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Despite the headaches, there is a silver lining from all the rain: It has helped further alleviate drought conditions in some of the major crop-growing states, including Iowa, Missouri, Minnesota and Wisconsin, according to a weekly drought monitor. Small portions of Nebraska also saw improvement.
• Now farmers are hoping for a dry spell to allow them to get into the fields for spring planting.
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• Associated Press writers Jim Salter in St. Louis; Jason Keyser in Chicago; Maria Sudekum and Dana Fields in Kansas City, Mo., Dirk Lammers in Sioux Falls, S.D., David Goodman in Detroit; Ken Miller in Oklahoma City; Jeff Baenen in Minneapolis; Catherine Tsai in Denver; and Ken Kusmer in Indianapolis contributed to this report.
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Keystone XL opponents brace for protests in Neb.
GRANT SCHULTE,Associated Press
• GRAND ISLAND, Neb. (AP) -- Opponents of a massive Canada-to-Texas oil pipeline converged on a snowy Nebraska town Thursday for a critical hearing on the project, but they already were preparing for acts of civil disobedience should President Barack Obama approve it.
• Despite a spring storm that brought sleet and snow to Nebraska, the U.S. State Department hearing in Grand Island drew more than 1,000 supporters and opponents from around the state, as well as activists from outside the region who consider Nebraska a key battleground over the Keystone XL pipeline.
• As they waited for an opportunity to speak at the Heartland Events Center on the state fairgrounds, many activists outlined plans for civil disobedience and state-court lawsuits designed to keep the project from moving forward. Project foes have promised to block construction workers and lie down in front of equipment -- whatever it takes to stop the $7.6 billion pipeline from connecting Canada's tar sands region to Texas refineries.
• "If this government makes a huge, huge mistake in preventing this pipeline, with the influence of the Canadian government and big oil, we the people will not allow this pipeline to be built," Nebraska rancher Bruce Boettcher told State Department representatives.
• Abbi Kleinschmidt, 54, of rural York, said she was prepared to stand in front of TransCanada's bulldozers in Nebraska if the pipeline is approved. The fifth-generation farmer said she fears that the half-mile of pipeline that could run through her corn and soybean farm would contaminate the groundwater that has sustained (Continued on page 18)
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