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Weather for Today
Mostly sunny, with a high near 67. East wind around 6 mph becoming north in the afternoon.
Tonight
Partly cloudy, with a low around 46. Northeast wind 5 to 8 mph becoming south after midnight.
Thursday
A 20 percent chance of showers before 9am. Mostly sunny, with a high near 76. South wind 8 to 13 mph, with gusts as high as 21 mph.
Thursday Night
Partly cloudy, with a low around 56. Southwest wind 8 to 10 mph, with gusts as high as 23 mph.
Friday
A 40 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms after 1pm. Mostly sunny, with a high near 82. Southwest wind 6 to 9 mph.
Friday Night
A 30 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms. Partly cloudy, with a low around 55. Northeast wind 6 to 9 mph, with gusts as high as 20 mph.
Saturday
A 40 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms. Partly sunny, with a high near 73. North wind 6 to 11 mph, with gusts as high as 21 mph.
Saturday Night
A 20 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms. Partly cloudy, with a low around 51. North wind 6 to 11 mph, with gusts as high as 21 mph.

Valley City (CSi) – Central Avenue in downtown Valley City is open to traffic in time for Rally In The Valley events.  Stop signs are in use as Street Lights & signal lights have not been installed.   More work to do.

Jamestown  (CSi)  The Jamestown City Fire Department was called out about 10:30-p.m., Monday to an apartment unit at 711 First Avenue, North.

City Fire Chief Jim Reuther says, the cooking related fire was out on arrival, as the fire department extracted smoke from the unit.  Minor smoke damaged reported.  No other units were affected, and no evacuation was necessary.

No injuries reported.  The occupants were able to stay in their home.  Four City Fire Units, and 21 fire fighters cleared the scene at 10:52-p.m. Jamestown Area Ambulance Service was on scene, on standby.

Bismarck  (CSi)  The North Dakota Aeronautics Commission reports, latest airline boarding numbers for Jamestown Regional Airport.

The report says in May this year, 839 passengers boarded United Express in Jamestown, compared to 1,122 in May of 2018, down 25-percent. Through May this year, 4,177 Jamestown boardings, compared to 4,983 through May of 2018.

Jamestown  (CSi)  Jamestown’s new City Forester, Erik Laber  began his duties in Jamestown, on June 3 to help with caring for Jamestown’s Urban Forester.   Erik was born and raised in Jamestown, and attended Pingree-Buchanan High School and majored in Horticulture and minored in Crop and week science at NDSU.

His background includes employment with Jamestown Parks and Recreation, Mainline agronomy, along with the NDSU Central Grasslands REC, NDSU Animal Nutrition and Physiology Center. He added that his first week activities as Jamestown City Forester has included, meeting people, addressing resident calls and questions, catching up on the gap between him as City Forester, and previous City Forester.

He said, that Dutch Elm Disease county will be starting soon.  He will visit areas of Jamestown and check for elm logs with the barks attached and inform the property owner that they are in violation of the City Code pertaining to have the logs either debarked, or burned. The elm bark beetle, harbors beneath the bark, transmitting the disease to other trees.

He outlined his immediate concerns of the Urban Forest, including, Ash and Maple trees losing leaves.  He attributes that to Anthracnose, a long cool wet spell followed by hot and drier weather.

He pointed out that while there is no real treatment, fertilizing is beneficial, and he noted a second flush of leaves, especially with Ash trees.  He says, typically a tree can withstand two to three years of having Anthracnose, and survive.  He suggested to rake leaves in fall to prevent reinfection, prune for air flow and sunshine will help. With campfire season in progress, not to transport infected firewood, as the fungus and insects live in dead wood. Please plant a new tree if one is removed.

He pointed out that all new boulevard plantings need permit, adding to Call Before You Dig, to make sure not underground utilizes will be affected.  His office has a list of approved trees for boulevard plantings.

Reach Erik at his City Hall office, at 701-252-5900, or E-Mail Elaber@Jamestownd.gov

Jamestown  (CSi)  The Jamestown city Park Board has given preliminary approval in the 2020 budget, of a 4-percent raise for full-time employees, according to Doug Hogan, director of the department.

Jamestown Parks and Recreation Director, Doug Hogan says the salary increase would be included in preliminary budget figures to be reviewed at the July and August meetings. The Park Board also approved developing a strategic plan.  An an online survey will solicit public comment on the department’s facilities and programs.

