KWIT Local
(2009-11-20)
SIOUX CITY, IA
(kwit) -
In Iowa...
DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) - Gov. Chet Culver is bluntly warning
school advocates they'll face scaled-back budgets for the
foreseeable future and that he'll oppose efforts to raise taxes.
Speaking Thursday at the annual convention of the Iowa
Association of School Boards, Culver promised to support
legislation forcing local schools to dip into cash reserve funds
before seeking more in property taxes.
Culver has ordered a 10 percent across-the-board cut in state
spending, and since 60 percent of the state's budget goes to
education that cut has a heavy effect on local schools.
Local school budgets are made up of a mixture of state dollars
and local property taxes. Culver says he wants to prevent school
officials from raising property taxes to compensate for state cuts.
DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) - Gov. Chet Culver is ordering a review of
30 tax credit programs administered by six state agencies to
determine if they are meeting goals established when they were
enacted.
Department of Management director Dick Oshlo will head a panel
made up of the six agency directors who will complete a review by
Dec. 4. They will hold meetings in Cedar Rapids and Des Moines to
discuss the review.
Questions about Iowa's tax credits arose after allegations that
credits offered by the Department of Economic Development to lure
moviemakers to the state had been misused and poorly tracked.
Culver has suspended that tax credit and Attorney General Tom
Miller and Auditor David Vaudt are investigating the film program.
CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa (AP) - Iowa Sen. Tom Harkin says he backs a
proposal to move terrorism detainees from Guantanamo Bay in Cuba to
an Illinois prison.
The Obama administration is looking at buying the nearly empty
Thomson Correctional Center in western Illinois and using the
maximum-security state prison to house detainees.
Harkin said Thursday he sees no security concerns and expects
that as many as 20 percent of the 3,000 jobs at the northwest
Illinois prison could be filled by Iowans from the Clinton and Quad
Cities.
Harkin noted a number of terrorists, including the mastermind of
a World Trade Center bombing, were already in prison on U.S. soil.
While the Iowa Democrat supports moving detainees to U.S. soil,
many GOP lawmakers object, warning it would make the area a
terrorist target.
IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP) - A U.S. District Court judge has dismissed
dozens of immigration violations against a former Iowa kosher
slaughterhouse manager.
Former Agriprocessors Inc. manager Sholom Rubashkin was set to
face 72 immigration violations at a trial on Dec. 2. Prosecutors
asked U.S. District Court Judge Linda Reade to dismiss the charges
on Thursday morning, and she agreed in an order filed hours later.
Rubashkin was convicted of 86 financial fraud charges last week.
The financial and immigration charges followed a massive
immigration raid at the Agriprocessors plant in Postville, Iowa, in
May 2008.
Reade has not yet set a sentencing date for Rubashkin's
financial fraud conviction. He has pleaded not guilty, and his
attorneys say they will appeal.
In Nebraska...
LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) - Gov. Dave Heineman says state resources
will be available to help portions of southeast Nebraska recover
from a damaging wintry storm.
Heineman has signed a disaster declaration to help repair damage
caused by Monday's storm. The storm brought high winds and heavy,
wet snow to Gage, Jefferson, Nemaha, Pawnee, Richardson and Thayer
counties. The Nebraska Emergency Management Agency estimates more
than $3 million in damages.
The storm brought down tree limbs and damaged power lines and
poles. More than 6,000 customers were without power at one point.
Emergency managers continue to assess the damage. They will
coordinate with federal emergency management officials to determine
whether thresholds have been met to trigger federal assistance.
LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) - A woman who sued the University of Nebraska
last year saying the school fired her because she is a witch has
agreed to settle the case for $40,000.
A letter from the woman's attorney confirms the settlement,
$10,000 of which will go toward attorneys fees and legal costs.
Court documents only identify the woman as Jane Doe.
The woman, who practices witchcraft as her religion, said in her
lawsuit that she was hired by the university in February 2007 to
direct a youth program. She was fired when it was discovered that
she was a witch.
A letter from an attorney for the university says it made the
offer without admitting to any of the allegations.
The judgment was entered in U.S. District Court in Lincoln on
Wednesday.
OMAHA, Neb. (AP) - Warren Buffett's company has lined up an $8
billion loan to help pay for its $26.3 billion acquisition of
Burlington Northern Santa Fe Corp.
Berkshire Hathaway Inc. said in documents filed with the
Securities and Exchange Commission Thursday that it signed the
financing deal with JPMorgan Chase and Wells Fargo on Wednesday.
Buffett has said Berkshire plans to borrow half of the $16
billion cash needed for the deal, and pay back the loan over three
years.
Berkshire has agreed to pay $100 a share in cash and stock for
all the Burlington Northern shares it doesn't own. Berkshire holds
a 23 percent stake in the Ft. Worth, Texas-based railroad.
The deal is expected to be completed early next year if
shareholders and regulators approve.
In South Dakota...
HURON, S.D. (AP) - One of the people on the most-wanted list in
Tulsa, Okla., who was arrested by Huron police, will be returned to
Oklahoma.
Prosecutors say 30-year-old Jerri Lynn Goff of Tulsa will be
extradited to Oklahoma.
She had been arrested in Huron on felony charges of forgery,
false impersonation, possession of a controlled substance by
deception and doctor shopping. But Thursday afternoon, the Beadle
County State's Attorney's office said those charges are being
dismissed.
There are warrants for Goff's arrest in Tulsa and in Carroll
County, Ark. Those warrants involve drug and bad check charges.
Authorities say she was traveling in South Dakota with a
2-year-old girl who was listed as an endangered missing person. The
girl is to be returned to her father, who is Goff's ex-husband.
Officials say Goff used various names to try to obtain services
in Beadle County.
UNDATED (AP) - The uncertainty over weekly allotments of a
limited supply of H1N1 vaccine has complicated efforts to organize
immunization clinics and distribute it to hundreds of providers in
North Dakota and South Dakota.
Shipments from manufacturers are going to states based on
population. Health officials in South Dakota and North Dakota then
allocate it under a formula meant to provide equitable distribution
to local clinics and health care providers.
North Dakota Health Department official Molly Sander says the
vaccine is arriving in small amounts each week.
Donned Hollingsworth, South Dakota's secretary of health, says
not everyone who wants the vaccine has had a chance to get it yet.
Community immunization clinics are being held, but the amount of
vaccine available is sometimes a last-minute discovery for
organizers.
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