KWIT: Regional News for 9/19 (2008-09-19)

In Iowa...

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) - A preliminary hearing will be held for a
woman accused of helping a man recruit two Nebraska teens for
prostitution.
Marcia Ryan is to appear in Crawford County District Court in
Denison on Friday.
Ryan, labeled a prostitute by authorities, faces two counts of
human trafficking, one count of ongoing criminal conduct and two
counts of pandering.
Those are the same charges that Leonard Russell, the man she was
accused of helping, was convicted of by a jury last week. The Iowa
attorney general's office it was the first conviction of human
trafficking under a state law that took effect in 2006.
Prosecutors say Russell, with Ryan's help, recruited and
harbored two Nebraska girls last year for commercial sexual
activity, including prostitution and performing at strip clubs in
Iowa.
Ryan was arrested on a warrant early last week in Omaha, Neb.

CORALVILLE, Iowa (AP) - An investigative team says the
University of Iowa followed the letter of the law but not the
spirit in its investigation of an alleged sexual assault of a
student-athlete in October 2007.
In its report released yesterday, St. Louis-based Stolar
Partners says the university's response was inadequate but that
there was no attempt to cover up the alleged assault.
The report recommends that the university establish a central
coordinating office for sexual assault. It also recommends that
such assaults not be handled as an "informal investigation," as
initially occurred in the October 2007 case.

CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa (AP) - John McCain and running mate Sarah
Palin decided to go the extra five miles after leaders in Cedar
Rapids grew upset that they were flying in and out for an airport
rally with no plans to see the flood-damaged city.
The Republican duo went downtown yesterday to see an estimated
$1.3 billion in destruction lingering from June floods that swamped
hundreds of city blocks and damaged thousands of homes and
businesses.
Many in the city say federal help has been slow. McCain and
Palin agreed.
Earlier, city officials and Republican leaders complained that
McCain and Palin planned to stick to the airport rally on their way
to Green Bay, Wis.

MADISON, Wis. (AP) - A new poll of voters in the eight states
home to Big Ten universities shows Barack Obama and John McCain in
an extraordinarily tight race for the presidency.
The first Big Ten Battleground Poll shows the candidates are in
a statistical tie in seven of the states - Ohio, Iowa, Michigan,
Wisconsin, Minnesota, Indiana and Pennsylvania. Obama leads
comfortably in his home state of Illinois.
The survey was based on interviews with 600 randomly selected
registered voters in each of the states. It is co-directed by
University of Wisconsin-Madison political scientists Charles
Franklin and Ken Goldstein with help from colleagues from
participating universities.
Goldstein says the poll shows the next president is going to be
whoever wins the Big Ten region.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) - A state report released yesterday said
more Iowa schools missed goals for student achievement this year
than in 2007.
The state's report card for the No Child Left Behind law said
that sixty-eight percent of Iowa's 1,477 schools met annual targets
in math and reading. That's down from 91 percent last year.
The No Child Left Behind federal law calls for schools that
receive federal money to make sure all students in certain grades
have a grasp of reading and math by 2014.
Schools and districts nationwide can be flagged each year for
state test scores, attendance and graduation rates that fail to
meet standards. Schools that miss targets for two years in a row
land on a federal watch list.

In Nebraska...

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) - Plans to trot horse racing from State Fair
Park in Lincoln to the east edge of town have been unveiled.
State lawmakers were told yesterday the move is needed to keep
the sport alive in Nebraska.
The old track's days are numbered because of the decision to
bump the Nebraska State Fair from Lincoln to Grand Island. The move
will make way for the University of Nebraska-Lincoln to turn the
century-old fairgrounds into a research park.
Plans for the new track and other horse facilities near
Lancaster Event Center on the east edge of Lincoln are preliminary,
and there aren't solid cost estimates.
But officials say the track and other facilities could be up and
running by 2012 at a cost of about $50 million.

GRAND ISLAND, Neb. (AP) - Nebraska meatpacking plant managers
have told Muslim employees that shift changes made to meet their
prayer demands weren't working so would be ended.
Union president Dan Hoppes said yesterday that the workers
reacted well to the information, but he didn't know whether they
would walk out later in protest as they did Monday.
He and managers at the JBS Swift & Co. plant are still talking
about meeting employee needs and maintaining plant production.
Counterprotests by white, Hispanic, Vietnamese and
African-American workers began Wednesday. They said the shift
changes penalized them while favoring the Muslim workers, who are
African immigrants.

BELLEVUE, Neb. (AP) - ACLU Nebraska is two for two in its fight
against local ordinances that bar the public display of campaign
signs more than 30 days before an election.
The city of Bellevue has joined Lincoln in deciding not to
enforce its current law. Bellevue officials say they'll change the
ordinance later this fall.
ACLU Nebraska executive director Laurel Marsh said yesterday
that her organization is pleased with Bellevue's decision.
Marsh says Bellevue was very responsive when informed that its
ordinance was infringing on people's constitutional rights.
She says other cities have similar ordinances, but her group
hasn't gotten complaints from their residents.
The ACLU has fought such ordinances across the country with
notable success.

In South Dakota...

WASHINGTON (AP) - The Justice Department says it won't provide
statistics to Congress that would show how many crimes the federal
government declines to prosecute on Indian reservations.
North Dakota U.S. Attorney Drew Wrigley says that releasing the
information could compromise the safety and privacy of victims and
witnesses.
North Dakota Senator Byron Dorgan is the Democratic chairman of
the Senate Indian Affairs Committee. He criticized the Justice
Department for refusing to release the information.
Dorgan has asked the federal government to elaborate on
statistics released by Syracuse University that say the Justice
Department declined to prosecute 62 percent of Indian Country
crimes between 2004 and 2007. That includes 50 percent of
reservation murders, 72 percent of child sex crimes, and 76 percent
of adult rapes.
Wrigley defended the work of the department. He says the data
would not paint an accurate picture of their work because crimes in
Indian country are often tracked differently from other crimes.

YANKTON, S.D. (AP) - A veteran state lawmaker isn't waiting for
an interim legislative committee to come up with solutions for the
shortfall of highway funding money in South Dakota.
Representative Garry Moore of Yankton says the state road fund
is running dry -- despite the recent transfer of $8 billion from
the U.S. Treasury to shore up the financially teetering federal
highway trust fund.
The fund supports road and bridge projects around the country.
Moore is drafting legislation to increase the state tax on
gasoline and diesel fuel, currently at 22 cents a gallon.
Ethanol-enhanced gas is taxed at 20 cents.
The nine-term lawmaker did not disclose how much of an increase
he will propose in the fuel tax.
But he says his proposal will include a 1 percentage point
increase in the current 3 percent state excise tax on new and used
vehicles.