Swimming

Hood River Valley won the Intermountain Conference girls’ swimming championship for the second straight year, outdistancing Pendleton by 128 points.  HRV won all three of the relays to advance to this coming weekend’s Oregon Class 5A meet at Tualatin Hills Aquatic Center in Beaverton, along with first place finishes for Sarah Arpag in the 100 yard butterfly and the 100 backstroke, Madaket Greenleaf in the 200 freestyle, and Abigail McCormack in the 100 breaststroke.    The Dalles finished third, as Lydia DeGennaro advanced to state with wins in the 50 and 100 freestyle, and Kendall Webber did the same by winning the 500 freestyle.  In the boys’ competition, Redmond nipped HRV by 10 points for first place, while The Dalles was fifth.  Hood River event winners going to state include Luke Southall in the 200 freestyle, Clayton Lee in the 100 butterfly, David Hecksel in the 100 backstroke, and the 200 and 400 freestyle relay teams.

 

Wrestling

Columbia was fourth and Stevenson sixth at the Southwest Washington Class 1A Regional Tournament at Hoquiam.  Payden Webster, Bowen Durkee, and Jose Evangelista had second place finishes and David Durham and Jake Kelly had thirds for CHS, while Stevenson received second place finishes from Solomon Mahoney, Landon Pearson, and Brenden Dudley, and fourths from Logan Hoffberger and Tristen Turner.

 

Goldendale’s Blake Waddell finished second at 195 pounds at the SCAC Regional Tournament at Granger.

 

Alpine Skiing

Hood River Valley’s Aidan Haynie-Gonzalez was second and Hugh Dalbey sixth in a Mt. Hood League giant slalom at Ski Bowl.  George Harrison was ninth for The Dalles.  In the girls’ race, HRV’s Julia Olson was sixth and Eva Jones eighth, while Lucy Booth was the top finisher for The Dalles in 11^th. 

 

Boys Basketball

Hood River Valley 64, Pendleton 56

South Wasco 91, Mitchell-Spray 36:  The Redsides win the Big Sky Conference regular season title.

Dufur 49, Sherman 47:  Claims third in the Big Sky with the victory.

Ione 58, Horizon Christian 47

Horizon Christian 43, Condon-Wheeler 42:  Horizon, Sherman, and Condon-Wheeler end up in a three-way tie for the fourth and final spot in the Big Sky Tournament.  Sherman meets Condon-Wheeler in a playoff this evening at 6 p.m. at Kurtz Gym in The Dalles, with the winner playing Horizon Christian in Dufur on Tuesday.

 

Southwest Washington Class 1A Boys Basketball Tournament

First Round

Stevenson 74, Montesano 71:  The Bulldogs advance to meet LaCenter on Tuesday at 6 p.m. at King’s Way Christian.

 

Girls Basketball

Pendleton 56, Hood River Valley 14

South Wasco 55, Mitchell-Spray 11

Dufur 40, Sherman 27

Dufur 53, Elkton 47

 

Greater Columbia League District Basketball Tournament

Girls

Trout Lake 65, Klickitat-Glenwood 23

Yakama Tribal 53, Trout Lake 50:  Trout Lake plays Sunnyside Christian on Tuesday at 6 p.m. in Goldendale.

Sunnyside Christian 58, Klickitat-Glenwood 16

 

Boys

Yakama Tribal 100, Trout Lake 16

Bickleton 67, Trout Lake 57

 

Cheerleading

The Dalles finished second to Westview in the Coed Small Division at the OSAA Cheerleading Championships in Portland.  Hood River Valley finished ninth in the competition.

 

Democrats in the Oregon Legislature made last-minute changes to their controversial climate change policy Thursday before voting it out of committee along party lines amid strenuous objections from Republicans in the Senate.  Senate Bill 1530 now moves to the Joint Ways and Means committee.  Thursday’s hearing before the Senate Committee on Environment and Natural Resources was contentious as Democrats delivered a 177-page amendment to the bill late Wednesday, and Republican 30th District Senator and committee member Lynn Findley said with its complexity more time was needed to examine it.  The House Committee on Energy and Environment voted on a different cap-and-trade bill earlier Thursday that Democrats can keep a backup to the Senate version alive in case they need it later in the session.  But Republicans on the House committee registered their objection by stepping out of the hearing room before the vote.

A chemical waste landfill near Arlington accepted radioactive fracking waste from North Dakota in violation of Oregon regulations. Oregon Energy Department authorities say the company won’t be fined because state officials believe landfill operators misunderstood state guidelines and were unaware of the violations.  The Oregonian/OregonLive reported that Oregon Department of Energy officials issued a violation notice to Chemical Waste Management for accepting a total of 2 million pounds of Bakken oil field waste delivered by rail to Arlington in three of the last four years.  A Montana company dumped the waste with landfill officials permission, some of which registered radium at 300 times the state’s limits.  State nuclear waste remediation specialist Jeff Burright says on average, the waste dumped at the landfill about eight miles from the Columbia River registered radium at 140 picocuries per gram, while the state’s maximum level is 5 picocuries. Regulators said they determined the biggest risks would be if the waste were ingested or inhaled, if people faced direct exposure or if it emitted radon.  Currently, Burright says the state does not believe there is a risk because of how the waste is stored at the landfill facility, including being covered by at least 10 feet of other material.  State officials say they learned the material was at the landfill through a phone tip from a citizen.

