Priest caught in prostitute sting; CPR for alligator; parking meters for charity
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Odd and interesting news from the Midwest.
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DETROIT (AP) â Hundreds of veterans will descend on downtown Detroit this week for the 30th annual National Veterans Golden Age Games.
The Detroit News reports (http://detne.ws/29yt1Pg ) the veterans will compete in events such as table tennis, cycling and racquetball at Cobo Center and other venues in the city. Events related to the games began on Sunday and run through Thursday.
About 870 veterans are scheduled to compete.
The games are open to veterans, ages 55 or older, who receive health care from the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.
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Online:
http://www.va.gov/opa/speceven/gag
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Information from: The Detroit News, http://detnews.com/
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RAPID CITY, S.D. (AP) â Downtown Rapid City has two new bright red parking meters that are intended to benefit the homeless and cut down on panhandling.
The "giving meters" are repurposed parking meters. The Rapid City Police Department and a local organization installed them in two downtown corners.
The police department says money collected through the meters will be given to the Cornerstone Rescue Mission, a nonprofit helping the homeless in Rapid City.
The department says the goal of the unusual campaign is to show the public that by "feeding the cycle of aggressive panhandling" the illegal practice continues to take place downtown.
Cpt. Dan Rud says the department hopes that the public will use the meters and work with police "to create an atmosphere where aggressive panhandling is not tolerated."
- By BRYNA GODAR Associated Press
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MADISON, Wis. (AP) â A Wisconsin legislator announced a "Blue Lives Matter" bill Monday to make targeting law enforcement officers a hate crime in the wake of the Dallas shooting that killed five officers last week.
Rep. David Steffen, a Green Bay Republican, said he believes the law enforcement community deserves the additional protection of hate crime laws, adding Wisconsin to a growing list of states discussing similar bills.
Louisiana became the first state to enact such legislation in May, allowing prosecutors to seek stronger penalties when police, firefighters and emergency medical crews are intentionally targeted because of their professions. Lawmakers in at least 13 other states and in Congress have floated similar proposals.
Such legislation has failed in four states and is pending in five others and in Congress, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. Lawmakers in at least four other states have said they plan to introduce similar legislation but haven't officially done so.
Steffen said his proposal is "a small, single step" that Wisconsin can take to "reinforce its commitment" to supporting and protecting law enforcement officers.
Civil rights organizations and activist groups have criticized similar bills, saying a person's profession should not be included with race, religion and other characteristics that are protected under hate crime laws.
Chris Ahmuty, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Wisconsin, said police officers and their families won't be helped by "a heighted sense of victimization."
"We should recognize the stress they confront, but piling on by claiming that there is a war against police, or that the law isn't already penalizing attacks on police severely, does a disservice to everyone," he said in an emailed statement.
In Wisconsin, people convicted of a crime can face an enhanced penalty if they targeted the victim based on their race, religion, color, disability, sexual orientation, national origin or ancestry. If deemed a hate crime, the penalty for a felony can carry an additional $5,000 fine and an additional five years in prison. The penalty increase for misdemeanors deemed hate crimes depends on the severity of the crime, possibly including additional jail time and thousands of dollars in additional fines.
Steffen's bill, which he plans to formally introduce in January, would extend hate crime protection to law enforcement officers.
"Law enforcement isn't just some profession. It is one upon which our quality of life largely depends," said Jim Palmer, executive director of the Wisconsin Professional Police Association, the state's largest police union.
Palmer said the legislation would send an important, symbolic message, but that the Legislature could do other things to better protect officers and support law enforcement, including ensuring adequate staffing and improved training. He said legislation to protect law enforcement and efforts to resolve problems between officers and their communities shouldn't be mutually exclusive.
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HAMBURG, Iowa (AP) â Roman Catholic officials say a priest charged with solicitation after a prostitution sting in southwest Iowa has been suspended from public ministry.
The Diocese of Des Moines says in a statement the Rev. Dominic Yamoah has discussed his arrest on Saturday in Hamburg with Bishop Richard Pates.
The statement released Monday says Yamoah "very sincerely regrets his actions" and he and the diocese will fully cooperate with authorities.
Yamoah, who is 40, was pastor of churches in Clarinda, Bedford and Villisca. He's bonded out of jail. A phone listed for him rang unanswered Monday and he didn't immediately reply to an email.
The diocese says it will make arrangement for a replacement pastor during the suspension which remains in place pending the outcome of the investigation and legal proceedings.
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DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) â Convicted felons in Iowa will have a shortened application form to fill out if they seek a pardon or restoration of their firearm rights, Gov. Terry Branstad announced Monday.
The form, which was made available on the governor's website shortly before a press conference, reduces the number of pages from five to two and cuts the number of questions from 43 to 29.
"I encourage all eligible Iowans who have committed felonies to visit the website and begin the process of restoring their rights," he said.
It's unclear if the shortened form will change submission or approval rates for requests regarding a pardon or restoration of firearm rights. Roughly 100 people apply each year for either a pardon or restoration of firearm rights. Fewer than 10 have been approved annually by the Republican governor since 2011, according to data provided by his office.
Barry Snell, president of lobbying group Iowa Firearms Coalition, applauded the move.
"It is our hope that these changes do some good for those deserving, and IFC will be monitoring the effects of the new process moving forward," he said in an email.
A person convicted of a nonviolent felony can have his or her firearm rights restored after a process that includes waiting at least five years after a completed sentence. People with certain convictions involving firearms are ineligible. The same ineligibility applies to people with convictions of forcible felony and misdemeanor domestic abuse.
A full and unconditional pardon restores all citizenship rights, including firearm rights. A person with a felony conviction must wait at least 10 years after a completed sentence to submit an application. A pardon does not erase or expunge a conviction, but it will be added to a criminal background check.
The move Monday comes after Branstad's administration announced in April that it was reviewing the application process for both issues and other requests involving executive clemency.
At that time, officials announced that the number of questions on a separate application form for convicted felons who seek a restoration of their voting rights would be lowered from 29 to 13.
Still, Iowa is one of the hardest states for former criminals seeking to regain their right to vote. Last month, a divided Iowa Supreme Court ruled that convicted felons in Iowa may be automatically stripped of their voting rights for life unless those rights are restored by the governor.
Branstad on Monday applauded that ruling. He reiterated that the system encourages offenders to be current on paying restitution, which is a requirement for restoring voting rights.
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PIERRE, S.D. (AP) â The abnormally dry conditions affecting parts of South Dakota have prompted Gov. Dennis Daugaard to activate the state's Drought Task Force.
Daugaard's office says the task force met for the first time Monday in Pierre.
The latest U.S. Drought Monitor map shows that abnormally dry conditions are scattered in the central and eastern parts of the state. Moderate and severe drought conditions are present in most of western South Dakota and in the far northeastern corner of the state.
