Sioux City Journal from Sioux City, Iowa • 4

A 4 The Sioux City Journal. Friday, September 19, 1997 Siouxland Hi i fminftf nffirial.Q nnnnQia WVUI IfcU I I IVIVtlW WWWW IIIWI JWi II By The Associated Press Labor force data for Iowa counties in July 1997 and August ABERDEEN, S.D. (AP) A proposal to consolidate South Dakota's counties does not have many friends among county commissioners, even (hough supporters say the idea would save money. "I'm afraid that rural areas would lose all their representation through consolidation," said Mc-Cook County Commissioner Orville Hofer. While it make sense to share some services with other counties, consolidation of government would not be in county's best interests, he said.

"Through consolidation of some services, we can save money and still keep our identity," said Hofer. Rep. Bill Petersen, R-Sioux Falls, proposed the idea this week during a meeting of the South Dakota Counties Convention in Aberdeen. The meeting ended Tuesday. With more than 1,800 units of government, South Dakota is one of the most governed states in the nation, said Petersen.

His comments were prompted by a study released this month by the University of South Dakota. 1 "County governments have looked increasingly to Pierre for more ability to raise taxes or fees to support their services," said Petersen. "Before we raise fees and taxes for county governments, I think we have a responsibility to ask if our counties are as efficiently organized as they possible can be." Ziebach County Commissioner Lane Ziegler said he doesn't see any potential for savings through consolidation. "Did we save anything on the school con- solidations?" Ziegler asked. "It didn't happen." Bob Ewart, a Spink County commissioner, said his county was working with Faulk County to build a 911 system.

"We exchange some work on the roads, Ewart said. "But I think it's a waste of time to talk about consolidation of counties in the Legislature. Nobody is going to give up their courthouse." Don Wagner, Harding County commissioner, said his board keeps a tight rein on spending. "If we're running a conservative (budget), why would we want to join some county that is spen- ding more?" Wagner asked. 6 Labor County Force Empl buena vista 10990 10800 cher oke ei 120 to crawford 9200 8980 dickinson 11160 10950 emmet 5980 sjeo joN IIZIIZIZI 6110 6020 MONONAtZZZZlZZIZ suo soao obrien.

8270 8120 oola 3840 3770 plymouthZZIZZZ 13600 13320 pocahontas 4310 4220 sac 6010 5870 5SJ2bsr 1 112 WOODBURY 57300 55800 Iowa jobless rate under national level State patrol suspends trooper DES MOINES (AP) The Iowa Department of Public Safety says it was not aware that one of its state troopers, now under investigation for a shooting death, was accused as a juvenile in a stabbing incident 14 years ago. An internal investigation into the shooting death of an unarmed man after a police chase last January cleared State Patrol Trooper Gregory Cox of any wrongdoing. But Cox has been temporarily suspended with pay while investigators look into the 1983 incident. The department had not been aware of the stabbing "despite its normally extensive background and interview process for peace officer applicants," Paul Wieck, commissioner of the Department of Public Safety, said in a written statement. Wieck confirmed that Cox, 30, was being investigated by the Internal Affairs Bureau.

Wieck said that peace officer applicants are supposed to be automatically disqualified if they have been convicted of or committed a felony, aggravated misdemeanor or serious misdemeanor, except traffic offenses. Wieck declined further comment Thursday. Cox was found delinquent in Warren County Juvenile Court for going armed with intent after he stabbed Sean Doyle in the back in 1983. Doyle said he did not know that Cox had become a state trooper until he learned about last January's meeting. I was shocked to find out a bully could become a law enforcement officer," Doyle said.

'i DES MOINES (AP) Iowa's unemployment rate was a up a bit in August, but still remained well below national jobless levels. Iowa Workforce Development officials said August's unemployment rate was 2.7 percent, up slightly from July's record low 2.6 percent. The August 1996 unemployment rate was 3.8 percent. Workforce Development director Cynthia Eisenhauer said the state's unemployment has remained essentially steady, even though the number of employed workers has fallen since June. Figures from Eisenhauer's department showed the number of employed workers in Iowa was down in August because of the United Parcel Service strike.

