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About The Blue Mountain eagle. (John Day, Or.) 1972-current | View Entire Issue (Jan. 8, 2020)
A16 NEWS Blue Mountain Eagle Wednesday, January 8, 2020 Laws Elliott son fully complied with the requirements of their sentence. Continued from Page A1 Continued from Page A1 Elliott increased his connections by meeting with other people his age from Poland, England, the United Kingdom and from different parts of the U.S. Sayd Hussain, a 21-year-old junior at Florida Atlantic University, is running for state representative in Palm Beach, and Elliott had the chance to meet him. “He’s a year and a half older than me, and it was inspiring and cool to see that somebody who was a White House intern last year has already been elected to a local board,” Elliott said. “It’s somebody who reminded me of myself, who attempted at making change at such a young age, and he is succeeding so far.” He also got to personally meet polit- ically prominent figures such as Ben Shapiro, former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, Texas Rep. Dan Cren- shaw and Texas Sen. Ted Cruz. “Not that many people got to meet Ted Cruz, and I know this because he was walking through the hotel lobby and I followed him and stopped to see what he did,” Elliott said. “He stopped at the end of the hall to talk to 10 kids and take pictures with him, and then I went down there to meet him and take a picture.” Cruz made a remark in his speech on Dec. 20 that resonated the most with Elliott. Cruz talked about how people from other countries like Mexico or Cuba are trying to get into the U.S., but people in the U.S. never leave. “People aren’t leaving this country, even if a celebrity says they are going to leave if the president is re-elected,” Elliott said. “There are no other coun- tries in the history of countries that have risen so many people out of pov- erty than this country.” A new generation The conference concluded, and Elliott embarked on the 11-hour flight, with a delay included, from Florida to Employment Revenge porn Contributed photo Contributed photo Tanner Elliott sits 18 feet away from President Donald Trump at Turning Point USA’s Student Action Summit Conference on Dec. 21 in Florida. Grant Union graduate Tanner Elliott meets with U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz while in Florida for the Student Action Summit Conference. Boise. The flight gave him a chance to look over Chicago and the Great Lakes and to talk to some of the friends he made from Florida. Elliott plans to continue his political career by taking advantage of opportu- nities and continuing to get involved with politics in Oregon. “I’m getting involved in helping Oregon state Senator Cliff Bentz’s cam- paign for Congress,” Elliott said. “I’m paying attention to political opportuni- ties in Eastern Oregon, and the oppor- tunities are there. I’d like to start my political career in Oregon.” As part of a new generation of future politicians, Elliott said his gen- eration has an ample amount of enthu- siasm and energy, but the generation can be misunderstood at times. “(People) don’t believe that this generation is informed,” Elliott said. “I met young people at the conference who love our Constitution and love this county and understand the basic princi- ples of this country. This generation is informed.” He said, while some in the genera- tion are misinformed, the same can be said about other generations. Technol- ogy is also changing things, he said. “I’d say we’re very smart because we are the first generation to be born in technology, and we are getting infor- mation faster than any generations in the world’s history,” Elliott said. “Our generation is going to shake things up.” Elliott said the Republican Party is going in the right direction with the message of free enterprise, supporting our troops, standing by the Constitu- tion and country values. However, he thinks the party needs to make more progress with diversity. “The Republican Party needs to reach out to minorities,” Elliott said. “We are making that progress in great strides, but I think we can do a better job.” For other young people looking to be politically active, Elliott’s advice is to get involved, stand by your values and don’t let anybody shut you down. “Most importantly, be open-minded and be tolerant of others’ ideas,” Elliott said. “Never be closed-minded because they are a Democrat or a Libertarian or an Independent because you always learn things from the people that you disagree with.” Merkley Continued from Page A1 company not sell drugs for more than the average price that they sell in Can- ada, Japan, Australia and other major European countries. The third idea is Merkley’s plan. “More or less, 80 or 90% of Amer- icans support these ideas because they hate being ripped off,” Merkley said. “With support for these ideas, why can’t we get a pass? The answer is because of money in politics. If we don’t change the role of money in pol- itics, then we are going to fail on many of the fundamental problems we are facing in America.” Merkley championed his For the People Bill that would take on gerry- mandering, voter suppression and dark money in politics. Impeachment was the next topic. The question was whether or not it is possible for Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi to withhold the arti- cles of impeachment approved by the House until the next Senate is in ses- sion, assuming that Democrats retake control. Merkley said he does not think that will be possible. “Essentially, the work of any given Congress expires with each term so there would probably need to be a rein- troduction of the articles in the House, and it wouldn’t make any sense,” Merkley said. “I think you’ll