Daugaard says the task force allows agencies to share information to respond appropriately and be ready in case drought conditions continue.
Daugaard's office, the South Dakota National Guard, South Dakota State University and several departments, including Agriculture, Public Safety, and Game, Fish and Parks, are part of the task force.
- By SCOTT BAUER Associated Press
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MADISON, Wis. (AP) â A conservative Wisconsin group that's filed lawsuits in defense of several of Gov. Scott Walker's most contentious proposals announced Monday it is expanding its work nationally, with a focus on limiting powers of the federal government.
The Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty's new Center for Competitive Federalism will focus on filing lawsuits and issuing policy statements targeting what it sees as federal overreach, leaders of the effort said at a Capitol news conference.
Three prominent Republican office holders â Lt. Gov. Rebecca Kleefisch, state Sen. Duey Stroebel and state Rep. Dale Kooyenga â participated in the announcement and praised the group's work.
Likening the federal government to "Big Brother," Stroebel said he hoped the new initiative would bring about a national effort to reject federal government overreach "so we can all push back together."
Rick Esenberg, WILL's president and chief attorney, said the national push will be funded over three years with $800,000 from the Bradley Foundation, which until his retirement this year had been led by Michael Grebe, Walker's former campaign chairman. The foundation is providing an additional $300,000 that will go to the Wisconsin Policy Research Institute, which is partnering with WILL on the new center.
Noting the connection to Walker, the leader of a liberal advocacy group said WILL's new venture was created to advance the governor's agenda.
"All the lawsuits and propaganda they file isn't going to change the fact that Gov. Walker has failed the people of Wisconsin over and over and over again," said Scot Ross with One Wisconsin Now.
WILL has been active in helping defend some of the highest-profile laws passed by the Republican-controlled Legislature and signed by Walker in recent years.
The group fought against lawsuits filed by unions that tried unsuccessfully to stop Walker's law that effectively ended collective bargaining for teachers and other public workers. It also sided with Walker in a lawsuit seeking an end to a secret John Doe investigation into his 2012 recall campaign and conservative groups that supported him. That probe ended after the state Supreme Court declared that nothing illegal had occurred.
WILL also joined with the bipartisan outcry last year against a move by the Legislature to weaken the state's open records laws. The changes were withdrawn in the face of the criticism.
Esenberg, at Monday's news conference, took a jab at the presumptive presidential nominees in both parties, saying if either of them were involved in trying to draft the Constitution today it would be a "hot mess."
Esenberg said the group's goal is to defend a system where the authority of both the federal government and the states is clearly defined. Doing that will involve the filing of "strategic litigation," he said.
He and others at the news conference cited numerous examples of what they said was overreach of the federal government, including initiatives by President Barack Obama to enact clean power plant laws, expand Medicaid and allow transgender public school students to use bathrooms corresponding to their gender identity.
"We're seeing the results of the federal government gone wild in the United States of America," Stroebel said.
Kooyenga, in response to a question, said the policymakers were not being hypocritical in speaking out against powers of the federal government while they pass laws in Wisconsin placing restrictions and imposing requirements on local governments and schools.
Kooyenga said actions of state lawmakers were designed to protect individual liberties and freedoms. But Ross, with the liberal advocacy group, said the arguments made against powers of the federal government Monday were "exactly the same as those made in the 1950s and 1960s by those trying to deny African Americans the same protections as white people under the law."
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Follow Scott Bauer on Twitter at https://twitter.com/sbauerAP . His work can be found at http://bigstory.ap.org/content/scott-bauer
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IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP) â University of Iowa students will have the opportunity to include their preferred names and gender pronouns on their school record this fall.
The Iowa City Press-Citizen (http://icp-c.com/29CmHr8 ) reports that the university became one of the first institutions in the country to allow students to identify as transgender on their admissions application three years ago.
Assistant professor Jodi Lindley said in a video released last week that the change allows students to tell university officials, faculty and staff what name and pronouns they'd like to be used in communication and interactions.
The video includes students, faculty and staff members saying which gender pronouns they preferred for themselves. The majority use either he/him/his or she/her/hers, but others who don't fit squarely into a male-female binary prefer they/their/theirs or ze/zem/zir.
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Information from: Iowa City Press-Citizen, http://www.press-citizen.com/
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POWELL, Ohio (AP) â An alligator at an Ohio zoo has died after a crowd watched the zoo's animal care team administer CPR in an attempt to save him.
WBNS-TV (http://bit.ly/29ss0Gq ) reports that officials at the Columbus Zoo and Aquarium say the male alligator that died Saturday had been under veterinary care for weeks because of a respiratory condition.
Zoo officials say the alligator's health continued to decline rapidly Saturday and he died around 7:30 p.m. Saturday.
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LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) â Nebraska is exploring the processing of agricultural waste into a coal-like substance that would be used as a renewable fuel.
The Lincoln Journal Star reports (http://bit.ly/29IMtbh ) that the state awarded a Mexico, Missouri, company a grant of more than $250,000. The company, Enginuity Worldwide, says it can compress cow manure, spent cornstalks and other plant material into what it calls BioCoal. The company says the product burns like regular coal and could help power plants cut carbon emissions if the plants were to replace some of its coal with BioCoal.
Enginuity President Nancy Heimann says that burning the product would release no more carbon than if the plant material it's made from were to decompose in a field.
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Information from: Lincoln Journal Star, http://www.journalstar.com
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COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) â Ohio's largest online charter school has sued the state in an effort to block an upcoming attendance audit that could affect tens of millions of dollars it gets in state funding.
The lawsuit by the Electronic Classroom of Tomorrow, or ECOT, seeks to block the state Department of Education from forcing it to provide records of when students logged in, The Columbus Dispatch (http://bit.ly/29AF7bw) reported.
A preliminary review by the state raised questions about ECOT's attendance figures, which help determine a school's funding. ECOT gets about $107 million annually for its 15,000-plus students, who work on computers instead of showing up to a classroom daily.
The department was set to begin a final attendance review of the school this week to check whether students are meeting the required threshold of 920 hours.
The lawsuit filed Friday alleges the state previously "never requested or sought documentation of log-in durations" to determine funding and is retroactively trying to apply new standards.
ECOT also contends its 2003 funding agreement with the department requires that 920 hours of learning opportunities are presented but doesn't require that students attend 920 hours of classroom time. The lawsuit also says that using log-in times to calculate attendance breaks the state's agreement with the school.
"We have a contract, and you can't unilaterally end a contract," ECOT consultant Neil Clark told the newspaper.
The Department of Education wouldn't address the allegations but said in a statement that it remains committed to completing "our regulatory duty to conduct the final attendance review and ensuring that appropriate funding is distributed to all charter schools," the newspaper reported.
