KWIT: Regional News for 8/14 (2008-08-14)

In Iowa...

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) - MidAmerican Energy says one of its
employees died yesterday trying to fix a power outage in Des
Moines.
The company says the employee, who remains unidentified, was
electrocuted.
A second employee was taken to a Des Moines area hospital with
non-life threatening injuries.
The outage was caused by a squirrel that got into a transformer
at the substation. It affected about 7,000 customers.

CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa (AP) - A 7-year-old eastern Iowa boy has died
after being struck by a farm vehicle.
Authorities say the accident happened in Springville, where the
boy was hit by a vehicle in a field.
He was transported by helicopter to a University of Iowa
hospital. The boy later died from his injuries.
The Linn County Sheriff's Office says the accident remains under
investigation.

TOLEDO, Iowa (AP) - A Meskwaki casino employee has been arrested
and accused of embezzling more than $100,000 from the resort.
Ryan Roberts, of Montour, has been charged with numerous counts
of first-degree theft.
He is being held in the Tama County Jail. Bail has been set at
$1 million.
Police allege that Roberts embezzled more than $10,000 from the
Meskwaki Bingo Casino Hotel in seven different months in 2007 and
in three different months in 2008.
Roberts is scheduled to make an initial court appearance on
Monday.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) - The prosecutor in the sexual abuse case
of two former Iowa football players says the trials will likely be
postponed.
Assistant Johnson County Attorney Anne Lahey expects the trials
for Abe Satterfield and Cedric Everson to be delayed because of
numerous pretrial motions and attorneys' busy schedules.
Satterfield and Everson have been charged with second-degree
sexual abuse. Satterfield faces an additional charge of
third-degree sexual abuse. The men have pleaded not guilty and are
scheduled to go on trial Nov. 3.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) - The U.S. Department of Transportation
has awarded more than $2.3 million in federal grants to eight Iowa
airports.
Sens. Charles Grassley and Tom Harkin say the grants will
improve safety and service at the airports.
The airports that will receive funding are the Clinton Municipal
Airport; the Des Moines International Airport; The Eastern Iowa
Airport in Cedar Rapids; the Guthrie County Regional Airport; the
Le Mars Municipal Airport; Mason City Municipal Airport; the Perry
Municipal Airport; and the Sioux Gateway Airport in Sioux City.
Many of the airports plan to use the money they receive for
runway improvements.

In Nebraska...

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) - Questions are being raised over whether both
sides in Nebraska's fight over affirmative action are coming clean
with their finances.
Nebraskans United, which opposes the ban on race-based
affirmative action, lists payments of nearly $56,000 to itself for
voter education. That's too vague, says the Nebraska Accountability
and Disclosure Commission, which is asking for details.
On the other side, Super Tuesday for Equal Rights - the
California group that's the biggest contributor to the Nebraska
group pushing the measure - hasn't given specific about its donors.
A law requires large out-of-state contributors to do so.
Nebraska is one of three states targeted by California activist
Ward Connerly, whose measure has prevailed in other states.

WICHITA, Kan. (AP) - The self-proclaimed leader of a group that
claims to be an American Indian tribe is guilty of defrauding
immigrants by falsely telling them tribal membership convey U.S.
citizenship and other benefits.
Malcolm Webber was found guilty yesterday of six charges arising
from the unrecognized tribe's efforts to sell tribal memberships. A
federal jury in Wichita found Webber not guilty on one count of
conspiracy to defraud the United States.
Prosecutors argue that Webber marketed the memberships by
telling immigrants the tribal identification documents could be
used to get Social Security cards and other documents.
Webber's attorney says his client had no criminal intent and
only sought to help undocumented immigrants become legal residents.

In South Dakota...

PIERRE, S.D. (AP) - Confirmation of West Nile virus in humans
have been made in another four South Dakota counties.
The new cases in the past week - one each in Minnehaha,
Lawrence, Sully and Beadle counties - raise the total of serious
human infections so far this summer to 11.
The virus is transmitted to humans by mosquitoes. The state had
208 human infections and six deaths last year.
The peak time for West Nile in humans is mid-July through
August.
The state Health Department earlier reported human cases in
Brown, Corson, Stanley, Charles Mix and Union counties. Those
infected are age 15 to 72.

GREAT FALLS, Mont. (AP) - A report by the Communications Workers
of America says Alaskans are stuck with the nation's slowest
average Internet download speeds.
The report released Tuesday says Alaska has a median average
download speed of 0.8 megabytes per second. That's based on data
collected from May 2007 through May 2008.
The fastest state is Rhode Island, with 6.8 megabytes per second
download speeds.
Other slowpokes are North Dakota, with 1.2 megabytes per second,
and Montana and Wyoming, with 1.3 megabytes per second.
South Dakota jumped 18 places in the survey, from No. 50 in 2007
to 32nd this year with a download speed of 2.2 megabytes per
second.
East Coast states led the survey. Western states hit the bottom
of the list.

ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) - A study suggests the number of women in
state government leadership positions around the nation is on the
rise, with the percentage nearly mirroring their representation in
the general population in six states.
South Dakota, though, ranks at the bottom of the list.
A report by the Center for Women in Government & Civil Society
at the University at Albany in New York finds that 35 percent of
the governor-appointed posts in all 50 states last year were held
by women. That's up from 28 percent a decade earlier.
The study found the number of women in senior policy positions
in Alaska, Connecticut, Montana, Nevada, Vermont and Washington is
roughly even with their percentage of the general population in
those states.
In South Dakota, just under 17 percent of governor-appointed
posts were held by women last year. Women make up about half of the
state's population.