Welding is SCOTTSBLUFF, Neb. (AP) -One of the hottest jobs in demand in western Nebraska these days is not in computers or medicine. It's welding. think it takes some big burly guy to do this. But that isn't necessarily true," said Bob Waddell, relations director for Western Nebraska Community College.

The college is offering a welding certification program this semester to remedy the area's high demand yet short supply of welders, Waddell said. Students can learn flat surface and pipe welding through a series of night classes. Fifteen spots are available in the program and if the class fills up, all 15 students will have jobs awaiting J. sf 1 5i BfUSr) Off WCl I Kyi I Rick Engel brushes Cuddle Doll after her workout at the Platte County Agricultural Park in Columbus, Neb. Engel, of Aurora, will move his horses to a Kansas City track.

(AP Photo) Jury will decide garbage dump fate 1997. Source: Labor Market Inlol Aug07 Labor Force Empl Unempl Rate' 10810 10610 200 1.8 7040 6890 150 2.1 10430 10180 260 2.5 9100 8820 270 3.0 10880 10610 270 2.S 5930 5700 220 3.8; 4350 7 4260 100 2.2 5990 5900 90 I 5020 4890 130 2.5' 8070 7920 160 1.9. 7 3760 3690 70 1 9 5520 5410 100 1.9' 13180 12890 290 21, 4230 4140 90 2.1- 5900 5770 130 2.8' 16930 16540 390 2.3 56200 54700 1500 2.7 Unemol Rate 190 1.7 ,120 1.7 230 2.4 220 1.9 220 3.7 90 i 110 za 150 1.8 60 1.6 280 io 90 2.0 130 2.2 ,2 11 1500 2.6 Seasonally adjusted employment was down 900 to 1,403,500. Workforce Development officials said the strike affected about 2,400 workers in industries ranging from transportation to communications and public utilities, and without the strike, statewide employment would have grown. The retail sector saw the biggest jump in employment with 1,400 new workers in August.

Workforce Development officials predicted that employment will take a big jump this month as UPS employees return to work and schools and universities open for the fall semester. The national unemployment rate eased up to 4.9 percent in August from 4.8 percent in July. hot job them after completion of the pro-; gram, college officials said. ,3 A number of companies from around the Panhandle have contacted the college in hopes of hiring recent graduates, Waddell said. "It's been impossible to find good welders lately," said Roger Johnson, manager of Steel in Gering.

"Business has been so good we need to add on and expand. The only bad part about that is that we have to find the people." Misconceptions about what the job entails may be part of the reason that supply is so low, Waddell said. Starting salaries for welders in the area are around $20,000. kj It's a different process than it us- edtobe," he said. "A own expense.

Cutshall, 44, had been sentenced to five years in prison in 1995 in Madison County District Court after pleading innocent to assaulting a 14-year-old girl in 1992. Cutshall's daughter, 9-year-old Jill Cutshall, was abducted from the steps of her baby sitter's home in Norfolk in 1987. Her clothes were found three months later in Stanton County, but she has not been found. I A former Norfolk man, David Phelps, was sentenced to life in pris on for kidnapping the little girl. husinesRmnn Rncc Poinhort vu iwiiiiiuu auu Yankton state Sen.

Bernie Hunhoff i i t0 seek me Democratic nomination for eovernor. no one has formally announced plans to seek the Republican nomination. Corbly said she had not vet laid out a campaign plan, but she wants to travel the state and talk to nennl "I just know that I am going to run for governor and I am going to speak my mind as an American and a con- smuuonaiist, tjorbly said. i Fifteen birds are dead so far. She said most have died on the wav to tha animal shelter, while the rest been euthanized.

Lavender said an autopsy on one of the birds a the Iowa State University Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory found Avitrol, a poison bait "It's just frustrating for us." she said. "That's not a humane wav to dispose of Dieeons. We do want to end that," Cutshall's father paroled LINCOLN (AP) The father of a Norfolk girl who disappeared in 1987 was paroled Wednesday after serving only 22 months of his sentence for sexual assault of a minor. Roger Cutshall will be paroled to his wife's residence in Meadow Grove. The conditions of his parole dictate that he must find a job within 30 days or he will be in violation.

