|
(Continued from page 16)
would allow teachers to discuss intelligent design in classrooms.
• Intelligent design is the belief that a higher power must have had a hand in creation because life is too complex to have developed through evolution alone.
• The Senate Education Committee planned to hear testimony on the bill Thursday. The proposal says schools cannot prevent teachers from providing instruction on intelligent design.
• The committee also is discussing a proposal that says a teacher cannot be prohibited from providing instruction on what the bill terms "personhood before birth."
•
Couple ordered to pay $1.3M for false wool claims
• ABERDEEN, S.D. (AP) -- A South Dakota judge has ordered an Iowa couple to pay more than $1 million over wool loan deficiency payments received for sheep they didn't own.
• The U.S. attorney's office says Howard "Jack" Aleff and Reena Slominski, of Knoxville, Iowa, submitted 132 false claims for their business, L & J Wool & Fur.
• As a result, they got nearly $304,000 from the Farm Services Agency in Iowa and South Dakota.
• They earlier pleaded guilty to a criminal charge of conspiracy to defraud the United States and were sentenced to probation, fined $60,000 and ordered to repay that amount in restitution.
• Now U.S. District Judge Charles Kornmann in Aberdeen has entered an additional civil judgment of $1.38 million.
•
SD lawmakers push for quick relief for ranchers
HENRY C. JACKSON, Associated Press
• WASHINGTON (AP) -- South Dakota's congressional delegation pressed the U.S. agriculture secretary Wednesday to expedite a provision in the new farm bill that helps ranchers in the Dakotas and Nebraska recover from an October blizzard.
• The nearly $100 billion-a-year federal farm bill, which awaits President Barack Obama's signature, restarts a livestock disaster program that had expired. Members of the South Dakota delegation were among those urging Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack to make sure there are no delays getting the relief money to ranchers.
• Sens. John Thune, R-S.D., Tim Johnson, D-S.D., Sen. Heidi Heitkamp, D-N.D., and other lawmakers signed a letter Wednesday asking Vilsack to move quickly to provide relief to ranchers and farmers who suffered heavy losses. The total amount of the aid was not clear and would depend on total losses for producers.
(Continued on page 18)
|
|
