Nude cop photos lawsuit; Wonder Woman course; jailed in prom dress spat

By MARY KECK and LAUREN SLAVIN

The Herald-Times

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. (AP) — It's Circle Time in Ellie Richardson's preschool class at Clear Creek Elementary.

On a red, blue, orange and green rug covered in squares, about 10 children sit cross-legged. They sing, clap and wiggle as they count the number of days that have passed on the March calendar and say their ABCs.

"Xander has his eyes on me. He's sitting quietly," Richardson says aloud to the preschoolers seated on the colorful rug in front of her. The rest of the kids start to follow Xander's example.

As a reward for his behavior, Xander McCloud gets to be the helper and comes to the front to stand beside Richardson, where he blows bubbles through a plastic wand. As the bubbles float over their heads, the kids reach up and pop them between their tiny hands.

"Bubble popping!" exclaims preschooler Leighton Brown.

"Bubbles are cool," says her classmate Brodie Smith.

Some of the kids, ages 3 to 5, wear pigtails or braids in their hair. Their tennis shoes may light up when they walk around the classroom. They play with tiny Matchbox cars, dolls and Lego blocks. Some ride the bus to school, while others get dropped off by their parents. Together, they giggle and hold hands while singing during Circle Time.

At first glance, Richardson's classroom is like any other, yet there are some signs that some of her students have disabilities.

Beside Richardson is a paraprofessional who uses sign language as she sings along during Circle Time. There's another paraprofessional who holds a picture of a child sitting cross-legged and shows it to students to remind them of how they need to sit.

In Richardson's preschool room are quite a few more adults than you might find in other classes — often as many as six during Circle Time. Some are seated on the floor. Others sit in chairs. One walks around the room where the rest of the students are curled up under quilts, their arms draped over stuffed animals; they haven't quite finished their afternoon naps.

"It takes a lot of energy, but it's a lot of fun," Richardson says of teaching preschool in an inclusion classroom, which means she has students who are developing typically as well as those with disabilities.

She teaches with the help of occupational therapists, speech and language pathologists, hearing specialists and interpreters. Richardson uses a lot of visuals, such as a schedule that doesn't just list the day's routine with words, but shows it with pictures.

All of her students are learning social, play and language skills along with counting and ABCs, but they're learning in different ways, at varying levels and speeds.

From Richardson's point of view, having all of the students together — those with and without disabilities — benefits the entire group. That's because of peer modeling.

The students with disabilities can learn by their peers' examples to follow a schedule and play together. The students in the classroom without disabilities are finding out that everyone struggles and everyone can persevere.

Marking disability awareness month in March is an opportunity to remind people there are so many kids with disabilities and with different capabilities, Richardson said.

"They can do things just like you and I can do."

As a preschool teacher, Richardson says, she gets to see much growth in her students. One girl came to her classroom and couldn't speak or follow a routine, and today, she's able to do both.

"It really is the best job ever, and you get to make a difference," Richardson said.

The Monroe County Community School Corp. has 1,700 students enrolled who have disabilities, and they range from preschool-age to 22 years old.

Young adults ages 18 to 22 who have attended four years of high school at MCCSC and are working toward a certification of completion as opposed to an Indiana high school diploma can continue daily educational activities through the Community Transitions program.

Students regularly volunteer, exercise at the Monroe County YMCA and learn practical skills not covered in a classroom setting. Community Transition staff teach students how to use public transportation, provide employment coaching and discuss how to productively spend their time after the program ends.

"Anything they are hoping for in adult life we're trying to put into place," said Jennifer Robinson, Community Transitions coordinator for MCCSC. "It's a big step to leave school and go to adult services."

The young adults also can also take on part-time employment or a work study opportunity. Kasey Coleman, a 20-year-old Community Transitions student with developmental disabilities, works twice a week for a few hours each day at Wagon Wheel Country Market and Deli.

