KWIT: Regional News for 8/13 (2008-08-13)

In Iowa...

SIOUX CITY, Iowa (AP) - Sioux City police say a 16-year-old girl
has been charged in the shooting death of a teenage boy.
Police say 16-year-old Ryan Blanchard died yesterday after being
shot in the head with .380 caliber semiautomatic handgun. The gun
was found a short distance from the house where the shooting
occurred on Monday.
Authorities say Blanchard was shot by Codie Kapaun (CAP' uhn),
who had taken the gun from her house.
Police say several shots were fired before Blanchard was struck,
and it appears the teens were playing with the gun.
Kapaun has been charged with involuntary manslaughter.

GRAND ISLAND, Neb. (AP) - An Iowa woman accused of dumping 23
dead or dying dogs in a Nebraska cornfield faces five felony
counts.
Bail was set at $50,000 yesterday for 45-year-old Denise Withee
of Mapleton, Iowa.
She was charged in Hall County, Nebraska, Court with five counts
of cruel neglect of animals.
The five dogs were among animals left in the field northeast of
Grand Island late last month or taken from Withee when she was
arrested at a motel.
Prosecutors say the dogs died of dehydration, diseases and/or
malnutrition.
Roland Bowling of Grand Island is charged in the case with being
an accessory to a felony and providing false information to law
enforcement.
Withee also faces charges of animal abuse and abandonment in
Monoa County, Iowa.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) - The Des Moines City Council has approved
$750,000 to improve a levee protecting a neighborhood that was
flooded in June.
The council voted this week to give the money to the U.S. Army
Corps of Engineers to ensure the design of new levees for the
Birdland neighborhood.
City officials waited two years for the corps to finish the
design of the levee. Federal money ran out and the design was only
half done when the levee broke on June 14 and flooded the Birdland
neighborhood.
The $750,000 will be part of the city's costs toward the $12
million needed to rebuild the levee.
City Manager Rick Clark says the flood and a move by Congress to
commit about $5 million next year for levee construction in Des
Moines moved the issue forward.

In Nebraska...

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (AP) - A Union County judge says a Nebraska
man convicted of a 1998 murder deserves a new trial because a
witness lied in another investigation.
James Strahl of Dakota City, Nebraska, is serving life in prison
for the beating death of William O'Hare of Beresford.
Prosecutors say fingerprint and DNA evidence pointed to Strahl.
And Montana prisoner Aloysius (al-uh-WISH'-us) Black Crow testified
Strahl confessed to it.
But Strahl's lawyer asked for a new trial after Black Crow
pleaded guilty to perjury in another cold case. An order filed
yesterday indicates that request was granted - though attorneys for
the state can appeal.
Black Crow also claimed Strahl acknowledged killing a Wyoming
girl in 1997 but he never was charged with that.

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) - An Omaha mother whose 3-year-old son fell
from her moving vehicle and died has pleaded not guilty.
A judge had issued a bench warrant for Chyna Long after she
failed to show up for a hearing Monday. But she showed up later in
the day and entered her plea.
She's been accused of negligent child abuse. McKenzi Holley died
last month after falling from her sport utility vehicle.
Police have said the little boy was wearing a seat belt but
wasn't in a car seat when he opened a door on the SUV and fell out.
Police have said Long was ticketed less than a month earlier for
failing to properly restrain her three children in a car.

WICHITA, Kan. (AP) - Jurors have begun deliberating the
immigration fraud case of a self-proclaimed grand chief of the
Kaweah Indian Nation.
The U.S. District Court jury received the case against
70-year-old Malcom Webber early yesterday afternoon. Webber had
been expected to take the stand but declined to do so, and the
defense rested without calling any witnesses.
Webber is charged with selling memberships costing $50 to more
than $1,000 apiece to legal and illegal immigrants in Kansas,
Nebraska and else across the country by falsely claiming tribal
membership conferred U.S. citizenship and other benefits.

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) - Only the poorest families struggling to pay
their bills can expect to get help with heating costs this winter
in Nebraska.
The state does not plan to raise income guidelines so more
families can get federal dollars to help pay their heating bills. A
public hearing on whether to keep current income threshold at 116
percent of the federal poverty mark is scheduled for tomorrow.
Under that criteria, a family of four must make about $24,600 or
less to qualify. The Nebraska Appleseed Center says only four
states have lower eligibility levels and the figure should be
raised to 150 percent of the poverty mark, or $31,800 for a family
of four.
State officials say their approach is better because it lets
poorer families receive more assistance.

In South Dakota...

JEFFERSON, S.D. (AP) - Charred, smoking wooden beams are about
all that's left of a rural Jefferson home destroyed by a fire that
claimed four lives.
The victims were identified as 61-year-old Martha Yates and
three of her grandchildren: 10-year-old Emmaline Scott, 4-year-old
Raymond Scott and 2-year-old Mitchell Scott. Authorities say 10
people occupied the house.
The call came in shortly after 3 a.m. yesterday, and volunteer
firefighters from Jefferson, North Sioux City and Elk Point
responded to the home at an intersection about a half-mile east of
Jefferson.
The home was destroyed. The fire's cause has not been
determined.
Kathy Rydstrom told interviewers her son lived at the home and
tried to rescue other family members but was repelled by heat and
smoke.

WASHINGTON (AP) - Abortion rights supporters have launched a
national campaign to defeat a proposed South Dakota abortion ban --
an effort that could help them raise money nationwide.
Opponents of the proposed ban hope to generate nationwide
attention for this November's ballot measure, just as they did two
years ago. State voters in 2006 rejected a ballot measure to ban
all abortions except to save the woman's life.
This year's measure would ban abortions with exceptions for
rape, incest and a threat to a woman's life and health.
Ban supporter Leslee Unruh of Sioux Falls says the measure is
intended to prompt a court challenge aimed at getting the U.S.
Supreme Court to overturn its 1973 Roe v. Wade decision that
legalized abortion.
But the abortion rights groups say the exceptions are narrowly
written and would be essentially meaningless.

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (AP) - Republican Senate challenger Joel
Dykstra said he'll hold town hall meetings with voters in the
absence of campaign debates with Democratic Senator Tim Johnson.
Dykstra says the events will be open to Johnson, who has said he
won't take part in debates because speech impairment from his brain
hemorrhage would not accurately reflect his capabilities.
For his part, Johnson says he also will meet and greet voters in
trips to DakotaFest, the State Fair and elsewhere.
Dykstra said he doesn't think Johnson's decision on debates is
about his speaking ability but is meant to avoid questions from
voters or the media about his voting record.
In response, Johnson says he'll defend and explain his voting
record at those public forums and that his position on the issues
is well known already.

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (AP) - The soybean harvest in South Dakota is
forecast to be much larger this year, and the corn crop may be a
bit larger.
Soybean production is estimated to total 165.6 million bushels,
up 24 percent from last year. Average yield is placed at 41 bushels
an acre.
Slightly more than 4 million acres in the state are planted to
soybeans, a 27 percent increase from last year.
The Agricultural Statistics Service is forecasting a 4 percent
increase in the corn harvest, at 567 million bushels. Average corn
yield in the state is predicted to be 135 bushels an acre.
The agency says 4.2 million acres of corn may be harvested in
South Dakota, down 7 percent from last year.