An attendance review for a smaller online school a year ago forced that school to pay back about 80 percent in state funding.
The chairwoman of the Ohio Senate Education Committee, Republican Peggy Lehner of Kettering, said taxpayers shouldn't be paying the school merely to offer something.
"We have a huge number of kids not taking advantage of an opportunity to learn, and we need to fix that," she said.
Senate Minority Leader Joe Schiavoni, a Boardman Democrat who introduced an online-attendance bill, said ECOT should be able to track student log-in times.
"At the root of the lawsuit is they want to do very little and get a lot of money for it," Schiavoni said.
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Information from: The Columbus Dispatch, http://www.dispatch.com
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PORTAGE, Mich. (AP) â A southwestern Michigan police department has changed its policy on pursuits after a motorist was killed after her vehicle was hit by another car fleeing police.
Portage's public safety Director Richard White tells WOOD-TV (http://bit.ly/29I0ucs ) his department is no longer chasing motorists for minor offenses. Officers still will chase violent felons and drivers posing threats to the public.
White says: "I think our community just does not support us driving like crazy people to chase somebody down for ... some minor traffic violation."
Thirty-three-year-old Crystal Norton died in January after police chased a man who ran a stop sign. Charles Norton says he's not angry with police, but calls it "a day late and a dollar short." He says his sister might be alive if the policy was changed earlier.
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Information from: WOOD-TV, http://www.woodtv.com
- By TOM NOIE South Bend Tribune
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SOUTH BEND, Ind. (AP) â They sat inside a northern Indiana safe deposit box for more than two decades â two prized possessions that legendary Notre Dame football coach Knute Rockne carried with him when he died in a 1931 plane crash.
Every so often, be it on the March 31 anniversary of Rockne's death in a Bazaar, Kansas, field, or during the buildup of another big Irish football game or just because he felt like it, Michael Lopez would travel to the bank from his Valparaiso-area home, eye the items and wonder if it was time to find them a new home.
Thinking otherwise every time, Lopez would return the pieces to the safest of keepings, go back to his job at U.S. Steel in Gary and turn most of attention back to his true passion â Harley Davidsons.
Thanks to a family connection to Rockne, Lopez gained possession of the items in 1988 â the year Notre Dame last won a football national championship. The items, which include Rockne's engraved pocket watch and a prayer book, have been in the bank since 1993 â the year Notre Dame last came close to winning a national championship.
But Lopez now wants to find a new home for them.
Both items, as well three index cards outlining Rockne's life that Father Mooney used during the coach's eulogy and a funeral prayer card, will be turned over to Goldin Auctions. They will go up for bid Aug. 4 as part of 100 sports items at the National Sports Collectors Convention in Atlantic City, New Jersey.
The auction house starts accepting bids Monday. The online auction (www.GoldinAuctions.com) runs through Aug. 13.
"It's been a lot of fun owning them," the 51-year-old Lopez said. "I love putting the word out there about Rock and keeping his name alive. But after 28 years ...
"I just think this is the best route, the best course for this collection is the sale of it."
The Rockne connection dates back over a century to Lopez's great-great-uncle. The Rev. Vincent Mooney was a college classmate at Notre Dame of the man who would become known as the father of the most well-known college football program in the country. Rockne also was friends with Lopez's great-uncle, the Rev. Vincent Brennan.
"All of them lived right across the street from one another," Lopez said.
Father Mooney baptized Rockne, who was converting from Lutheran to Catholic, in 1925 in the Log Chapel on the Notre Dame campus. Afterward, Mooney gave Rockne a prayer book with the inscription, "Notre Dame 11/20/1925 To Knute Rockne - a loyal friend - May the blessing of God descend upon you and yours and remain forever. Devotedly, Father Vincent Mooney, CSC, Class of 1916."
When Rockne celebrated his first wedding anniversary in 1915, his wife, Bonnie, gifted him a Chesterfield watch. Inscribed on one side were the initials "KKR" - Knute Kenneth Rockne - with "SOUTH BEND" etched on the other.
The pocket watch was found in Rockne's suit vest pocket and the prayer book in his travel bag after Transcontinental and Western Air Flight 599 fell into a remote Kansas prairie field in 1931. The 43-year-old Rockne was en route from Kansas City, Missouri, to Los Angeles where he was expected to serve as a technical adviser to Universal Studios' film "The Spirit of Notre Dame."
Following Rockne's death, his wife gave her husband's rosary and prayer book to the Rev. Mooney; the watch went to the Rev. Brennan. The items were passed down to the priests' uncle/brother, who was Lopez's grandfather, Edward Brennan, a former columnist for the Gary Post-Tribune.
"Gramps was the last one in the family to graduate Notre Dame," Lopez said. "Class of 1931."
Edward Brennan eventually passed the Rockne possessions to his wife, Lopez's grandmother. Of their five children, their daughter, Sarah, Lopez's mother, eventually took possession. Lopez was gifted the items from his mother on the day of his 23rd birthday after completing a tour of duty in the Air Force.
Now it's time for someone outside the family to own them.
"I have contemplated it for so many years, many, many years," Lopez said. "Do I have second thoughts? Of course I have."
Just as Lopez hasn't always been sure of whether he should put the items up for auction, he has no idea what kind of monetary value to place on them. Are they worth thousands? Hundreds of thousands? Millions?
"I've had people tell go from one side of the spectrum to the other," he said. "Everybody tells me what they think they're worth, but they don't know. I don't know. I have no idea."
Goldin Auctions knows well the sports memorabilia auction arena. A copy of the 1918 baseball contract of legendary slugger Babe Ruth sold for $1.02 million. A rare early-1900s Honus Wagner baseball card fetched a record $2.1 million.
"Knute Rockne is Notre Dame royalty and one of the greatest coaches of all time, so it's especially humbling for us to bring his treasured personal items to auction for the first time," Ken Goldin, founder of Goldin Auctions, said in a statement. "We hope that the winning bidders make these special items available for Notre Dame alumni and fans to enjoy."
A search of the company's website shows that Goldin Auctions also is no stranger to Notre Dame memorabilia. It has auctioned dozens of items over the years with final bids ranging from low â 50 assorted football pennants from the 1980s for $147 â to high â the 1977 national championship ring of team captain Steve Orsini for $8,963.
There are times when Lopez wants to keep the possessions locked away. He wants to pass them on to his only adult son, Gregory. He wants to keep them in the family for generations to follow. But he also realizes that auctioning the items might return a financial windfall that nobody ever imagined.
"It was a lot of fun (but) things change," Lopez said. "This is a fitting way for it to end.
"It's just time."