Her responsibilities include serving food, cleaning tables and assembling silverware sets. Other classmates work in local fast food restaurants prepping food, washing dishes, and at local gyms and retail stores. These jobs also allow shoppers and restaurant patrons who might not otherwise interact with people with disabilities see these students as active and involved members of their community.

"Most of them continue to keep everything they wanted going and maintain that," Robinson said.

For Coleman, that goal is to "buy a house," the 20-year-old said with a smile.

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Source: The (Bloomington) Herald-Times, http://bit.ly/1RIAAhE

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Information from: The Herald Times, http://www.heraldtimesonline.com

This is an AP-Indiana Exchange story offered by The (Bloomington) Herald-Times.

IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP) — Before her Wonder Woman class begins, University of Iowa professor Anna Barker throws her red, white, blue and gold Wonder Woman scarf around her neck.

The Iowa City Press-Citizen (http://icp-c.com/1PHvjFS ) reports that the honors class, "Wonder Woman Unleashed: A Hero for Our Times," is new this semester. Barker weaves the stories of ancient Greek and Roman mythology, historic female figures and ancient texts into the panels of the comic book world's most popular and powerful woman.

"What fascinated me about Wonder Woman, she has been in print continuously since 1941. She is admired by multiple generations of women," Barker said. "I've talked to 5-year-olds who wear Wonder Woman backpacks and absolutely think that they're Wonder Woman. And I've talked to women in their 80s that grew up in the time that the Linda Carter television series was coming out in the 1970s and they self-identified with Wonder Woman as a great role model for women in the United States."

Teaching comic books to college students is no new feat for Barker. A professor of Russian literature, Barker also has taught a class comparing Greek and Roman gods to modern superheroes for about eight years.

Barker compares Captain America's shield to the Shield of Achilles. Some connections are more obvious: Thor is a Nordic god who just happens to also be in the Marvel comic book world.

The connections between ancient gods and modern heroes were cemented in Barker's mind after seeing many superhero movies with her children. Sitting in the theater as superheroes flew about the screen, Barker would think to herself "that story is just like the Perseus and Andromeda plot line."

As she taught the original superhero class, she would always dedicate a part of the class to female superheroes. When she heard about the release of the latest Hollywood blockbuster "Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice," which has a cameo appearance from Wonder Woman, Baker knew it was time to make a class specifically for Wonder Woman.

"So I started doing a little bit of research and I realized the history of Wonder Woman as a character is so stunning, shocking and bizarre that it would be wonderful to teach a whole class on her," Barker said.

The class, which meets Tuesdays and Thursdays, is structured in three parts. The first has students read plays about ancient, strong women. They include "Medea," ''Antigone" and "Lysistrata."

The second part of the class focuses on reading about Amazons, an ancient race of fierce female warriors. Wonder Woman is an ancient Amazon warrior, according to comic book lore.

The third part of the class is where students get their hands on Wonder Woman comics. They read an introduction to Wonder Woman written by famed feminist Gloria Steinem, Jill Lepore's 2014 book "The Secret History of Wonder Woman" and Wonder Woman comics.

"It's so tempting and so delightful to dip into the ancient canon and bring that knowledge into today's classroom and make it relevant and exciting as a comic book," Barker said.

Students order the class-required comic books through Daydreams Comics, Iowa City's longtime downtown comic book shop. Zach Power, owner and manager of Daydreams, said UI professors getting comic books from their store isn't that common, but he has about three professors each semester who reach out to the store for class material.

In Daydreams, Wonder Woman comics fill a swath of the store's shelves between the likes of Wolverine and the X-Men. Even in the store's archives or sorts — boxes of older comics standing snugly together in separate plastic sleeves — Wonder Woman comics are well represented.

In Power's mind, though, Wonder Woman is not being serviced well by her DC Comics owners. Despite being nearly as old as Superman — created in 1938 — and Batman — created in 1939 — Wonder Woman has yet to have her own movie.

