KWIT: Regional News for 5/13 (2008-05-13)

In Iowa...

CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa (AP) - More than 300 people have been
arrested in an immigration raid at a meatpacking plant in
Postville.
Federal prosecutors say it's the largest raid in Iowa history.
U.S. Attorney Matt Dummermuth says the raid at Agriprocessors
came after months of planning, beginning last fall.
Federal immigration officials say the raid was aimed at seeking
evidence of identity theft, stolen Social Security numbers and for
illegal immigrants.
Those that were arrested have been charged with immigration
violations.
Forty-four people were released for humanitarian reasons,
primarily because they must care for children.
The others are being held in local jails or have been taken by
bus to the National Cattle Congress fairgrounds, 75 miles away in
Waterloo, where a detention center has been set up.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) - Governor Culver has signed a bill to
help Iowa retailers pay for alternative fuel pumps.
The new law also encourages state and local government to use
biodiesel when its available.
The measure is designed to improve access to E85 and biodiesel
pumps. Both are relatively rare in Iowa despite the state's status
as a leading producer of the fuels.
Monte Shaw is executive director of the Iowa Renewable Fuels
Association. He says there are thousands of flexible fuel vehicles
in Iowa, but only a handful of gas stations offer the fuel.

SIOUX CITY, Iowa (AP) - A Sioux City man has been sentenced to
25 years in prison for a traffic accident that killed his
passenger.
Joseph Dailey was convicted of vehicular homicide in March and
was sentenced yesterday. He was arrested last summer for the death
of 43-year-old Danny Peterson, who was killed when Dailey's pickup
truck rear-ended another truck waiting at a red light.
According to court records, Dailey had a blood-alcohol
concentration of 0.212 percent after the August 11th crash -- more
than twice Iowa's legal limit.

MILWAUKEE (AP) - Federal prosecutors say there are an additional
700 potential victims ranging from food manufacturers to newspapers
in a fraud scheme involving the nation's largest coupon company.
Eleven men were charged in March 2007 with 25 counts of wire
fraud. Most are from International Outsourcing Services based in
Bloomington, Indiana.
Early filings named more than 100 victims, including Quaker
Foods and Beverages, General Mills and Kraft Foods.
U.S. Attorney Steven Biskupic says in a new filing that there
could be 700 more victims, including the Iowa-based National Pork
Board, ExxonMobil Oil and the Kansas City Star newspaper.
The indictment alleges the defendants submitted fraudulent
coupons to manufacturers for payment of up to 250 million dollars
between 1997 and 2006.

In Nebraska...

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) - Nebraska Attorney General Jon Bruning
defended his refusal to prosecute housing discrimination cases on
CNN's "Lou Dobbs Tonight," again couching his stance in the
nationwide debate over illegal immigration.
Bruning said last night that Nebraska taxpayers don't want to
see him representing illegal immigrants.
The attorney general has been in the spotlight recently for
refusing to prosecute cases of alleged housing discrimination
brought to him by the Nebraska Equal Opportunity Commission. But
NEOC officials have stressed that while Bruning has made public
comments about his refusal to file housing discrimination actions
on behalf of illegal immigrants, only one case has involved people
in the country illegally. Other discrimination cases have involved
U.S. citizens, including disabled people and single parents.

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) - A state senator has filed a formal
complaint against the Sarpy County judge who decided to leave a man
with mental problems handcuffed in the lobby of a state psychiatric
hospital.
Sen. Ernie Chambers of Omaha called the incident cruel and
unethical and filed his complaint Monday against Sarpy County
District Judge Robert Wester with the state's Judicial
Qualifications Commission.
On Thursday, Wester deemed the man mentally incompetent to stand
trial, so Sarpy County deputies took him to the Lincoln Regional
Center.
But hospital officials told the deputies there was no room for
the man.
A sheriff's lieutenant says the judge told him that the deputies
had to leave the man there even if the hospital refused to admit
him.

