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(Continued from page 40)
• Gov. Dennis Daugaard has already expressed support for the standards, which were developed by national groups of school officers and governors. The Common Core sets K-12 benchmarks for students in math and English.
• Supporters of the measure say the costs of implementing the standards and corresponding tests are high. They say a cost study should be done by an outside party.
• Opponents say the study was not well-funded. A representative from the state's Education Department says it has been studying and managing the costs of Common Core throughout implementation.
• Next week the committee will decide on other Common Core-related bills.
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Farm Rescue nonprofit adding haying assistance
BLAKE NICHOLSON, Associated Press
• BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) -- A regional nonprofit group that plants crops for farmers in need in the spring and harvests crops in the fall is now adding some summertime work.
• North Dakota-based Farm Rescue is accepting applications for summer hay-baling assistance from farmers in its service territory of North Dakota, South Dakota, Minnesota, Iowa and eastern Montana.
• "We'll see how many applications we get and we'll help as many as possible, just like we started Farm Rescue in the beginning," said founder Bill Gross, a North Dakota farm boy who now makes a living flying a cargo plane out of Alaska and still finds time to serve as president and CEO of Farm Rescue.
• The organization doesn't hand out cash -- it brings volunteers to a farm to do the actual physical labor. As with planting and harvesting assistance, farmers must have suffered a major injury, illness or natural disaster to qualify for haying help, which likely will be done in June and July.
• Farm Rescue has helped more than 250 farm families with planting and harvesting since its inception in 2006, and has received many requests for haying assistance. Gross said it is finally possible because Fargo-based RDO Equipment Co. -- which owns and operates more than 60 farm and construction implement dealerships and is Farm Rescue's biggest sponsor -- is supplying a tractor and baler.
• It's a way to help more farmers, RDO Executive Vice President Keith Kreps said.
• Farm Rescue has a database of nearly 1,000 volunteers but it could use more with the addition of the haying operation, Gross said.
• "We have more coming nationally than we do locally" in the five service states, (Continued on page 42)
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