KWIT Local
(2009-10-26)
SIOUX CITY, IA
(kwit) -
In Iowa...
DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) - Many seeking a swine flu vaccine in Polk
County had to be turned away before health officials ran out of
doses.
Polk County officials said Sunday that they had about 2,000
doses of the swine flu vaccine to distribute to those lined up at
the Iowa State Fairgrounds. The vaccines ran out after about two
hours as a line stretched down the street.
Rick Kozin is with the Polk County Health Department. Kozin says
officials predicted they would have enough vaccine for at-risk
community members to last for 90 days, but that wasn't the case.
Health department officials say they'll send a notice when they
receive their next swine flu vaccine shipment.
IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP) - About 100 students from the University of
Iowa have gathered to clean a wooded area still filled with debris
and trash from last year's flooding.
The students met Saturday to clear an area along the Iowa River
that hadn't yet been cleaned since the June 2008 floods. Carol
Sweeting is a spokeswoman for the Iowa City Public Works
department. Sweeting says the area had been under water until this
past August.
Students found an array of items in the woodlands, including
three bicycles, two folding chairs, a futon frame and a tire.
IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP) - Iowa City was moving toward passing a
curfew on teenagers after a rash of violent incidents, but a local
man who works with high school students says there's a better way.
Henri Harper says instead of locking kids indoors at night, the
city should consider a program that would have parents and students
find out why some teens are turning to violence.
The council delayed its vote but will consider a curfew again in
December.
Harper says there's resentment simmering among the black
community, who believes the curfew would unfairly target the east
side where many black teens live.
Supporters of the curfew say kids simply shouldn't be out at
night and the curfew would be a tool police officers could use to
ensure the streets are safe.
In Nebraska...
OMAHA, Neb. (AP) - Neb. Sen. Ben Nelson has been named chairman
of a congressional subcommittee that has oversight over U.S.
Strategic Command, located at Offutt Air Force Base south of Omaha.
The Democrat will command the Senate Armed Services Subcommittee
on Strategic Forces.
The subcommittee oversees the United States' nuclear and
strategic forces, military space, intelligence and cyber warfare
programs.
Nelson says the priorities of the committee include an
arms-reduction treaty with Russia and missile defense.
OMAHA, Neb. (AP) - The story of the 18-year-old Ukrainian mother
sold to work in an Istanbul brothel after she answered an ad to
work abroad was just the start of it for Ron Hampton.
Hampton, a University of Nebraska-Lincoln professor, has heard
countless stories of callous exploitation in his research of human
trafficking. But his concern is, many others haven't.
He believes he and other researchers are able to help raise
awareness and fight the fast-growing global criminal industry
that's operating even in Nebraska. But says they must first
understand it.
UNL is set to host a three-day conference on human trafficking,
titled "What We Know and What We Need to Know," beginning
Thursday.
Organizers say it's part of a plan to make UNL a hub for human
trafficking research.
In South Dakota...
SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (AP) - Illness is keeping about 7 percent of
South Dakota's K-12 students out of classes, but the state's
universities are also seeing their share of H1N1 flu absences.
The latest numbers from the South Dakota Board of Regents show
113 cases at Black Hills State University and 94 at South Dakota
State University.
The University of South Dakota and Northern State University
each have 11 students out, Dakota State University has six and the
School of Mines reports three.
Regents general counsel James Shekleton says the lack of a
controlled environment makes counting college absences an inexact
science compared with K-12 schools.
He says South Dakota's universities planned for the avian flu in
2006 and 2007, and they were easily able to adapt those plans to
H1N1.
RAPID CITY, S.D. (AP) - It's not just deer that drivers need to
be watching for in the Black Hills. Bighorn sheep also congregate
along the highway in two areas this time of year.
State wildlife officials say the sheep move down from higher
elevations to breed. They often bunch up on Highway 44 on the
western edge of Rapid City and on Highway 385 between Sheridan Lake
and Hill City.
The Game, Fish and Parks says drivers need to watch out for the
sheep and be alert to other motorists who may have stopped to take
a look.
PIERRE, S.D. (AP) - One of the nation's largest colonies of
endangered black-footed ferrets is surviving despite the disease
that has hit their home in a vast stretch of prairie dog towns
south of Badlands National Park.
Since the sylvatic plague was discovered in South Dakota's
Conata Basin in May 2008, the disease has wiped out black-tailed
prairie dogs, the ferrets' main prey, in about half their former
range.
However, many of the ferrets have been protected by efforts to
vaccinate them and to stop the spread of the disease by dusting
with insecticide that kills the fleas that carry the plague.
The black-footed ferret was once considered extinct, but a
captive breeding program succeeded after a colony was discovered in
Wyoming in 1981. Since then, ferrets have been reintroduced at
sites in South Dakota, Wyoming, Montana, Colorado, Utah, Kansas and
Mexico.
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