"Wonder Woman is probably not as prolific as she could be or should be," Power said.

Though her popularity ranks up there with Superman, Batman, Green Lantern and The Flash, Power says there is seemingly no concerted effort to put out new, bold Wonder Woman comics on the heels of actress Gal Gadot's appearance as Wonder Woman in the new Batman and Superman movie.

Power said women have been reading comic books more frequently over the past three years thanks to an influx of more comics written with a woman's perspective in mind and because more women are creating comic books.

Barker is doing her best to bring attention to Wonder Woman by showing the character's influence on culture and how culture also has influenced the character.

Wonder Woman's creator William Moulton Marston and his wife, famed American psychologist Elizabeth Holloway Marston, lived with Olive Byrne, Barker said. Byrne was the niece of Margaret Sanger, the suffragette who helped establish modern-day Planned Parenthood.

"Wonder Woman comes out of the birth control movement," Barker said. "The women who surrounded (Marston) were very committed suffragettes and very committed women in the birth control movement."

Steinem has said herself that Wonder Woman was a major influence on her becoming a feminist activist.

The 20 students in Barker's class have taken to Wonder Woman with great enthusiasm, Barker said, despite none of them owning Wonder Woman comics previously. While they could easily dissect Wonder Woman as a feminist work, Barker said her students commonly explore "the multiplicities of context" when it comes to Wonder Woman.

Even nonstudents in Iowa City have been taking note of Barker's class. Barker said she has had more conversations about Wonder Woman in public over the past couple of months than any other subject she's focused on in her academic career.

That's evidence to Barker that Wonder Woman still has a grasp on popular culture, students and Iowa Citians, no matter what her age.

"There's a bad joke in an episode of the Linda Carter Wonder Woman show where someone says she's 2,527 years old," Barker said. "One of the guys responds saying 'She definitely doesn't look a year older than 2,526.'"

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Information from: Iowa City Press-Citizen, http://www.press-citizen.com/

An AP Member Exchange shared by the Iowa City Press-Citizen.

LANSING, Mich. (AP) — An initiative to improve Michigan third-graders' reading is caught up in a dispute among lawmakers about making students repeat a grade if they lag too far behind.

The clash is big enough that the early literacy bill — which Gov. Rick Snyder called for more than a year ago — was sent to a conference committee to resolve differences.

Under the proposed law, students could not enroll in fourth grade starting in the 2019-20 school year unless their state reading score is less than one grade level behind, they show proficiency through an alternative assessment or demonstrate mastery through work samples. Sixteen states require the retention of third-graders who do not meet grade-level expectations in reading, according to the Education Commission of the States.

Third grade is considered a key benchmark because it is the last year students learn to read before transitioning to reading to learn.

Key sticking points in Michigan include the level of parental involvement and the number of exemptions under which kids could still advance to fourth grade for "good cause."

Legislators agree on exceptions for those with disabilities, a limited grasp because English is their second language or they have been previously held back despite receiving intensive reading help for at least two years. The Senate, however, added three more — for newer students who did not receive an appropriate individualized reading intervention in their old district, those whose principal and reading teacher agree that other evaluations show they are ready for fourth grade or the superintendent determines that an exemption is in a student's "best interests."

The House version — approved on a mostly party-line 57-48 vote by the Republican-led chamber in October — lets a parent ask the third-grade teacher to recommend an exemption to the school principal, who, after discussing it with the teacher, could urge that the district superintendent grant the exception. The superintendent would then inform the parent of the decision.

The Senate version cleared the GOP-dominated chamber in March on a 31-6 vote with more bipartisan support. It requires that a state agency notify parents if their child is at risk of being kept back because of their score on the state reading assessment and that they have a "right" to request a good cause exemption and a meeting with school officials.

Advocates of holding back some third-graders as a last resort — such as the Great Lakes Education Project, a school-choice advocacy group — fear the Senate plan is more of the same in a state where only half are proficient on the state's new reading assessment. House Speaker Kevin Cotter, R-Mount Pleasant, said senators "relaxed" the retention requirement.

