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South Dakota bomber pilot makes Air Force history
• RAPID CITY, S.D. (AP) -- An airman at Ellsworth Air Force Base in South Dakota has become the first in Air Force history to log 5,000 flight hours in a B-1 bomber.
• Lt. Col Tim Schepper, 50, has been in the Air Force for 27 years. The amount of time he has spent in a B-1 is equivalent to more than seven months. About one-fourth of his flight hours have come during combat.
• "It feels like my body is perfectly formed to fit in that seat now," Schepper joked after landing Monday following a 19-hour nonstop flight from southwest Asia that put him over the 5,000-hour milestone.
• Schepper, who grew up on a ranch near Vergas, Minn., said he never imagined he would reach 5,000 hours, even after hitting 4,000 hours about four years ago.
• "The support my family has given me allowed me to do this," he said. "There's so many sacrifices they made so that I could have the career that I had. Without them it would not be possible by any stretch of the imagination."
• Dan Ruder, Boeing's B-1 advanced programs manager, flew from Oklahoma City to Rapid City to see Schepper's plane land. He called it a milestone for the company's 30-year-old aircraft.
• "When you combine that with the airline flying over 10,000 combat missions, it shows us how relevant and important the platform still is to our national security," he said.
• Schepper plans to retire from the Air Force later this year and possibly fly for a cargo company or commercial airline. In the near term, "My next goal is maybe to take a nap," he said after the 19-hour flight.
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KY man sentenced in fed court in SD for extortion
• SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (AP) -- A Kentucky man has been sentenced in South Dakota to nearly two years in federal prison for an extortion scheme.
• Twenty-five-year-old Justin Howard, of Middlesboro, Ky., was accused of threatening to reveal information about a South Dakota man's sexuality unless the man paid him money. The victim sent nearly $54,000 to Howard before reporting the crime.
• Howard pleaded guilty in April to extortion. U.S. Attorney Brendan Johnson says Howard was sentenced this week to 21 months in prison and ordered to pay restitution to the victim.
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