Our lead story in this week’s edition covers a difficult topic: a shortage of certified sexual assault nurse examiners, the medical professionals trained to perform rape exams. Here in Grant County, Blue Mountain Hospital has two nurses who have stepped up to take on this added responsibility, but as the story makes clear, hospitals throughout our region and our state are struggling to recruit and retain nurses to perform this vital but demanding service. 

Also this week, we’ll have stories on the removal of the John Day City Council president, a day in the life of a snowplow driver and coverage of local high school sports — if all the games aren’t canceled on account of the snow.

In case you missed it, last week’s edition of the Eagle featured a profile of Grant County business owner Sandie Gilson, one of the leaders of the Greater Idaho movement. We also had an interview with new John Day City Manager Melissa Bethel plus stories on newly announced candidates for county judge and justice of the peace, the outcome of the Shannon Adair ethics complaint, plans for the transition to a new county clerk and more.

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If you’ve been having trouble reading the Blue Mountain Eagle online lately, we sincerely apologize! We recently completed some work on our website, but in the process it appears we have inadvertently created some digital access issues for some of our subscribers.

For some people, the solution may be as simple as clearing the cache on your web browser or rebooting your computer. If that doesn’t work, please contact our circulation department at 800-781-3214 or support@eomediagroup.com for help. We want you to have full access to all the rich online content you’re entitled to with your print or digital subscription to the Eagle!

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If you haven’t done so already, please take a moment to register your subscription for digital access to the Blue Mountain Eagle. Call 800-781-3214 to talk to one of our customer service staff, who will be happy to walk you through the process. It’s easy, takes just a few moments to get set up and allows you to take advantage of our e-edition, app and website delivery along with your print subscription.

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As always, if you have comments or questions about the Eagle, or want to pass along a story idea, send me an email at this address: editor@bmeagle.com.

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Finally, if you’d like to help support our independent local journalism, please consider subscribing to the newspaper. And if you’re already a subscriber, please accept our heartfelt thanks — we can’t do this work without you!

— Bennett Hall, Editor