Wayne Byers Show – Evening – Feb 11

Jamestown  (CSi)  the Jamestown City Engineer’s Office says, that due to the Presidents’ Day Holiday, there will be NO garbage pick-up on Monday, February 16, 2015.

Monday’s garbage route will be picked up on Tuesday. Tuesday’s route will be picked up on Wednesday; Wednesday & Thursday’s routes will be picked up on Thursday with normal garbage pick-up on Friday, February 20, 2015.

The baling facility will be closed on Monday, February 16, 2015.

Jamestown (CSi) The North Dakota Intercollegiate Band Concert will be Saturday February 21, 2015 at 3:00 PM at the University of Jamestown’s Reiland Fine Arts Center, and is free and open to the public.

College bands from North Dakota join up to entertain, including the University of Jamestown, Valley City State University, Bismarck State College, Dickinson State University, Minot State University, NDSU, University of Mary, and UND.

This will be the 14th Annual concer for music and non-music majors.

Students will arrive in Jamestown on Friday Februrary 20th, with rehearsals ahead of Saturday afternoon’s concert.

The guest director will be Dr. Donald DeRoche who was a director at DePaul University in Chicago.

  FARGO, N.D. (AP) – A Finley woman who admitted to killing her husband at their home a year ago has been sentenced to 20 years in prison.
 
     Sherry Midstokke (MID’-stock) pleaded guilty last month to murder for the slaying of 66-year-old Lyle Midstokke. Prosecutors say she drugged and smothered him to death last February.
 
     Steele County State’s Attorney Charlie Stock tells KFGO radio that he’s satisfied with the sentence because it’s what family members wanted.
 
     Midstokke was ordered to serve 10 years of probation when she gets out of prison.

 BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) – North Dakota’s House has killed a bill to remove the state from an organization created to develop an assessment system for the Common Core education standards. 
 
     The House narrowly defeated the bill 46-43 on Wednesday.
 
     The measure aimed to terminate the state’s membership from the Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium. The consortium is comprised of states that have worked to establish a testing program for Common Core.
 
     Fargo Republican Rep. Jim Kasper and other critics say the Common Core standards represent a federal takeover of education.
 
     North Dakota School Superintendent Kirsten Baesler says more than 130 educators from the state were involved in helping develop the standards.
 
     Common Core outlines what skills students should learn to be ready for college and careers. Common Core replaces standards that varied state-to-state.

 WASHINGTON (AP) – The Republican-controlled Congress has cleared a bill approving the construction of the Keystone XL oil pipeline. That sets up a confrontation with President Barack Obama, who has threatened to veto the measure.
 
     The House voted 270-152 on Wednesday to send the bill to the president. Neither chamber has enough votes to overcome a veto. 
 
     The vote caps weeks of debate on a top priority for Congress after the GOP took control last month. Supporters are already planning on using other means to secure the pipeline’s approval.
 
     First proposed in 2008, the Keystone XL pipeline would connect Canada’s tar sands to Gulf Coast refineries.
 
     Republicans argued it was a jobs bill that would boost energy security. Democrats said it was a gift to the oil industry that would worsen global warming. 
 

 FARGO, N.D. (AP) – U.S. Sen. John Hoeven says the Federal Aviation Administration has approved a request to expand North Dakota’s airspace for drone testing.
 
     The move announced Wednesday paves the way for increased unmanned aircraft testing at Grand Forks Air Force Base, which was the first of six national test sites to begin operations.
 
     The area covers about two-thirds of the state. Hoeven says it makes North Dakota the most versatile range in the country and positions Grand Forks as a hub for drone research and business.
 
     The Air Force last week signed a lease that opens up more than 200 acres of property for a drone technology and business park known as Grand Sky.

  BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) – Bismarck police say they were only able to arrest 17 men this month after an online ad selling sex received more than 60 responses.
 
     Police spokesman Mark Buschena says the online ad was part of a sting operation conducted earlier this month.
 
     Buschena says their ad received 65 responses, but because of limited officers on hand and other constraints, they arrested and charged just 17 men who answered the ad.
 
     All 17 men were arrested at hotel rooms after allegedly agreeing to pay for sex. The men ranged in age from 18 to 48 and hailed from across the state. One man was from Minnesota and another was from Rhode Island.
 
     The charges against the men have been sent to the Bismarck city attorney’s office.

BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) – State officials want more fast-track funding for areas affected by North Dakota’s exploding growth.
 
     The state Senate last month approved $1.1 billion in special funding so that infrastructure projects can begin in time for the construction season.
 
     The House Appropriations Committee on Wednesday reviewed the “surge funding” bill that would fast-track funding to cities, school districts and communities.
 
