Image provided by: University of Oregon Libraries; Eugene, OR
About The Blue Mountain eagle. (John Day, Or.) 1972-current | View Entire Issue (June 26, 2019)
A8 STATE Blue Mountain Eagle Wednesday, June 26, 2019 Lesser-known bills head to governor’s desk Oregon Capitol Bureau These bills might not make headlines, but they may make a difference to Oregonians all the same. Each of these bills passed their last hurdle this week and now head to Gov. Kate Brown for her signature. KEEP ON KEEPIN’ ON: In a display of possi- bly inadvertent foresight, the Legislature nearly unanimously passed House Bill 5048, which will allow state agencies to keep oper- ating at their current ser- vice levels until Septem- ber if a budget hasn’t been approved and signed for them by then. The Senate approved the bill without opposition June 17 after it previously passed the House with just one “nay” vote, from Rep. E. Werner Reschke, R-Klamath Falls. Sen. Bill Hansell, R-Athena, who carried the bill, and his 10 Republi- can colleagues were gone three days later, bringing the Senate to a standstill and leav- ing 2019- 2021 bud- gets for the Department of Human Services, Gov. Kate H i g h e r Brown Education Coordinat- ing Commission, Secretary of State’s Office, Depart- ment of Environmental Quality and several other state agencies in limbo. AFFORDABLE CARE: Democrats and Repub- licans don’t often find common cause on health care, but House Bill 3076 brought members of both parties together. It requires that nonprofit hospitals offer to reduce medical costs for patients whose households make less than four times the fed- eral poverty wage level — and waive costs for those making double or less. It also limits the amount of interest that hospitals can charge on patients’ debt. The House re-passed the ARE WIFI DEVICES HARMFUL TO CHILDREN? THE OREGON DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION WILL REVIEW THE EVIDENCE AND RECOMMEND WAYS THAT SCHOOLS CAN REDUCE THE MICROWAVE RADIATION THAT STUDENTS ABSORB. bill 45-15 on June 18 after it was amended in the Senate. Proponents said com- munity hospitals should be offering more charity care and argued that low-income patients are often unable to pay their bills. Many hos- pitals already have finan- cial assistance programs, but HB 3076 would set a minimum standard. MAKING WAVES: Are wifi devices harm- ful to children? The Ore- gon Department of Edu- cation will review the evidence and recommend ways that schools can reduce the microwave radi- ation that students absorb. Senate Bill 283 passed the House 50-8 Wednesday. The department will report its finding to the Legisla- ture by January 2021. Sen. Laurie Monnes Anderson, D-Gresham, a retired pub- lic health nurse, sponsored the bill. It passed the Senate earlier without opposition. NO HATE: In Oregon, crimes targeting a person on the basis of their race, sexual orientation, gender identity, religion and other demographic factors could be punished more harshly under Senate Bill 577, which passed the House unanimously on June 19. Now, Oregon allows someone to be charged with intimidation for hurt- ing or damaging the prop- erty of a person on the basis of their identity. Sen. O utlook Lew Frederick, D-Port- land, one of three African American state legislators in Oregon, set out this ses- sion to broaden the law and make it more explicit. SB 577 adds gender identity to the list of characteris- tics and it renames “intim- idation” as “bias crime.” A single offender could be charged with a felony for a bias crime under Freder- ick’s proposal. Under the current law, multiple peo- ple have to be involved and working together for the crime to constitute intimidation. Bias crime data will also have to be tracked and reported to the Oregon Criminal Justice Commission. ENTITLED TO A TITLE: Under state law, an automobile dealer has to apply to the Oregon Department of Transporta- tion for a vehicle’s title on the buyer’s behalf. Senate Bill 113 gives that requirement some teeth by allowing a buyer to sue a dealer that doesn’t do that. The Oregon Consumer League told lawmak- ers that buyers need pro- tection from fraud, since unethical car dealers some- times sell vehicles without obeying the state’s titling requirements. The House passed the bill unanimously Thursday after it previously cleared the Senate 19-9 with most Republicans opposed. SENI R