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Neuharth service planned for May 17 in Vermillion
• VERMILLION, S.D. (AP) -- A memorial service for USA Today founder Al Neuharth will be held at the University of South Dakota on May 17.
• Neuharth, who also founded the Freedom Forum and the Newseum, died April 19 in his Cocoa Beach, Fla., home from complications of a fall.
• The service will be at 10 a.m. in the Slagle Hall auditorium. A reception and luncheon, also open to the public, will follow at the Al Neuharth Media Center, located nearby on the campus.
• The family is planning a private burial in Neuharth's hometown of Eureka, S.D., sometime later this spring.
• During Neuharth's more than 15 years at the helm of Gannett, the company became the nation's largest newspaper company.
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Drought eases in many places, fields turn to mud
DAVID PITT,Associated Press
• DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) -- As spring rains soaked the central United States and helped conquer the historic drought, a new problem has sprouted: The fields have turned to mud.
• The weekly drought monitor report, released Thursday by National Drought Mitigation Center in Lincoln, Neb., showed the heavy rains that also caused some flooding in the last week brought drought relief to the upper Midwest, western Corn Belt and central portions of the Plains.
• Farmers may be thankful the land is no longer parched, but it's too wet to plant in corn country and freezing temperatures and lingering snow have ruined the winter wheat crop.
• "Right now, we're wishing it would dry up so we can get in the field," said 74-year-old Iowa farmer Jerry Main, who plants corn and soybeans on about 500 acres in the southeast part of the state. He's measured more than 9 inches of rain since April 18 -- and farmers in his area prefer to plant corn by May 10 -- at the latest.
• Aside from being too wet to plant, it's been too cold for seed to germinate. Main said temperatures dipped to 27 on Tuesday and to 32 on Wednesday, a chill that's been widespread across the Midwest.
• "We need some heat, it's been down in the upper 30s at night," said Darren Walter, 41, who farms near Grand Ridge, Ill. And farmers in southwest Kansas, Okla (Continued on page 25)
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