KWIT: Regional News for 6/17 (2008-06-17)

In Iowa...

OAKVILLE, Iowa (AP) - As southeast Iowa prepares for the
Mississippi River's wrath, other Iowans are beginning to cleanup
their flood-damaged towns.
In much of the state there are small signs of a return to
normalcy: Interstate 80 reopened near Iowa City in eastern Iowa for
the first time in days, while on the University of Iowa campus,
officials began to take stock of the damage.
And in Des Moines, some residents returned for the first time to
see the damage after a levee failure flooded the Birdland
neighborhood.
Governor Culver and others point to the next looming trouble
spot, in southeastern Iowa. Most requests for state aid were coming
from Des Moines County, where the Mississippi River was not
expected to crest until tomorrow. Gina Hardin, the county's
emergency management coordinator, says the county spent yesterday
sandbagging weak-points on a major levee that, if broken, would
cause flooding in several thousand acres and about 250 homes.

WASHINGTON (AP) - Federal officials fear that more than two
dozen levees in the Midwest could potentialy be topped by the
Mississippi River.
That's according to a map obtained by The Associated Press. It's
based on the possibility that forecasts for more rain hold true and
if massive sandbagging efforts fail to raise the level of the
levees.
Millions of sandbags are being placed on top of the levees along
the river in Illinois, Iowa and Missouri to prevent overflowing.
But a spokesman for the Army Corps of Engineers says there is no
way to predict whether the levees will break.
Record-breaking storms and flooding across six states this month
continue to force thousands of people to evacuate and seek shelter.
Since June 6th, there have been 22 deaths, 85 injuries and more
than 26,000 power outages because of the storms and flooding.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) - The American Red Cross says its Disaster
Relief Fund is out of money and it will borrow so it can keep
helping flood victims.
The shortage comes as the Red Cross continues flood relief
efforts in soaked Iowa and ramps up its work downstream in Illinois
and Missouri. Officials say the Red Cross has 2,500 workers on the
ground. Almost 90 percent of them are volunteers.
Red Cross Senior Vice President of Disaster Services says the
fund has been depleted over the past few years in the absence of
large-scale disasters that bring attention to the relevance of the
Red Cross.
He says they have had many mid-size disasters that have cost
them a lot of money but didn't prompt donations to cover the costs.
So far, he said the flood response in the Midwest has cost about
15 million dollars. The Red Cross estimates it could reach as high
as 40 million dollars.

FORT MADISON, Iowa (AP) - Flooding in Missouri and Iowa has
caused major delays for the BNSF Railway. The company says it won't
resume normal traffic until after several rivers have crested.
Steve Forsberg, a BNSF spokesman, says routes disrupted by
flooding are east-west through Ottumwa, along the Des Moines River,
and north-south from St. Louis to Burlington, Iowa. Another
disruption is north-south from St. Louis and Memphis, Tenn., along
the Mississippi River.
Rail flooding has been reported across eastern Iowa, including
major railroad bridges that have been swept away by waters in
Waterloo, Cedar Rapids, Dunlap, Liscomb, and Marshalltown. The Iowa
Department of Transportation says many smaller bridges are also
destroyed or damaged.
Forsberg says BNSF is dealing with the flooded tracks by
rerouting as many trains as possible.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) - The Iowa Department of Transportation
says that Interstate 80 is reopen to traffic.
A patch of the interstate in Cedar County had been closed
because of flooding, requiring a lengthy detour.
The Iowa DOT says the road is now safe to travel. The DOT says
there are no other closures on I-80 at this time.
The DOT also announced that Interstate 380 near Cedar Rapids
would reopen at 6 a.m. today.

In Nebraska...

WEST POINT, Neb. (AP) - An Iowa Boy Scout who "did so many
great things for a lot of people in his short life" was buried
back home in Nebraska yesterday.
Friends and family of Aaron Eilerts gathered at Saint Mary's
Catholic Church in West Point. He and his parents had lived there
until his dad got a new job about four years ago and they moved to
Eagle Grove, Iowa, in the north-central part of the state.
The 14-year-old was one of four Boy Scouts killed Wednesday when
a tornado swept through the Little Sioux Scout Ranch, in western
Iowa, about 40 miles north of Omaha. Nearly 50 other people were
injured; four remain hospitalized.
Fred Ullrich, a Boy Scout leader who was among those injured,
describes Aaron Eilerts as "a fine, fine boy."

