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NORAD to conduct exercise flights in US, Canada
• ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) -- Officials with the North American Aerospace Defense Command say exercise flights will be conducted in the U. S and Canada.
• Flights to practice intercept and identification procedures are scheduled to take place Thursday off the coast of Seattle and British Columbia's Vancouver Island . Flights for the same exercises also scheduled to take place between Anchorage, Alaska, and the Kobuk Valley in Alaska, and between Aberdeen, S.D., and Minneapolis.
• Officials say NORAD has conducted exercise flights in the U.S. and Canada since launching Operation Noble Eagle, the command's response to 9/11.
• NORAD is a U.S.-Canadian command responsible for defending the skies over both countries. It also monitors sea traffic approaching their shores. Its headquarters are at Peterson Air Force Base, Colo.
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Man who had life sentence for crack gets 25 years
DAVE KOLPACK,Associated Press
• FARGO, N.D. (AP) -- A North Dakota man originally sentenced to life in prison for his role in a major crack cocaine conspiracy now must serve 25 years, a judge ruled Wednesday.
• An appeals court in August overturned Marcus Royston's sentence because of a change in federal law that increased the quantities of crack cocaine needed to trigger statutory minimum sentences. The switch was made retroactive to the original August 2010 sentencing date.
• Royston, of Bismarck, was among eight people accused of obtaining cocaine in Illinois, South Dakota and Minnesota and bringing it to North Dakota for distribution. A jury found him guilty in May 2010 on two counts, including conspiracy.
• U.S. District Judge Ralph Erickson said Royston's criminal history and his role in the conspiracy make 25 years an appropriate sentence.
• "This was perhaps the largest cocaine conspiracy in North Dakota," Erickson said. "It certainly had the largest quantities of crack cocaine in any case that I have presided over."
• Witnesses testified during the case that members of the conspiracy spent up to $900 per ounce of crack and $1,000 per ounce for powder cocaine and would sell it for twice that. The crack cocaine was stored and distributed at various locations, (Continued on page 19)
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