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Source: South Bend Tribune, http://bit.ly/29su8Op
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Information from: South Bend Tribune, http://www.southbendtribune.com
This is an AP-Indiana Exchange story offered by the South Bend Tribune.
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CHADRON, Neb. (AP) â A New Zealander has won the World Championship Buffalo Chip Throw during the 40th annual Fur Trade Days celebration in Chadron.
Chadron radio station KCSR reports (http://bit.ly/29PfvZY) that 28-year-old Kingi Snelgar, of Oakland, New Zealand, on Saturday tossed a piece of dried bison dung 110 feet, 10 inches to win the men's 18-and-older division.
Snelgar's toss fell far short of the individual competition record of 186-7 set by Gary Lackey of Detroit Lakes, Minnesota, in 2000 and the 204 feet thrown by Kail Bowman in 1990 during a since-discontinued team event.
The women's title this year was won by 43-year-old Nicole Bottsford-Miller, of Billings, Montana. Her heave went 84 feet, 2 inches.
The competition drew 111 participants.
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Information from: KCSR-AM, http://www.chadrad.com/
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AMES, Iowa (AP) â The Iowa Board of Regents dismissed concerns Monday about a major land deal between its president's private company and Iowa State University President Steven Leath, calling it a "private business transaction."
Board spokesman Josh Lehman said the arrangement, first reported Saturday by the Des Moines Register, did not have to be disclosed as a potential conflict of interest under its policy and that the board is not investigating.
The matter involves the Leath family's purchase in January of 145 acres of land through Summit Agricultural Group, which is owned by Board of Regents President Bruce Rastetter, for $623,000.
An appointee of and top donor to Republican Gov. Terry Branstad, Rastetter played a key role in hiring Leath at Iowa State in 2011 and retaining him since then with board-approved contract extensions and raises. At the same time, Rastetter's businesses have often worked closely with â and received help from â Iowa State on agricultural matters.
Summit President Eric Peterson said Leath and his wife, Janet, approached the company last year for help finding timber ground in Iowa for recreational purposes. He said the company identified a potential property in Hardin County that included river frontage, timber and tillable farmland.
Summit purchased the 215-acre plot for $1.14 million, Peterson said. After a survey, the company then sold 89 acres of timber and 56 acres of farmland to SLS Holdings, a limited liability corporation created by Leath's family in November.
Peterson said that Leath paid the same price that Summit purchased it for: $7,676 per acre of farmland and $2,140 per acre of timber. Summit kept the remaining acres for farming. Peterson said that SLS Holdings and Summit split the closing costs, including fees for the land survey and related legal work.
Rastetter has often listed Summit's relationships with Iowa State on his mandatory conflict of interest disclosure form, including no-interest loans it has received from a state renewable energy program operated by the school. But Lehman said the company's sale of land to Leath did not have to be disclosed since it was a private transaction.
Rastetter gave the Leaths a tour of Hardin County but wasn't involved in the sale, Peterson said, adding that the Leaths didn't pay any fees to Summit.
"We are pleased the Leath family has purchased a farm and are planning to call Iowa home," Peterson said.
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TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) â As many as 50,000 Kansas voters who registered at motor vehicle offices would be given provisional ballots in the upcoming elections only to see their votes thrown out in state and local races under a proposed temporary rule.
The State Rules and Regulations Board is meeting Tuesday to consider the temporary rule sought by the Secretary of State Kris Kobach. The rule calls for counting only the votes cast for federal offices unless the voters provide documents proving their U.S. citizenship.
Notice of that meeting went out late Monday for a temporary rule that would be in effect for upcoming elections. The temporary rule comes in the wake of ongoing court challenges to the state law requiring documentary proof of citizenship to vote.
- By MEGHAN HOLDEN Journal & Courier
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LAFAYETTE, Ind. (AP) â It's not out of the ordinary to spot at least one Audi, BMW or Mercedes-Benz during a drive through the Purdue University campus.
Along with locals who cruise around in the luxury car brands, they're the favorites of international students who can afford to dish out $30,000 to more than $100,000 on a vehicle.
Lafayette salespeople say that population is largely made up of Chinese students whose parents are wealthy and are happy to provide their kids with the money to drive a nice car while studying in America.
"There are many Chinese students here who will purchase cars from me," said Yuchen Zhang, who sells Mercedes-Benz vehicles for the Mike Raisor Automotive Group in Lafayette.
Zhang understands his audience well â he's from Shanghai and graduated from Purdue in 2014.
He markets to students by putting up posters in Chinese restaurants near campus and by communicating deals and incentives via WeChat, a social media app widely used in China.
Chinese student customers typically spend $30,000 to $40,000, he said, but the really rich will dole out more than $100,000 for a Lamborghini or Maserati.
Those prices might make some Americans clench their wallets, but they're a lot lower than in China. There, a luxury car costs two or three times as much as it does in the U.S.
The phenomenon isn't unique to West Lafayette, either.
CNW Marketing Research found that Chinese students at U.S. high schools, undergraduate and graduate institutions purchased about $15.5 billion in new and used vehicles from January 2012 to October 2013, Bloomberg reported. A comparable American group spent $4.7 billion on vehicles.
Some Chinese students want to get a luxury car as soon as they land in Chicago, said Cesni Ennis, a client adviser for Bill DeFouw BMW in Lafayette.
But, she said, some unauthorized dealerships that target the high-end luxury car market will try to get as much money as they can out of the students.
"There are a lot of unscrupulous businesses who take advantage of these kids," Ennis said, noting she's seen Chinese customers come in with salvaged titles or bad Carfax.
She also sees some students who are ready to shell out as much as they can.
"It doesn't end with one incredibly nice car," Ennis said of an elite group of youths who will buy multiple luxury vehicles.
In China, those young people are referred to as "fuerdai," the country's second generation of the rich. Their spending habits are looked down upon by the Communist Party, which has tried to educate the group on traditional Chinese values.
Some students will even abandon their cars after graduation, she said.
Zhang said many will sell them back to the dealer or to other students, but at a much lower cost.
"Usually they lose a lot of money because they want to get rid of them soon because they're going back to China," he said. "Some students also aren't good drivers and they're not familiar with the winter weather here so they will damage their cars (and) it will also depreciate the cars."
But just as income differs across households in the U.S., not all Chinese international students can afford a Beemer.
Purdue student Bobby Wen, for instance, travels solely by bike and is paying his uncle back for his tuition fees.
His parents own their own business back in Beijing, but they cut him off when he turned 18, Wen said as he bit into his Subway sandwich he bought with a coupon.
He knows of some students who are ultra-wealthy, but said he doesn't hang out with that clique.
"I would like to have my kids in that group, though," he laughed.
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Source: Journal & Courier, http://on.jconline.com/29rjvPw
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Information from: Journal and Courier, http://www.jconline.com
This is an AP-Indiana Exchange story offered by the (Lafayette) Journal & Courier.
