News Stories Wed., Feb. 28, 2018

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Federal fisheries officials said Tuesday they will consider putting the Pacific Northwest’s once-flourishing wild spring-run Chinook salmon on the list of threatened or endangered species. The National Marine Fisheries Services plans a 12-month review on whether to give protected status to the salmon in and around the Klamath River. California’s Kuruk tribe, which joined the Salmon River Restoration Council environmental group in petitioning for more protections for the fish, say the species is nearly extinct throughout much of its range in Oregon and Northern California. The tribe blames Klamath River dams for blocking the fish from their spawning grounds. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission is expected to decide in 2019 whether to approve a deal among tribes, dam-owner PacifiCorp utilities company, and others to remove the dams and reopen hundreds of miles of river to the migrating salmon.

The long-proposed Vancouver Energy oil terminal project officially died Tuesday. Vancouver, Washington, port commissioners made it official by unanimously voting to cancel the lease. After nearly five years of debating whether to build the nation’s largest oil-by-rail terminal in Vancouver, the port and Vancouver Energy agreed to end their lease. The $210 million project, a joint venture from Tesoro and Savage, would have brought up to 360,000 gallons of crude oil a day on trains traveling along the Columbia River.

The Oregon State Girls Middle School Basketball Championships are this weekend. The Madras 5^th, 6^th, 7^th and 8^th grade girls teams all qualified.  Here are the first games for the girls – they are doing pool play: Madras 5^th Grade plays Friday night at 7:20 at Obsidian Middle School; 6^th Grade plays Friday night at 8:30 at Elton Gregory Middle School; Madras 7^th Grade also has a 7:20pm game to be played at Redmond High School; and the 8^th Grade girls plays Friday at 6:10 at Ridgeview High School. You can see full schedules and brackets posted online at www.statebasketballchampionship.com/Oregon.