"There's a line in the sand. We need kids reading at third-grade levels really well before they can go on. That might have been blurred a little bit in the Senate," said bill sponsor Rep. Amanda Price, a Holland Republican who chairs the House Education Committee.

But supporters of the Senate proposal, which is backed by many key stakeholders in the education community, say it empowers parents to take ownership of what is a major decision for their child and is a realistic policy proposal that schools could actually implement successfully.

"We took some mandates out of it and replaced it with parental involvement. There wasn't support for the way it came over from House. We worked for a number of months to get to a compromise," said Sen. Phil Pavlov, a St. Clair Township Republican and chair of the Senate Education Committee.

Lawmakers are more united on parts of the legislation unrelated to retention — such as requiring schools to assess and screen all K-3 students on reading beginning next school year and to intervene with those with deficiencies. "Literacy coaches" would model appropriate instruction and training for teachers.

Michigan fourth-graders ranked 41st-lowest among the states on a national reading test in 2015, and the state was one of just five to lose ground from 2003 to 2013. Snyder, who helped set aside about $30 million for early literacy initiatives in the current budget, wants Michigan in the top 10 nationally by 2025. But the conflict over keeping some pupils from advancing threatens to complicate the effort.

GLEP Executive Director Gary Naeyaert said the Senate version "pretty much just keeps in place what everyone's doing now," and most superintendents would not "stand up to the angry mother" who thinks her child should still be promoted to fourth grade. Less than 1 percent of students currently repeat third grade. It is unclear how many would be retained under the competing versions of the bill and how much more it would cost the state over time.

"We can't have a bill so shallow that it doesn't move the needle," Naeyaert said.

But Kenneth Gutman, superintendent of Walled Lake Consolidated Schools in Oakland County, said retention is detrimental to students and he has seen no evidence that it works. The legislation is a "very good reading bill absent the retention piece," he said, contending that schools' time is better spent on early intervention because holding back more third-graders based on a state test would do more harm than good.

"We want students reading by third grade at grade level," Gutman said. "But certainly there are so many factors involved in trying to determine whether or not to retain a child that to mandate it is simply ludicrous."

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Online:

House Bill 4822: http://1.usa.gov/21UzHs5

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Follow David Eggert at http://twitter.com/DavidEggert00. His work can be found at http://bigstory.ap.org/author/david-eggert

ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) — The St. Paul School District contends a teacher who sued the district after he was assaulted by a high school student last year was at fault for his own injuries.

The district responded Thursday in U.S. District Court to the lawsuit filed by Central High School teacher John Ekblad.

Ekblad sued the district after a 16-year-old student choked him as the teacher tried to break up a fight in December. Police said the attack left Ekblad unconscious for 10 to 20 seconds.

In his lawsuit, Ekblad said he suffered a traumatic brain injury and post-concussion syndrome. His lawsuit contends that the school district knew conditions at the school were dangerous and failed to take precautions to prevent injuries.

But the district counters that Ekblad's injuries were the result "carelessness, negligence, fault and other unlawful conduct," and denies that the district was negligent. In its response, the district also said that Ekblad assumed a risk when he started working for the St. Paul district. The district asked that Ekblad's lawsuit be dismissed.

Ekblad's attorney, Philip Villaume, said Thursday that "we vehemently deny" the district's claims.

"He is the victim here," Villaume told the Star Tribune.

The December assault came as St. Paul teachers were negotiating a new contract and prompted a strike threat by the teachers union. The eventual deal, approved by the St. Paul school board last month, includes the equivalent of 30 additional support staff for schools.

No court dates have been set for the lawsuit, Minnesota Public Radio News reported.

SIOUX CITY, Iowa (AP) — Police in northwestern Iowa have arrested a woman they say hit her 10-year-old son with a metal trash can as she fought with her mother.

