Last modified: Tuesday, November 6, 2007 10:46 AM PST News Digest: OREGON — PGE proposes $300 million for pollution controls at Ore. plant BOARDMAN (AP) — Portland General Electric has proposed spending $300 million for pollution controls at Oregon’s only coal-fired power plant. An analysis produced for PGE and given to the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality on Monday estimates the upgrades will cut emissions of haze-causing pollution by 75 percent at the plant near the Eastern Oregon city of Boardman, which is one of the few coal plants in the West without modern pollution controls. One dead, eight injured in southern Ore. crashes WORDEN (AP) — Multiple crashes involving at least 18 vehicles snarled Highway 97 just north of the California state line Monday, the Oregon State Police said. One person died and eight others were injured in the crashes that happened over a two-mile stretch during early morning fog, Oregon State Police Lt. Steve Nork said. The fatal collision happened when a northbound commercial truck driven by Edwin Mueller, 64, of Stonyford, Calif., clipped a southbound commercial truck and then stopped in the northbound lane. A northbound truck driven by Douglas Shellito, 46, of Klamath Falls crashed into the back of the stopped northbound trailer. Two northbound passenger vehicles then crashed into the trailer being pulled by Shellito’s truck. Shellito died at the scene; Mueller was not injured, Nork said. STRANGE AMERICA Man nearly throws out 4.38-carat diamond he unearthed at Arkansas park MURFREESBORO Ark. (AP) — Chad Johnson has found about 80 diamonds at Crater of Diamonds State Park, but on Monday he nearly threw away his largest find yet. A cube-shaped rock plucked out of his sifters turned out to be a 4.38-carat, tea-colored diamond. Johnson, 36, made the dig Saturday at the park and left his equipment in a locker. When he came back Monday morning, he made the discovery. Crater of Diamonds State Park, which opened in 1972, is the world’s only diamond-producing site open to the public, and visitors can keep the gems they unearth. The largest diamond found at the park was the 16.37-carat Amarillo Starlight, a white diamond found in 1975.