Rapid City Journal from Rapid City, South Dakota • 5

Saturday, February 7, 2009 I AS. rapidcityjournal.com Aberdeen help city reserves Mayor: The Associated Press Smoking ban group gears for Pierre communities. 1 For, the Black Hills area, the bus ride will start at the Young Center parking lot at Black Hills State University In Spearfish at 4:45 a.m., then stop at Tuscany Square on Omaha Street In Rapid City about 6 a.m. Seating Is limited, and those interested in a ride should call Erik Galkowskl at 323-3545. In Pierre, the group will walk from Lutheran Memorial Church to the capital, attend committee meetings and talk with legislators, among other events.

By Journal staff Proponents of legislation to ban smoking In public places will stage a "Smoke Free Day at the Capitol" In Pierre on Monday, Feb. 9. The volunteers will advocate passage of HB1240, which would ban smoking In bars, restaurants, casinos In Deadwood and state video lottery establishments. Jen McKeown, spokeswoman for the American Heart Association, said supporters will ride In buses and carpools from Sioux Falls, Rapid City and other Facebook no friend to Native American names tion projects1 with national economic stimulus plan funds, the mayor said, i Aberdeen wouldn't have to make any budget changes if sales tax revenue starts to drop, although some changes probably would be made, Levsen Some job losses have been reported in Aberdeen, and officials say could get worse. But if that happens, "we're ready," Levsen said.

bison ranch with a storm like cattle. Obviously, they drifted north with a prevailing north wind." The bison are sold for meat suid are slaughtered at facilities in North Dakota and Colorado, O'Brien said. Sen. Byron Dorgan said he has asked the federal Agriculture Department to investigate reports of animal neglect and abuse at the ranch. "It appears to be there's something going on down there that's not right," Dorgan said.

"Given the fact that this a large operation managed from afar, it seems to me the USDA ought to take a look there." Dorgan said Wilder has collected more than $3 million in farm subsidies. "You'd have the same concern if this were a North Dakota operator," Dorgan said. O'Brien said none of his bison were malnourished and "only a handful" of animals had died because of harsh winter conditions. additional time would make a difference. "I think you could delay this thing until 2020 and there's going to be somebody out there that's going to claim that they never heard about it or that they can't be ready for it," Loos said.

"Eventually, you just have to fish or cut bait." The House voted Wednesday to delay the mandatory shutdown until June 12. The Synate passed the measure unanimously last week, and the bill now awaits President Obama's signature. about $2.6 million. Aberdeen also has $300,000 worth of contingency in the budget, which is included each year for anything unexpected. Together, the total is about $3 million in essential "reserves," Levsen said.

Levsen said the positive financial situation is the result of people from department heads to council members doing their jobs well. Aberdeen might be able to do some of Its road construe- more feed at lems for the artfmals. The ranch boss will be replaced, O'Brien said. "We've got an ad running now," O'Brien said. "The weather was an issue, but he didn't get them south fast enough he should have been more on the ball." The ranch has about 2,500 bison, 1,100 cattle and seven employees, O'Brien said.

O'Brien, who is based in Florida, said he and other workers, using snowmobiles and pickups, have rounded up dozens of loose bison in the past week and moved them to feed yards in South Dakota; "It got out of hand, but its under control now," he said Friday. O'Brien said the loose bison headed north and into the wind after escaping pastures. He said it was difficult to reverse the animals' direction because they follow their noses for food. Holland said bison "tend to head into a storm rather than required it to run more public messages than would be otherwise needed, but the decision may have helped KSFY avoid being caught up in additional waiver requests, Manning said. Monte Loos, operations manager for KOTA-TV in Rapid City, said the station is ready to turn off its analog signal but is waiting to see what the final signed bill says before making a decision.

Loos said the station would consider extending the cutoff for two weeks or a month if people truly need some more time, but said he isn't sure the ABERDEEN In his state of the city address, Aberdeen Mayor Mike Levsen said the city's $3 million in reserves provides confidence If the economy gets worse. The city's reserve fund has grown from about $1 million since Levsen became mayor in 2004. Last summer, the city projected a 3.5 percent Increase in sales tax income for 2008. Veterinarian The Associated Press BISMARCK, N.D. South Dakota's state I veterinarian said he has found no evidence of sick or starving bison at a ranch along the North Dakota-South Dakota border, but he is recommending the ranch have a management plan and at least a month's worth of feed on hand.

Veterinarians from both states are investigating complaints of animal abuse and neglect at the ranch owned by millionaire businessman and real estate developer Maurice Wilder, of Clearwater, Fla. Area ranchers have complained about property damage from dozens of bison running loose. South Dakota state veterinarian Sam Holland said a veterinarian from his office has been at the ranch monitoring the health of the bison herd. "They were not starving and emaciated," Holland said DIGITAL: U.S. House voted to delay the transition until June 12.

From Page Al station or group of stations from moving forward if their plans are "contrary to the public interest." State broadcasters discussed their options during a teleconference Friday afternoon, but Willard said there isn't yet any Consensus on how they should proceed. "What we're doing at this moment is sorting out our ability to comply, because Feb. 17 is no longer the change date, now it's the 'early' change," he said. South Dakota Public Broadcasting will complete the digital television conversion that day as planned, despite congressional action allowing a delay until June 12, according to executive director Julie Andersen. "We are technically prepared for the switch, and any delay will be costly," Andersen said.

