Kiteboard 4 Cancer will celebrate on Saturday the tenth year of a grueling six-hour Kite Derby endurance race designed to embody the battle cancer survivors and fighters face every day.  More than 200 professional, semi-professional and hobbyist kiteboarders will be in Hood River for the race that benefits Athletes 4 Cancer survivorship camps.  The weekend will also feature more than ten bands, local food and brews, silent art auctions and other family-friendly activities.  The theme is #NoWaitlist.  When fundraising for Kiteboard 4 Cancer 2016 began, Athletes 4 Cancer had 112 survivors on a waitlist to attend the group’s Camp Koru.   It is down to 54, and the goal is to make it zero by the end of Sunday.  A complete schedule of events is available at kiteboarding4cancer.org.

Oregon Senators Jeff Merkley and Ron Wyden have introduced legislation to require the National Transportation Safety Board to conduct investigations of major oil train derailments.  Merkley says under the Mandate Oil Spill Inspections and Emergency Rules, or MOSIER, Act, railroad investigations would be conducted in a third party manner similar to the airline industry.  This bill follows another bill introduced by the pair that would provide a tax credit to railroads for using new state of the art cars for oil transport, while also imposing a fee for the use of older cars.  Both Merkley and Wyden applauded an announcement by the U.S. Department of Transportation it will require railroads to provide more notification about shipments of crude oil and other flammable liquids.  On Thursday Oregon Congressmen Greg Walden, Peter DeFazio, and Earl Blumenauer introduced legislation require railroads to inspect on foot certain tracks in high consequence areas, such as near waterways.  It also calls for creation of a new trust fund to help communities prepare for accidents involving rail cars transporting flammable liquids, including crude oil and ethanol by collecting an annual fee for rail cars that do not meet Department of Transportation standards.

The Oregon State Police is investigating a shooting that occurred late Tuesday night along Interstate 84 on Herman Creek Road in Hood River County.  According to the OSP, the Skamania County 9-1-1 center received a report at about 11:30 p.m. that a subject had been shot along I-84 west of Hood River.  Officers were able to locate the injured subject and arrange for transport to Legacy Emanuel Medical Center in Portland for treatment of a non-life threatening gunshot wound.  Officers from the OSP, the Wasco County Sheriff’s Office and the Hood River County Sheriff’s Office are in the process of conducting an investigation into the shooting, and no other details have been released.  The OSP does say information gathered indicates that there is no threat to the general public in relation to the incident.

A total of eight people were taken to hospitals after a three-vehicle accident on Tuesday afternoon on Highway 97 about seven miles south of Biggs.  According to Oregon State Police Lieutenant Patrick Shortt, two cars were stopped in the northbound lane for construction when a pickup truck struck the rear end of one of the vehicles at an approximate speed of 45 to 50 miles per hour.  The driver of the pickup told OSP troopers that he was looking and speaking to his son in the right front passenger seat at the time of the accident, had been aware of traffic ahead of him was slowing but unaware it had stopped.  The driver of the car the pickup hit was taken by Life Flight to Portland’s Emanuel Hospital for a damaged pacemaker, while a passenger in that car, the driver of the pickup, and five juveniles in the truck were all transported to Mid-Columbia Medical Center in The Dalles for evaluation.  The driver of the pickup received a citation for following too closely and careless driving.

A truck driver was injured Tuesday morning when the log truck he was driving rolled on Highway 141 Alternate north of White Salmon.  According to the Washington State Patrol, 59-year-old Lawrence Jackson of Brookings, Oregon was southbound in his log truck on Highway 141A just after 8:15 a.m. Tuesday when he crossed the center line.  The WSP says he overcorrected, causing the load to shift and the vehicle to roll on its side.  The truck left the roadway to the right, struck a tree, and came to rest blocking both lanes.  Jackson was transported to Portland’s Emanuel Hospital for treatment of injuries.

The Gorge Community Foundation awarded more than $190,000 in scholarships and grants in May and June, benefiting students from several local communities as well as a wide range of public service initiatives across the bi-state region.  Foundation board members awarded a total of $77,000 in scholarships to 11 students, including the newly-created Corwin Hardham Memorial Fund established through Gorge Technology Alliance.   The board also created, through the gift of an anonymous donor, the Gorge Youth Community Leadership Alliance Fund, with an initial combined fund level of $71,000.  Separately, the Foundation board awarded over $43,000 in a series of grants from endowed funds, representing the original intent and general guidance of myriad fund donors, some of which date to the beginnings of the Foundation more than 15 years ago.  Individual grants awarded this spring benefit Celilo Cancer Center, Central Gorge Master Gardeners, Hood River County Library Foundation, HAVEN, The Next Door, Friends of Wonderworks Children’s Museum, Providence Hospice of the Gorge, FISH Food Bank, Rowena Wildlife Clinic, Columbia Gorge CASA, Helping Hands Against Violence, Cooper Spur Race Team and Columbia Gorge Habitat for Humanity, and other groups.

A continued effort to reduce recidivism at the Northern Oregon Regional Corrections Facility is moving from community services and jail programming to the judicial sector.  Hood River County Commissioner Karen Joplin says Circuit Court Judge John Olsen is leading a “call to action” to form an ad hoc task force involving judges, district attorneys, defense lawyers, parole and probation departments, and law enforcement to look at incarceration decisions before trial and how long parole and probation violators stay in jail.  She says the goal will be to agree on protocols on how to better use the jail, adding the focus is on non-violent offenders.  Joplin noted the current matrix jail officials use to release inmates during times of overcrowding can be used as a starting point and NORCOR has recently adopted a new screening tool to assist in that process, and one possibility is to create a system where that information is given to a judge before an initial court appearance.

With construction of the third Google data center at the Port of The Dalles to begin soon, Wasco County and City of The Dalles officials will be nearing a discussion on how to divvy up the annual payments Google will make as part of their enterprise zone tax abatement agreement.  County Commission Rod Runyon noted there has been call for a community conversation on how to do this.  The funds from previous Google enterprise zones have been devoted to specific projects determined by the City and County, but there has been some who believe it should be divided up between all the taxing districts impacted by the agreement for those agencies to make their own decisions.

On the third ballot, Hood River City Councilors picked Tim Counihan from a field of seven candidates to fill a vacancy on that panel.  A first round of voting, done by written ballot, narrowed the field to Counihan and Megan Saunders, and the second ballot left the pair tied at three.  Mayor Paul Blackburn called for a third ballot after no one on the Council elected to speak following round two, and someone changed their vote to Counihan.  Counihan, who had sought election to the Council in 2014, indicated his top three goals are to maintain progress in making the City fiscally sustainable, enact policies to make Hood River a safe family friendly place to live, and create an environment where locally owned businesses can thrive.  Counihan fills the seat vacated by Laurent Picard’s resignation in May, and the term runs through the end of the year.

The Columbia Gateway Urban Renewal Agency board, made up of The Dalles City Council and Mayor Steve Lawrence, is recommending changing its governance structure to the City Council, but there will be a public hearing before a final decision is made.  Currently the Council acts as the URA board, with a nine-member advisory committee in place to make recommendations.  The proposal would eliminate the advisory panel, and create a nine-person URA board made up of three Councilors and two members of the general public appointed by the Mayor, and single representatives of Wasco County, Mid-Columbia Fire and Rescue, Northern Wasco County Parks and Recreation District, and the Port of The Dalles.  Lawrence says he wants to make sure the public has a full opportunity to weigh in on the change.  The hearing will take place in September.