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. For now, what infor-
mation is available can be
found at dor.wa.gov/find-
taxes-rates/retail-sales-tax/
sales-nonresidents.
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Louella Simrell
Tonya Wood
Chris Camarena
Debbie Sanowski
Georgia Patterson
Lyn McDonald
Madison Whitmore
Arlene Lynch
Mr. & Mrs. Andy & Chase
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Carlos Bortell
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Steve Patterson
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Sharon Thissell
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