News Stories Thu., Dec. 28, 2017

Oregon voters have until next Tuesday to register for the January 23rd special election on health care taxes.

DEPOE BAY, Ore. (AP) — State Parks and Recreation officials say this week is an excellent time to see whales on the Oregon coast. Ranger Luke Parsons from the Whale Watching Center in Depoe Bay says an estimated 20,000 gray whale are traveling south from Alaska to warm lagoons off the coast of Baja, Mexico. The parks department marks its annual whale-watching week by designating 24 “Whale Watching Spoken Here” sites that offer the best viewpoints. Volunteers staff the sites from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m., offering viewing tips and facts about whales. Whale-watching week began Wednesday and ends Dec. 31.

The 54th Annual Warm Springs All-Indian Men’s Holiday Basketball Tournament got underway last night at the Community Center. Today’s games are 1:30 & 3:00 and 6, 7:30, 9:00 tonight. The Championship game is scheduled for Saturday night at 8.

Madras High School Boys & Girls freshman, JV and Varsity Basketball teams are all competing at the Summit Tournament this week. Here are today’s games – the JV Girls play at 2:30 at the Pacific Crest Middle School.  The Freshman Boys also play at Pacific Crest at 4:15.  The Freshman Girls play at 4:15 at Summit High School.  The JV Boys play at 6 at Summit and the Varsity Girls play at 6 at Bend High School.  The Varsity Boys play at 7:45 at Summit.

States in the Pacific Northwest are among the fastest growing in the country. That’s according to new census data out this month. Washington, Oregon, and Idaho gained over 200-thousand new people from July 20-16 to July 20-17. Idaho was the fastest growing state in the nation by percentage. Its population grew more than two percent. Major employers are attributed to much of the growth. Migration to the Pacific Northwest – rather than births – made up the bulk of population growth. According to the census data, Washington and Oregon were also in the top ten states for population growth by percentage. And Washington was number four for overall population growth as well.