see those articles transferred by the end of next week. Speaker Pelosi held them over the holidays as a way to highlight the need for the Senate to have a full and fair trial.” Now that the House is done, the responsibilities are on the Senate to carry out the trial, Merkley said. In an interview before the town As of 2020, it will be a crime in Oregon to dis- tribute intimate photos or videos of a person with- out their consent. The pho- tos or videos qualify as revenge porn under the law if they show a per- son’s “intimate parts” or show them engaging in a sex act, the subject is iden- tifiable, they did not give permission and could rea- sonably be expected to be “harassed, humiliated or injured by the disclosure.” Previously, the law only covered posting such con- tent to a website, but now adds any other methods of dissemination, such as text message, email, private messaging in apps or hand- ing out physical copies. It also allows victims to sue for up to $5,000 in dam- ages. The crime is a Class A misdemeanor for a first offense and Class C felony it the perpetrator has a prior record of such offenses. Calling 911 Using the police as a weapon to harass some- one will be a risky move starting Jan. 1, as a law takes effect allowing peo- ple to seek civil damages from someone who sum- moned police with the intent to infringe on the person’s rights, discrimi- nate against them, cause them to feel harassed or embarrassed, expel them from a place where they are legally allowed to be or damage their reputation or financial standing. The law was put in place to address reports of incidents in which white callers called 911 on peo- ple of color for legal activ- ities, such as holding a barbecue. Marijuana convictions The Eagle/Rudy Diaz To recognize and celebrate the work done by the Grant County Piecemakers Quilt Guild, Sen. Jeff Merkley gave a flag that has been flown over the U.S. Capitol to Karen Hinton, the president of the guild, Jan. 5 in Mt. Vernon. ity’s leaders office,” Merkley said. “I called up Greg Walden and he and his chief of staff came over, and then I called Wyden and then his chief of staff came over, and we insisted that we weren’t going to leave until we had a guarantee that we can put a bill on the floor to extend SRS.” hall meeting, Merkley confirmed that funding for Secure Rural Schools and Payment in Lieu of Taxes have been approved in the spending bill for the fiscal years 2020 and 2021. “There were a number of legislative miracles to keep the programs alive, and I held a sit-in at the Senate major- Employees in Oregon will receive a variety of new protections in January. Pregnant workers will be among those who receive new protections under the law. Employ- ers will be required to pro- vide reasonable accommo- dations, such as assistance with manual labor or more frequent bathroom breaks, to pregnant employees. They will also be prohib- ited from denying some- one employment, requir- ing them to take a leave of absence or otherwise retal- iating or discriminating against them for requesting accommodations for their pregnancy. Employers will also be required to create anti-ha- rassment policies for their workplace, and will no longer be allowed to force employees to sign nondis- closure agreements restrict- ing them from talking about harassment or discrimina- tion they experienced at the company. Starting in January, the aptly named Senate Bill 420 will allow people with past marijuana convictions to petition to clear their record. The bill was passed in recognition that, while Ore- gon legalized possession of user amounts of recre- ational marijuana in 2015, many people have crimi- nal records based on pos- session pre-2015. Those convictions, for something that is now legal, can hold them back from obtaining jobs and housing. After Jan. 1, people who have “qualifying mar- ijuana convictions” can petition the court to set aside their conviction and seal the record, making it as if it never happened. As long as the conviction fits under the definition laid out by the law, the court must grant the motion. A qualifying convic- tion means the person was found to possess less than 1 ounce of marijuana or other behavior described in ORS 475B.301, the offense happened before July 1, 2015, and the per- Minimum wage Minimum wage will increase once again in July, as part of a law passed by the legislature in 2016 that set up regular increases through 2022. This year, minimum wage in Ore- gon will increase to $12 in “standard” counties (mostly found on the west side of the state), $13.25 in metro counties, such as Clackamas and Mult- nomah, and $11.50 in rural counties. Grant County falls into the rural category, as do all counties east of Sherman County. Sales tax In July, Washington stopped granting Orego- nians an exemption to sales tax at the register. But as of Jan. 1, Oregon residents who have been saving their receipts can file a tax return for the amount of sales tax they paid to Washington in 2019. To qualify, applicants must be a resident of a state that does not have sales tax, must have purchased the items for use outside of Washington and must be requesting reimbursement for more than $25 in taxes paid (at 6.5% state sales tax, that means spending at least $384.62 on qualifying items). They will have to submit receipts and informa- tion about the time and place of each purchase, in addition to proof of residency. Each person is only allowed to apply for reim- bursement once per calen- dar year, for taxes paid in the previous year. According to the Wash- ington Department of Rev- enue’s media relations office, the necessary forms will go online in January under the “general pub- lic” heading on their home page. 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