BY GRANT SCHULTEAssociated Press
LINCOLN, Neb. — Universityof Nebraska officials maintainedFriday that they would rely solelyon private fundraising and stateaid to build a $110 million cancerresearch tower in Omaha, in re-sponse to concerns raised byGov. Dave Heineman.
But Nebraska Medical CenterChancellor Harold Maurer saidthe broader $370 million project— which includes a cancer hos-pital and clinics — would alsouse $40 million in tax revenuefrom Omaha and Douglas County.
“It was public and private allalong,” Maurer told the univer-sity’s Board of Regents during ascheduled update on the project.“It was never totally private. The(local) elected officials them-selves feel that they would like tochip in on the project. This is anenormous project in terms of theeconomic development for thecity, the region and the state.”
Heineman said Thursday thathe was never told the projectwould include local governmentfunding. The Republican gover-nor said he signed a $50 millionstate funding bill for the researchtower with the understandingthat no local tax dollars would beused. The law required universityofficials to first raise $60 millionfor the research tower — onepiece of the larger project — be-fore they received the $50 millionin state money.
On Friday, Heineman reiter-ated that university officials lefthim with the impression that theentire project, and not just theresearch tower, would be paidwith state and private money. Hepointed to comments by Univer-sity of Nebraska President J.B.Milliken in public testimony thatcast the entire project as a part-nership of state and privatemoney.
“The leadership of the Univer-sity of Nebraska is on the vergeof losing my trust and confidencein them,” Heineman said. “I’ve al-
ways had a good relationshipwith them. I’ve always trustedthem. But this is the first timewhere they’ve said one thing,and they’re doing somethingelse.”
His remarks came as theOmaha City Council considers anew cigarette tax that would gen-
erate $35 million for the project,by imposing a 7 percent tax on aretailer’s gross sales — roughly35 cents on a $5 pack of ciga-rettes. Earlier this week, the Dou-glas County Board of Supervisorscommitted $5 million to the proj-ect over a 10-year period.
Heineman said he still sup-
ports the Omaha-based project,but added that the move towardlocal tax funding would make himmore skeptical about future uni-versity requests for state aid.Heineman’s final term as gover-nor expires in 2014.
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Severed Leg Found In Nebraska ReservoirNORTH PLATTE, Neb. (AP) — Authorities searching for a North
Platte man missing for over a week say a severed leg has been foundin a reservoir about 20 miles west of North Platte.
KNOP-TV reports that the Lincoln County sheriff’s office says thelimb was found in Sutherland Reservoir on Thursday. An anthropol-ogist determined the leg had been severed by a boat propeller.
DNA testing will determine if it belongs to 61-year-old Larry Sack.He was reported missing on Sept. 3 when he failed to show up at afamily gathering. His pickup truck and fishing gear were found thenext day near a canal that flows to the reservoir.
Authorities say Sack has diabetes and hadn’t been feeling wellprior to his disappearance.
Former S.D. Gov. Might Run For U.S. SenateDAKOTA DUNES (AP) — Former Republican South Dakota Gov.
Mike Rounds is forming a committee to explore a run for the U.S.Senate seat held by Democrat Tim Johnson.
The seat is up for election in November 2014. Rounds said if hedoes decide to run, he will not make an announcement until afterthe November elections.
Rounds served two terms as governor, from 2003 to 2009. He hastalked openly about a possible Senate run since early this year be-cause of his concerns about the country’s debt and health care re-form and “a federal government that doesn’t understand that profitis not a dirty word.”
“As a businessman, I firmly believe something has to change inthis country, or we’re going to be in real trouble,” Rounds told theArgus Leader newspaper Thursday.
His decision to form an exploratory committee was first reportedby KCCR radio in Pierre. The move will allow Rounds to raise andspend up to $5,000 to explore a Senate run. He said he will file pa-perwork in the next 30 days.
Johnson has represented South Dakota in Congress since 1986.He has not yet announced whether he will seek a fourth Senateterm.
Bob Burns, a retired political science professor at South DakotaState University, said Rounds would be a strong GOP candidate.
“I would guess his closest competition would probably be Rep.(Kristi) Noem, assuming that she wins in November,” he said. “Ican’t think of anyone who would give him a hard run for the nomina-tion other than Rep. Noem.”
Noem is being challenged this fall by Democrat Matt Varilek,Johnson’s former economic development director.
Animal Health Officials Warn Of Fatal AlgaeWAUBAY (AP) — Animal health officials are warning ranchers
about the potential of fatal algae in the Bitter Lake area of northeast-ern South Dakota.
The Aberdeen American News reports that cattle belonging to atleast one rancher in the area have died from the blue-green algae.
Cattle producers in the area are being asked to provide their live-stock with fresh, clean water to drink.
Bitter Lake is located south of Waubay in Day County.
Sustainability Conference Held Friday In S.D.SIOUX FALLS (AP) — A daylong sustainability conference got
under way in Sioux Falls on Friday. The Plain Green Conference was started in 2008 by South Dakota
State University and Koch Hazard Architects to raise awarenessabout the issue of sustainability.
Organizers of this year’s conference say they expect nearly 300people to attend the event focusing on design, energy and lifestyles.
University Of Mary Announces $40M PlanBISMARCK, N.D. (AP) — University of Mary’s president has an-
nounced a $40 million grown campaign for the private Catholicschool in Bismarck.
Father James Shea says the Bismarck school can no longer holdback on its need to expand the main campus. The university thisyear had about 850 students living on campus, which is about 100more students than the previous record set two years ago.