No change in outcomes for educational enrichment levies on the ballot in the Mid-Columbia after updated vote counts were released on Thursday, even though the margin in the close numbers in Glenwood was down to a single vote.  Glenwood’s two-year levy is now failing 92-91 after it was trailing by three in Wednesday’s results.  The White Salmon Valley School District’s four-year levy continues to pass…1,444 to 841.  The four-year levy for Goldendale schools was being approved…1,406 to 1,029.  Centerville School District’s four-year levy is passing 149-74, and Wishram’s four-year levy was also being approved 60-27.  The Stevenson-Carson School District’s three-year levy was still being rejected…1,001 no to 952 yes.  Under Washington law, mail-in ballots only had to be postmarked by Tuesday night, so ballots that continue to arrive are counted.  The levies provide funding for school district programs that are not funded under “basic education” by the state of Washington.

Girls Basketball

The Dalles 52, Crook County 32:  The Riverhawks blew open a close game in the third quarter to stay right behind Ridgeview at the top of the Intermountain Conference standings.  Jenna Miller paced The Dalles with 18 points, while Raine Codding added 12  and Lauryn Belanger 10.  The Riverhawks visit Ridgeview on Tuesday night.

 

Southwest Washington Class 1A Girls Basketball Tournament

First Round

Montesano 60, Stevenson 26

 

Boys Basketball

Crook County 67, The Dalles 51:  The Cowboys stayed in the league title hunt, using a 23-14 third quarter run to pull away.  Freshman Styles DeLeon lead the Riverhawks with 12 points.

 

An assistant attorney general with the Oregon Department of Justice has been installed as acting District Attorney in Wasco County while D.A. Eric Nisley serves a 60-day suspension and questions swirl around whether he can return to the position after the suspension ends.  Nisley’s suspension for lying to state investigators began on Monday, as a January 30 letter from state Deputy Attorney General Frederick Boss to Governor Kate Brown opined that the suspension causes Nisley to lose statutory qualification for election, and makes the office vacant until the Governor makes an appointment or a successor is elected.  But Nisley told Bicoastal Media in a statement on Wednesday that he is an elected official and “does not agree the Attorney General’s office can remove him from office.”  He also said he believes it is in the best interest of justice that he steps away from the office during his suspension, adding the lawyers and staff in his office are “very competent and will insure victims are protected and offenders are held accountable.”  Oregon Department of Justice spokesperson Kristina Edmundson says Jayme Kimberly, a former deputy district attorney in Polk and Yamhill counties, has been installed as acting District Attorney.  Governor’s spokesperson Charles Boyle confirmed Wednesday that there is no current timeline for making a decision about whether to make a permanent appointment.  The position is on the ballot in November, and Nisley has filed for re-election.

Oregon Senator Ron Wyden will hold a town hall meeting this weekend in The Dalles.  It’s scheduled for Saturday at 11 a.m. at the Fort Dalles Readiness Center.  Wyden has pledged to hold at least one town hall each year in each of the state’s 36 counties.  His office says Wyden has held 966 town halls statewide to date.

 

 

 

Four of the educational enrichment levies on the ballot in the Mid-Columbia were being approved by wide margins after a second round of vote counts were released on Wednesday, while two are being rejected.   The White Salmon Valley School District’s four-year levy continues to pass with a 62.5 percent approval rate…1,315 to 788.  The four-year levy for Goldendale schools was being approved by 57.6 percent of voters…1,319 to 1,025.  Centerville School District’s four-year levy is passing 148-74, and Wishram’s four-year levy was also being approved 60-27.  The Stevenson-Carson School District’s three-year levy was being rejected by 52.1 percent of voters…912 no to 837 yes.  Glenwood’s two-year levy is now failing 91-88 after the count was even in Tuesday night’s results.  Klickitat and Skamania county election officials will release further vote counts again on Thursday.  The levies provide funding for school district programs that are not funded under “basic education” by the state of Washington.

A Marion County deputy district attorney who has lived in Hood River for the past three years is running for Hood River County District Attorney.  Sean Kallery says he has handled cases in his current position ranging from harassment to aggravated murder, and post-conviction relief and financial crime investigation.  Kallery says he spent eight-and-a-half years in the United States Army as an airborne infantryman.  He is a graduate of the Lewis & Clark Law School, and has worked as a law clerk with the Oregon Department of Justice in the Criminal Justice Division.  John Sewell has been Hood River County’s District Attorney for 28 years.  He has not yet filed for re-election.

A bill authored by Oregon 52nd District State Representative Anna Williams to increase the state’s share of funding children’s advocacy centers in the state from 17 percent to 30 percent, add a staff person at the Oregon Department of Education to implement the “Erin’s Law” child abuse prevention curriculum in schools, and fund a study of abuse children have witnessed rather than just what is reported is close to reaching the House floor.  The Hood River Democrat is optimistic about the bill’s future, saying there is bipartisan support to move forward.  The bill is currently back in the House Rules Committee to deal with a typographical error in it, but Williams expects it to get to the House floor and eventually moved to the Senate.