wbPM3CSi Weather…

.TONIGHT…CLOUDY. 40 PERCENT CHANCE OF RAIN SHOWERS IN THE EVENING A 70 PERCENT CHANCE IN THE VALLEY CITY AREA…THEN
RAIN SHOWERS AFTER MIDNIGHT. LOWS IN THE MID 40S. NORTH WINDS
15 TO 20 MPH.
.THURSDAY…80 PERCENT CHANCE OF RAIN SHOWERS. BREEZY. HIGHS IN THE LOWER 50S. NORTH
WINDS 20 TO 25 MPH.
.THURSDAY NIGHT…CLOUDY WITH A 50 PERCENT CHANCE OF RAIN SHOWERS
IN THE EVENING IN THE JAMESTOWN AREA, A 70 PERCENT CHANCE IN THE VALLEY CITY AREA…THEN PARTLY CLOUDY AFTER MIDNIGHT. LOWS IN THE
MID 30S. NORTHWEST WINDS 10 TO 20 MPH.
.FRIDAY…SUNNY. HIGHS IN THE LOWER 60S. NORTHWEST WINDS 10 TO
15 MPH.
.FRIDAY NIGHT…MOSTLY CLEAR. LOWS AROUND 40.
.SATURDAY AND SATURDAY NIGHT…MOSTLY CLOUDY. A 40 PERCENT CHANCE
OF RAIN SHOWERS. HIGHS IN THE LOWER 60S. LOWS IN THE LOWER 40S.
.SUNDAY…PARTLY SUNNY WITH A 30 PERCENT CHANCE OF RAIN SHOWERS.
HIGHS IN THE UPPER 50S.
.SUNDAY NIGHT AND MONDAY…MOSTLY CLOUDY. A 20 PERCENT CHANCE OF
RAIN SHOWERS. LOWS AROUND 40. HIGHS IN THE UPPER 50S.
.MONDAY NIGHT AND TUESDAY…PARTLY CLOUDY. LOWS AROUND 40. HIGHS
AROUND 60.

STUTSMAN COUNTY…

THE JAMES RIVER VALLEY WILL SEE THE HIGHEST PRECIPITATION AMOUNTS  WEDNESDAY AFTERNOON AND AGAIN LATE WEDNESDAY NIGHT.

BARNES COUNTY…

SHOWERS WILL INCREASE IN COVERAGE WEDNESDAY AFTERNOON INTO WEDNESDAY NIGHT BUT RAINFALL  AMOUNTS WILL BE ONE HALF INCH OR LESS. RIVER LEVELS ALONG THE RED RIVER WILL BE HIGHER THAN NORMAL FROM FARGO DOWNSTREAM. 
 
THURSDAY THROUGH TUESDAY
 
 SHOWERS WILL CONTINUE INTO THURSDAY NIGHT…WITH LOCALLY AN
 ADDITIONAL HALF INCH OF RAIN POSSIBLE.

 

(CSi) Farm Rescue has received a grant for $445,564 from The Leona M. and Harry B. Helmsley Charitable Trust.

The trust has pledged $190,000 over the next three years in the form of a 2-to-1 matching grant as a challenge for Farm Rescue to broaden its base of support.

Farm Rescue founder and President, Bill Gross states that it’s the largest multi-year funding Farm Rescue has received since its inception, and Farm Rescue will use the grant for strategic and development planning and creating a development officer position.

New donations will be matched 2-to-1, and donations as a registered 501(c)3 nonprofit organization to Farm Rescue are tax-deductible to the maximum extent allowed by law.

Gross expressed his appreciation to the trust for assisting Farm Rescue.

Farm Rescue is a nonprofit organization that provides free planting, harvesting and haying assistance to farm families who have experienced a major illness, injury or natural disaster.

 

  BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) – North Dakota Gov. Jack Dalrymple has asked agencies to stick to their current spending plans when crafting new budgets for the next two years.
 
     Dalrymple addressed agency administrators on Wednesday at the state Capitol in Bismarck.
 
     Dalrymple says the guidelines apply to ongoing state programs. He says they won’t affect one-time spending on road repairs and other essential projects.
 
     North Dakota departments will use the outline to write spending plans for the next two-year budget cycle.
 
     Dalrymple will use the proposals to craft his own spending recommendations to the Legislature when lawmakers meet in January.
 
     The state’s current two-year, $6.8 billion general fund budget has more than doubled since 2009.

 

 BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) – A man serving seven years in prison for attempted murder in the beating and stabbing of a Bismarck man last year has now been ordered to pay nearly $14,000 in restitution for medical bills.
 