Shea says the influx of people and businesses to the Bismarck-Mandan area has increased demand for new and established pro-grams for graduates.
The fundraising campaign includes plans for more on-campushousing, increasing the university’s endowment, renovation and en-hancements to athletic facilities, expansion of Mary’s premierhealth care programs and a new student campus center.
The school announced the campaign on Friday.
Man Sues University Over Handicapped ParkingLINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — A Nebraska man is suing the University of
Nebraska-Lincoln over what he says is the university’s practice ofclosing down handicapped parking stalls on campus during Ne-braska home football games.
Richard Norton Jr. alleges in the lawsuit filed Thursday that hewas not allowed to park in a handicapped stall outside of the Uni-versity of Nebraska State Museum last year during a home footballgame. Norton says he was told the handicapped spots were beingheld for university donors.
Norton, who suffers from a physical disability, says he wasforced to park several blocks away, and the walk caused him ex-treme pain in his legs and feet for which he had to seek medicaltreatment.
Norton’s lawsuit says the university’s policy violates the Ameri-cans with Disabilities Act.
Nebraska Man Sentenced ToJail For Child Abuse
LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — A Nebraska manat the center of a sexual abuse case inwhich his victim had been threatened withjail time for refusing to testify has beensentenced to 270 days in jail.
The Lincoln Journal Star reports that63-year-old Glen Riensche was sentencedThursday in Lancanster County DistrictCourt after pleading no contest to misde-meanor child abuse. He had been accusedof fondling a 7-year-old girl when he was inhis 40s, but prosecutors dropped felonycharges in exchange for his plea.
Teen In Crash Faces ChargesIn Adult Court
ABERDEEN (AP) — An Aberdeenteenager accused of crashing into a schoolin January and injuring a passenger in hisvehicle is facing charges in adult court.
Andrew Randall is now 18 years old butwas 17 at the time of the January crash. Hefaces eight charges including drunkendriving and vehicular battery, which car-ries a maximum sentence of 10 years inprison.
The American News reports that Ran-dall made a brief appearance in court onThursday but did not enter any pleas.
The crash on Jan. 17 caused an esti-mated $30,000 in damage to the SimmonsElementary School library. Both Randalland the passenger suffered seriousinjuries.
UNMC Officials Defend Center Fundraising
BY CHET BROKAWAssociated Press
PIERRE — A task force seeking ways tomake South Dakota government more openhas narrowed its focus to a list of proposalsranging from giving citizens access to crimesuspects’ mug shots to making sure boardand commission meetings are public.
The panel has not agreed on any propos-als but has asked for some to be put intowriting as possible changes to state law, sotask force members can see details, chairmanTony Venhuizen said Friday.
Members will meet Oct. 10 to decidewhich proposals to recommend to Gov. Den-nis Daugaard and Attorney General MartyJackley, who appointed the task force to pro-pose changes in laws dealing with open meet-ings and the availability of documents.
The task force includes representatives ofnews organizations, law enforcement offi-cials, prosecutors, and officials from cities,counties and school districts.
Venhuizen, the governor’s communica-tions director, said the diverse group is seek-ing consensus on ways to make governmentmore open.
“We have a group here that represents awide variety of interests and opinions. I’vebeen impressed so far with the way the grouphas come together and worked together,”Venhuizen said.
Dave Bordewyk, general manager of theSouth Dakota Newspaper Association, saidthe 33-member panel has engaged in vigorousdebate but is working well.
“I think it just demonstrates these issuestouch a lot of people. You’ve got to make sureyou’re involving everyone in terms of tryingto figure out what can work and what can’t,”said Bordewyk, a task force member.
One of the issues that the group is study-ing is whether police should make their logsand mug shots of arrested crime suspectsavailable to the public.
Panel members also are reviewingwhether to release recordings or transcriptsof 911 calls and videos taken by camerasmounted in police cars in some cases. Ven-huizen said the group will look at how otherstates determine which recordings are appro-priate to release. Members also will examinelaws in other states to see how certain policereports are handled, he said.
Some of the proposals seek to make surestate and local boards and commissions fol-low South Dakota’s open meetings law, whichrequires them to give notice of a meeting andits agenda at least 24 hours before the meet-ing. These meetings can be closed to the pub-lic if the discussions are about personnelissues, student performance, litigation orcontracts, employee contract negotiations,pricing strategies by publicly owned busi-nesses and certain economic development
matters.One proposal would require boards and
commissions to record closed meetings, withthe recordings kept sealed unless someonecomplains a meeting was improperly closed.A judge or some other official would listen tothe recording of the meeting in question todetermine if the panel acted properly.
The task force also is studying whethertext messages or emails among board mem-bers should be made public if the communi-cation amounts to a meeting.
Representatives of townships want thelaw clarified to determine when township su-pervisors are holding a meeting. Supervisorsin many rural townships are responsible forfixing roads and bridges, and some wonder ifgathering to do that work is considered an of-ficial meeting.
Another proposal would require agenciesto disclose what information they have andthe format in which it is stored, so news or-ganizations and citizens know what’s avail-able for them to request.
Venhuizen said the task force does not ap-pear to be interested in making emails be-tween state officials or employees public.Many of those emails would be confidentialunder other state laws because they dealwith personnel issues or proprietary busi-ness information, so it would take a lot oftime and money to screen the emails beforereleasing them, he said.
Panel Narrows Focus On Open Govt. Ideas