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) - In right-leaning Nebraska's Senate primary,
Democrats are battling for the right to take on the GOP to replace
longtime Senator Chuck Hagel.
Their race has provided more drama than the Republican primary
contest, in which former governor U.S. Agriculture Secretary Mike
Johanns has raised a formidable 2 million dollars and has Hagel's
open support.
Still, the rhetoric between Democratic front-runners Tony
Raimondo and Scott Kleeb is already pointing toward the general
election.
Also running for Senate in today's primary are Democrats Larry
Marvin of Fremont and James Bryan Wilson of Lincoln, neither of
whom has run a public campaign and Green Party candidate Steve
Larrick.

YANKTON, S.D. (AP) - Worsening corrosion is the culprit that
forced transportation officials to put a 10-ton load limit on the
aging Meridian (muh-RIHD'-ee-uhn) Bridge over the Missouri River at
Yankton, South Dakota.
State bridge engineer Kevin Goeden (GAY'-duhn) says the load
limit was implemented after the most recent inspection in late
April.
The restriction does not include cars, but essentially prohibits
semis from using the bridge, which was built in 1924.
Goeden says workers hope to make repairs as part of the planned
conversion of the bridge into a pedestrian bridge as a replacement
structure comes on line.
Officials say they hope the limit is temporary.

In South Dakota...

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (AP) - Condemned killer Briley Piper of
Anchorage, Alaska, has filed a new appeal with the South Dakota
Supreme Court in hopes of getting his death sentence overturned.
He and Elijah Page of Athens, Texas, pleaded guilty to the March
2000 torture murder of Chester Allan Poage of Spearfish and a judge
sentenced them to death.
Darrell Hoadley of Lead went to trial and was sentenced to life
in prison.
Page ended his appeals and was executed in July.
Piper asked a judge to resentence him to life in prison, but
that request was denied so now his case is back on appeal.
The two other men awaiting capital punishment in South Dakota
are Donald Moeller and Charles Rhinos.

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (AP) - Senator John Thune plans to introduce a
$1,000 flexible fuel vehicle tax credit bill this week.
The bill would let buyers of cars or trucks that run on an
85-percent ethanol, 15-percent gasoline blend to claim the credit.
Consumers purchasing an optimum flexible fuel vehicle with improved
fuel economy would be able to claim a $1,500 tax credit.
Thune says the bill would give consumers incentive to buy more
flex-fuel vehicles, which would entice filling station owners to
install more E-85 and blender pumps.
The bill comes as corn-based ethanol has been falling out of
political favor amid the food-versus-fuel debate.
But Thune says a global rise in food prices has more to do with
high oil prices than corn's use as an ethanol feedstock. He thinks
the political pendulum will shift back as energy companies move to
cellulosic ethanol.

PIERRE, S.D. (AP) - The three major networks, CNN, Fox News and
The Associated Press filed a lawsuit yesterday that asks a federal
judge to strike down a South Dakota law preventing exit polling
within 100 feet of a voting place.
The suit claims the law violates the First Amendment because it
restricts the news organizations' speech and commentary about the
political process and limits their opportunities to gather
information about that process.
The suit asks that the case be handled quickly because South
Dakota's primary election is just three weeks away.
One of the state officials who was sued, Secretary of State
Chris Nelson, says the exit-polling law's purpose is to maintain
the integrity of the polling place.
A lawyer for the media groups, Jon Arneson (AR'-nuh-suhn) of
Sioux Falls, says the orderly conduct of exit polling does not
interfere with voting. He says the accuracy of exit polls suffers
if the poll-takers are kept so far away from the voters.

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (AP) - Cold, rainy weather further slowed
spring planting in South Dakota last week. That's according to the
weekly crop report from the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
Several reporting points had more than 2 inches of rain last
week. And temperatures dropped well below freezing in the western,
central and north central parts of the state during the week.
The report says only 27 percent of the corn crop was planted as
of Sunday - well behind the five-year average of 57 percent.
Barley, spring wheat and oats seeding also continues behind normal.
Only 3 percent of South Dakota's topsoil is rated short of
moisture.