KWIT: Regional News for 5/29 (2008-05-29)

In Iowa...

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) - Iowa's largest insurance provider has
broken ground on a $194 million headquarters in Des Moines.
Wellmark Blue Cross and Blue Shield is building a company-owned
facility on a 6.5-acre tract of land located downtown. The new
headquarters are expected to be ready by late 2010. It will feature
adjoining parking, a child care center and accommodate 1,700
workers.
Wellmark CEO John Forsyth says the company expects to save an
undisclosed amount of money because the facility will unite
employees who now work in four buildings.
Wellmark insures about two million people in Iowa and South
Dakota.

PARKERSBURG, Iowa (AP) - Aaron Kampman came running when he
heard that a tornado had destroyed his old high school.
Kampman, a defensive end with the Green Bay Packers, drove
Monday morning with his wife Linde to Parkersburg. That was a day
after a tornado packing winds of more than 200 mph ripped through
the town of about 1,800. It leveled hundreds of homes before moving
east, where it hit New Hartford and Dunkerton.
Seven people were killed and about 50 others were injured,
including Kampman's grandfather Claas. He is recovering in a
Waterloo hospital.
Kampman is a native of nearby Kelsey. He says he couldn't have
imagined the destruction he saw when he arrived. But after manning
a chainsaw and helping to remove trees and debris, Kampman says
folks have to be optimistic.
Kampman says the residents' rallying cry has been to look at the
small victories. He adds that the Packers plan to do something to
help raise funds.

In Nebraska...

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) - Authorities say they've contained a
hydrochloric acid leak at a south Omaha rail yard.
The acid leaking from a Burlington Northern Santa Fe rail car
was reported about 6 yesterday evening. It prompted the evacuation
of several homes and businesses in the area, including Rosenblatt
Stadium and Henry Doorly Zoo.
Joe Gibilisco, battalion chief of the Omaha Fire Department,
says the leak was sealed about two hours after it was reported, but
crews would remain on the scene until a team from Arkansas that
specializes in acid spills arrives.
Gibilisco says the leaky rail car held about 100 gallons of the
corrosive chemical, and he wasn't sure how much had leaked. He said
the spill area covered a stretch that was 75 feet long and 10 feet
wide.

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) - Nebraska will soon have a new Office of
Energy.
Gov. Dave Heineman announced Wednesday that he was raising the
new Office of Energy to a Cabinet-level position.
He also says its director will be Neil Moseman. Moseman is
assistant director of the Nebraska Department of Agriculture.
A Heineman spokeswoman says Moseman will assume his new post on
July 1st.

ALLIANCE, Neb. (AP) - A state investigator says a fire that cost
an Alliance man his home started in a wall furnace.
Alliance Fire Chief Troy Shoemaker says the two-alarm blaze late
Tuesday afternoon destroyed the home of Alan Rask, who was not
inside the house when the fire began.
The Alliance department fought the fire with 26 people and
several pieces of equipment.
No injuries were reported.

In South Dakota...

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (AP) - Barack Obama plans a weekend campaign
swing to South Dakota.
The Democratic presidential hopeful will make campaign stops in
the Rapid City and Aberdeen areas on Saturday, and in the Sioux
Falls and Mitchell areas on Sunday.
More specific details about the visit will come later.
His opponent for the Democratic nomination, Hillary Rodham
Clinton, is in South Dakota on her fourth campaign visit to the
state.
Both are looking for votes prior to Tuesday's primary election.

KYLE, S.D. (AP) - Campaigning on the Pine Ridge Indian
Reservation yesterday, Hillary Rodham Clinton touted her
electability, telling several hundred people in Kyle that she would
make a better president and is a stronger Democratic candidate
against Republican John McCain.
Clinton faces Barack Obama in the South Dakota primary on
Tuesday.
She visited Mount Rushmore earlier on a campaign trip that also
takes her to Rapid City, Huron and Watertown.

PIERRE, S.D. (AP) - Because Barack Obama has endorsements from
many of South Dakota's high-ranking Democrats, some observers
believe he has the inside track for the state's presidential
primary next Tuesday.
But no independent polls have been released in recent weeks, and
both the Obama and Hillary Clinton campaigns call the South Dakota
race close.
Elizabeth Smith, a political science professor at the University
of South Dakota, says the presidential primary is hard to predict.
In her words: "This one is very hard to figure."
Both candidates have visited the state -- and the pace will pick
up through Monday.
Robert Burns, chairman of South Dakota State University's
political science department, says the race likely will end soon
after the Tuesday primaries as more superdelegates commit.
He says if Obama wins in both South Dakota and Montana, he can
convince any holdout superdelegates that he can win in
predominantly white states. And if Clinton wins, Burns says she
will claim she deserves further consideration by superdelegates.

PITTSBURGH (AP) - A Pennsylvania man is getting five years in
prison for running a chop shop that had ties to the Black Hills.
He is 61-year-old David Gebert, who ran the business with his
wife, Linda.
The business sold reconstructed motorcycles using parts from
stolen Harley-Davidson bikes.
Gebert will serve half his sentence after he completes two
10-year prison terms in South Dakota for a 2004 grand theft
conviction. Authorities says he was caught stealing
Harley-Davidsons at the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally.
Linda Gebert was sentenced last month to 18 months in prison for
her guilty pleas to operating the chop shop and money laundering.