Pathways Health Connect says it can provide home deliveries of groceries, shelf-stable meals, and personal protective equipment to help families in Klickitat and Skamania Counties recovering from COVID-19 at home.  The Washington State Department of Health established the Care Connect grant for local agencies to support residents to quarantine in the comfort of their homes and further prevent the spread of the virus.  To participate, the affected individual must have a positive COVID-19 test administered by a medical professional.  Home tests do not qualify the household to receive this assistance.  Once the positive COVID-19 test results are registered with the medical professional, contact Pathways Health Connect at 509-281-0829 or 509-281-2277 to apply for the home deliveries.  A community health worker will arrange for a no-contact delivery of the supplies to be brought to your home.

Commerce moving up and down the Columbia River will be at a stand-still for up to five weeks beginning February 13.  The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is extending its annual closure of navigation locks on the Columbia and Snake river dams annual basis for maintenance and repairs an extra three weeks, in part to repair the downstream miter gate at The Dalles Dam.  Technicians found damage at The Dalles navigation lock during last year’s planned closure, forcing an emergency extended outage.  Engineers will perform repairs during the five-week closure, which will end March 19.  Engineers will also perform annual maintenance on the navigation locks at Bonneville Dam and John Day Dam during the outage.  

Hood River Rotary’s annual Ski Night at Mt. Hood Meadows will be Monday night.  The event runs from 2 p.m. to 9 p.m., and ticket prices run from $24 to $49.  Rotary’s Michael Schock says funds raised from Ski Night goes toward scholarships for local students, and other community projects.  Tickets must be purchased in advance, and are available at skihood.com.

Boys Basketball Redmond 65, The Dalles 52:  The Panthers used a 22-7 second quarter run to pull away for the win in the Intermountain Conference opener for both teams.  Styles DeLeon led the Riverhawks with 25 points, while Henry Begay added 11.   Girls Basketball Redmond 54, The Dalles 26 Winlock 68, Stevenson 20   Wrestling Hood River Valley 52, The Dalles 29:  The Eagles won five matches by fall on the way to the Intermountain Conference win.  The Riverhawks won a pair of matches by fall.

Mid-Columbia Medical Center announced Thursday it is going to begin a process to whether to remain independent, or partner with a compatible healthcare organization that will invest in and grow the health system.  This comes in the wake of MCMC ending several aspects of their collaboration agreement with OHSU Health last month.  In a statement, MCMC officials say its Board of Trustees, in conjunction with senior and physician leadership, has begun a strategic process to evaluate potential partners based on a number of factors, including the capacity to make needed investments in a new hospital campus, the ability to achieve economies of scale and maximize access for the community, and develop information systems, expand provider care resources and create access to needed service lines.  The hospital says no decision has been made about whether to form a partnership or stay independent.  CEO Dennis Knox said it the statement that MCMC “will explore whether to remain independent, or partner with a like-minded healthcare organization that is open to collaboration and interested in further investing in the advancement of healthcare” in the region.

The Hood River County Commission will conduct a first reading on Tuesday of a proposed change to commission district boundaries that would see the Cascade Locks area move from District 1 with the Westside area to District 4 with the Upper Valley.  Commissioners are in the midst of the boundary revisions done every ten years using updated census information, but have struggled with how to best balance the population size of each district and allow for growth over the next ten years.  Commission Chair Mike Oates says after looking at a number of possible configurations, this seemed to be the best for population balance.  A public hearing will be held on the subject in February.

The Wasco County Sheriff’s Office is on track to establish a K-9 unit.  Sheriff Lane Magill says they considered a police and narcotics dog combination about a decade ago, but didn’t have the resources at the time.  But changes in law enforcement led him to reconsider it, and now they’ve committed to sending a deputy and a dog to start an eight-week training course in February.  Magill says some recent events led to the decision to move forward on a K-9 unit, noting they have had more pursuit situations in recent months, and need another tool to deal with them.  The initial cost to startup the program is $25,000.  The Sheriff’s Office is taking donations to help defray the cost of the program, those who would like to help can call the Sheriff’s Office at 541-506-2580.

The Dalles High School experienced a brief lockdown on Wednesday morning after a report was made to local law enforcement about a potential threat involving a student coming to campus with a weapon.  According to a joint statement by The Dalles Police Department and North Wasco County School District 21, the initial call occurred at 7:46 Wednesday morning, leading to law enforcement going to the school and school officials activating their procedures to put students in safe internal locations while securing all entrances and exits to the school.  After further investigation, police say it was found the threat report contained second-hand, outdated information and no direct threat had been made.  The individual in question was not located on the campus.

A bill by Washington 14th District Representative Gina Mosbrucker to require county auditors to mail a statewide and local voters’ pamphlet to registered Washington voters overseas, including military voters, was one of the first to be passed by the House this session. Mosbrucker originally introduced the bill last year and it passed the House unanimously, but failed to advance in the Senate and was returned to the House at the end of last session. During Wednesday’s floor action, lawmakers again gave unanimous approval to the bill, 95-0. The measure heads back to the Senate where the Goldendale Republican says she is optimistic it will advance to full legislative passage.

Boys Basketball

Gladstone 48, The Dalles 36

LaCenter 76, Columbia 64

  Girls Basketball

Gladstone 58, The Dalles 23