KWIT: Regional News for 9/24 (2008-09-24)

In Iowa...

IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP) - University of Iowa president Sally Mason
has fired two officials who were faulted for their response to an
alleged sexual assault involving two former University of Iowa
football players.
According to a school news release, Phillip Jones and Marcus
Mills rejected Mason's offer for resignations earlier this week, so
the two were fired on Tuesday.
The two men faced sharp criticism in an independent review of
the university's response to the alleged assault. The review's
findings were released last week.
Former Iowa football players Abe Satterfield and Cedric Everson
face charges in the sexual assault case, which stems from an
incident in October 2008. They are scheduled to stand trial on Nov.
3.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) - Iowa Treasurer Mike Fitzgerald says the
state has high financial stakes in the federal governments plan to
bail out failing companies.
He says Congress needs to demand new oversight and tougher
accountability to make it tougher for companies to build mountains
of bad debt and mortgages.
Fitzgerald says the Iowa Public Employment Retirement System
took about a $1 billion hit to its portfolio as its market value
dropped up to 15 percent.
He says declines in stock values also have affected state-held
pensions for judges and law enforcement officers, the college
savings fund administered by the treasurer's office and about $3
billion in cash the treasurer invests for the state.
Fitzgerald says the government must require new safeguards to
restore confidence among taxpayers and homeowners who are being
asked to foot the cost of the $700 billion bailout.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) - The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban
Development has accepted Iowa's $85 million disaster assistance
plan.
The plan will help Iowa recover from this summer's flooding and
tornadoes.
The money will be used to help rebuild homes, small businesses
and public infrastructure.
HUD Secretary Steve Preston said Tuesday that the agency will
work closely with Gov. Chet Culver to expedite the recovery
process.
HUD allocated $85 million last month in Community Development
Block Grants to support Iowa's disaster recovery.
Culver has been critical of the delay in the approval of the
funds and announced last week the creation of a $40 million program
to meet the immediate needs of Iowans who were victims of the
floods and storms.
Culver says the HUD funds will complement the Jumpstart Iowa
program.

SIOUX CITY, Iowa (AP) - A man living in Louisiana has been
arrested and charged with the 7-year-old robbery of a Sioux City
convenience store.
Authorities allege Patricio Sanchez stole $34.50 from a cash
register at a Kum & Go gas station using a screwdriver.
He is scheduled to go to trial Nov. 18 to face felony charges of
second-degree robbery, first-degree theft and assault while
participating in a felony. He has pleaded not guilty.
Woodbury County officials extradited Sanchez from southwest
Louisiana on a material witness warrant, which was dismissed when
Sanchez was charged with the crime.
Sanchez is being held tonight at the Woodbury County Jail in
lieu of a $20,000 bond.

In Nebraska...

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) - An Omaha mother has been ticketed for trying
to drop off her teenage son at a police station under the state's
new "safe haven" law.
But the law doesn't designate police stations as places were
children can be left.
Police say the mother told officers she had problems with her
14-year-old son. She told police she wanted to leave her
14-year-old because he beat up his 13-year-old brother.
The boy has been placed in foster care, and the mother is due in
court next month.
The state's new safe haven law allows anyone to leave a child at
any state-licensed hospital without fear of prosecution. The law
was intended to protect infants. In a compromise, the measure was
expanded to include the word "child," but didn't define the word.

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) - A spokeswoman with the United Food and
Commercial Workers international union says not all the workers
fired last week from a Grand Island meatpacking plant were Somali.
Jill Cashen says she knows of 86 firings that affected people of
diverse backgrounds at the JBS Swift and Company plant. Cashen says
union officials have not yet gotten an update on whether there have
been more firings since the company announced the 86 on Friday.
A Somali Muslim advocate says the company fired nearly 200
Muslim workers.
Protests and walkouts followed a request from Muslim workers to
get accommodations to break times to pray at sunset.
Cashen says the union remains focused on fairness for all plant
employees.

NEW YORK (AP) - Looking for a cheaper auto loan? Head to the
Cornhusker state.
A credit reporting agency says Nebraska had the lowest auto loan
in the second quarter, at $10,681. Nevada had the highest average,
at $16,033.
The report comes from credit reporting agency TransUnion.
Nationally, the percentage of auto loans that were past due 60
days or more rose 12 percent in the second quarter compared with
last year.
TransUnion says the rate rose to 0.68 percent of outstanding
loans, from 0.61 percent in 2007's second quarter.
The average auto debt also increased for the second quarter, up
2 percent to $12,869.

In South Dakota...

PIERRE, S.D. (AP) - A legislative study committee has endorsed a
measure that would allow landowners to get $500 in damages from
hunters and others who trespass on their land.
The bill was one of a half dozen approved by a panel reviewing
the state Department of Game, Fish and Parks. The measures
recommended by the committee will be introduced for consideration
by the 2009 session of the South Dakota Legislature.
Other measures endorsed by the panel would require legislative
approval before the Game, Fish and Parks Department could buy land
and make it easier for landowners to kill mountain lions.

RAPID CITY, S.D. (AP) - After an investigation that included a
review of cell phone video, Rapid City police say charges are
possible against two boys involved in an after-school fight that
left one of them paralyzed.
Police Chief Steve Allender says the Pennington County State's
Attorney's Office will pursue misdemeanor disorderly conduct
charges against both boys.
Cell phone video showed that youth had gathered the afternoon of
Sept. 10 at the bandshell in Rapid City's Memorial Park to watch a
fight. The rumored fight did not occur, but two of the youth who
were there to witness it became involved in a fight of their own.
Allender says a 17-year-old boy provoked a fight with a
16-year-old, a punch was thrown, the two came together, fell to the
ground - and the 17-year-old suffered a neck injury. He's
hospitalized in serious condition.
Allender says such activity seems to be a nationwide epidemic,
based on thousands of videos that are posted on YouTube.
Nearly three dozen people were interviewed.

PIERRE, S.D. (AP) - State Senator Cooper Garnos of Presho says
sources of funding South Dakota's highway needs will be considered
tomorrow and Thursday during the second meeting of the Highway
Needs and Financing Committee.
Garnos, who chairs the panel, says he wants the members to look
into the future.
Tomorrow, the state Transportation Department staff will outline
the state highway system's needs -- and public comments are on the
agenda as well.
On Thursday, the committee plans to examine various funding
options.
Garnos says federal highway aid has tightened up, so South
Dakota needs to find other ways to pay for important road work.
Another meeting is scheduled for mid-November.

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) - Heroic Navy pilot or Nebraska state
treasurer? More than one-and-a-half years into his treasurer job,
Shane Osborn is still trying to remind Nebraskans he is both.
He looks like he could still muscle an unruly military plane to
safety. But he acknowledges that when it comes to wrestling control
of his image as state treasurer, "we're not there yet."
Osborn, a Mitchell, South Dakota native, says he's not trying to
distance himself from the 2001 incident that garnered him fame. He
regained control of a damaged spy plane and landed in China where
he and other crew were kept prisoners for 11 days.
Osborn has set records for returning unclaimed property while in
office. He's also the subject of a lawsuit from a former employee
and been questioned for working for an outside company while
treasurer.