DETROIT (AP) â Hundreds of veterans will descend on downtown Detroit this week for the 30th annual National Veterans Golden Age Games.
The Detroit News reports (http://detne.ws/29yt1Pg ) the veterans will compete in events such as table tennis, cycling and racquetball at Cobo Center and other venues in the city. Events related to the games began on Sunday and run through Thursday.
About 870 veterans are scheduled to compete.
The games are open to veterans, ages 55 or older, who receive health care from the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.
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Online:
http://www.va.gov/opa/speceven/gag
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Information from: The Detroit News, http://detnews.com/
RAPID CITY, S.D. (AP) â Downtown Rapid City has two new bright red parking meters that are intended to benefit the homeless and cut down on panhandling.
The "giving meters" are repurposed parking meters. The Rapid City Police Department and a local organization installed them in two downtown corners.
The police department says money collected through the meters will be given to the Cornerstone Rescue Mission, a nonprofit helping the homeless in Rapid City.
The department says the goal of the unusual campaign is to show the public that by "feeding the cycle of aggressive panhandling" the illegal practice continues to take place downtown.
Cpt. Dan Rud says the department hopes that the public will use the meters and work with police "to create an atmosphere where aggressive panhandling is not tolerated."
- By BRYNA GODAR Associated Press
MADISON, Wis. (AP) â A Wisconsin legislator announced a "Blue Lives Matter" bill Monday to make targeting law enforcement officers a hate crime in the wake of the Dallas shooting that killed five officers last week.
Rep. David Steffen, a Green Bay Republican, said he believes the law enforcement community deserves the additional protection of hate crime laws, adding Wisconsin to a growing list of states discussing similar bills.
Louisiana became the first state to enact such legislation in May, allowing prosecutors to seek stronger penalties when police, firefighters and emergency medical crews are intentionally targeted because of their professions. Lawmakers in at least 13 other states and in Congress have floated similar proposals.
Such legislation has failed in four states and is pending in five others and in Congress, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. Lawmakers in at least four other states have said they plan to introduce similar legislation but haven't officially done so.
Steffen said his proposal is "a small, single step" that Wisconsin can take to "reinforce its commitment" to supporting and protecting law enforcement officers.
Civil rights organizations and activist groups have criticized similar bills, saying a person's profession should not be included with race, religion and other characteristics that are protected under hate crime laws.
Chris Ahmuty, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Wisconsin, said police officers and their families won't be helped by "a heighted sense of victimization."
"We should recognize the stress they confront, but piling on by claiming that there is a war against police, or that the law isn't already penalizing attacks on police severely, does a disservice to everyone," he said in an emailed statement.
In Wisconsin, people convicted of a crime can face an enhanced penalty if they targeted the victim based on their race, religion, color, disability, sexual orientation, national origin or ancestry. If deemed a hate crime, the penalty for a felony can carry an additional $5,000 fine and an additional five years in prison. The penalty increase for misdemeanors deemed hate crimes depends on the severity of the crime, possibly including additional jail time and thousands of dollars in additional fines.
Steffen's bill, which he plans to formally introduce in January, would extend hate crime protection to law enforcement officers.
"Law enforcement isn't just some profession. It is one upon which our quality of life largely depends," said Jim Palmer, executive director of the Wisconsin Professional Police Association, the state's largest police union.
Palmer said the legislation would send an important, symbolic message, but that the Legislature could do other things to better protect officers and support law enforcement, including ensuring adequate staffing and improved training. He said legislation to protect law enforcement and efforts to resolve problems between officers and their communities shouldn't be mutually exclusive.
HAMBURG, Iowa (AP) â Roman Catholic officials say a priest charged with solicitation after a prostitution sting in southwest Iowa has been suspended from public ministry.
The Diocese of Des Moines says in a statement the Rev. Dominic Yamoah has discussed his arrest on Saturday in Hamburg with Bishop Richard Pates.
The statement released Monday says Yamoah "very sincerely regrets his actions" and he and the diocese will fully cooperate with authorities.
Yamoah, who is 40, was pastor of churches in Clarinda, Bedford and Villisca. He's bonded out of jail. A phone listed for him rang unanswered Monday and he didn't immediately reply to an email.
The diocese says it will make arrangement for a replacement pastor during the suspension which remains in place pending the outcome of the investigation and legal proceedings.
DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) â Convicted felons in Iowa will have a shortened application form to fill out if they seek a pardon or restoration of their firearm rights, Gov. Terry Branstad announced Monday.
The form, which was made available on the governor's website shortly before a press conference, reduces the number of pages from five to two and cuts the number of questions from 43 to 29.
"I encourage all eligible Iowans who have committed felonies to visit the website and begin the process of restoring their rights," he said.
It's unclear if the shortened form will change submission or approval rates for requests regarding a pardon or restoration of firearm rights. Roughly 100 people apply each year for either a pardon or restoration of firearm rights. Fewer than 10 have been approved annually by the Republican governor since 2011, according to data provided by his office.
Barry Snell, president of lobbying group Iowa Firearms Coalition, applauded the move.
"It is our hope that these changes do some good for those deserving, and IFC will be monitoring the effects of the new process moving forward," he said in an email.
A person convicted of a nonviolent felony can have his or her firearm rights restored after a process that includes waiting at least five years after a completed sentence. People with certain convictions involving firearms are ineligible. The same ineligibility applies to people with convictions of forcible felony and misdemeanor domestic abuse.
A full and unconditional pardon restores all citizenship rights, including firearm rights. A person with a felony conviction must wait at least 10 years after a completed sentence to submit an application. A pardon does not erase or expunge a conviction, but it will be added to a criminal background check.
The move Monday comes after Branstad's administration announced in April that it was reviewing the application process for both issues and other requests involving executive clemency.
At that time, officials announced that the number of questions on a separate application form for convicted felons who seek a restoration of their voting rights would be lowered from 29 to 13.
Still, Iowa is one of the hardest states for former criminals seeking to regain their right to vote. Last month, a divided Iowa Supreme Court ruled that convicted felons in Iowa may be automatically stripped of their voting rights for life unless those rights are restored by the governor.
Branstad on Monday applauded that ruling. He reiterated that the system encourages offenders to be current on paying restitution, which is a requirement for restoring voting rights.
PIERRE, S.D. (AP) â The abnormally dry conditions affecting parts of South Dakota have prompted Gov. Dennis Daugaard to activate the state's Drought Task Force.
Daugaard's office says the task force met for the first time Monday in Pierre.
The latest U.S. Drought Monitor map shows that abnormally dry conditions are scattered in the central and eastern parts of the state. Moderate and severe drought conditions are present in most of western South Dakota and in the far northeastern corner of the state.
