KWIT: Regional News for 8/27 (2008-08-27)

In Iowa...

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) - Gov. Chet Culver is scheduled to speak
at the Democratic National Convention Tuesday, where he is expected
to praise presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Barack
Obama's energy plan.
In prepared remarks, Culver says Obama's plan will create five
million jobs and provide alternatives to foreign oil. He says the
plan also sets a goal of producing 25 percent of the nation's
electricity from renewable sources by 2025.
Culver is expected to deride presumptive Republican presidential
nominee John McCain's energy plan, saying the Arizona senator voted
against tax credits for renewable energy 11 times, and that oil
companies fund his campaign.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) - The Iowa College Student Aid Commission
has created a new, one-time, grant program to help students
affected by this year's historic flooding and natural disasters.
Governor Chet Culver announced the program on Tuesday.
Culver says that countless Iowans have been impacted by severe
weather this year in Iowa and that includes hundreds of the state's
college students.
The Disaster Relief Grant will be administered by the Iowa
College Student Aid Commission, and will provide assistance of up
to $5,000 to students impacted by the weather-related disasters
that hit Iowa during the summer of 2008.
The state has committed $500,000 for the program.

CHARLES CITY, Iowa (AP) - The Department of Labor has announced
a $441,000 grant to assist Iowa workers who were affected by the
closing of Winnebago Industries manufacturing facility in Charles
City.
Deputy Assistant Secretary for Employment and Training Brent
Orrell says the grant will provide important assistance to workers
as they search for new jobs.
The grant, which was awarded to Iowa Workforce Development, will
be operated by the North Iowa Area Community College.
The grant will help provide workers of the Charles City
manufacturing facility with full access to dislocated worker
services.
Winnebago announced it would be closing its Charles City
manufacturing plant in June. Its workers were laid off on August 1.

WATERLOO, Iowa (AP) - Parkersburg, West Virginia wants Iowa's
Parkersburg to know it cares.
The Parkersburg Area Community Foundation of West Virginia
announced on Tuesday it was donating $925 to the Tornadoes of 2008
Assistance Fund.
The Parkersburg Area Community Foundation of West Virginia says
it's a small foundation, but wanted to do as much as it good to
express its concerns for Parkersburg, Iowa after a deadly tornado
hit the town, destroying about a third of the town.
The President and CEO of the Community Foundation of Northeast
Iowa, Mary Ann Burk, says she was pleasantly surprised by the
donation. She says the gift is a reminder that good neighbors know
no boundaries.

In Nebraska...

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) - Nebraska State Fair officials say
attendance for the fair's opening weekend was up more than 15
percent from the same period last year.
Fair director Barney Cosner credits good weather and new
attractions for boosting turnout to almost 86,700 people. That's up
from some 75,000 people who attended during the opening weekend
last year.
That puts the event on track for a fifth consecutive year of
increased attendance.
Attendance will be a factor in 2010, when the State Fair is set
to move from Lincoln, 93 miles west to Grand Island.

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) - A poll suggests that most rural Nebraskans
want the government to address global warming now.
The Nebraska Rural Poll also says many older Nebraskans and many
in agricultural jobs aren't sure about what causes climate change
and what its effects are.
The Center for Applied Rural Innovation at the University of
Nebraska-Lincoln mailed surveys to 6,200 randomly selected
households in 84 rural Nebraska counties last spring. Nearly 2,500
responses were received.
Fifty-three percent of people who responded agreed or strongly
agreed that climate change required immediate action by the
government. The survey report says 21 percent disagreed or strongly
disagreed.

YANKTON, S.D. (AP) - TransCanada Corporation officials say work
should start by mid-October on the Keystone crude oil pipeline's
Missouri River crossing.
TransCanada spokesman Jeff Rauh told the Yankton City Commission
in South Dakota that the crossing would take six to eight weeks to
complete.
Preliminary work began early this month in northern South Dakota
on the pipeline.
Rauh says TransCanada wants to make sure the river crossing is
done well before the pipeline construction approaches from the
north.
The buried pipeline will carry crude oil from Alberta, Canada to
refineries in the U.S.
It will pass through 10 South Dakota counties and enter Nebraska
near Yankton, South Dakota, then extend south-southeast through 10
Nebraska counties.

In South Dakota...

PIERRE, S.D. (AP) - A judge has ruled that two state lawmakers
can testify in a lawsuit that challenges South Dakota's system for
funding school districts.
A state lawyer argued that the opinions of legislators are
irrelevant. But Circuit Judge Lori Wilbur of Pierre says lawyers
challenging the education funding system can call Senator Ed Olson
of Mitchell and Representative Jim Putnam of Armour to testify
about the adequacy of state education funding.
The lawsuit alleges the funding system is unconstitutional
because schools do not get enough money. A trial starts next
Tuesday.

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (AP) - South Dakota and North Dakota tied for
the nation's lowest participation rate for students taking the SAT
college entrance test.
New figures show both Dakotas with a 3 percent participation
rate. In South Dakota, 277 seniors who graduated last spring took
the test, while in North Dakota, the figure was 256.
Most South Dakota students take the ACT college entrance exam.
South Dakota's six state-run universities do not require the SAT
for admission.
South Dakota's test-takers had an average SAT score of 595 out
of a possible 800 points on the critical reading section, compared
with the national average of 502, and an average score of 596 in
the math section, compared with the national average of 515.
In the writing section, the South Dakota average of 575 was well
above the national figure of 494.
South Dakota educators have said that students who generally are
considered as being among the brightest take the SAT exam because
they are trying to get into prestigious colleges.

PIERRE, S.D. (AP) - According to the South Dakota Highway
Patrol, state troopers arrested a man who is wanted for bank
robbery in California.
The patrol says 40-year-old Erick Dinse didn't pull over when
Friday night troopers tried to stop him for a traffic violation on
Interstate 29 near Brookings. Authorities had to use road spikes to
stop his car.
The Highway Patrol says Dinse was under the influence of
alcohol, had stolen license plates on his car and had an
outstanding warrant for bank robbery out of Sacramento County,
Calif.
He faces a string of charges in South Dakota and is awaiting
extradition to California.
Dinse's current address is not known.

YANKTON, S.D. (AP) - A lawyer for Shane Tweedy, a Crofton, Neb.,
man charged with murder, says new information has surfaced and that
yesterday's scheduled arraignment for the 29-year-old Tweedy has
been postponed to Thursday.
Tweedy is accused in the death of 46-year-old Patrick Montgomery
of Yankton, whose body was found in his home May 22nd. Tweedy had
dated Montgomery's daughter.
Tweedy has taken a psychiatric evaluation, which will be part of
the arraignment. He has yet to enter a plea. Defense lawyer Dan Fox
did not disclose the nature of the new information.
If convicted of murder, Tweedy could face life in prison or the
death penalty. He is in the Yankton County Jail on a $500,000 bond.
He was indicted on charges of first-degree murder and commission
of a felony while armed.

WATERTOWN, S.D. (AP) - A delegate to the Democratic National
Convention says South Dakota got a raw deal in terms of seating at
Denver's Pepsi Center.
Asked about the seating, delegate Kay Solberg (SOHL'-berg) of
Watertown says the South Dakotans are "way off to the side."
She says former Senator George McGovern visited the delegation,
pointed out the bad vantage point and wondered if South Dakota
voted wrong in its primary.
Hillary Clinton won the South Dakota Democratic primary in June,
but Barack Obama wrapped up the party's nomination.
Solberg says she's sure the Democratic Party will unite behind
Obama.