Oregon Class 5A Girls Water Polo Tournament Hood River Valley won its first ever state Class 5A girls’ water polo championship, defeating Summit 5-2 in Corvallis.  The Eagles trailed 2-0 early in the second quarter, but came back to tie by halftime on goals by Faith Ocheskey and Jamie Robinson.  Ocheskey gave HRV the lead on two third quarter goals, and Courtney Castaneda sealed the final margin with a tally in the final period.  HRV topped Sandy 8-6 in the semi-final to reach the championship tilt.   Oregon Class 1A Football Quarterfinals Dufur 68, Days Creek 26:  Asa Farrell scored four touchdowns and Hunter Pence added three to lead the Rangers to the semis.  Dufur scored 28 straight fourth quarter points to blow the game open.  The Rangers will take on Lowell in the semi-finals on Saturday at noon at Summit High School in Bend. North Douglas 50, Sherman 44:  North Douglas scored on six of its first seven possessions, and then had to withstand the Huskies’ fourth quarter comeback.  Maverick Winslow scored three touchdowns for Sherman.

Wasco County Commissioners Thursday evening finalized their reversal of a county planning commission decision, denying Union Pacific’s application to create a new second mainline track and realign existing track in the Mosier area.  Commissioners were unanimous in the action, approving findings of fact which based the denial on the objections raised by three treaty tribes in the region, which under the County’s National Scenic Area ordinance requires land use applications in the NSA to be rejected if tribes feel their treaty rights would be adversely impacted.  Union Pacific attempted to submit another document from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers that had come after last week’s closure of testimony, but Commissioners decided not to accept it, as that would have required reopening the hearing for rebuttals at a later date.  Commissioners said they never saw the document, which was sent to County planning staff.

The Dalles HOPE Warming Place is seeking volunteers to help operate the overnight cold weather shelter this winter.  Warming Place organizer Ed Elliott says they use two volunteers each night they operate, and could use more to spread out the work among more people.  The Dalles Warming Place operates out of the St. Vincent dePaul dining room on at 315 West 3rd from 7 p.m. to 7 a.m. on nights when the temperature including wind chill is 30 degrees or lower, or 35 degrees if there is precipitation. Those who would like to volunteer can call Elliott at 541-386-5857.

The Klickitat County Sheriff’s Office and Washington State Patrol is asking the public to be on the lookout for a subject with a warrant that has fled from law enforcement in the area of Highway 142 at mile marker 14 in the Klickitat area.  The subject is a 52 year old white male, 5’ 8” tall, 175 pounds, brown hair & brown eyes. He was last seen wearing blue jeans, a light colored shirt and dark jacket. He may have injuries and clothing damage from a motor vehicle accident. If you see a person matching this description do not approach him, but call 911 from a safe location.

Hood River Shelter Service is looking for a location for a warming shelter this winter.  The shelter was located at the former Fruit Tree building on Westcliff Drive last winter, but that building has been sold and is no longer available.  Prior to that the shelter bounced from church to church each winter, something organizers do not want to have happen again.  The shelter’s Carole Dearholt says their building need is fairly basic:  about 1500 square feet and preferably two bathrooms.  The warming shelter provides a place for people to stay on cold winter nights.  It operates from 6 p.m. to 7 a.m. each winter night.  If you have a building you would be willing to have used as a shelter, call Dearholt at 541-490-1920.

There are Veterans Day events planned in both The Dalles and Hood River on Friday.  In The Dalles, the annual Veterans Day Parade will head downtown at 11 a.m., proceeded by a Community Veterans Thank You breakfast from 7 a.m. to 11 a.m. at The Dalles Civic Auditorium, and a community potluck at the Oregon Veterans Home at noon.  In addition, the Fort Dalles Fourth Committee will host the Red, White, and Blue barbecue at the Commodore building in downtown The Dalles beginning at 5:30 p.m., with fireworks at 7 p.m. on the Columbia River.  In Hood River, the community Veterans Day celebration will take place at 11 a.m. at Anderson’s Tribute Center on 1401 Belmont.  A free breakfast for all veterans will be held at 10 a.m. on Saturday at the Elks Lodge in downtown Hood River.

Vote counting continued in Klickitat and Skamania counties with no dramatic changes from Tuesday night.  Skamania County Parks and Recreation District Proposition 2, which would establish a six-year tax levy for a proposed district that would operate the Underwood Community Center, is being approved by a 246-to-210 margin, but that’s under the 60 percent approval rate necessary for passage.  The accompanying measure to establish the district is passing with 65 percent of the vote.  There was no significant changes in the county commission races, with Rex Johnston in Klickitat County and Richard Mahar and Tom Lannen of Skamania County maintaining their advantages.  The three 14th District legislative incumbents all continued to hold around two-to-one advantages.  Two Skamania County Fire District 1 measures and a County proposition to temporarily increase the property tax limit were still being defeated.

The Dalles Mayor Steve Lawrence retained his position, receiving 48 percent of the vote in a three-way race.  Susan Barr-Harris polled 40 percent, and Solea Kabakov had 12 percent.  It was the first time Lawrence had been opposed in an election, and he says he felt good about some of the younger candidates who ran for offices in The Dalles, and he would like to keep them involved.  Taner Elliott and Darcy Long-Curtiss won the contested City Council seats in The Dalles.  In Hood River, Kate McBride, Megan Saunders, and Mark Zanmiller won the three available Council seats on the ballot.  Tom Cramblett was voted Mayor of Cascade Locks, while Bobby Walker, Bruce Fitzpatrick, and Glenda Groves won Council positions.  The cities of Mosier, Hood River, and The Dalles all passed proposals to establish municipal taxes on the retail sale of recreational marijuana.

Mid-Columbia Fire and Rescue District’s bond measure passed by a little over 300 votes, with 52 percent of voters approving.  With still a large number of votes to be counted, Klickitat County Commissioner Rex Johnston has a lead of 521 votes over Pat Arnold, and in Skamania County Richard Mahar leads for Commission position one by 318 votes over Marie Perez-Gluesenkamp and Tom Lannen has a 790 vote lead for position two in front of Michael Johnson.  Roger Howe was elected to the Northern Wasco County PUD board.

All four incumbents in contested Oregon Legislative races in the area were victorious.  The closest race was in the 52nd District, where Republican Mark Johnson received 54 percent of the vote to top Democrat Mark Reynolds, while 59th District Representative John Huffman and Senators Ted Ferrioli and Bill Hansell all cruised to victory.  Huffman says the defeat of Measure 97 changes the tenor of discussions in the upcoming legislative session, with a number of major fiscal issues to deal with.  In Washington’s 14th State Legislative District, incumbents Curtis King, Gina McCabe, and Norm Johnson all were winning by substantial margins with votes still to be counted.