Daugaard says the task force allows agencies to share information to respond appropriately and be ready in case drought conditions continue.
Daugaard's office, the South Dakota National Guard, South Dakota State University and several departments, including Agriculture, Public Safety, and Game, Fish and Parks, are part of the task force.
- By SCOTT BAUER Associated Press
MADISON, Wis. (AP) â A conservative Wisconsin group that's filed lawsuits in defense of several of Gov. Scott Walker's most contentious proposals announced Monday it is expanding its work nationally, with a focus on limiting powers of the federal government.
The Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty's new Center for Competitive Federalism will focus on filing lawsuits and issuing policy statements targeting what it sees as federal overreach, leaders of the effort said at a Capitol news conference.
Three prominent Republican office holders â Lt. Gov. Rebecca Kleefisch, state Sen. Duey Stroebel and state Rep. Dale Kooyenga â participated in the announcement and praised the group's work.
Likening the federal government to "Big Brother," Stroebel said he hoped the new initiative would bring about a national effort to reject federal government overreach "so we can all push back together."
Rick Esenberg, WILL's president and chief attorney, said the national push will be funded over three years with $800,000 from the Bradley Foundation, which until his retirement this year had been led by Michael Grebe, Walker's former campaign chairman. The foundation is providing an additional $300,000 that will go to the Wisconsin Policy Research Institute, which is partnering with WILL on the new center.
Noting the connection to Walker, the leader of a liberal advocacy group said WILL's new venture was created to advance the governor's agenda.
"All the lawsuits and propaganda they file isn't going to change the fact that Gov. Walker has failed the people of Wisconsin over and over and over again," said Scot Ross with One Wisconsin Now.
WILL has been active in helping defend some of the highest-profile laws passed by the Republican-controlled Legislature and signed by Walker in recent years.
The group fought against lawsuits filed by unions that tried unsuccessfully to stop Walker's law that effectively ended collective bargaining for teachers and other public workers. It also sided with Walker in a lawsuit seeking an end to a secret John Doe investigation into his 2012 recall campaign and conservative groups that supported him. That probe ended after the state Supreme Court declared that nothing illegal had occurred.
WILL also joined with the bipartisan outcry last year against a move by the Legislature to weaken the state's open records laws. The changes were withdrawn in the face of the criticism.
Esenberg, at Monday's news conference, took a jab at the presumptive presidential nominees in both parties, saying if either of them were involved in trying to draft the Constitution today it would be a "hot mess."
Esenberg said the group's goal is to defend a system where the authority of both the federal government and the states is clearly defined. Doing that will involve the filing of "strategic litigation," he said.
He and others at the news conference cited numerous examples of what they said was overreach of the federal government, including initiatives by President Barack Obama to enact clean power plant laws, expand Medicaid and allow transgender public school students to use bathrooms corresponding to their gender identity.
"We're seeing the results of the federal government gone wild in the United States of America," Stroebel said.
Kooyenga, in response to a question, said the policymakers were not being hypocritical in speaking out against powers of the federal government while they pass laws in Wisconsin placing restrictions and imposing requirements on local governments and schools.
Kooyenga said actions of state lawmakers were designed to protect individual liberties and freedoms. But Ross, with the liberal advocacy group, said the arguments made against powers of the federal government Monday were "exactly the same as those made in the 1950s and 1960s by those trying to deny African Americans the same protections as white people under the law."
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Follow Scott Bauer on Twitter at https://twitter.com/sbauerAP . His work can be found at http://bigstory.ap.org/content/scott-bauer
IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP) â University of Iowa students will have the opportunity to include their preferred names and gender pronouns on their school record this fall.
The Iowa City Press-Citizen (http://icp-c.com/29CmHr8 ) reports that the university became one of the first institutions in the country to allow students to identify as transgender on their admissions application three years ago.
Assistant professor Jodi Lindley said in a video released last week that the change allows students to tell university officials, faculty and staff what name and pronouns they'd like to be used in communication and interactions.
The video includes students, faculty and staff members saying which gender pronouns they preferred for themselves. The majority use either he/him/his or she/her/hers, but others who don't fit squarely into a male-female binary prefer they/their/theirs or ze/zem/zir.
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Information from: Iowa City Press-Citizen, http://www.press-citizen.com/
POWELL, Ohio (AP) â An alligator at an Ohio zoo has died after a crowd watched the zoo's animal care team administer CPR in an attempt to save him.
WBNS-TV (http://bit.ly/29ss0Gq ) reports that officials at the Columbus Zoo and Aquarium say the male alligator that died Saturday had been under veterinary care for weeks because of a respiratory condition.
Zoo officials say the alligator's health continued to decline rapidly Saturday and he died around 7:30 p.m. Saturday.
LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) â Nebraska is exploring the processing of agricultural waste into a coal-like substance that would be used as a renewable fuel.
The Lincoln Journal Star reports (http://bit.ly/29IMtbh ) that the state awarded a Mexico, Missouri, company a grant of more than $250,000. The company, Enginuity Worldwide, says it can compress cow manure, spent cornstalks and other plant material into what it calls BioCoal. The company says the product burns like regular coal and could help power plants cut carbon emissions if the plants were to replace some of its coal with BioCoal.
Enginuity President Nancy Heimann says that burning the product would release no more carbon than if the plant material it's made from were to decompose in a field.
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Information from: Lincoln Journal Star, http://www.journalstar.com
COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) â Ohio's largest online charter school has sued the state in an effort to block an upcoming attendance audit that could affect tens of millions of dollars it gets in state funding.
The lawsuit by the Electronic Classroom of Tomorrow, or ECOT, seeks to block the state Department of Education from forcing it to provide records of when students logged in, The Columbus Dispatch (http://bit.ly/29AF7bw) reported.
A preliminary review by the state raised questions about ECOT's attendance figures, which help determine a school's funding. ECOT gets about $107 million annually for its 15,000-plus students, who work on computers instead of showing up to a classroom daily.
The department was set to begin a final attendance review of the school this week to check whether students are meeting the required threshold of 920 hours.
The lawsuit filed Friday alleges the state previously "never requested or sought documentation of log-in durations" to determine funding and is retroactively trying to apply new standards.
ECOT also contends its 2003 funding agreement with the department requires that 920 hours of learning opportunities are presented but doesn't require that students attend 920 hours of classroom time. The lawsuit also says that using log-in times to calculate attendance breaks the state's agreement with the school.
"We have a contract, and you can't unilaterally end a contract," ECOT consultant Neil Clark told the newspaper.
The Department of Education wouldn't address the allegations but said in a statement that it remains committed to completing "our regulatory duty to conduct the final attendance review and ensuring that appropriate funding is distributed to all charter schools," the newspaper reported.