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) - Two new radio ads from a group opposing
efforts to ban affirmative action in Nebraska are drawing
criticism.
Doug Tietz of the Nebraska Civil Rights Initiative says the
30-second spots are fear tactics to deter voters from signing a
petition to put a constitutional amendment on the state's November
ballot.
Tietz' group needs to have about 114,000 signatures by July 4th.
He wouldn't say Monday how many signatures had been gathered.
One of the ads from Nebraskans United suggests voters could fall
victim to identity theft or other crimes if they provide their
personal information for the petitions. The other says a ban on
affirmative action would jeopardize services for women, such as
domestic violence assistance or breast cancer screenings.
The ads began airing in parts of Nebraska on Friday.

NORTH PLATTE, Neb. (AP) - More than a decade in the making, the
Golden Spike Tower and Visitor Center is opening to the public.
From the eighth floor, the tower offers a panoramic view of
Union Pacific's Bailey Yard in North Platte, touted as the world's
largest switching yard.
Looking for a way to take advantage of the yard, a local
committee formed in 1997 to see what might be built and for how
much.
The project was slowed by legal wrangling over the local tax
approved to pay for the tower.
After a settlement was reached in 2006, construction began last
year. The estimated final cost is around $6 million.
Promoters say the tower eventually could attract 50,000 visitors
a year.

NORTH PLATTE, Neb. (AP) - Nebraska ranchers and feedlot
operators are finding the cost of feeding livestock is soaring as
corn and fuel prices rise.
That's prompting ranchers to find alternative ways to manage
their herds. University of Nebraska experts says ranchers can save
on feed costs by calving in June instead of March.
Researchers at the University of Nebraska West Central Research
Center are studying year-old calves.
Beef nutritionist Aaron Stalker says a calf born in June weighs
about 40 pounds less than one born in March -- but was only an $11
difference in gross value. He says of the reason for that is that
prices for calves in October and November are seasonally depressed.
He says because June calving cows graze almost all year around,
ranchers save more than $70 in feed calves per cow.
He says the benefit is about $65 more per cow that was generated
from the June calving herd than the March calving herd.

In South Dakota...

WASHINGTON (AP) - Democratic Congresswoman Stephanie Herseth
Sandlin has released her financial disclosure form for 2007.
She lists assets of stocks, savings and credit union accounts,
and livestock.
She married former Texas Congressman Max Sandlin last year and
lists his house in Marshall, Texas, as an asset -- along with her
Brookings house.
Her major liabilities are federal student loans and a Citibank
revolving charge account.
The rules allow representatives to list assets and liabilities
in broad ranges.
Herseth Sandlin bought stock last year in Daktronics, VeraSun
Energy, Ford Motor Company and the New Alternatives Fund.

YANKTON, S.D. (AP) - The diocese that covers eastern South
Dakota and its more than 127,000 Catholics is studying its people
and its resources.
Officials of the Sioux Falls Catholic Diocese say their final
report will be finished in time for a diocese-wide meeting of
priests in October.
The study's outline says priests are stretched too thin in too
many churches that are sparsely attended.
Jerry Klein, chancellor of the diocese, says the long-range goal
is to make sure the church remains viable in eastern South Dakota.
He says the church is not currently looking at closing any specific
number of parishes.
Klein says people can see a draft of the plan at the diocese's
Web site.

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (AP) - The weekly crop report says heavy rain
in north central and northeastern South Dakota slowed planting
progress last week.
Also, the report says cool weather during the week slowed crop
growth. Some soybean fields were being replanted in the north
central part of the state.
The report, from the National Agricultural Statistics Service,
says 87 percent of the soybeans and 98 percent of the corn had been
planted as of Sunday.
Only 1 percent of the state was rated short or very short of
topsoil moisture, and just 6 percent of the state was rated short
or very short of subsoil moisture.

PIERRE, S.D. (AP) - The deer-hunting season in South Dakota last
fall was one for the record books.
The Game, Fish and Parks Department says a record 87,000
white-tailed deer and mule deer were killed.
It's the eighth straight year that the deer harvest increased.
It's due in part to an increase in deer tags and an emphasis on
killing anterlerless deer to reduce the herd size.