Cutshall was also ordered to register as a sex offender in Madison County, participate in counseling and submit to electronic monitoring at his "We're fighting it every step of the way Attorney General Mark Barnett seriously because they're after the dough. We're fighting it every step of the way." General state tax collections are expected to total only about $700 million this year, so any court award requiring the state to pay substantial damages would cause problems with the state budget. SDDS president Hunter Swanson of Golden, said he is pleased the dispute is moving closer to being resolved after years of legal battles. He said he cannot comment further because the legal action is not finish Independent runs for S.D. governor MADISON, S.D.

(AP) Shyrl For independents, that means 1 Corbly, who once sued the state over percent of the total who voted, which the number of signatures needed to in the next election will be 3,117, ac- get on the ballot, plans to run for cording to the South Dakota Secre- governor as an independent can- tary of State's office, didate. She had claimed the requirement is "I got up one morning and the unconstitutional because there is no Lord says, 'Anything is possible. Try actual independent party, for Corbly said "Somebody has Corbly, who said she would file got to tell the people what is going the necessary paperwork in January, on." currently is suing Minnehaha County Corbly, who also is involved in a over the appointment of Sheriff Mike lawsuit over the appointment of the Milstead. Minnehaha County sheriff, said the She beHeves state has strayed from the concept of have te separation of powers and today the Hawkey, the fonner sheriff, resigned governor's office has too much So faV. two ronle Lasagna-lugging Huskerfans among nation's most die-hard 1992 referendum that stopped the project violated the U.S.

Constitution by interfering with interstate commerce. Because the federal appeals court had ruled on those issues, the state cannot argue them again in the state court system, the federal judges said. In Thursday's decision, the South Dakota Supreme Court agreed that the state cannot argue those two issues in state court. The high court noted that it would have ruled differently than the federal court on the issues involved. The Supreme Court previously ruled that SDDS never had a valid state permit to operate Lonetree.

However, the federal appeals court has clear legal authority to prevent someone from making the same claims in state court after losing in federal court, the state high court said. The Supreme Court sent the case back to circuit court "for a jury's determination of what, if any, damages SDDS suffered at the hands of the state." University professor Leonard Zaichkowsky, who teaches sports psychology. Even football players say the adoration can be a little much. "One lady asked if she could kiss my stomach but I felt kind of weird," said Nebraska's Grant Wistrom, who denied the request. Most schools are open to licensing their insignias on items ranging from lingerie to cookies to Barbie dolls, and they get about 7 percent of the sales.

But a reguest to license condoms raised some eyebrows. Officials at several schools, including Georgia Tech, Florida and, of course, said the strangest request they received was putting a logo on a tombstone. The requests are granted on a case-by-case basis. "Maybe it's that there are no professional teams and there's only one real university in the state, but everyone can identify with the team," said 75-year-old Ned Eastlake, who's been watching Nebraska since the 1930s and helped found the group Alaskans for Nebraska. "Maybe it's just that they are the best team in the world." ed.

A circuit judge last year had dismissed the lawsuit, in which SDDS is seeking reimbursement for its costs of developing the proposed Lonetree landfill. SDDS argues that a 1992 referendum, in which voters statewide rejected the Legislature's approval of Lonetree, in effect took away the company's property. SDDS sought to bury about 1.5 million tons of baled municipal garbage a year at the Lonetree dump for the next 20 years. Much of it would have been shipped from cities outside South Dakota. After SDDS lost in state court, a federal appeals court ruled that the state cannot make two arguments central to its defense in the state court lawsuit.

The federal court last year said it had already ruled that SDDS had a legitimate entitlement to a permit to operate Lonetree and that the 1992 referendum was a direct cause of SDDS's failure to develop the dump. The federal appeals court said the since 1984 and that includes an away game in Japan. His dog, Lady Husker, comes along on road trips occasionally and watches the game on television in the motel. "We probably spend about $15,000 a year on football. I don't really want to think about it," he said.