MOORHEAD, Minn. (AP) — A judge in Clay County has ordered a man to serve nearly 39 years in prison for the death of a North Dakota man whose remains were found buried on the defendant’s Hitterdal farm.Forty-year-old Jason Jensen earlier pleaded guilty to second-degree aiding and abetting murder in an agreement with prosecutors. Jensen was ordered Tuesday to serve 38 years and seven months in the death of Troy Yarbrough.Jensen claims a co-defendant, 35-year-old Kayla Westcott, of Ada, killed Yarbrough in May 2018 in a shed on Jensen’s farm. Jensen said he saw Wescott hit Yarbrough with a cinder block and a rake or broom and later with an ax.Wescott faces the same charge and has been ordered to have a mental health exam. Her case is pending.LIBERTY PIPELINE$1.6B pipeline proposed to move North Dakota crude oil

BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) — Two companies are proposing a $1.6 billion pipeline to move North Dakota crude oil, though the route has not been disclosed.

The proposed pipeline would be the biggest such project in the state since the Dakota Access pipeline that sparked violent clashes between protesters and law enforcement in 2016 and 2017.

Houston-based Phillips 66 and Casper, Wyoming-based Bridger Pipeline announced the joint venture called Liberty Pipeline on Monday. It’s designed to move 350,000 barrels of oil daily from western North Dakota’s oil patch to Cushing, Oklahoma.

The route of the pipeline has not been disclosed publicly or to North Dakota regulators. The companies say in a statement the project “will utilize existing pipeline and utility corridors and advanced construction techniques to limit environmental and community impact.”

OIL PIPELINE-SECURITY COSTS

Delegation seeks settlement of Dakota Access protest costs

(Information from: Bismarck Tribune, http://www.bismarcktribune.com)

BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) — North Dakota’s congressional delegation is calling on President Donald Trump’s administration to address the state’s year-old request for $38 million to cover the cost of policing protests against the Dakota Access oil pipeline.

The Bismarck Tribune reports that U.S. Sens. John Hoeven and Kevin Cramer and U.S. Rep. Kelly Armstrong sent a letter Thursday urging Attorney General William Barr and Acting Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan to settle the state’s claim.

North Dakota’s attorney general filed a claim against the Army Corps of Engineers last year, accusing the agency of letting protesters illegally camp on federal land in North Dakota in 2016 and 2017. It also argued the Corps didn’t maintain law and order.

The delegation is asking Barr and Shanahan to recognize the state’s public safety response during the prolonged and sometimes violent protests.

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DAY CARE ABUSE

Day care provider sentenced to prison for injuring child

(Information from: Bismarck Tribune, http://www.bismarcktribune.com)

BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) — A former Bismarck day care provider is convicted of physically abusing a 3-year-old boy is sentenced to 1½ years in prison.

Fifty-six-year-old Marlene Steedsman must also serve three years of probation. She was convicted of injuring the boy’s ears. He said Steedsman tried to break his ears off because he wet his pants.

The Bismarck Tribune says it’s not her first conviction regarding a child in her care. She pleaded guilty to providing false information to police in 2017 after a 5-month-old had fallen from a swing being pushed by another child in her care. That child suffered brain injuries and a skull fracture. Steedsman was sentenced to probation in that case.

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SUBMERGED PICKUP-BODY

Man’s body recovered from submerged pickup truck

(Information from: KFGO-AM, http://www.kfgo.com)

LISBON, N.D. (AP) — The body of a man has been recovered from a submerged pickup truck in a Ransom County creek.

Sheriff Darren Benneweis (BEN’-ah-ways) says someone called authorities after seeing the truck entering Dead Colt Creek about 11 a.m. Monday southeast of Lisbon.

KFGO reports the man’s body was later located and recovered. He has not been identified.

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WASHINGTON (AP) — Donald Trump Jr. told reporters he has “nothing to correct” as he arrived on Capitol Hill Wednesday for a second closed-door interview with the Senate intelligence committee.Trump Jr. made the brief comments in response to a reporter who asked if he was there to correct his testimony. Senators want to discuss answers Trump Jr. gave to Congress in 2017 after President Donald Trump’s former lawyer, Michael Cohen, told a House committee he had regularly briefed Trump Jr. on a real estate project in Moscow. Trump Jr. told Congress he was only “peripherally aware” it.The panel is also interested in talking to him about a campaign meeting in Trump Tower with a Russian lawyer that captured the interest of special counsel Robert Mueller.