An attendance review for a smaller online school a year ago forced that school to pay back about 80 percent in state funding.
The chairwoman of the Ohio Senate Education Committee, Republican Peggy Lehner of Kettering, said taxpayers shouldn't be paying the school merely to offer something.
"We have a huge number of kids not taking advantage of an opportunity to learn, and we need to fix that," she said.
Senate Minority Leader Joe Schiavoni, a Boardman Democrat who introduced an online-attendance bill, said ECOT should be able to track student log-in times.
"At the root of the lawsuit is they want to do very little and get a lot of money for it," Schiavoni said.
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Information from: The Columbus Dispatch, http://www.dispatch.com
PORTAGE, Mich. (AP) â A southwestern Michigan police department has changed its policy on pursuits after a motorist was killed after her vehicle was hit by another car fleeing police.
Portage's public safety Director Richard White tells WOOD-TV (http://bit.ly/29I0ucs ) his department is no longer chasing motorists for minor offenses. Officers still will chase violent felons and drivers posing threats to the public.
White says: "I think our community just does not support us driving like crazy people to chase somebody down for ... some minor traffic violation."
Thirty-three-year-old Crystal Norton died in January after police chased a man who ran a stop sign. Charles Norton says he's not angry with police, but calls it "a day late and a dollar short." He says his sister might be alive if the policy was changed earlier.
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Information from: WOOD-TV, http://www.woodtv.com
- By TOM NOIE South Bend Tribune
SOUTH BEND, Ind. (AP) â They sat inside a northern Indiana safe deposit box for more than two decades â two prized possessions that legendary Notre Dame football coach Knute Rockne carried with him when he died in a 1931 plane crash.
Every so often, be it on the March 31 anniversary of Rockne's death in a Bazaar, Kansas, field, or during the buildup of another big Irish football game or just because he felt like it, Michael Lopez would travel to the bank from his Valparaiso-area home, eye the items and wonder if it was time to find them a new home.
Thinking otherwise every time, Lopez would return the pieces to the safest of keepings, go back to his job at U.S. Steel in Gary and turn most of attention back to his true passion â Harley Davidsons.
Thanks to a family connection to Rockne, Lopez gained possession of the items in 1988 â the year Notre Dame last won a football national championship. The items, which include Rockne's engraved pocket watch and a prayer book, have been in the bank since 1993 â the year Notre Dame last came close to winning a national championship.
But Lopez now wants to find a new home for them.
Both items, as well three index cards outlining Rockne's life that Father Mooney used during the coach's eulogy and a funeral prayer card, will be turned over to Goldin Auctions. They will go up for bid Aug. 4 as part of 100 sports items at the National Sports Collectors Convention in Atlantic City, New Jersey.
The auction house starts accepting bids Monday. The online auction (www.GoldinAuctions.com) runs through Aug. 13.
"It's been a lot of fun owning them," the 51-year-old Lopez said. "I love putting the word out there about Rock and keeping his name alive. But after 28 years ...
"I just think this is the best route, the best course for this collection is the sale of it."
The Rockne connection dates back over a century to Lopez's great-great-uncle. The Rev. Vincent Mooney was a college classmate at Notre Dame of the man who would become known as the father of the most well-known college football program in the country. Rockne also was friends with Lopez's great-uncle, the Rev. Vincent Brennan.
"All of them lived right across the street from one another," Lopez said.
Father Mooney baptized Rockne, who was converting from Lutheran to Catholic, in 1925 in the Log Chapel on the Notre Dame campus. Afterward, Mooney gave Rockne a prayer book with the inscription, "Notre Dame 11/20/1925 To Knute Rockne - a loyal friend - May the blessing of God descend upon you and yours and remain forever. Devotedly, Father Vincent Mooney, CSC, Class of 1916."
When Rockne celebrated his first wedding anniversary in 1915, his wife, Bonnie, gifted him a Chesterfield watch. Inscribed on one side were the initials "KKR" - Knute Kenneth Rockne - with "SOUTH BEND" etched on the other.
The pocket watch was found in Rockne's suit vest pocket and the prayer book in his travel bag after Transcontinental and Western Air Flight 599 fell into a remote Kansas prairie field in 1931. The 43-year-old Rockne was en route from Kansas City, Missouri, to Los Angeles where he was expected to serve as a technical adviser to Universal Studios' film "The Spirit of Notre Dame."
Following Rockne's death, his wife gave her husband's rosary and prayer book to the Rev. Mooney; the watch went to the Rev. Brennan. The items were passed down to the priests' uncle/brother, who was Lopez's grandfather, Edward Brennan, a former columnist for the Gary Post-Tribune.
"Gramps was the last one in the family to graduate Notre Dame," Lopez said. "Class of 1931."
Edward Brennan eventually passed the Rockne possessions to his wife, Lopez's grandmother. Of their five children, their daughter, Sarah, Lopez's mother, eventually took possession. Lopez was gifted the items from his mother on the day of his 23rd birthday after completing a tour of duty in the Air Force.
Now it's time for someone outside the family to own them.
"I have contemplated it for so many years, many, many years," Lopez said. "Do I have second thoughts? Of course I have."
Just as Lopez hasn't always been sure of whether he should put the items up for auction, he has no idea what kind of monetary value to place on them. Are they worth thousands? Hundreds of thousands? Millions?
"I've had people tell go from one side of the spectrum to the other," he said. "Everybody tells me what they think they're worth, but they don't know. I don't know. I have no idea."
Goldin Auctions knows well the sports memorabilia auction arena. A copy of the 1918 baseball contract of legendary slugger Babe Ruth sold for $1.02 million. A rare early-1900s Honus Wagner baseball card fetched a record $2.1 million.
"Knute Rockne is Notre Dame royalty and one of the greatest coaches of all time, so it's especially humbling for us to bring his treasured personal items to auction for the first time," Ken Goldin, founder of Goldin Auctions, said in a statement. "We hope that the winning bidders make these special items available for Notre Dame alumni and fans to enjoy."
A search of the company's website shows that Goldin Auctions also is no stranger to Notre Dame memorabilia. It has auctioned dozens of items over the years with final bids ranging from low â 50 assorted football pennants from the 1980s for $147 â to high â the 1977 national championship ring of team captain Steve Orsini for $8,963.
There are times when Lopez wants to keep the possessions locked away. He wants to pass them on to his only adult son, Gregory. He wants to keep them in the family for generations to follow. But he also realizes that auctioning the items might return a financial windfall that nobody ever imagined.
"It was a lot of fun (but) things change," Lopez said. "This is a fitting way for it to end.
"It's just time."
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Source: South Bend Tribune, http://bit.ly/29su8Op
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Information from: South Bend Tribune, http://www.southbendtribune.com
This is an AP-Indiana Exchange story offered by the South Bend Tribune.
