• BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) -- The federal government has released more money for a program that helps low-income people around the country heat their homes, but the leader of an American Indian reservation in the Dakotas said it might not be enough to deal with a local propane crisis.
• About 5,000 homes on the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation that straddles the North Dakota-South Dakota border rely on propane, which has more than doubled in price because of a nationwide shortage exacerbated by recent cold weather. Many reservation families are on fixed incomes and can't afford to pay more for the gas, putting them in danger of running out, according to Tribal Chairman Dave Archambault II.
• "The high cost only allows you to go on an amount of fuel for two to three weeks when normally it would take you through a month, a month and a half," he said.
• Tribal officials have declared an emergency. They are looking internally to find more money for propane and also are asking for aid from the federal government.
• The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services on Thursday released another $439 million nationwide for the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program, better known as LIHEAP. North Dakota is getting $3.4 million in the latest allocation and South Dakota $2.8 million. Of that amount, $1.3 million is earmarked for tribes in the two states.
• Archambault said Friday that he did not immediately know how much the Standing Rock tribe was to get from the tribal allocation. He said the money will be welcome but likely won't be enough to bring Standing Rock's program up to normal funding. The tribe's LIHEAP program has only $1.5 million available this winter, down from $2.5 million last winter because of federal budget cuts.

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