The Sioux City Journal reports (http://bit.ly/1PNxd7R ) that the 32-year-old woman was arrested Thursday after the incident. Police say the woman was involved in a fight with her mother around 1 p.m. at her home. When the boy attempted to separate the women, police say, his mother hit him in the head with the trash can.

Police say the boy suffered a large cut on his head and had to be taken to a hospital for treatment.

His mother faces a felony charge of child abuse causing injury.

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — A female Columbus police officer is suing the city and department administrators alleging nude photos of her were inappropriately shared among officers during an internal investigation.

WBNS 10-TV reports (http://bit.ly/1or3StS) Tricia Zimmerman admits she sent nude photos to her boyfriend, Columbus officer Jeffrey Lazar. She says they were sent using personal phones and taken while off-duty.

An investigation was launched into the matter after Lazar's estranged wife took his phone to police Internal Affairs and alleged he and Zimmerman had had sex while on duty.

The claim was unsubstantiated. But Zimmerman alleges investigators printed and shared the photos with uninvolved officers during the review, prompting degrading comments, workplace hostility and retaliation.

The city denies the photos were inappropriately shared or that Zimmerman was mistreated. It declined comment on pending litigation.

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Information from: WBNS-TV, http://www.10tv.com/

ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) — A Minnesota Republican legislator who was cited last summer for making out with a fellow lawmaker in a public park says she won't run for re-election.

Rep. Tara Mack of Apple Valley announced Saturday she will leave her seat after eight years. The married mother of two children says she wants the next chapter of her life to be focused on her family.

Mack chairs the House Health and Human Services Reform Policy Committee. She did not mention last summer's scandal in her statement.

Mack and Republican Rep. Tim Kelly of Red Wing were cited in August for causing a nuisance by a Dakota County park ranger, who said the pair of lawmakers were making out inside a parked car.

Kelly announced in February he would not run for re-election.

OLATHE, Kan. (AP) — A Missouri man faces May sentencing after admitting in court that he shot and wounded a therapy dog in the face during a Kansas burglary last year.

The Kansas City Star (http://bit.ly/1N3Kolw) reports that 33-year-old Matthew Oden of Belton pleaded guilty Friday in Johnson County District Court to charges of burglary, firearm theft and animal cruelty.

Oden admitted breaking into an Overland Park house last October and stealing a firearm. The owner returned later and found that his 8-year-old dog, Meeko, had been shot but survived.

The dog — a golden retriever-cocker spaniel mix — is trained to provide therapy for nursing home residents.

Oden's sentencing is scheduled for May 27.

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Information from: The Kansas City Star, http://www.kcstar.com

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — Three Jackson County jail workers have received unspecified discipline after a murder suspect was mistakenly released from custody.

Joseph Piccinini, the county's corrections director, said in a statement that clerical errors by jail employees were blamed for the Feb. 17 release of 26-year-old Malcolm D. Johnson, The Kansas City Star reported (http://bit.ly/1pUk7R8 ).

Johnson was being held in connection on charges of second-degree murder and armed criminal action in connection with a 2014 shooting death of 22-year-old Monteario Hogan in the suburb of Raytown. Johnson remains at large.

Piccinini said Johnson's release happened after prosecutors dropped and then refiled charges in routine procedural action. Piccinini says those actions should not have triggered Johnson's release.

Jail officials "did have the proper paperwork on file at the time of the release, and several associates had access to that file," Piccinini said.

County officials have not publicly detailed the disciplinary actions against the employees, though one of them no longer works at the jail.

Piccinini said the jail has revised its policies and procedures related to the release of inmates "to ensure such a release cannot happen in the future."

"We understand the concerns of the family of the victim, and those of our residents, and we apologize to them," he said. "We will continue to work with law enforcement to help in any way with the arrest of Mr. Johnson."

