The Oregon State Police is asking for the public’s help to identify the driver and vehicle involved in Saturday morning’s non-injury hit and run crash along the westbound lanes of Interstate 84 east of Mosier.  The accident occurred around 11:30 a.m. Saturday when a maroon colored four-door passenger car described as a possible early 1990’s Mazda or Honda with tinted windows was westbound at 75 – 80 mph on Interstate 84 near milepost 72 just west of Memaloose Rest Area.  The car made an abrupt lane change from the left lane to right lane into the side of a silver 2007 Toyota Tacoma pickup.  The maroon car stopped about a quarter mile behind the pickup.  Its driver, described as a young male, tall and slender, got out of the car to assess damage.  When a large blue pickup with several males wearing bright green shirts pulled up next to the car the driver then fled in the vehicle, which should have significant right passenger side damage.  The OSP is seeking information to help identify the driver and vehicle, including contact with the occupants of the pickup that reportedly temporarily stopped next to the suspect vehicle.  Anyone with information is asked to call OSP Northern Command Center dispatch at 800-452-7888.

The Association of Oregon Counties is holding its spring conference in Hood River today and Tuesday, and dealing with public safety costs will be a big part of the discussion among county leaders.  The struggles of counties in southwestern Oregon with reduced harvests on federal forestlands dramatically dropping revenues are the most notable examples of the struggle to provide for the financial needs of public safety.  But Hood River County Commission Chair Ron Rivers says public safety has become a large percentage of every county’s budget.  Rivers has been discussing putting a public safety district of some kind on the ballot in Hood River County next year.

Graduate students from the University of Oregon’s urban architectural research lab in Portland will give a report next week on their ideas for downtown The Dalles.  The students used The Dalles as their annual project.  Port of The Dalles Executive Director Andrea Klaas says the students have been researching and visiting the community all year, and have come up with ideas for how to re-use and improve existing buildings.  Klaas says the students are going to be doing two presentations on June 18 at The Mint, with more details to be announced.  She says in between the students will be taken to some of the unused spaces in downtown The Dalles to generate more ideas.

Oregon Class 5-A Baseball Championships Sandy 8, Hood River Valley 3:  The Pioneers came back from an early deficit to win their first ever state baseball championship.  The Eagles scored three runs in the top of the first inning on a Patrick Harvey single followed by a two-run error that scored Alix Jimenez and Kellen Duffy.  But Sandy scored two runs in the bottom half of the frame, and then scored four in the bottom of the fifth and two in the sixth to grab the lead and pull away, while HRV was limited to one hit the rest of the way by Sandy pitcher Carson Dwyre.  The Eagles finished the season 14-17 after winning four straight elimination games to reach the final. NPSL Soccer Inter United FC 3, Gorge FC 0

Hood River Valley vs. Sandy at Volcanoes Stadium in Keizer, first pitch at 1:30 p.m. Radio:  KIHR AM 1340/98.3 FM at 1:10 p.m. Online:   We are not allowed to stream the KIHR broadcast of the game online due to OSAA rights restrictions.  If you are out of the area and must listen online, you can listen to the OSAA Radio Network.  Airtime 1:20 p.m.

A three-vehicle accident in the westbound lanes of Interstate 84 near Dalton Point Thursday afternoon involving a large truck and two sport utility vehicles snarled traffic and sent one person to a hospital with serious injuries.  A Multnomah County Sheriff’s Office spokesman says the accident occurred between mileposts 67 and 68 at around 1 p.m.  A person in one of the SUV’s…which flipped on its side…was taken by Lifeflight to a Portland area hospital…while the truck driver and people in a larger SUV were not injured.  The crash briefly closed the freeway in both directions…with one westbound lane remaining closed through later afternoon.  

A rollover injury crash on Interstate 84 at westbound milepost 26 is causing lengthy traffic delays.  It is a rollover accident, no other details are available.

This weekend will see numerous graduation ceremonies at various high schools around the Mid-Columbia.  It starts Friday evening with Hood River Valley High School holding its ceremonies at 7:30 p.m. at Henderson Stadium.  The Dalles Wahtonka High School will present diplomas to seniors at 11 a.m. Saturday at Amaton Field, while Columbia High School holds its ceremonies at the same time in Miller Gymnasium.  Wishram and Sherman high schools will also hold 11 a.m. graduations on Saturday.  Later in the day, ceremonies begin at Stevenson and South Wasco high schools at 1 p.m., with Horizon Christian and Glenwood set to begin at 2 p.m., and Dufur High School beginning at 7 p.m.  Lyle High School held graduation ceremonies last Sunday, and Trout Lake is scheduled to hold its event next Friday.

A group of legislators from Washington and Oregon met in Vancouver Wednesday to talk about whether to seek new options for a bridge or bridges to connect the two states over the Columbia River between Clark County and Portland.   Oregon State Representative John Huffman of The Dalles joined with Washington House members Ann Rivers and Liz Pike in organizing the Bi-State Bridge Coalition meeting in the wake of the Columbia River Crossing project being scrapped due to differences that included light rail and low river clearance.  Huffman says before anything else relationships between the two states have to be rebuilt, with the legislators pointing out this is not an effort to revive the CRC.  Huffman added any new bridge proposal would have to come from a bipartisan bi-state effort.  Washington 14th District legislators Curtis King and Norm Johnson were among the eight Washington and four Oregon legislators who attended the meeting.

The Washington Board of Natural Resources has approved the transfer of 42.5 acres of state forest trust land in Skamania County to conservation status, a move the state Department of Natural Resources says will give the county more than $300,000 in revenue.  The transfer allows DNR to replace a parcel of working timberland north of Stevenson that is tied up by federal endangered species restrictions, and a legislative appropriation two years ago allows the County and DNR to receive proceeds as if a timber harvest took place.  DNR will use some of its proceeds of over $100,000 to buy replacement land.