She said the additional electricity cost for continuing analog transmission would be about $15,700 a month, an unbud-geted expense for the network. SDPB will turn off the analog Aberdeen ended the year with a 5.7 percent sales tax revenue Increase. "We are ahead of where we thought we'd be," Levsen said. The amount of sales tax the city collected from December 2007 to November 2008 was almost $400,000 more than for the same period a year earlier. Levsen said Thursday that city officials always create an honest budget with reasonable revenue projections.

The city's reserve fund totals recommends Friday. They were being fed, but we are recommending they be fed more." Holland said heavy snow and bitter cold have been hard on all livestock. He said the ranch had only about three weeks of feed when officials Investigated. The ranch owners are required to submit a management plan and will have to keep at least a month's worth of feed for the animals, he said. "It's not unusual for cattle, buffalo and other animals to have problems when we've had the kind of weather we've had," Holland said.

"There was no grazing because everything is white." Wilder did not return telephone calls for comment. Dan O'Brien, who manages Wilder's 200,000 acres of farm and ranch land in eight states, said harsh weather and a delay In moving bison from pasture-land In North Dakota into South Dakota created prob signal for eight full-power transmitters statewide on Feb. 17 at midnight CST or 1 1 p.m. MST. A ninth transmitter, near Faith in northwestern South Dakota, made the digital transition In December.

SDPB staff will be available on Wednesday, Feb. 18, to take calls from viewers who have challenges, at 800-456-0766. More information about the change is available on SDPB's Web site at www.SDPB.org. digital. South Dakota's two NBC affiliates.

KDLT-TV in Sioux Falls and KNBN-TV in Rapid City, have already made the transition to digital. Sioux Falls-based KELOLAND TV also has digital signals for most of its statewide network but says it will continue the analog broadcasting through June 12 as provided by the congressional delay. KELO In Sioux Falls and KCLO In Rapid City already broadcast a digital signal, and KPLO for PierreChamberlain will start doing so Feb. 17, when. KDLO in WatertownAb-erdeen will also convert to digital.

Sioux Falls' ABC affiliate, KSFY-TV, has filed paperwork to convert to digital on Feb. 16, said general manager Kelly Manning. The station's switch plan starting at 2S3 The Associated Press SIOUX FALLS For about a week, Robin Kills The Enemy was friendless. Wrongly banned from the social networking Web site Facebook for registering under a false name, she was unable to get in touch with dozens of friends. In the middle of planning an upcoming trip, she suddenly lost touch with those she was to meet.

But the name she had used was authentic, and though Facebook administrators eventually reinstated her account, some are concerned the site is unfairly shutting off access to users with Native American surnames. Kills The Enemy's experience has spawned a group of 1,000 Facebook users wondering why some with Native American surnames must jump through- hoops and endure accusations of fraud while hundreds of users claiming to be named "Bart Simpson" do not. Since Its inception in 2004, Facebook has become a virtual second home to hundreds of millions of people worldwide. For some, it's a primary means of communication the exclusive way to- talk to friends across the street or across the country. That's how Kills The Enemy, 28, used the site.

Kills The Enemy lives outside Parmelee on the Rosebud Indian Reservation and works as a technology mentor and computer technician at He Dog Elementary School. When she found her account had been deactivated, she quickly realized how many friends she no longer could reach at all. Losing access meant losing touch with college friends with whom she had worked hard to recon--nect. It wasn't devastating, exactly, but it was certainly upsetting. Site thought name fake Kills The Enemy's problems started not when she Joined Facebook, but when she tried to correct an error that was nagging at her.

"At first I didn't use Face-book, because they didn't accept my last name," Kills The Enemy said. She instead used MySpace. But the rival site attracts a younger crowd, and most of her friends were migrating to Facebook. She followed. When she signed up for the site last summer, it wouldn't accept her real surname, so she combined it.

She was Robin Killstheenemy. But people couldn't understand her mashed-together name, and she finally e-mailed Facebook to ask for a change. The next day, her account was deactivated. She e-maited the site asking for an explanation. "Fake names are a violation of our Terms of Use.

Facebook requires users to provide their full first and last names," an analyst wrote to her. Facebook would reinstate her if she provided her real name. A matter of safety A spokesman for Facebook described the site's policy. "Facebook is based on a real-name culture. This helps create an environment where people are accountable for their actions and behavior," Facebook Privacy and Public Policy spokesman Simon Axten said in an e-mail to the Argus Leader.

"Fake names and false identities are actually a violation of the Terms of Use, and we disable fake accounts when they're report-ed to us by our users." Axten didn't speak specifically about Kills The Enemy's account but acknowledged that errors sometimes occur. "Of course, we may occasionally disable an account that uses a legitimate but unusual name," Axten said. "When this happens, we encourage users to contact us so we can investigate and hopefully reactivate. We feel that any Inconvenience this extra step might add for a very small number of our users is worth it for maintaining Facebook's overall safety." A cause is bom Kills The Enemy tried to "navigate? that process and sent e-mails to Facebook asking for reinstatement. In the meantime, a Nebraska journalism student, Nancy Kelsey, wrote a story for Reznetnews.org, a Native American news Web site.

Kelsey also started a Face-book group called "Facebook; don't discriminate against Native surnames!" In just a few days, more than 1,000 users joined the cause. Stay Warm, EI3 "'fill MftiL-r-Ji" ''If' M'ti Mum "AfciiiirrMiim nfliTWai) "'BlftMlSfoilllilii W(Mf IK Bahota Lliddlo School Is Tcagh Enough To Uoqf Mi '( tV 1.. y-- VKf 1 Et cssssi. T-shirts era fesisj st fca CHsa ci stesk rssa mmwl linna nli Cell (C3) IP iji) fUD it.