Aaron Craig Adams, 628 Superior St., Titusville, guilty to five counts of burglary. A count of robbery, five counts of criminal mischief and five counts of theft by unlawful taking were not prosecuted.

Joseph Michael Salzillo, 16471 Wager Rd., Union City, guilty to criminal trespass; counts of burglary, theft by unlawful taking and possession of controlled substance were not prosecuted. In a separate case, Salzillo pleaded guilty to burglary; a count of theft by unlawful taking was not prosecuted.

Sable Sade Kolstee, 12 Carriage Dr., Youngsville, guilty to five counts of statutory sexual assault; 19 additional counts of statutory sexual assault, 24 counts of aggravated indecent assault, 24 counts of corruption of minors, 24 counts of indecent assault and 24 counts of unlawful contact or communication with minors.

"Police Chief Shaver said he'd guess that the Rainbows dropped $1 million into the local economy during the gathering. Some businesses did better than others. Especially those that were willing to accommodate the Rainbows"

"Afterwards, Rainbow members stayed behind and did a good job rehabilitating the site, he said. Rainbows in my experience have always been very responsive in re-vegetating and cleaning up after the event, Dunshine said. They basically did whatever the district ranger asked them to do."

source:Helena Independent Record June 14, 2000

They are often the young kids who are just hearing about Rainbow and have found their way here and have no money, no dog food for their pup, have been sleeping on the road, and are trying their hardest to be anti-establishment.

But we embrace and show respect to everyone who wants to come to Rainbow, and value them as a brother or sister. It's only this kind of love that is going to open their hearts to trust and understand what we are doing up there in the forest.

What we ARE against, is amplified music within the Gathering itself. We don't want to see cars, or advertisements (or hear them on the radio) or hear someone's amplified instruments. All music is acoustic and live.

The great bulk of Rainbows are folks with jobs and mortgages and kids who play sports, etc. They use their one or two weeks off each year to take the family camping at the Gathering. We have a lot of good friends we only see once a year.

Many others are people who live closer to the land, off the grid, some are "on the road" often homeless by choice, and a handful are runaway kids who have a lot of anger issues and come to Gatherings because they heard there was free food and maybe some pot.

Some of my Rainbow friends: A construction worker, a Rabbi, a guy who lives in a tent in the woods and sells cartoons door2door (yes!), a midwife, a reiki healer, a truck driver, a yoga instructor, an

can you explain...do most of them have "normal" lives where they have homes, work, their children go to school etc...? Or do they travel around constantly and have no home? Just curious. They appear to have no money, no soap, no food and are looking for a handout.

Gatherings are held on public lands and not private lands. If the public land abuts a piece of private property, Rainbows will tape it off and put a sign explaining not to pass this point.

People rarely if ever hike out past the perimeter of a Gathering unless they are taking a trail to some distant lake because they enjoy hiking or something.

I assure you that there are not people who see a "Private Property Beyond this Point" sign and say to each other... "Awesome! Lets go mess up the local's land!!"

Of course. I don't condone stealing or harming other people. I'm not sure why you think I (or Rainbows) do.

Yes, it is possible that someone who is attending the Rainbow Gathering has broken into a home. Not sure how you can know, if the person was not caught, but let's just say happened. At any festival, you are going to have your fringe element, and you must know that we do not say, "Awesome! Someone broke into a house! More for us!" We are abhorred and disappointed. But we are also not going to stop a completely beautiful and wonderful experience (that emotionally recharges and fills people up with enough happiness to make going back out into the world for the rest of the year a pleasure) just because some bad guy might show up and break into a house, or because a teenager might beg for spare change or because a shoplift a jar of peanut butter.

We try to educate these people when we can, and if we catch anyone who has committed a serious crime, we escort them down to the police.

and why is always going back to the drunken hunters? again, it's stereo typing...as is happening to the rainbows. hunting is a huge contribution to the economy here. hunting/fishing is a major part of life here in the ANF. Yes, many of them get drunk...but some of the rainbows drink and use drugs. Obviously, you will find that in all sects.