34-year-old Jose Osorio pleaded guilty in February in the June 2013 assault of Rafael Zayas. Authorities say Zayas was beaten with dumbbells and stabbed nine times.
 
     Judge Bruce Haskell ordered the restitution even though he said it was unlikely Osorio will ever be able to pay the money because he is likely to be deported following his prison term.
 
     Osorio’s co-defendant in the case, Kelvin Oviedo, already has been deported after being convicted of misdemeanor hindering law enforcement.

 

FARGO, N.D. (AP) – The first sentence has been handed down in an online sex trafficking sting on the North Dakota oil patch that resulted in more than a dozen arrests.
 
     U.S. District Judge Daniel Hovland on Tuesday sentenced 34-year-old Clayton Lakey, of Billings, Montana, to five years in prison, to be followed by 10 years of supervised release. Lakey must register as a sex offender.
 
     Lakey had pleaded guilty in federal court to coercion and enticement of a minor.
 
     Authorities say Lakey agreed to pay for sex with a person he thought was a juvenile. He was arrested at a Dickinson hotel.
 
     The investigation known as “Operation Vigilant Guardian” was centered in Dickinson and Williston in October and November.
 
     A spokesman with the federal public defender’s office was not immediately available for comment.

 

FARGO, N.D. (AP) – A Fargo judge says an agreement that allows North Dakota State University police to issue citations off campus is valid.
 
     The issue was raised by Fargo attorney Charley Sheeley last month when he asked East Central District Judge Thomas Olson to throw out evidence in a DUI arrest made a few blocks from NDSU’s downtown campus.
 
     Sheeley argued that the pact between NDSU and the city conflicts with state law and amounts to state taxpayers boosting the city’s coffers with money from fines.
 
     Olson ruled that a 2011 state law on interagency cooperation makes the 2006 agreement between NDSU and the city of Fargo legitimate.
 
     The so-called memorandum of understanding allows NDSU police to enforce laws “in the perimeter around campus” and assist with major crimes on a temporary basis.

 

 BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) – A North Dakota company is planning a liquefied natural gas processing facility in Tioga, in the northwestern part of the state.
 
     Tioga-based North Dakota LNG says the fuel will be used to offset the use of diesel during oil drilling operations.
 
     CEO Pat Hughes says operations will begin this summer. He would not disclose the cost of the facility but says it will employ up to 30 people.
 
     The plant is slated to produce up to 76,000 gallons of liquefied natural gas daily by early next year.
 
     Hughes says that amount of LNG would displace about 44,000 gallons of diesel daily.
 
     Hughes says a typical drill rig uses up to 2,500 gallons of diesel daily.

 

In world and national news…

LAGOS, Nigeria (AP) – Islamic militants are escalating their violent campaign aimed at imposing an Islamic state in Nigeria — where half of the country’s 170 million residents are Christian. Officials say the militants have killed hundreds of people in an attack on a northeastern border town. The Islamic extremists are already holding more than 270 girls who were kidnapped from their boarding school.
 
     VILONIA, Ark. (AP) – By air and by foot, President Barack Obama has been getting a look Wednesday communities in Arkansas that were devastated by recent deadly tornadoes. He stopped in Arkansas today, making his first visit to the state as president, while on his way to California. Fifteen people were killed in an April 27th tornado outbreak near Little Rock that destroyed hundreds of homes.
 
     WASHINGTON (AP) – America’s high school seniors are still lacking in critical math and reading skills needed for an increasingly competitive global economy. That’s the assessment in the latest Nation’s Report Card. Based on the results of last year’s exam, it finds that only about a quarter of seniors are performing proficiently or better in math, and just four out of ten in reading. The results are little changed from four years earlier.
 
     ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (AP) – Firefighters near Tampa, Fla., have found a fourth body in a burning mansion owned by former tennis star James Blake. Sheriff’s deputies say they’ve spoken with Blake and he said he was leasing the home. He was not in Florida at the time of the fire. Firefighters say they saw fireworks inside the home. They’ve spent hours putting out hot spots in the more-than 6,000-square-foot home in a gated community north of downtown Tampa.
 
     CONCORD, N.H. (AP) – If a New Hampshire man thinks police lie, he’s free to say so on his license plate. That’s the ruling  from the state’s highest court. It sided with a man who wanted the vanity plate that read “COPS LIE” to protest what he calls government corruption. State law prohibits plates that “a reasonable person would find offensive to good taste.” But the law was challenged as being too vague.