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• Daugaard said before DM&E was sold, the line provided shipping service to critical transportation hubs including Minneapolis, Chicago and Kansas City.
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SD AG seeks release of mineral leasing funds
• PIERRE, S.D. (AP) -- South Dakota Attorney General Marty Jackley has joined his counterparts in other western states in asking federal officials to release the states' share of mineral leasing revenue from federal lands.
• Jackley said federal officials have stopped royalty payments to the states under the automatic budget cuts that started last spring. He said the mineral leasing royalties are not the kind of federal spending subject to the budget cuts.
• Federal law gives states 48 percent of all rentals, royalties and other receipts for mineral production on federal land within a state. South Dakota distributes the mineral lease money to school districts in the counties where the mineral production is located.
• The automatic budget cuts will trim mineral royalty payments to South Dakota schools by at least $100,000, Jackley said.
• "South Dakota's school districts that have mineral deposits have legal right to these funds and depend on this money as a source of guaranteed revenue," the attorney general said.
• South Dakota school districts got more than $1.2 million last year in payments for mineral royalties.
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Federal judge dismisses ND housing kickbacks case
DAVE KOLPACK,Associated Press
• FARGO, N.D. (AP) -- A federal judge on Thursday threw out an indictment against an architect accused of accepting kickbacks for housing contracts on the Standing Rock Indian Reservation, after the government said it needed more evidence to continue the case.
• Last month a North Dakota jury found Michael Addington not guilty of accepting a bribe by an agent of an organization receiving federal funds. The panel could not reach a verdict on a conspiracy to commit fraud charge.
• U.S. District Judge Patrick Conmy agreed to dismiss the case without prejudice, which means it could be brought up later for further prosecution.
• "In light of the jury's verdict on the bribery charge in this case, the decision of the United States was that retrial on the conspiracy charge, while still viable, was not an (Continued on page 22)
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