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SD Senate approves boost in expenses for lawmakers
• PIERRE, S.D. (AP) -- The South Dakota Senate has approved an increase in the daily allowance state lawmakers get to cover the cost of lodging, meals and other expenses during the annual legislative sessions.
• Senators voted 18-15 to pass a bill increasing the current expense payment of $110 a day to $123 a day. The bill now returns to the House, which must consider a change the Senate made in the measure.
• The bill does not change the $6,000 annual salary paid to lawmakers.
• Supporters say the increase in the daily expense payment is needed because it has not been raised in 13 years.
• Opponents say lawmakers should not increase the payment in the middle of their current term.
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Attorney plans to sue over Missouri River flooding
HEATHER HOLLINGSWORTH,Associated Press
• KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) -- Landowners inundated by Missouri River flooding are preparing to sue the U.S. government, saying a recent Supreme Court ruling opens the door for them to receive damages, an attorney said Tuesday.
• "We believe that the way the river system was managed culminating in the 2011 flood resulted in some of these farmers and landowners sustaining a tremendous amount of damage," St. Joseph attorney Ed Murphy said, adding that there had been flooding in previous years and that the "monster in 2011" was "foreseeable."
• The summer of 2011 was when the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers began releasing massive amounts of water from upstream reservoirs that had been filled with melting snow and heavy rains. The onslaught lasted for more than 100 days, busting levees, carving gouges, dumping sand and scattering tree limbs and other debris on farmers' fields.
• Murphy said he has been meeting with farm and levee groups and that the plaintiffs could come from Missouri, Kansas, Nebraska, Iowa and possibly even South Dakota. He said he plans to file the suit soon in the U.S. Court of Federal Claims in Washington.
• The corps has repeatedly defended its actions, but spokesman David Kolarik said Tuesday that the agency wasn't able to comment on pending litigation.
• Murphy said his case, which the St. Joseph News-Press first reported about, will be helped by a U.S. Supreme Court ruling in December that the federal government (Continued on page 22)
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