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Information from: The Kansas City Star, http://www.kcstar.com

MADISON, Wis. (AP) — A Madison teenager has been sentenced to five years in prison for trying to kill the father of his former prom date last year.

Eighteen-year-old Tyler Bexson was sentenced Friday after pleading guilty in January to attempted first-degree intentional homicide. Charges of first-degree reckless injury and armed burglary were dismissed.

The Wisconsin State Journal (http://bit.ly/1ZTKQdl) reports prosecutors had recommend Bexson receive 10 years in prison while the defense argued for probation.

Authorities say Bexson was angry after the girl he had asked to prom declined and he had been told to help pay for her dress. Bexson tried to break into the Stoughton home of the girl's family on April 30, then hit her father with a shovel and stabbed him seven times after the man confronted him outside.

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Information from: Wisconsin State Journal, http://www.madison.com/wsj

BY DONALD BRADLEY

The Kansas City Star

BRUMLEY, Mo. (AP) — Just down the road from the guy with several hundred junked lawnmowers in his yard is another guy in a haunted house, and he has made the whole town mad.

Nick Sacco says he has been threatened and had his truck tires slashed. Sheriff's deputies have checked on him and his wife, and he has asked for more patrols. Regulars down at the tavern know something's going on but don't know exactly what, and at the heart of the whole tiff is a big Hollywood movie star.

Whew. That's a lot going on for your basic two-church, one-beer-joint town with 91 people just south of Tuscumbia on the early slopes of the Ozarks.

Ah — the segue to Hollywood. According to showbiz sources, Jason Bateman, he of "Arrested Development," ''Identity Thief" and "Horrible Bosses" fame, is set to produce and star in a new Netflix series called "Ozark." It's a show about a man mixed up in drug laundering and the seedy drug trade in southern Missouri.

When Sacco, a newcomer who turned an alleged haunted house into a business after arriving in 2014, heard about the project, he commented on Facebook about the area's image, portrayed in "Winter's Bone," a movie about Ozarks drug culture. He said he'd heard Bateman was coming to the town eight miles east of Osage Beach to scout locations.

Part of the post:

"GO Brumley! Your reputation precedes you."

Didn't go over real well. Next came the angry phone calls, threats and, according to Sacco, "screaming in the driveway."

Miller County Sheriff Bill Abbott confirmed the reports.

The Kansas City Star (http://bit.ly/1TdGMnh ) reports that Sacco, a former Gladstone traffic officer, says that he never meant to rankle local pride and that he made the post out of frustration — he's trying to run a business in an area seemingly tainted by the image of methamphetamine production and trade.

He posted an apology, but it didn't help. His wife, Marcy, shrugged; the town never really warmed to them anyway.

"When we got here, they called us 'the millionaires' because we came in an RV," she said.

Nick Sacco nodded. "It's a 40-footer."

Down the hill on the other side of the Baptist Church at Whittle's Brumley Tavern, a few regulars said they understood Sacco's frustration but didn't think Brumley was worse than anywhere else when it came to drugs.

Owner Dave Whittle skipped over all the drug stuff, focusing instead on a part of the Facebook post where Sacco suggested visitors were scared to go in the tavern because of the area's reputation.

"Now, that I know he shouldn't have done because it's not true," Whittle said.

The others agreed. Business is great, Merle Haggard sings on the jukebox and tenderloins cover the whole plate.

Anyway, no one here is blaming Jason Bateman.

"He's just trying to sell tickets," Leo Sander said from his bar stool.

Now, for the crying woman at the top of the steps in the haunted house.

That would be Martha Dixon, the socialite wife of the Brumley town doctor. Near the start of the Civil War, the couple built a fine Victorian home with a turret and concrete walls two feet thick. It looked like a castle, or at least what passes for one in a small Missouri town.

The Dixons went all out, even ordering a grand staircase that was built in London, disassembled and shipped to Brumley.

