• OMAHA, Neb. (AP) -- A nine-state Midwest and Plains economic survey index fell for the second straight month in June.
• A survey report released Monday for the Mid-America Business Conditions Index says it dropped to 57.2 last month, compared with 57.6 in May. The index was 60 in April.
• In the survey any score above 50 suggests growth. A score below 50 suggests decline.
• Creighton University economist Ernie Goss says the businesses that were sur

veyed are still benefiting from healthy farm income and exports, but the activity is slowing. Global economic problems are pushing export orders into negative territory.
• A quarter of the managers surveyed say the biggest hurdle in the next year is implementation of health care reform.
• The survey covers Arkansas, Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, Oklahoma and South Dakota.
•

• SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (AP) -- A work release inmate is back in custody after failing to return on time to a minimum-security unit of the South Dakota State Penitentiary in Sioux Falls.
• Corrections officials say 35-year-old Jason Lucas returned to the facility Sunday afternoon. He had left Sunday morning to go to his job.
• Lucas is serving a five-year sentence for drunken driving.
•

• EDGEMONT, S.D. (AP) -- Military officials have identified a plane that crashed while battling a South Dakota forest fire as a C-130 tanker based out of Peterson Air Force Base in Colorado.
• Military spokeswoman Capt. Ruth Castro tells The Associated Press that the tanker made at least two drops of fire retardant material on the White Draw fire on Sunday before crashing at about 6 p.m.
• Castro did not have information on the crew. The Fall River County Sheriff's Office told the Rapid City Journal that a helicopter was able to land near the plane Sunday night and take three people to Custer to be transported by ambulance to a Rapid City hospital.

(Continued on page 16)