KWIT: Regional News for 5/7 (2008-05-07)

In Iowa...

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) - Iowa Secretary of State Michael Mauro
says he won't appeal a judge's decision that voter registration
forms must only be in English.
Mauro's office removed non-English voter forms from the
secretary of state's Web site after the judge issued his ruling in
March.
He says appealing the decision could take years and cost
thousands of taxpayer dollars.
Instead, Mauro says he would work with the Iowa attorney
general's office to find alternatives for non-English speaking
voters.
Former Governor Tom Vilsack signed the English-language law in
2002, specifying that all government communications must be in
English. But current Governor Chet Culver has said the law allows
for voter registration forms to be in multiple languages.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) - Like many parents of college-aged kids,
Philip and Brigitte Gassman of Ames are bracing for their son to
leave home.
But don't expect to see them at any freshman orientation
gatherings.
Their 18-year-old son, Mattias Gassman, will head to graduate
school after receiving two bachelor's degrees on Saturday from Iowa
State University.
He wracked up nearly twice the college credits needed to
graduate and boasts majors in biophysics, German and classical
studies, plus a minor in history.
If that wasn't enough, he graduates summa cum laude.
When Gassman was just a fifth grader he earned a high enough
score on a college entrance exam to get a scholarship to take a
college-level course. He aced that class - Latin 101.
Gassman plans to attend the University of Minnesota this fall.

SPENCER, Iowa (AP) - Clay County authorities are responding to a
report of a building collapse in the small town of Rossie, in
northwest Iowa.
Law enforcement officials say authorities they were dispatched
to the scene around 5 p.m. yesterday (Tuesday) for what was
described as a building collapse on Main Street in Rossie.
Rossie, with about 60 residents, is located about 12 miles south
of Spencer.
Authorities did not know if anyone was injured in the collapse.

IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP) - The director of the University of Iowa
Museum of Art resigned effective Monday, school officials announced
on Tuesday.
Howard Creel Collinson, had been director of the museum since
2000. Iowa officials did not explain why Collinson's resignation
came so suddenly.
Interim Provost Lola Lopes says that Pamela White, the director
of Iowa's Pentacrest Museums will serve as interim director of the
Museum of Art while a national search is conducted. A national
search will be launched later.

In Nebraska...

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) - Organizations that fight discrimination in
the state are calling Attorney General Jon Bruning's record a
shameful debacle.
The criticism was lodged yesterday by groups including the Fair
Housing Center of Nebraska, the Anti Defamation League and the
Nebraska Appleseed Center.
Bruning has been in the spotlight recently for refusing to
prosecute cases of alleged discrimination against illegal
immigrants and not prosecuting other types of discrimination cases
brought to him by the Nebraska Equal Opportunity Commission.
Bruning says federal law prevents him from prosecuting on behalf
of illegal immigrants.
But immigration attorneys say that all cases of discrimination
based on race, national origin and other factors must be
prosecuted.

GRAND ISLAND, Neb. (AP) - Grand Island school officials expect
next fall's kindergarten enrollment to be the district's highest
ever.
That could put the district at odds with new requirements for
Nebraska schools to put low-income and English-learning students in
smaller classes. State law also requires grades
K-through-third-grade classes to have 20 or fewer students.
Superintendent Steve Joel says officials are projecting a
kindergarten class of 800 -- about four dozen more than last year.
Joel says he is confident the district will meet the new
requirements.

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (AP) - At its annual meeting, TransCanada
officials said they are planning another crude oil pipeline that
would bring oil from Alberta to the Gulf Coast -- and the possible
route could go through South Dakota and Nebraska.
Hal Kvisle is president and CEO of TransCanada. He says Keystone
Phase Two would go from Alberta to Nebraska and then turn south to
Port Arthur, Texas.
Kvisle showed shareholders a map with the pipeline entering the
U.S. in northeast Montana and running diagonally to northwestern
South Dakota and leaving the central part of the state at the
southern border with Nebraska.

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) - A former accountant accused of stealing
money from Wyuka Cemetery has been arrested on suspicion of
stealing more than $16,000 from his church.
Police say Todd TerMaat was arrested Monday.
A call from The Associated Press to a Lincoln listing for
TerMaat was not immediately returned.
Officials at Holy Savior Lutheran Church had hired an auditor
after news broke in January that TerMaat had been accused of
embezzling more than $40,000 from Wyuka.
TerMaat no longer works for Wyuka and has quit as church
treasurer.
Lincoln Police Officer Katie Flood says TerMaat wrote and cashed
36 unauthorized church checks between June 2005 and February 2007
for a total of $16,345.
TerMaat faces a July trial in the Wyuka case.

In South Dakota...

YANKTON, S.D. (AP) - Next week, the case of a large-scale hog
farm west of Wagner will be in federal court again -- but this time
it will be courtesy of the farm's developers.
The farm's lawyer, Dave Nadolski of Sioux Falls, says the
developers will counter by asking a federal judge to rule that the
Yankton Sioux Tribe doesn't have jurisdiction over the farm.
Last month, three tribal members filed a lawsuit asking a
federal judge to order a halt to construction of Long View Farm,
which is owned by 11 Iowa farmers and is being built on private
land west of Wagner.
Officials say it could house an average of 3,350 sows and
produce 70,000 pigs a year.
Yankton Sioux tribal members and others protested near the site
last month, saying they fear the operation will smell bad and
pollute the air and water.
Nadolski says construction continues at the site and that
protesters have not interrupted the work.

VERMILLION, S.D (AP) - Former Senator George McGovern is to
receive an honorary doctor of public service degree Saturday at the
University of South Dakota's 121st spring commencement.
USD says the honorary doctorate is for McGovern's public service
to the people of South Dakota and the nation.
McGovern, the Democratic presidential nominee in 1972, lost to
President Richard Nixon. He served two terms in the U.S. House and
three terms in the Senate, ending in 1980.
The Avon native, now 85, received the Presidential Medal of
Freedom, the nation's highest civilian honor, in 2000.
More than 1,000 students will receive degrees during the
commencement.

OVERLAND PARK, Kan. (AP) - Wal-Mart Stores has announced
partnerships with 19 states and Puerto Rico to help them save on
energy and electricity costs at their capitols.
Wal-Mart will identify engineering experts to perform energy
audits at the capitols.
Wal-Mart over the past three years has worked to cut down on
energy usage at its stores and suppliers. Through its Greening
State Capitols partnership with the National Governors Association,
Wal-Mart will offer its services in an outreach effort and to
market its audit services.
South Dakota is among the states included in yesterday's
announcement.