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• Mentor, Minn.-based Anderson Seed Co. shut down its insolvent sunflower processing facility in Redfield, S.D., in 2012 without paying farmers for millions of dollars' worth of delivered seeds.
• North Dakota's Public Service Commission late last month approved a proposed settlement in which farmers with cash claims will get about 43 percent of what they are owed and those with credit sale claims will get about 80 percent.
• Valid claims total about $3 million, according to state regulators.
• South Dakota's Public Utilities Commission last year got a judge's approval to use a $100,000 bond posted by Anderson Seed to give partial payments to farmers in that state who lost about $2.6 million. Some farmers criticized regulators and called for reform in bonding laws.
• North Dakota Public Service Commissioner Randy Christmann said in announcing the proposed North Dakota settlement in late November that it was preferable to a drawn-out legal battle.
• "Litigation would delay payment to the farmers by possibly years and there is always a risk involved with litigation; therefore, I am confident the commission's decision to reach a settlement is in the best interest of the farmers," he said in a statement. "Even if litigation were to result in a verdict that exceeds the amount of the settlement, collection of that amount is not guaranteed."
• Farmers can file objections to the proposed settlement until 10 days before the Jan. 6 court hearing, according to Agweek. Fargo lawyer Mike Gust, who is representing nearly 20 farmers in the case, declined comment to Agweek until he could further study the proposal.
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• BRANDON, S.D. (AP) -- Voters in the Brandon Valley School District in southeastern South Dakota have approved a new school to house fifth- and sixth-graders.
• Seventy-seven percent of the 1,645 people who cast ballots Tuesday approved borrowing about $6 million for the school, well more than the 60 percent majority required.
• The 20-year bond will cost the owner of a $200,000 home an additional $56 in taxes per year.
• Construction of the school is to start in the spring. It's scheduled to open in August 2015.
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