News Stories Jul. 31, 2018

Madras High School football is getting ready for the season. Today will be the second day of a special football camp with Stephen Noonan – a no cost camp for seventh thru twelfth grade players. MHS football players will start practice Monday August 6 and it will be daily Monday through Thursday from 5:30-7:30. The football program also has a couple of fundraisers – today is the Youth Football Camp for kids in Kindergarten to eighth grades. It’s $30 per child to participate and that is from 5:30-7:30 today, tomorrow and Thursday. And, Saturday August 11^th is a Golf Scramble at Kahneeta Golf Course. Madras will play in the 3A Special District One with twelve total teams. They will have a Jamboree at Sisters August 24^th and the first home game will be versus McLoughlin/Griswold on August 31^st.

Road improvement projects in Central Oregon continue this week. The US 97 Madras to Terrebonne construction will still primarily be done in the nighttime hours through Thursday 7pm to 7am with traffic delays of up to twenty minutes, one-way traffic with flaggers and pilot cars. There may be shoulder work during the day and passing lanes may be closed. The work on Spanish Hollow Creek and Trout Creek Bridges will cause traffic to be reduced to a single lane through the work zone and it is controlled by temporary signals. Only minor delays are anticipated.

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — The U.S. Supreme Court has rejected another Trump administration request to halt proceedings in a lawsuit filed by young activists who say the government isn’t doing enough to prevent climate change. The high court said Monday that the government’s request for relief is premature. The ruling came 10 days after the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals rejected the government’s second request for an order directing a lower court to dismiss a case that’s headed for trial Oct. 29 in Eugene. The lawsuit brought by 21 children and young adults asserts the government has long known that carbon pollution causes climate change but has failed to curb greenhouse gas emissions. They seek various environmental remedies.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The Keystone XL crude oil pipeline project cleared a hurdle on Monday as the Trump administration said in a draft environmental assessment that an alternative route through Nebraska would not do major harm to water and wildlife. The State Department’s assessment of a plan for an alternative route through Nebraska submitted by TransCanada Corp, the company trying to complete the pipeline, said Keystone XL’s cumulative effects would be “minor to moderate” on issues including water and biological resources It said the pipeline would have only minor impacts on cultural resources, such as Native American graves. The draft assessment will be open for 30 days of public comment by the State Department before being finalized. TransCanada plans to start preliminary work in Montana in coming months and full construction in 2019, according a letter sent in April from the State Department to tribes.