BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) \u2014 North Dakota Secretary of State Al Jaeger says a measure seeking to increase the state’s tobacco tax will appear on the November ballot.<\/p>\n
Supporters needed about 13,500 qualified signatures to put it to a statewide vote in the Nov. 8 general election. Jaeger on Wednesday said the measure’s backers turned in about 21,700 qualified signatures.<\/p>\n
The Raise It For Health North Dakota coalition wants to raise the state’s 44-cent cigarette tax another $1.76 per pack, to $2.20. Tax on other tobacco products, including liquid nicotine for electronic cigarettes, would increase 28 percent to 56 percent.<\/p>\n
North Dakota ranks 47th among states in tax paid by smokers. Retailers have successfully fought off several attempts to raise the state’s tobacco tax in the past two decades. The last increase was in 1993.<\/p>\n
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BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) \u2014 North Dakota’s Health Department says a corroded steel pipeline is the likely cause of a big saltwater spill in Bowman County.<\/p>\n
State environmental scientist Bill Suess (sees) says the 168,000-gallon spill occurred Tuesday morning about 9 miles southwest of Rhame at a well site owned by Texas-based Denbury Onshore LLC.<\/p>\n
The company did not return telephone messages seeking comment on Tuesday and Wednesday.<\/p>\n
Suess says the briny water leaked from the defective pipeline and entered a dry creek bed. He says no water sources were threatened and the wastewater contained no chemicals used in drilling operations.<\/p>\n
Suess says crews were using huge vacuums to recover the saltwater. He says most of the saltwater had been recovered by Wednesday morning.<\/p>\n
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DEVILS LAKE, N.D. (AP) \u2014 A man chosen to temporarily replace the late Rep. Curtis Hofstad of Devils Lake in the state Legislature has now been selected by District 15 Republicans to run in a special election this fall.<\/p>\n
Towner County farmer Greg Westlind in July was named to replace Hofstad, who died of an apparent heart attack in mid-June, during the middle of his term. Westlind served in the House during last week’s special session of the Legislature held to deal with state budget woes.<\/p>\n
KZZY radio reports Westlind has now been endorsed by district Republicans to run in the November election to determine who will serve the remainder of Hofstad’s term. Westlind on Tuesday night defeated a challenge by District 15 GOP Party Chairman Dennis Miller.<\/p>\n
Democrats have not yet announced a candidate.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
In sports\u2026<\/p>\n
Jamestown (CSi) University of Jamestown head hockey coach Dean Stork announces the signing of Cole McKechney of Calgary, Alberta, Canada, who will join the Jimmies in the 2016-17 season.<\/p>\n
McKechney, a 6′ 3″, 185 pound forward, scored 16 goals and registered 38 assists in 49 games for the Golden Rockets of the Kootenay International Junior Hockey League in 2014-15. He spent the 2015-16 season recovering from a knee injury.<\/p>\n
Stork says, “Cole brings a wealth of knowledge to the game of hockey and will be an excellent addition for our inaugural season.\u00a0 His hockey IQ is off the charts, and he will be a good leader for us both in the locker room and on the ice.”<\/p>\n
McKechney plans to major in Mechanical Engineering while at University of Jamestown.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
In world and national news…<\/p>\n
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LOS ANGELES (AP) \u2014 A judge has sentenced a serial killer known as the “Grim Sleeper” to death for 10 Los Angeles murders that spanned decades. Lonnie Franklin was sentenced today for murdering a teenage girl and nine women in a poor section of the city between 1985 and 2007. The crimes took police years to solve and community members complained detectives didn’t give the slayings enough attention because the victims were black and many were prostitutes who used crack cocaine.<\/p>\n
BALTIMORE (AP) \u2014 A Maryland congressman says the Justice Department’s report on the Baltimore Police Department validates what many city residents already know, that the trust between police and communities “is in desperate need of repair.” Democrat Elijah Cummings says the violations of rights are unacceptable. The report finds that Baltimore police officers routinely discriminate against blacks, use excessive force and are not adequately disciplined for misconduct.<\/p>\n
WASHINGTON (AP) \u2014 Libertarian presidential candidate Gary Johnson is set to appear on ballots in at least 39 states. And party activists are working in places such as swing state Ohio to get his name before voters this fall. Johnson’s ballot status in Ohio remains uncertain, a day after Libertarians submitted thousands of signatures on behalf of a different candidate as a placeholder. The state party said it would substitute in Johnson’s name once the petitions are certified by Ohio’s elections chief. Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein is slated to appear on ballots in at least 27 states.<\/p>\n
WASHINGTON (AP) \u2014 The top U.S. commander for the fight against the Islamic State group says the military campaigns in Iraq and Syria have taken 45,000 enemy combatants off the battlefield. Lt. Gen. Sean MacFarland says the number and quality of IS fighters is declining and could be as low as about 15,000. He says it’s difficult to determine accurate numbers, but that estimate is lower than the 19,000 to 25,000 fighters that officials cited earlier this year.<\/p>\n
KANSAS CITY, Kan. (AP) \u2014 A document released by a state agency says all the rides at a Kansas City, Kansas, water park passed private inspections in June, including the waterslide on which a 10-year-old boy died over the weekend. Kansas law requires permanent rides to be inspected annually by their parks, and the state randomly audits the records.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
CSi Weather… VALLEY CITY AREA.. \u2026FLASH FLOOD WATCH IN EFFECT THROUGH THURSDAY MORNING\u2026 .LATE THIS AFTERNOON…MOSTLY CLOUDY. A CHANCE OF SHOWERS AND THUNDERSTORMS EARLY IN THE AFTERNOON…THEN SHOWERS AND THUNDERSTORMS LIKELY EARLY. SOME THUNDERSTORMS MAY BE SEVERE WITH HEAVY RAINFALL. HIGHS 75 TO 80. EAST WINDS AROUND 15 MPH. CHANCE […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":101918,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-105562","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-wb-show"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/105562","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=105562"}],"version-history":[{"count":14,"href":"https:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/105562\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":105614,"href":"https:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/105562\/revisions\/105614"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/101918"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=105562"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=105562"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=105562"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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CSi Weather…<\/p>\n