DAVENPORT, Iowa (AP) — President Donald Trump and former Vice President Joe Biden repeatedly laid into each other while traveling in the battleground state of Iowa, unleashing verbal attacks that at times felt more appropriate for the final weeks before Election Day than a lazy summer about 17 months before voters go to the polls.The back-and-forth on Tuesday laid bare the rising political stakes for each man. Trump has zeroed in on Biden as a threat to his reelection chances and is testing themes to keep him at bay. Biden, meanwhile, is campaigning as a front-runner with near-universal name recognition , relishing the fight with Trump while trying to ensure he doesn’t ignore the demands of the crowded Democratic primary .”People don’t respect him,” Trump said of Biden after touring a renewable energy facility in Council Bluffs. “Even the people that he’s running against, they’re saying: ‘Where is he? What happened?'”With a dose of exaggeration, the Republican president added: “He makes his stance in Iowa once every two weeks and then he mentions my name 74 times in one speech. I don’t know. That reminds me of Crooked Hillary. She did the same thing.” He went on to muse that standing for nothing but opposing his policies was the reason Clinton lost.At almost the same moment in Mount Pleasant, Biden noted that his staff told him Trump was watching footage of his criticism of the president from early in the day as Air Force One landed in Iowa.”I guess he’s really fascinated by me,” Biden said. “I find it fascinating.” He started to say more but then stopped himself, quipping: “My mother would say: ‘Joey, focus. Don’t descend. Stay up.'”Speaking Tuesday evening in Davenport, Biden suggested Trump was an “existential threat to America” and said voters must stop the president’s attempts to elevate his office beyond its traditional limits of power. He said Trump is “breaking down the barriers that constrain his power” and mockingly accused him of believing that he has “complete power.”

“No, you don’t, Donald Trump,” Biden cried, drawing cheers from a crowd of around 500 at the Mississippi Valley Fairgrounds.

Biden is campaigning again in Iowa on Wednesday, this time without Trump in the state.

For his part, Trump has insisted that Biden is the candidate he wants to face in 2020.

“I’d rather run against Biden than anybody,” Trump told reporters on the White House lawn before flying to Iowa. “I think he’s the weakest mentally, and I like running against people that are weak mentally.”

Biden began the day Tuesday in Ottumwa, the heart of Wapello County, a meat-packing and agricultural manufacturing center that Trump was the first Republican to carry since Dwight D. Eisenhower. The former vice president hit Trump on the economy — an issue the president often promotes as his chief strength in a time of low unemployment.

“I hope his presence here will be a clarifying event because Iowa farmers have been crushed by his tariffs toward China,” Biden said. “It’s really easy to be tough when someone else absorbs the pain, farmers and manufacturers.”

Biden added that Trump “backed off his threat of tariffs to Mexico basically because he realized he was likely to lose” in manufacturing states such as Michigan and Ohio. He broadly branded Trump “an existential threat to this country” and said his behavior is often beneath the office of the presidency.

Trump used his visit Tuesday to display the power of incumbency, talking up his administration’s accomplishments on trade and protection of agriculture in a state where both are vital. In Council Bluffs, he toured a plant that produces and sells the corn-based fuel additive ethanol, and he signed an executive order he said would help farmers.

“I fought very hard for ethanol, but you proved me right,” Trump said, adding that he fought “for the American farmer like no president has fought before.”

But he then mocked Biden again.

“He was someplace in Iowa today and he said my name so many times that people couldn’t stand it,” the president said.

Later, addressing an evening fundraiser in West Des Moines, Trump refrained from mentioning Biden by name but took a veiled swipe at the former vice president’s recent reversal on the Hyde Amendment, a ban on using federal funds to pay for abortions. Biden now says he opposes the ban.

“They go for one thing for a lifetime, and then they flip, and they go to something totally different,” Trump said. “It depends on which race they’re running.”

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Superville reported from Council Bluffs. Weissert reported from Washington. Associated Press writer Alexandra Jaffe in Mount Pleasant, Iowa, contributed to this report.