     The measure includes $300 million for state highway projects. Transportation Director Grant Levi told the committee that his agency needs an additional $150 million in fast-track funding.
 
     State Budget Director Pam Sharp wants the bill to include an additional $23 million for housing, and to hire more law enforcement and oilfield inspectors.
 
     The committee did not take any action on the measure or the requests for more funding.
 
     Grand Forks officials say the unmanned aircraft industry should bring thousands of jobs to the region.

BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) – North Dakota’s congressional delegation says the federal Environmental Protection Agency has reaffirmed its earlier approval of North Dakota’s plan to address haze caused by coal-fired power plants.
 
     The EPA in 2012 agreed with the position of the North Dakota Health Department that power plants at Center and Stanton could use less-expensive technology to reduce haze that could affect Theodore Roosevelt National Park in western North Dakota.
 
     Environmental groups appealed the decision, saying the plants should be forced to use the best-available technology.
 
     U.S. Sens. John Hoeven and Heidi Heitkamp and Rep. Kevin Cramer say they’re pleased with the EPA decision to reaffirm approval of North Dakota’s plan rather than enforce a more costly one-size-fits-all federal plan.

In sports…

 WILLISTON, N.D. (AP) – Longtime Williston broadcaster Jon Cole has been elected to the North Dakota Associated Press Sportscasters and Sportswriters Association Hall of Fame.
 
     Cole was the only one of 13 candidates to achieve the necessary 75 percent approval in the latest voting. Association members and Hall of Fame members are eligible to vote.
 
     Cole grew up in Massachusetts. When he couldn’t find a broadcasting job on the East Coast, he traveled west. He is now in his 34th year of broadcasting sports in the Williston area.
 
     Cole has won many awards during his career, including being named North Dakota Sportscaster of the Year five times. He tells the Williston Herald that the Hall of Fame is a lifetime award, and his election made him cry.

FARGO Western Carolina has backed out of a football contest with the NDSU Bison.

The Catamounts bought out of the 2016 season opener, the third time the team will fail to show up on the Bison schedule.

Instead Western Carolina is playing an FBS game at Eastern Carolina.

The school is going to pay a buyout of $200,000.

In 2013 NDSU replaced Western Carolina on its schedule with Delaware State, which was part of ESPN’s “College GameDay” pregame show in Fargo.

LAS VEGAS (AP) – A man who brought the University of Nevada-Las Vegas to a college basketball championship has died. Jerry Tarkanian was 84 years old. The former coach built a basketball dynasty at the desert school, and ended up collecting a $2.5 million settlement from the NCAA after accusing the organization of trying to run him out of college basketball.

In world and national news…

GROSSETO, Italy (AP) – The Italian cruise ship captain who wrecked the ship and then fled while many of the passengers and crew were still on board has been convicted of multiple counts of manslaughter. Italian court officials say Francesco Schettino (frahn-CHEHS’-koh skeh-TEE’-noh) was sentenced to 16 years behind bars. He was convicted in the deaths of 32 passengers and crew, as well as charges of causing a shipwreck and abandoning the vessel. Prosecutors had described him as a “reckless idiot,” and asked for more than 26 years behind bars. The captain told the court today that he was being made a scapegoat.
 
     WASHINGTON (AP) – He’s looking to rule out any long-term, large-scale ground combat like the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan — but President Barack Obama is asking Congress to allow ground combat operations against the Islamic State group “in other more limited circumstances.” Those would include rescue missions, intelligence collection, and possible military action against Islamic State leaders. Republicans say the resolution doesn’t go far enough — while some Democrats believe it goes too far toward getting the U.S. involved in another ground war.
 
     MINSK, Belarus (AP) – As fighting rages in eastern Ukraine, the leaders of France, Germany, Russia and Ukraine are engaged in crucial peace talks in Belarus (BEHL’-uh-roos). The talks, arranged by the leaders of France and Germany, are aimed at reaching a deal to end the fighting between Ukrainian troops and Russian-backed separatists. After talking in private for several hours, the four leaders went into a broader meeting involving senior officials.
 
     NEW YORK (AP) – A New York City rookie officer has been charged with manslaughter, official misconduct and other counts in the accidental shooting death of a man in a darkened stairwell of a Brooklyn public housing complex. Officer Peter Liang pleaded not guilty Wednesday in the November death of Akai Gurley. He was released without bail. The Brooklyn courtroom was packed with officers.
 
    

NEW YORK    NBC News reports that it has suspended its chief anchor and managing editor Brian Williams immediately for six months without pay, forgoing the option of firing the embattled newsman for now due to his popularity and past work at the network.

Williams took himself off the air Saturday after soldiers revealed that his account of being on a Chinook helicopter that went down during the U.S. invasion of Iraq was not true.