KWIT: Regional News for 10/27 (2009-10-27)

In Iowa...

CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa (AP) - An agency official says
flood-displaced Iowa residents staying in mobile homes provided by
the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) will be charged rent
after November.
Crystal Payton, a FEMA spokeswoman in Des Moines, says today
that such rental charges are standard practice if it's deemed
necessary to extend a program.
Payton said FEMA tenants will be charged the fair-market rate
set by the Department of Housing and Urban Development. In the
Cedar Rapids market, that's $649 for a two-bedroom unit, $920 for
three bedrooms.
Displaced residents who had been staying rent-free faced a Nov.
27 deadline to be out of FEMA-provided housing. First District
Congressman Dave Loebasck announced Friday FEMA would extend the
deadline to next June, but didn't mention the new rental charges.

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (AP) - Financial officers from companies that
bought meat from an Iowa kosher slaughterhouse testified that bills
from the plant didn't match their own records and so the companies
refused to pay them.
The records are a critical part of prosecutors' evidence in the
financial fraud case of former Agriprocessors, Inc., manager Sholom
Rubashkin.
Albert Barel of Los Angeles-based City Glatt testified Monday
that a government-appointed trustee of Agriprocessors was unable to
show proof of delivery on bills from 2007 and 2008.
Rubashkin defense attorney F. Montgomery Brown questioned City
Glatt's record keeping.
Rubashkin faces 91 charges of financial fraud. Agriprocessors
was the site of a major immigration raid in 2008.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) - Iowa residents are depositing more of
their money in banks as they seek a safe place to put their
savings.
Drake University associate professor of finance Thomas Root says
the deposit growth reflects Iowans' worries about economic
conditions. He calls it precautionary savings. He noted that as
Iowans see people losing their jobs, they are holding onto their
cash instead of spending or investing it in something long term.
According to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., deposits in
Iowa grew 7.1 percent to $64.4 billion at the end of the second
quarter, compared with $60.1 billion a year ago. FDIC officials say
it was the biggest jump in deposits since 2003.
Nationwide, the savings rate jumped to 4.9 percent of income in
the second quarter, up from 3.4 percent in the same period a year
ago.

In Nebraska...

FREMONT, Neb. (AP) - The Nebraska Supreme Court will hear
arguments in a case stemming from Fremont's proposed
illegal-immigration ordinance.
The city is appealing an April ruling from a Dodge County
district judge. It concluded the city must hold an election on a
proposal to ban renting to and hiring illegal immigrants in the
city.
City leaders argue the proposal is unconstitutional and could
expose the city to costly legal challenges. But Judge John Samson
said the matter was out of his hands until voters approved the
measure.
Fremont city leaders had asked to bypass the state Court of
Appeals and have the high court take the case.
City Attorney Dean Skokan said Monday that a hearing date hasn't
been set.

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) - A Lincoln attorney representing Dakota County
and its officials in a lawsuit is calling allegations of sexual
harassment and discrimination suspicious.
Vincent Valentino says only one of the eight plaintiffs named in
a federal lawsuit filed Monday turned first to the Nebraska Equal
Opportunity Commission to investigate the alleged wrongdoing. He
says that's the first step for someone serious about such
allegations.
The lawsuit alleges Dakota County Sheriff James Wagner and Chief
Deputy Rodney Herron pressured female employees into sexual
relationships. It also alleges they made unwanted, crude, sexually
charged comments toward female employees and treated those who
refused their advances as outcasts.
Similar allegations were made in lawsuits filed earlier this
year against the county and some of its officials.
Attorneys for the plaintiffs have called it a messy case in
which employees weren't protected from superiors who misused their
powers for their own sexual gratification.

In South Dakota...

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (AP) - Soggy fields and more rain continue to
hold up South Dakota's row-crop harvest.
The weekly crop report from the U.S. Department of Agriculture
says statewide last week, there were only two days suitable for
field work.
Precipitation was heaviest in eastern portions of the state and
in a band from Shannon County to Faulk County. Yankton reported the
most precipitation for the week at 2.6 inches.
The report says 40 percent of the soybean crop had been
harvested as of Sunday. The five-year average is 88 percent.
The corn harvest also is creeping along and is now 9 percent
complete, which is far behind the five-year average of 38 percent.

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (AP) - Gov. Mike Rounds said the budget he's
preparing for the next Legislature will be built around the
realization that tax revenue is down and tough decisions are ahead.
He says the problem is compounded because more money will have
to be spent on Medicaid, which pays the medical expenses of
low-income people.
Rounds says the 2010 Legislature will be reluctant in an
election year to boost taxes or fees even on a temporary basis to
raise more revenue to operate state government. He says it's early
yet and state revenues could improve, but Rounds says the
alternative might be painful cuts to good programs.