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• Seventeen-year-old Peter Coulter, of Washington, Mo., won second place with an acrylic painting depicting a pair of snow geese.
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Owner of closed Waterloo plant agrees to penalty
• WATERLOO, Iowa (AP) -- The Environmental Protection Agency says Beef Products Inc. has agreed to pay a $450,000 civil penalty to settle an alleged violation of the Clean Air Act at its now-closed Waterloo plant.
• The EPA announced the settlement Tuesday, stating in a news release that BPI agreed to the penalty and to conduct third-party audits of its compliance with Clean Air Act requirements at the company's plant in South Sioux City, Neb. The Dakota Dunes, S.D.-based company will then submit a plan to the EPA to correct problems that are identified.
• The settlement was prompted by a 2007 release of anhydrous ammonia into part of the plant. One worker died and another was hurt.
• After that incident, it was determined BPI failed to implement a risk management program at the Waterloo plant.
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SD court asked to make lawsuit a class action
CHET BROKAW,Associated Press
• PIERRE, S.D. (AP) -- A lawsuit alleging a Rapid City credit union and an insurance company improperly raised the rates for insurance that makes loan payments if borrowers become disabled should be handled as a class action, a lawyer for those borrowers told the South Dakota Supreme Court on Tuesday.
• The lawsuit against the Black Hills Federal Credit Union and CUNA Mutual Insurance Society must be handled as a class action because it would be impossible for 4,461 borrowers to file individual lawsuits for the amount of money involved, James Leach, a Rapid City lawyer, said.
• "There is no doubt the alleged wrong can only be remedied in a class action," Leach told the Supreme Court.
• But an attorney for the insurance company argued that the dispute cannot be handled as a class action because each borrower would have to testify about whether each had waited too long to sue.
• "That is simply not a fair and efficient adjudication of a controversy," Roger Heidenreich of St. Louis said.
• A circuit judge had ruled that the lawsuit could not be handled as a class action. Leach asked the Supreme Court to overrule the circuit judge and order that the case (Continued on page 23)
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