Around the turn of the century, shortly before the couple was to host a grand party, the doctor found his wife dead at the top of the stairs. Ever since, people have reported seeing a woman in a fancy dress at the top of the steps, long after the place was empty.

And her crying wafts into the summer nights.

Nick and Marcy Sacco had been traveling the country in their RV when they learned that the old Dixon place was for sale. Nick was born in the area, and his mother still lives there. They liked the looks of the place, though it had fallen from its early grace.

Broken windows. Hangout for druggies. No heat, no air. At one time, Marcy said, pigs had been kept inside.

"Why'd you buy the haunted castle?" someone asked after they bought the place.

They hadn't heard the crying woman story.

But they sure ran with it.

They remodeled the place and now operate the Haunted Castle House. It's kind of a horror story bed-and-breakfast with three guest rooms. People come from all over for murder mysteries, ghost nights and paranormal investigations.

The Saccos say doors lock themselves, empty rocking chairs rock and beds unmake themselves. Last April, a man left a note that told how he was awakened by whispering in the middle of the night. He sprayed his camera around the dark, and one photo later showed "a white column of plasm."

"We've had 14 couples who left in the middle of the night," Nick said.

As an added perk, supposedly there's a mass grave in the backyard from the 1918 flu epidemic.

Marcy won't stay in the place.

"We live at the lake," she said.

Sheriff Abbott scoffed when asked whether meth was a problem in Miller County.

"It's a problem in the whole United States — up in Kansas City, everywhere," he said. "Even when we shut down the labs, the drugs are still here."

He understands Nick Sacco's point.

"But I don't know anything about any ghosts," he said.

At the Brumley Tavern, Brent Fry, the cook, said Brumley is like most any small town in rural Missouri.

"This part of the state probably has more of the meth stigma, but it's no worse around here than any other place," he said.

Stigma doesn't mean much around here anyway

"I've been here a long time, and I still got all my teeth," Leo Sander said from his bar stool.

The people in the tavern don't know much about the Saccos. They say the haunted castle is for out-of-towners.

"I don't think the guy who runs it even lives here," someone said.

Neither, apparently, will Bateman's show. According to the Hollywood Reporter, the series takes its name from Lake of the Ozarks, but it will be shot in New York and Vancouver.

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Information from: The Kansas City Star, http://www.kcstar.com

An AP Member Exchange shared by The Kansas City Star for use in the weekend editions.

By NICK LOWREY

Pierre Capital Journal

CUSTER, S.D. (AP) — A pair of booming howls bounced off of canyon walls and a family of three stopped in their tracks waiting to hear what would happen next.

The haunting melody of hunting hounds on the scent of quarry echoed up and down an out-of-the-way canyon in Custer State Park. They were announcing the start of their favorite game to the world. And that other worldly sound, only heard when good hounds strike a scent trail are what South Dakota houndsman Brad Tisdall lives for, the Pierre Capital Journal (http://bit.ly/21TNZcE ) reported.

"That's the song," he said pulling out his GPS unit to track his dog's progress.

The dogs were more than 500 yards out and moving fast. It was 8:40 a.m. on March 19 and Tisdall, his wife, Wanda, and their daughter, Carah, were only about an hour into their first walk of the weekend.

The family had started their day around 3 a.m. at their home near Rapid City by unloading Brad's truck and packing all of their gear into two other family vehicles. The truck refused to start and they needed to get to the park by 4:45 a.m.

The trip had been on their calendar for more than three months by that point. Carah was lucky enough to draw an access permit for hunting mountain lions in Custer State Park during one of the four periods that hounds are allowed to help find and tree the big cats. It's a hard permit to draw Brad said.

"We see this as a once in a lifetime tag," Brad said. "This is probably the only time she'll be able to hunt lions in South Dakota . Because I'm a hound guy. It's really special to me."

Carah has lived with hounds since 2008, when Brad first acquired some dogs of his own after spending years watching friends hunt bears in Wisconsin.

