The Brewery Grade Roundabout in The Dalles will be completely closed Sunday night with restricted driving there Monday and Tuesday nights.  Oregon Department of Transportation officials say that will be to allow crews to make improvements to the roadway at the roundabout and Highway 30 to near the intersection with State Road.  The work will be performed from 7 p.m. to 6 a.m. all three nights.  Workers will close the roundabout on Sunday at 7 p.m. to grind out the surface of the roadway around and near the roundabout and replace it with fresh asphalt.  On Monday and Tuesday nights flaggers will control traffic on one lane while the paving progresses to the east end of the project near State Road intersection.  The city of The Dalles and ODOT have partnered on the $370,000 project.

Oregon State Senate Republican Leader Ted Ferrioli is calling for bi-partisan work to sort out questions surrounding the state’s Medicaid program.  Oregon Secretary of State Dennis Richardson issued what he called an “audit alert” this week that says 86,000 people who are receiving Medicaid benefits in the state may be ineligible, and that could be costing the state $37,000,000 per month.  Ferrioli wants to immediately ramp up work in the Department of Human Services to allow caseworkers to go through files to ensure those receiving Medicaid coverage are actually eligible to do so, noting there are both fiscal and “compassionate” questions to answer.  Ferrioli says there shouldn’t be a finger-pointing exercise, but rather taking legislators from both sides of the aisle and go through how the Medicaid program got to where it is and what steps forward to take that does the least amount of harm.

Track and Field Three second place finishes highlighted the effort for area schools in day one of the Oregon Class 1A Track and Field Championships in Eugene.  They were from Paulina Finn of Horizon Christian in the girls’ high jump, Ana Popchock of Sounth Wasco in the girls’ long jump, and Ezekiel Stelzer of Dufur in the boys’ 3,000 meters. Sherman received two third place finishes from Isaiah Coles in the boys’ long jump and Maverick Winslow in the boys’ pole vault, and a sixth place from Keenan Coles in the boys’ long jump on the way to being tied for second in the boys’ team race heading into today’s finals.  Horizon Christian’s Quinn Roestcisoender was sixth in the boys’ pole vault, and South Wasco’s Madisen Davis seventh in the girls’ javelin.   Stevenson’s boys won the team title at the Southwest Washington Class 1A District Championships in Woodland.  Lincoln Krog won the long jump and triple jump to lead the Bulldogs, while Kody Campbell was first in the pole vault and Ethan Haight won the 1600 meters.  In the girls’ portion of the meet, Stevenson’s Kaitlyn Rathgeber won the 800 meters and Columbia’s Alondra Casarez-Garcia was first in the 100 meter hurdles.   Trout Lake won the girls’ title and was second in the boys’ competition at the Washington Class 1B District 5/6 Championships in Peshastin.  Sidney Becker, Lille Goodson, and Liz Fink won two events each for the Mustang girls, while Justin Peck won a pair for the Trout Lake boys.   OSAA Class 5A Boys Tennis Championships in Portland Hood River Valley’s Sawyer Bogard lost his first round match to Carston Gilje of St. Helens 6-3, 6-0.  Bogard meets Benny Saito of Redmond in the consolation bracket today.   OSAA Class 5A Girls Tennis Championships in Portland Tessa Kern of Corvallis topped Kiana Pielli of The Dalles in the first round 6-1, 6-3.  Pielli moves to the consolation round, and will face Ashley Smith of LaSalle today.

Klickitat County Commissioners decided to accept a planning commission recommendation to remove the sunset clause from an ordinance prohibiting the siting of new marijuana facilities, leaving that ban in effect.  The ordinance will apply only to new applications, with the existing eighteen already in place able to move forward and can expand their business as allowed by licenses already granted by the state.  Commissioner David Satuer says they feel like keeping the status quo is appropriate at this time.  The sunset clause for the ordinance had been in place for two years.  The ordinance only applies to unincorporated areas of Klickitat County.  Commissioners voted unanimously to keep the prohibition.

The Port of Hood River is preparing to file an application with the City of Hood River to subdivide Lot 1 in the waterfront area for development.  The Port has been doing eight years of planning for use of that land at the east end of the waterfront.  Port Executive Director Michael McElwee says the Port board wants to hear some ideas from Key Development before they make the final submittal.  McElwee says there is no particular time crunch to get the submittal in, but notes the more difficult issues will come after the division is approved.  In other business, the Port Commission gave its first approval to the 2017-18 budget with a few modifications, and will return for final approval in June.

Oregon State 52nd District Representative Mark Johnson has introduced legislation to establish a reading initiative from age three to grade three.  The Hood River Republican says it is a strategic initiative that in many ways replicates what occurs in the Hood River County School District where he is a school board member, beginning with investing resources identifying what individual students need to become better readers, and then providing the tools necessary to help those children increase their literacy.  Johnson says it would be a grant based program, with the Oregon Department of Education awarding grants to districts who commit to implementing early reading programs.  But where the money would come from is less clear, with Johnson saying it fits into the “endgame” for a final budget solution, believing the business community is interesting in supporting the initiative.

Bingen-White Salmon Police Department Chief Tracy Wyckoff will be retiring at the end of October.  Wyckoff went on to the job in 2012 during a difficult time for the department, and White Salmon Mayor David Poucher says he brought stability to the position.  In his letter to the Poucher and Bingen Mayor Betty Barnes, Wyckoff said his experience as chief has been a positive experience.  He added he has been a public servant for the greater part of his life, and the time has come to move on and focus on family.  Poucher says they will begin the search for a new police chief immediately.

Baseball Hood River Valley 5, Jesuit 4:  Casey Ward’s double brought home Adam Cameron with the game winning run to cap a three-run rally in the bottom of the seventh inning.  Ward’s game winner followed Caden Leiblien’s two-run single that tied the game.  HRV will host a first round state Class 5A playoff game next Wednesday.   Softball Hood River Valley 12, Silverton 2:  The Eagles scored ten runs in the first three innings and cruised to the win.  HRV will host Milwaukie in a Class 5A play-in game on Friday at 4:30.   Southwest Washington Class 1A District Softball Tounament Elma 11, Columbia 0 Forks 9, Columbia 8

Voters in three of four counties were in favor of giving the Northern Oregon Corrections Facility a permanent tax rate of 26 cents per one-thousand dollars of assessed property value for operations, but the margin in Wasco County has been enough to leave the measure trailing by a handful of votes.  Updated unofficial results Wednesday had the NORCOR measure failing, 4,153 to 4,098.  Review of ballots that have been challenged will be taking place, and the vote doesn’t have to be certified until June 5.  Voters in Hood River, Sherman, and Gilliam counties all had approval rates of 53 to 59 percent.  But in Wasco County the measure was rejected just about 55 percent of voters, and that was enough to tilt the overall count.  The proposed tax rate mirrored the bond measure voters approved in 1997 to build the regional jail.  That came off the tax rolls in September 2016.  

The makeup of the Columbia Gorge Community College Board of Education will undergo a substantial change, as Wasco County voters decided to elect four new members to the board, with three long-time members of the panel failing in re-election bids.  Dana Campbell won position two by a count of 1,779 to 1,478 over James Willcox, who had been on the CGCC board for over 30 years.  Kim Morgan was elected to position five by a margin of 1,786 to 1,475 over Ernie Keller, who had been on the board since 2001, as has Charleen Cobb, who was unseated from position seven by Kevin McCabe 1,623 to 1,469.  Sarah Segal won position one with 1,158 votes to Richard (Monty) Wilcox’s 1,025 and J. Carmen Gamez with 963.  Gamez had recently been appointed to fill a vacancy on the board.