Wayne Byers Show – Morning – Apr 28

BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) — The 2017 North Dakota Legislature has adjourned after 77 days.

The House and Senate finished their work Thursday evening, amid a backdrop of a struggling economy that forced lawmakers in the once-thriving state to dampen spending for the first time in several years.

The session lasted 77 days, or just short of the 80-day maximum set by the state constitution.

Lawmakers on the final day put the finishing touches on last-minute spending bills.

The Legislature’s general fund spending plan for the 2017-19 budget cycle that begins July 1 is about $4.3 billion. That’s down about $1.7 billion from what was approved two years ago, due to a slumping economy.

The last day of the session is commonly called Sine Die (SYN’-ee DY’-ee), which means adjourning without setting another meeting.

FARGO, N.D. (AP) — North Dakota Republican Sen. John Hoeven says the White House is considering current U.S. Attorney Chris Myers and former U.S attorney and lieutenant governor Drew Wrigley for the state’s top federal prosecutor job.

The Department of Justice named Myers to take over when Timothy Purdon left in the middle of Barack Obama’s second term. Hoeven says it’s up to the administration to decide whether to make its own nomination, which is typically the case, or keep Myers.

Hoeven says Myers has told him he does not want to go through the nomination process.

Wrigley was U.S. attorney from 2001 to 2009 and hired Myers as assistant prosecutor. Wrigley was lieutenant governor from 2010 to 2016 and is now senior management adviser for Sanford Health.

Wrigley and Myers declined to comment.

GRAND FORKS, N.D. (AP) — A private unmanned aircraft systems company in Grand Forks says the name of a proposed drone research center at the University of North Dakota could create confusion between the two enterprises.UND is seeking approval from the state Board of Higher Education to create the Institute for Unmanned and Autonomous Research. School officials say the center is meant to spur economic development and diversification.

However, a company called Unmanned Applications Institute International is worried that the two names are too closely related and wants to work with the school on a possible solution.

UND President Mark Kennedy said during Thursday’s higher education board meeting that he would talk it over with school lawyers.

Tom Kenville, chairman of UAI International, did not immediately return a phone message seeking comment.
BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) — Eight more people have been extradited from Jamaica to face charges in the U.S. in what authorities say is a multimillion-dollar lottery scam that victimized dozens of Americans.

The eight suspects appeared Thursday in federal court in Bismarck, North Dakota. Four pleaded not guilty. Four didn’t enter pleas because their public defenders weren’t present. All were ordered held until detention hearings.

Authorities allege the scam bilked at least 90 mostly elderly Americans out of more than $5.7 million.

Fifteen suspects each are charged with 66 total counts of conspiracy, wire fraud, mail fraud and money laundering. Lavrick Willocks, who authorities say was the mastermind, pleaded not guilty in January.

Another suspect is awaiting trial in Rhode Island, one is in custody in Jamaica awaiting extradition, and four are still fugitives.
MINOT, N.D. (AP) — A woman has pleaded guilty to negligent homicide in a fatal Ward County crash.

The plea by 35-year-old Cocoa Rae Cummings comes as part of an agreement with prosecutors who will recommend she spend three years in prison. Minot Daily News reports Cummings was driving a pickup truck that collided head-on with a vehicle driven by the victim near Plaza in August 2015.

Twenty-six-year-old Brittany Westman died at the scene of the crash. Court documents say Cummings lost control of the pickup while going 67 mph in a 35 mph zone. Sentencing is scheduled for Aug. 11.

DES LACS, N.D. (AP) — Voters in the Des Lacs-Burlington school district have decided against spending $15 million to improve school buildings in the two communities near Minot, but it was a close vote.About 56 percent of the 695 voters in Tuesday’s election favored the bond issue, but the measure needed 60 percent to pass.

The proposal would have increased property taxes to generate money to renovate the high school in Des Lacs and the elementary school in Burlington, to provide more space and a new gymnasium.

Superintendent Clarke Ranum has said more room is needed because of increased student numbers.

MINOT, N.D. (AP) — Yellow ribbons have placed along an expressway in Minot to commemorate the nine workers killed in North Dakota last year.

The display along the East Burdick Expressway Friday is in observance of Workers Memorial Day.

The nine deaths in 2016 make North Dakota one of the most dangerous states in the nation based on worker deaths per capita. Those who died were working in pipeline, oil and gas, garbage collection, materials delivery and the construction industry.

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration says the deaths do not include those that might still be under investigation.

The Missouri Slope Central Labor Council says every day in the United States, 13 workers suffer fatal injuries while on the job. In 2015, more than 4,800 employees died in the workplace.

BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) — Officials with four North Dakota companies have returned from a trade mission to Peru where they promoted pulse crops such as dry beans, peas, chickpeas and lentils.

The North Dakota Trade Office helped organize the trip, and state Agriculture Commissioner Doug Goehring led the delegation.

Goehring says Peru is a “highly promising” pulse crop market, because those crops are a staple of the Peruvian diet. North Dakota leads the nation in the production of many pulse crops.

The Trade Office also organized a trade mission to Peru in 2008.

BEIJING (AP) — South Korea is contradicting President Donald Trump on missile defense and trade, while Beijing is silent on U.S. claims it’s raising the heat on North Korea. Trump has said in an interview that South Korea will renegotiate a trade deal and pay for a new missile defense system, which officials in Seoul deny. U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said Beijing is threatening unilateral sanctions on North Korea if it conducts further nuclear tests, but China’s foreign ministry would not comment.

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — America’s top Pacific commander is confident in the ability of a contentious U.S. missile defense system soon to operate in South Korea to shoot down North Korean missiles. But like nearly everything associated with the world’s last Cold War standoff, the truth is muddier.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Advocates for gun control say they aren’t being cowed by a pro-gun White House and Congress. The founder of the group Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America, Shannon Watts, says she and other advocates for gun restrictions are invigorated in the face of efforts to loosen gun regulations. Among other initiatives, the National Rifle Association is pushing for federal legislation to make any state’s concealed-carry permit valid everywhere else.

VARNER, Ark. (AP) — The American Civil Liberties Union says Arkansas may have subjected a death row inmate to cruel and unusual punishment in its rush to use a lethal injection drug before it expires. An Associated Press reporter who witnessed Kenneth Williams’ execution Thursday says his body jerked and he lurched violently against the leather chest restraint. The ACLU of Arkansas wants an investigation of witness accounts to “determine whether the state tortured” him.

BRENTWOOD, N.Y. (AP) — Two suburbs on New York’s Long Island are in the grip of fear from a violent street gang with Central American ties, MS-13. The gang has been blamed for the deaths of 11 young people in blue-collar Brentwood and Central Islip since the school year began. Some parents say they are afraid to let their children go to school. Teens say any perceived slight could mean death. President Donald Trump says the killings are the result of immigration policies that let too many criminals slip through.