"My wife is just as crazy about it as I am, but the craziest thing she's ever done is marry me." But Barbara Sapp of Gainesville, says Nebraska's enthusiasm for the Cornhuskers is but a small corn kernel compared with the big fish in the Sunshine State. When Sapp's son moved out, she turned his room into a Gator shrine, complete with a toilet seat that plays the "Gator Chomp" when occupied. It's similar to the theme from "Jaws." "It's like we bow to coach Steve Spurrier, that's how important he is," Sapp said. Being true to your school can be a good emotional outlet, sports psychologists say, but knowing when to draw the line is very important. "Certainly you should give it your all during the football season, but when that season's over, you need to get a life," said Boston PIERRE (AP) A jury must decide whether the state owes up to $100 million in damages to a Colorado company that sought to build a large garbage dump in southwestern South Dakota, the state Supreme Court ruled Thursday.

The jury trial is required because of a federal appeals court's ruling on issues involved in the dispute; the high court said. Attorney General Mark Barnett said the state might appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court. If the case goes to trial, the state will argue that South Dakota Disposal Systems did not lose much money when it was unable to operate its proposed Lonetree landfill near Edgemont, Barnett said. If the project had proceeded, SDDS likely would have lost money on the dump, he said.

"I think there are a number of factual and legal arguments that would suggest the damages are drastically lower than the $100 million they've sought," the attorney general said. "But obviously we're taking it Black-footed ferrets return to Badlands PIERRE (AP) More masked bandits were turned loose this week in Badlands National Park as part of the effort to bring the black-footed ferret back from near-extinction. Thirteen of the elusive rare weasels with tan torsos and brownish-black, mask-like markings on their faces were set free Tuesday in the Kocher Flats area of the park, said Bill Supernaugh, Badlands superintendent. "It's pretty much in the heart of the Badlands wilderness," he said. "People can get there on foot or horseback, but not many do." Another 50 or 60 ferrets will be released in Badlands National Park and the adjacent Buffalo Gap National Grassland this month.

-Ferrets eat prairie dogs. Widespread poisoning of prairie dogs and disease brought ferrets to the brink of extinction in the 1970s. They were thought to be extinct until a rancher near Meeteetse, discovered several of them in 1981. A captive breeding program has been successful, and hundreds of ferrets have been released since 1991 in leveral states. Thirty-six ferrets were initially released in 1994 at Badlands park.

The Badlands ferrets have borne young three years in a row. power. "The governor is the one who runs uic ainic, amu -uiuiy. inc governors run all the states like their mti little kingdoms. They have put a capital on governor.

In 1994, Corbly sued the state and lost over the number of signatures required to get on the ballot. According to state law, a candidate for statewide office must obtain the signatures of 1 percent of the total number of people who voted for their party's candidate in the previous gu- oernaionai eiecuon. LINCOLN (AP) They decorate their garages in AstroTurf, sit on toilet seats that play school anthems and refuse to schedule vacations between July and January. They are the die-hard college football fans who live for Saturdays and can't live without their teams. "You don't go to weddings.

You don't go to funerals," said Carol Collinsworth, a 49-year-old flight attendant from Atlanta who attends every Nebraska game, though she did not go to college in Lincoln. "You don't even dare die during football season." The stories of Cornhusker craziness abound. One woman took a frozen lasagna to a game because her season pass kept in the freezer for safekeeping had frozen to the lid. She got in. It used to be that fans would cheer for their team and perhaps buy a poster or two.

But with musical Gator toilet seats and Texas Aggie coffins, fans have turned fanaticism into a multimillion-dollar college football obsession. Bob Billings knows the price of obsession. The 62-year-old retired Omaha banker has not missed a Nebraska football game in person Downtown birds poisoned AMES, Iowa (AP) More than a dozen pigeons, blackbirds and crows have been poisoned in downtown Ames in the past week. Citizens have found many of the birds on the ground in seizures, Ames Animal Control Director Lor-na Lavender said. Unable to fly, they shake and twitch on the ground, try ing to spread their wings but failing.

"It's a very gruesome way for the birds to be dying," Lavender said,.