PRAIRIE CITY – Did you enjoy the warm day of summer? The A/C works just fine. But being as how this is Grant County, don’t get too far away from your Rose Coombs warm clothes. I had to turn on the heater at the hall today so it would be warm enough in the pinochle corner! That’s why ‘they’ call this the Temperate Zone. Har, har. Carlos and Luann made the home deliveries, Drew led the flag salute and Jack asked the blessing. The gift certificate donated by Chuck’s Little Diner went to Alex Dabalos. Our entrée sponsor today was Malheur Lumber Co. Thanks so much. Tom’s centerpieces featured real cut flowers. The table going first had a yellow blossom. My, there was quite a variety of flowers too. All of my spring flowers are gone. Waiting on the hollyhocks for summer blossoms. And the garden is all up – except for the carrots. Wonder why they take twice as long to sprout… Tom’s word for the day celebrated Father’s Day some more: “Before I got married, I had six theories about bringing up children. Now I have six children and no theories” – Lord Rochester. Amen to that brother! We were most happy to have Pam Howard back at her post at the registration desk. It has been a long spring for her and Jim. We pray that the treatments will be successful. Our meal today had BBQ chicken breasts and boy-o-howdy were they ever good! To go along with them was a pasta salad, green salad, hard- boiled eggs, a roll (which came from the BMCC – don’t think that I have acknowledged them for doing that for us), and delicious chocolate chip cookies. Mmmmm good. Great job, Amber and Lacy. We were also happy to see Storey Mooser and Nancy Spence partaking of our bounty. They survived another winter in the southland. (It’s a tough job, but somebody had to do it, huh?) Har, har. At the monthly hall board meeting Tuesday, we discussed the Fourth of July parade entry. If you want to help in any way, shape or form just let Ginger know. Been spending time up in the attic sorting through all the collectibles, scrapbook items and memorabilia. What fun! Came across items that I have no memory of seeing before. Even found a photo of my grandmother’s brother that is the spitting image of my grandson! The thing I want to do is to get each family’s stuff in its own box. That means a box for May, a box for Mills, a box for Dunten, a box for Coombs and a box for Derrol and I. Everything now is scattered in numerous boxes and suitcases and a cedar chest. Being a neatnik, that will never do; so, upward and onward. Maybe you’ll see some items at the senior sales corner. Luke 21:30-31 “When [the fig trees] sprout leaves, you can see for yourselves and know that summer is near. Even so, when you see these things happening, you know that the kingdom of God is near.” JOHN DAY – I think my irises are done for the season. I wasn’t able to water them as much as they probably needed so I trimmed them up instead in hopes of them coming back Dusty Harris in the next couple months or next spring. However, I was able to actually go through my flowerbeds this weekend and get all of the weeds out! After that I transferred some of the irises to the flowerbed outside my gate, put up my new planter, planted the lavender bush (finally) and then planted my black-eyed Susan climbing plant on a trellis by the house. It looks like a completely different space, which makes me so happy! Our greeter was Ron Dowse. There were 37 regular and 28 frozen meals delivered by Step Forward and also by Linda and Larry Christensen. How did we get so lucky as to have such amazing people willing to drive around and deliver meals to our dear friends? This time our meal was corned beef hash with eggs and hash brown patties, fresh cantaloupe, strawberries and maple bars for dessert and I have to say it was a real treat! Thank you to our cooks who so graciously bless us every week with exquisite food. The meal was served by our friends from First Christian Church. The winner of the gift card donated by Len’s Drug was Karen and the winner of the free meal was Dave Pasko. Congratulations! You know what I really dislike? When people try to garden or plant flowers but have no clue what they are doing! While I was pulling up weeds and redoing the other flowerbed I pulled up actual plastic planters from the ground and sheets of plastic… whoever was here before me cut the bottom off of the plastic planters that you buy