KWIT: Regional News for 5/23 (2008-05-23)

In Iowa...

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) - Nearly 300 workers arrested in an
immigration raid in Postville have reached plea deals and face
deportation proceedings.
The U.S. attorney's office says 302 workers from the
Agriprocessors meatpacking plant were charged with federal crimes
after the raid on May 12th. Of those, 297 have pleaded guilty and
were sentenced to prison time or probation.
The remaining five have cases pending in federal court.
Charges include use of false identification documents and false
use of Social Security numbers.
Initially, 389 workers were taken in the raid conducted by the
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Charges against six
workers were dismissed because they were juveniles.
Federal authorities say it was the largest single-site
immigration raid in U.S. history.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) - Governor Culver has announced the
opening of an Iowa trade office in Beijing.
He says Iowans should think of China more as a trading partner
than an economic competitor.
Culver says it's essential to build relationships that can help
Iowa compete with agricultural producers that want to trade with
China.
Aides say the state is budgeting $75,000 for the first year for
the office. That's essentially to cover the salary of the director
of the office, John Clark. The amount is expected to increase in
future years as the Beijing office expands.
Culver is in the midst of a nine-day trade trip to China.

In Nebraska...

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) - A federal agency has turned down part of a
proposed agreement between Attorney General Jon Bruning and the
Nebraska Equal Opportunity Commission.
The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development wants the
agreement to specify that all cases of alleged discrimination
against illegal immigrants will be handed to an attorney under
contract with the commission.
NEOC Chairman Arnold Nesbitt says he is confident the agreement
can be changed to satisy the federal agency.
The U.S. department stopped giving the state commission money in
April, in part because of Bruning's refusal to prosecute a case on
behalf of illegal immigrants.
NEOC officials have stressed that while Bruning has made public
comments about his refusal to file the actions on behalf of illegal
immigrants, only one case has involved people in the country
illegally.

YORK, Neb. (AP) - A vandal or a group of them has stripped the
American flags from 18 graves at a cemetery in York.
York County veterans service officer Don Sandman says whoever
did it "is a very sad person."
The 12- by 16-inch flags were attached to rods and put into
metal holders at the graves.
The flags were provided by the county Veterans Service Office
and placed at Greenwood Cemetery by the American Legion.
Sandman says the Legion members put out about 1,000 of the flags
for Memorial Day weekend.
The flags have already been replaced.

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) - An Omaha woman is warning bikers in the area
to use caution after a trail prank turned dangerous for her
husband.
Pam Fusselman says her husband was riding his bike on the West
Papio trail last week when he hit with a band of clear tape that
stretched from one side of the bike trail to the other. between
trees.
The impact sent Pam's husband flying, leaving him with a
concussion, broken collarbone, broken ribs and a punctured lung.

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) - A book about the Pine Ridge reservation in
South Dakota has won the Great Plains Distinguished Book Prize.
"Ruling Pine Ridge: Oglala Lakota Politics from the IRA to
Wounded Knee" by Akim Reinhardt was announced the 2008 winner this
month by the Center for Great Plains Studies at the University of
Nebraska-Lincoln.
Reinhardt will receive a prize of $2,000 and will present a
lecture this fall at UNL.
The prize is awarded to a nonfiction work about the Great
Plains. The 2008 winner was selected from among first-edition books
published in 2007.

In South Dakota...

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (AP) - President Bush has issued a disaster
declaration for South Dakota counties hardest hit by an early May
blizzard.
The governor asked for federal money to help pay for snow
removal and repairs to rural electric systems.
The declaration covers Bennett, Butte, Harding, Jackson,
Lawrence and Perkins counties. The federal government will pay 75
percent of the costs and the state will cover another 10 percent.
State government estimated more than $7.5 million in damage from
the May 1-2 storm, most of it to electric poles and transmission
lines in the northwest corner of the state, which received up to 4
feet of snow.

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (AP) - Congresswoman Stephanie Herseth Sandlin
says Congress will work through a last-minute clerical error with
the farm bill.
After the House override of the president's veto, it was learned
that a 34-page section had been mistakenly left out of the printed
bill sent to the White House, meaning the president vetoed a
different bill from the one Congress passed.
Herseth Sandlin says she's disappointed "and a bit disgusted"
with the error. But she says she's sure the votes remain to
override another veto.

PIERRE, S.D. (AP) - Law enforcement has a new tool to help find
missing persons in South Dakota.
Officials say the Endangered Persons Advisory Program is
designed to quickly disseminate information to the public, law
agencies and media about missing people who are in possible danger.
The new system can be used to help find lost children on cold
winter days and in instances where people with health problems,
disabilities or advancing age may be missing.
State Attorney General Larry Long says the new initiative will
supplement the existing Amber Alert system for finding children who
have been abducted.
The request to declare an Endangered Persons Advisory must come
from a law agency.

MITCHELL, S.D. (AP) - The chairman of South Dakota Republicans
says he's not worried by the voter registration gains seen by
Democrats this spring.
Karl Adam of Pierre says it's mostly due to the race between
Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, and that South Dakota remains a
Republican state.
He says it will be an incentive for Republicans to campaign hard
in November and retain a majority in the state Legislature.
Registered Republicans outnumbered Democrats by nearly 44,000 as
of mid-May.