CHADRON, Neb. (AP) â A New Zealander has won the World Championship Buffalo Chip Throw during the 40th annual Fur Trade Days celebration in Chadron.
Chadron radio station KCSR reports (http://bit.ly/29PfvZY) that 28-year-old Kingi Snelgar, of Oakland, New Zealand, on Saturday tossed a piece of dried bison dung 110 feet, 10 inches to win the men's 18-and-older division.
Snelgar's toss fell far short of the individual competition record of 186-7 set by Gary Lackey of Detroit Lakes, Minnesota, in 2000 and the 204 feet thrown by Kail Bowman in 1990 during a since-discontinued team event.
The women's title this year was won by 43-year-old Nicole Bottsford-Miller, of Billings, Montana. Her heave went 84 feet, 2 inches.
The competition drew 111 participants.
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Information from: KCSR-AM, http://www.chadrad.com/
AMES, Iowa (AP) â The Iowa Board of Regents dismissed concerns Monday about a major land deal between its president's private company and Iowa State University President Steven Leath, calling it a "private business transaction."
Board spokesman Josh Lehman said the arrangement, first reported Saturday by the Des Moines Register, did not have to be disclosed as a potential conflict of interest under its policy and that the board is not investigating.
The matter involves the Leath family's purchase in January of 145 acres of land through Summit Agricultural Group, which is owned by Board of Regents President Bruce Rastetter, for $623,000.
An appointee of and top donor to Republican Gov. Terry Branstad, Rastetter played a key role in hiring Leath at Iowa State in 2011 and retaining him since then with board-approved contract extensions and raises. At the same time, Rastetter's businesses have often worked closely with â and received help from â Iowa State on agricultural matters.
Summit President Eric Peterson said Leath and his wife, Janet, approached the company last year for help finding timber ground in Iowa for recreational purposes. He said the company identified a potential property in Hardin County that included river frontage, timber and tillable farmland.
Summit purchased the 215-acre plot for $1.14 million, Peterson said. After a survey, the company then sold 89 acres of timber and 56 acres of farmland to SLS Holdings, a limited liability corporation created by Leath's family in November.
Peterson said that Leath paid the same price that Summit purchased it for: $7,676 per acre of farmland and $2,140 per acre of timber. Summit kept the remaining acres for farming. Peterson said that SLS Holdings and Summit split the closing costs, including fees for the land survey and related legal work.
Rastetter has often listed Summit's relationships with Iowa State on his mandatory conflict of interest disclosure form, including no-interest loans it has received from a state renewable energy program operated by the school. But Lehman said the company's sale of land to Leath did not have to be disclosed since it was a private transaction.
Rastetter gave the Leaths a tour of Hardin County but wasn't involved in the sale, Peterson said, adding that the Leaths didn't pay any fees to Summit.
"We are pleased the Leath family has purchased a farm and are planning to call Iowa home," Peterson said.
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) â As many as 50,000 Kansas voters who registered at motor vehicle offices would be given provisional ballots in the upcoming elections only to see their votes thrown out in state and local races under a proposed temporary rule.
The State Rules and Regulations Board is meeting Tuesday to consider the temporary rule sought by the Secretary of State Kris Kobach. The rule calls for counting only the votes cast for federal offices unless the voters provide documents proving their U.S. citizenship.
Notice of that meeting went out late Monday for a temporary rule that would be in effect for upcoming elections. The temporary rule comes in the wake of ongoing court challenges to the state law requiring documentary proof of citizenship to vote.
- By MEGHAN HOLDEN Journal & Courier
LAFAYETTE, Ind. (AP) â It's not out of the ordinary to spot at least one Audi, BMW or Mercedes-Benz during a drive through the Purdue University campus.
Along with locals who cruise around in the luxury car brands, they're the favorites of international students who can afford to dish out $30,000 to more than $100,000 on a vehicle.
Lafayette salespeople say that population is largely made up of Chinese students whose parents are wealthy and are happy to provide their kids with the money to drive a nice car while studying in America.
"There are many Chinese students here who will purchase cars from me," said Yuchen Zhang, who sells Mercedes-Benz vehicles for the Mike Raisor Automotive Group in Lafayette.
Zhang understands his audience well â he's from Shanghai and graduated from Purdue in 2014.
He markets to students by putting up posters in Chinese restaurants near campus and by communicating deals and incentives via WeChat, a social media app widely used in China.
Chinese student customers typically spend $30,000 to $40,000, he said, but the really rich will dole out more than $100,000 for a Lamborghini or Maserati.
Those prices might make some Americans clench their wallets, but they're a lot lower than in China. There, a luxury car costs two or three times as much as it does in the U.S.
The phenomenon isn't unique to West Lafayette, either.
CNW Marketing Research found that Chinese students at U.S. high schools, undergraduate and graduate institutions purchased about $15.5 billion in new and used vehicles from January 2012 to October 2013, Bloomberg reported. A comparable American group spent $4.7 billion on vehicles.
Some Chinese students want to get a luxury car as soon as they land in Chicago, said Cesni Ennis, a client adviser for Bill DeFouw BMW in Lafayette.
But, she said, some unauthorized dealerships that target the high-end luxury car market will try to get as much money as they can out of the students.
"There are a lot of unscrupulous businesses who take advantage of these kids," Ennis said, noting she's seen Chinese customers come in with salvaged titles or bad Carfax.
She also sees some students who are ready to shell out as much as they can.
"It doesn't end with one incredibly nice car," Ennis said of an elite group of youths who will buy multiple luxury vehicles.
In China, those young people are referred to as "fuerdai," the country's second generation of the rich. Their spending habits are looked down upon by the Communist Party, which has tried to educate the group on traditional Chinese values.
Some students will even abandon their cars after graduation, she said.
Zhang said many will sell them back to the dealer or to other students, but at a much lower cost.
"Usually they lose a lot of money because they want to get rid of them soon because they're going back to China," he said. "Some students also aren't good drivers and they're not familiar with the winter weather here so they will damage their cars (and) it will also depreciate the cars."
But just as income differs across households in the U.S., not all Chinese international students can afford a Beemer.
Purdue student Bobby Wen, for instance, travels solely by bike and is paying his uncle back for his tuition fees.
His parents own their own business back in Beijing, but they cut him off when he turned 18, Wen said as he bit into his Subway sandwich he bought with a coupon.
He knows of some students who are ultra-wealthy, but said he doesn't hang out with that clique.
"I would like to have my kids in that group, though," he laughed.
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Source: Journal & Courier, http://on.jconline.com/29rjvPw
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Information from: Journal and Courier, http://www.jconline.com
This is an AP-Indiana Exchange story offered by the (Lafayette) Journal & Courier.
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