-year-old man who
injured himself getting off a
roof.
• Oregon State Police
Aug. 5: Responded to a re-
port of a bull in the highway.
Aug. 6: Received a com-
plaint of a bull on Highway
26 near Belshaw Bridge.
• John Day Public Works
July 31: Responded to a re-
port of a broken water line on
Lamford Road.
• Long Creek Fire De-
partment
Aug. 4: Received a report
of a tractor fire on Vaughn
Road in Fox.
Benefit Dinner & Raffle
(do not need to be present to win)
for Cory Holland
OCT. 7, 2017
time and location to be announced.
Watch for more details in
upcoming issues of the newspaper
06000
Oregon State Police
Arrested Jack Norris
Haughton, 44, Bend, for driv-
ing under the influence of al-
cohol on Friday, Aug. 4.
$160; Morgan Mae Jenson,
18, Bend, 83/55 zone, July 28,
fined $260.
Exceeding speed limit:
Jonathan Aaron Frohnmayer,
45, Eureka, Montana, 52/35
zone, July 10, fined $135;
Sue Marie Robinson, 72,
Eugene, 50/35 zone, June
19, fined $135; Jose Manuel
Gutuerrez, 34, Eureka, Cal-
ifornia, 45/35 zone, July 7,
fined $110.
Driving uninsured: Robert
James Bryant Jr., 20, Prairie
City, June 3, fined $130; Da-
neta Dawn Lewis, 43, Prairie
City, July 8, fined $130.
Careless driving: Ernest
Zuniga, 62, Mt. Vernon, July
9, fined $370.
Exceeding max weight
limit: John Weatherman,
61, Prineville, July 11, fined
$150.
Driving uninsured: Logan
William Ortmann, 27, John
Day, July 21, fined $130;
Jackson R. Stephenson, 25,
Asheville, North Carolina,
June 28, fined $130.
Operate without prop-
er fenders: Jordan Rachelle
Dibartolo, 21, Tygh Valley,
July 1, fined $160.
Driving while suspended:
Caleb Joe Vielma, 28, Mt.
06005
Arrests and citations in
the Blue Mountain Eagle are
taken from the logs of law en-
forcement agencies. Every ef-
fort is made to report the court
disposition of arrest cases.
541-576-2160
06008