the plants in and then planted that in the ground! What was the goal for that? Maybe they wanted to try and keep it contained to one spot? I’m not sure, but rest assured I have all of those out of the ground now! Our greeters were Everett and Jeanette. There were 40 total meals delivered by the crew at Step Forward and Ken and Shermayne Boethin. Today our meal was chicken with mushroom sauce, rice, vegetables, green salad with 1000 island dressing, French bread and molasses cookies for dessert, which was quite delicious! It was served by the lovely folks from the United Methodist Church and was sponsored by Northwest Quadrant Wealth Management. What should we try next? Hmmmm. The good thing about getting into summer is all the summertime foods! Especially watermelon, yummy! The winner of the Chester’s Thriftway gift certificate was Tom York and the free meal was won by Balbina. We should all remember that the first day of summer wasn’t even a week ago, so be patient with the weather. After a rough winter and spring our weather is just trying to find a happy medium. What does everyone have planned for the rest of this summer? You know, the fourth of July is coming up in about a week so that should be fun! Sounds like a good day to barbecue and make tasty treats. The senior center could use four wheel walkers if anyone has one they would like to donate for the silent auction; it would be greatly appreciated. Jeremiah 29:11 “’For I know the plans I have for you,’ declares the LORD, ‘plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” Prairie City Seniors John Day Seniors MONUMENT – Our greeters at the front table were the three stooges, no, just kidding. We had Jimmy Cole, Linda Blakeslee and Kristi Guimont. Jimmy and Soo Yukawa Linda collected and counted the money while Kristi checked all the guests in. Bodean Andersen led us in the flag salute, made the announcements and then prayed the blessing over our meal. We had 52 guests on the books and seven takeouts. The Chester’s Thriftway gift card went to Dick Wanous of Spray. The Len’s Drug gift card went to Judy Harris. Betty Breeding and yours truly both won a free meal to our senior center. We had Dick and Pam Wanous join us from Spray. There was also a guest from long times past, Ms. Loiselle Dahill of Prineville. Ms. Loiselle lived in Monument many years ago and also worked in the forestry service headquarters. We hope they all enjoyed their meal and come join us again. We must not forget a visit from Eric Andersen of Sunnyside, Washington. Terry Cade and Teawna Jewell prepared a very yummy meal of baked chicken with cheese and ranch dressing and noodles. It was delish. They also served us dinner rolls and a nice fresh salad. We also had oatmeal raisin cookies for dessert. Thank you so much for our yummy meal ladies. Monument Seniors We so appreciate all you do for us! Are you ready to hear the news of how much funding was raised from the Monument third annual rummage sale? Drum roll please, we proudly present that there was over $3,500 that came in that will go to the general funds. Hallelujah! Praise our most generous God. Judy Harris thanked all the volunteers who came together in their support and helping out from the kitchen, to the setting up, to packing up and sending to Mitchell and giving up their time. Did anyone else out there freeze their little bottoms last week? I cannot believe that it was so cold this past week and I actually had to put on a pair of socks because my toes were beginning to freeze. A couple of times, even though I was drinking hot teas, I still did not get warm. I’m glad I got most of my tomato plants in. My pepper plants are starting to flower and I see one Sequoia pepper on one of them. I got that plant from the school and so I don’t have any clue as to what they are supposed to look like. I wonder if it will be too spicy for me to eat? I did take advantage of the cool weather. I canned some beans and I did not have to do it in the hot summer. If the hot weather holds up, I might have to can some more beans. Question from the hubby, “Why do we call it canning when we put them into jars?” My curious husband wants to know. I might be canning a whole lot of raspberry jam this year at the rate my raspberry canes are going. Psalms 116:2 “Because He hath inclined His ear unto me, therefore will I call upon Him as long as I live.” 127464t
