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(Continued from page 15)
In South Dakota, flood insurance rates on rise
NORA HERTEL, Associated Press
• PIERRE, S.D. (AP) -- A city official in Fort Pierre has his eye on a problem that many South Dakota residents don't recognize yet.
• More than 1,600 South Dakota residents will see their federally subsidized flood insurance rates increase substantially, even after a measure signed Friday by President Barack Obama that puts the brakes on the initial 2012 overhaul.
• The relief is temporary, though, as owners of subsidized homes can expect annual rate increases of up to 18 percent. The increases will affect 30 percent of those policies in Fort Pierre, as well as hundreds of policies in Watertown and Sioux Falls.
• Fort Pierre Public Works Director Brad Lawrence says increased premiums will be hard to bear.
• The National Flood Insurance Policy program is $24 billion in debt.
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NDSU program specializes in American Indian health
DAVE KOLPACK, Associated Press
• FARGO, N.D. (AP) -- A North Dakota State University program is offering an advanced degree for students looking to improve the health of American Indians, and school officials are touting it as the only specialization of its kind in the country.
• NDSU earlier this year instituted a master of public health degree with a curriculum designed to prepare graduates to work with Native American health systems. Students have been studying health-related issues like substance abuse, diabetes, smoking, suicide, post-traumatic stress disorder, poverty and historical trauma.
• The program could be a "game-changer," North Dakota Indian Affairs Commissioner Scott Davis said.
• "I think in two or three years you are going to see those graduates go back and help their respective tribes," Davis said. "We have all been taught to go away and get our education and come back and help our people. That hasn't changed for decades."
• The program is the brainchild of Dr. Donald Warne, a Kyle, S.D., native and enrolled member of the Oglala Lakota Tribe who received his bachelor's degree from Arizona State University and medical degree from Stanford. He later earned a master of public health degree from Harvard.
• Warne said there's "an incredible lack of understanding" about American Indian health issues, and felt his view was verified while attending school at Harvard.
• "I was impressed by how much my instructors knew about urban public health, or (Continued on page 17)
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