KWIT: Regional News for 7/1 (2008-07-01)

In Iowa...

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) - Former CIETC executive Ramona Cunningham
has pleaded guilty to eight counts for her role in a pay scandal at
a government-funded job training agency.
The former CEO of the now-defunct Central Iowa Employment and
Training Consortium had faced 30 charges. Those included conspiracy
to misapply funds, misapplication of federal funds and obstruction
of an investigation.
Judge Robert Pratt accepted the plea agreement during a hearing
Monday afternoon. He will sentence 53-year-old Cunningham at a
later date.
Prosecutors say Cunningham misspent more than $1.5 million on
executive salaries and bonuses - including huge payouts to herself
- during a three-year period while she headed CIETC (C-tech).

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) - Iowa's attorney general has filed a
lawsuit against a Muscatine couple that alleges a nationwide fraud
scheme involving tens of thousands of dollars.
Attorney General Tom Miller alleges that Jonathan Ahlf and
Kristin Lain used their company, Profit Alliance, Inc., to defraud
customers who thought they were paying for business opportunities.
Ahlf and Lain, who goes by Kristin Ahlf and is married to
Jonathan Ahlf, are alleged to have used Profit Alliance to defraud
at least five customers out of about $40,000, according to the
attorney general's office.
Lain is alleged to serve as the CEO of the company.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) - The business is welcome, but Kenny
Capron wishes it could have come some other way.
First came tornadoes in Parkersburg, then the flooding that
ruined neighborhoods and forced thousands out of their homes in
Mason City, Cedar Rapids, Columbus Junction and other Iowa
communities.
Capron, the owner of Parkersburg Lumber, says its gut-wrenching
to know that he and other contractors will be making money off of
this summers destruction. But contractors will certainly be needed
-- the state has topped $4 billion in damage, and that number
figures to increase.
An economist with Iowa State University, Meghan O'Brien, says
that because of a dip in the housing industry, contractors and
subcontractors have been idled -- but now they will see some
growth.

IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP) - University of Iowa administrators say
they're planning to reopen a flooded residence hall as soon as
August.
The university's residence services director, Von Stange, says
he's optimistic the Mayflower Residence Hall will be open for
students to move in before the start of fall classes.
The Mayflower is Iowa's largest residence hall and accounts for
19 percent of the university's residence hall beds.
Water from the Iowa River had filled the dorm's two lower-level
parking garages and rose to about 2 feet on the dorm's ground floor
during flooding this month. Stange says the flooded area included
16 apartments, a computer lab, a grocery store and a lounge area.

CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa (AP) - President Bush's Secretary of Commerce
is headed to Cedar Rapids to discuss flood recovery efforts.
Carlos Gutierrez will be in Cedar Rapids on Tuesday along with
Gov. Chet Culver, the acting director of the Small Business
Association, Jovita Carranza, Rep. Dave Loebsack and Cedar Rapids
Mayor Kay Halloran to attend a round-table with business leaders.
Gutierrez will discuss economic recovery efforts after record
flooding drenched Cedar Rapids and other parts of the Midwest.
Gutierrez will also host a press conference just before 2 p.m.
on Tuesday.

In Nebraska...

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) - Nebraska has agreed to a settlement with
the U.S. Department of Justice to address allegations of abuse and
neglect at the Beatrice State Developmental Center.
The state Department of Health and Human Services agreed to
several measures to improve service at the center.
In return, federal officials agreed not to prosecute the state
or assess financial penalties.
A Justice Department investigation uncovered about 200 cases of
alleged neglect and abuse at the hospital from late 2006 to late
2007. More than half of those have been substantiated.
The hospital is home to 267 developmentally disabled patients,
most of whom are mentally retarded.

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) - Omaha Public Power District officials
estimated that it will cost about $10 million to repair all the
damage to the power system caused by last Friday's strong winds.
After the storm struck, about 126,000 OPPD customers in and
around Omaha lost power. Crews have been working long hours since
then to restore power, but some people may not regain electricity
until Saturday.
The utility says about 15,000 customers remained without power
as of 8 o'clock yesterday evening.
OPPD President Gary Gates says there is still a substantial
amount of work to complete.

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) - The Omaha Salvation Army plans to break out
its red kettles for a special summer campaign to help people
affected by last Friday's storms.
Thousands of people still don't have electricity, so the
Salvation Army plans to use donations gathered over the next week
for grocery store gift cards.
People in and around Omaha who had to throw out the food in
their freezers and refrigerators will be able to use the Hy-Vee
gift cards to help replace what was lost.
The red kettles will be set up inside the Nebraska Furniture
Mart in Omaha all week. The kettles will be set up through
Saturday.
The Salvation Army regularly uses the iconic red kettle to
gather donations during the holiday season.

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) - Fire causes about $55,000 in damage to an
Omaha church.
Firefighters were called to the scene just before 7 a.m. Sunday
at Greater Bethel Temple in midtown Omaha.
Officials say the cause of the fire has not been determined, but
some members of the congregation suspect foul play.
Church member Debbie Clute says beer cans were found inside the
church, adding, "We don't drink."
Firefighters say the church's tall ceilings made their job
harder. Damage was contained to a stage and social area.
No one was hurt in the fire.

In South Dakota...

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (AP) - The Rosebud Sioux Tribe will host a
summit today and tomorrow in Mission to try to draw attention and
resources to the high number of suicides.
The Indian Health Service says six people from the reservation
have taken their lives this year and more than 200 have talked
about it, made plans to do it or tried.
The IHS says the Aberdeen region that includes North Dakota,
South Dakota, Iowa and Nebraska is second to Alaska in number of
American Indian suicides, but Rosebud has the highest rate.
Tillie Black Bear of the Rosebud suicide task force says though
it's still a problem, the situation isn't as hopeless as it was a
year ago because people are talking about it.
She says one thing she'd like to come out of the summit is one
program to consolidate the effort.

WHITECLAY, Neb. (AP) - Volunteers staged another blockade over
the weekend, aimed at keeping beer out of South Dakota's Pine Ridge
Indian Reservation, where alcoholism is rampant.
And this time, the tribal police cooperated.
Last year, they shut down a similar blockade and arrested three
organizers.
Blockade members stopped cars Saturday and asked drivers if they
had alcohol. Then tribal police farther down the road confiscated
any alcohol brought onto the reservation and ticketed violators.
Four stores in Whiteclay, Nebraska -- a village just outside the
16,500-member reservation -- sell about 4 million cans of beer a
year, mostly to American Indians.

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (AP) - An insurance company study has once
again found that Sioux Falls has the safest drivers in the nation.
It marks the third straight year Sioux Falls has topped the
list.
Researchers with Allstate Insurance Company analyzed two years
of internal crash data to calculate the chance that drivers in 193
of the nation's most populated cities would be in an accident.
Allstate found that Sioux Falls motorists average an accident
once every 14.6 years. That's 31.6 percent better than the national
rate of one every 10 years.
Officials in Sioux Falls attribute the ranking to strong traffic
engineering and driver education programs.
Motorists in Washington, D.C., were most at risk, averaging an
accident once every 5.4 years.

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (AP) - The weekly crop report for South Dakota
says the corn crop is growing but that it's still much shorter than
normal.
The average height of the late-planted crop is 17 inches. That's
eight inches less than the five-year average. Still, it grew six
inches since the previous week's report.
Storms brought hail to parts of the state last week, damaging
some crops. The report specifically mentions damage in Turner
County.