She's 13 and was excited about getting to chase lions with her dad's dogs Valhalla and Two Socks for the first time.

The Tisdalls didn't hit the park until about 5 a.m. That was still well before daylight so there was enough time to run the dogs down a little travelled dirt road before too many other park visitors started driving.

When the sun rose, it was time to get out and make a few walks with the dogs. The cool morning was air was pierced by the rippling gobbles of tom turkeys trying to get into the swing of mating season. Temperatures in the 70s and a distressing lack of snow in the central Black Hills seemed to have set them off. Though that morning was cold.

Snow is one of the most important elements to a successful mountain lion hunt. Boot hunters, the guys who walk the woods looking for their lions are virtually required to have snow to have any reasonable chance at success. Those hunters must find and follow a lion track through the snow. It can take hours and there's no guarantee they'll get close enough for a shot before they spook the lion or lose the track.

Without snow, the success rate for mountain lion hunting drops almost to zero. That is one of the most important reasons why the Game, Fish and Parks Department allows the use of hounds for lion hunting in the park.

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In the early 2010s the park's wildlife populations, elk in particular, were struggling, said John Kanta regional wildlife manager for the Black Hills. Several years of drought in the previous decade had forced wildlife managers to reduce the park's elk herd in order to preserve rangeland and prevent conflicts with nearby private landowners.

At the same time, the Black Hills mountain lion population was increasing. By 2012, wildlife managers were struggling to grow the Custer State Park elk herd again. Elk hunting, which also is allowed in the park, had been drastically cut back and adult survival was pretty good. The problem was calf survival.

In 2011, 16 of 19 elk calves fitted with radio collars as part of a study of the elk herd were killed by mountain lions before they turned a year old. In 2012 11 calves of the 30 that were collared as part of the study had been killed. Seven of those deaths were lion kills.

Kanta said it wasn't that there were more mountain lions in Custer State Park than anywhere else in the Hills. Lion populations are pretty consistent throughout the hills. It was actually the small prey population. Lions were having a disproportionate impact on the park's elk herd because it was so small, Kanta said.

Something had to be done. Wildlife managers have few truly effective tools with which to manage an animal population. When there is an imbalance between a particular species population and it's food source there are really only two options. The first is to do nothing, which runs the risk of an eventual population collapse, conflicts with other groups and disease. North America's snow goose population, which is destroying its own nesting habitat, is a good example of over population.

The second option is to allow hunters to help balance out the populations.

Hunters were already allowed to apply for an access permit to hunt lions in the park. But even with snow, boot hunters are never all that successful. So, in 2013, GFP officials began allowing houndsmen to hunt lions in the park.

"We wanted to put more pressure on the lions," Kanta said.

The first lion harvested with the help of hounds came in the middle of February 2013, after three other lions that were either too young or had kittens were let go, according to a Feb. 15, 2013 story in the Rapid City Journal.

Since then, the park's elk calf survival rate has jumped and the herd is growing, Kanta said.

"Within a couple of years we basically doubled calf survival," he said.

By the time the Tisdalls were setting off from their truck into Custer State Park's backcountry, four lions had been killed in the park during the 2015/16 hunting season. All of them, Kanta said, were taken with lions.

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The first half hour of their first walk was spent with Brad quizzing Carah over what to do if she gets lost and what to do if Valhalla and Two Socks strike a scent. It was a leisurely walk in 14-degree temperatures. There was no wind to speak of.

"If you want to hunt lions they say you learn more on your feet and you've got to be among them," Brad said as the walk began.

Turkey gobbles continued to echo through the morning. That is until the dogs spotted a small group of strutting toms and broke their party up. Brad had to call the erstwhile pair back in and in the process discovered that Two Socks' collar was on the fritz.

It was a big problem. The dog's collars carry GPS transmitters that show Brad where his dogs are and lets him call them back when needed. Without the collar Two Socks, who is younger and faster than Valhalla, could easily get lost.

Brad swapped Two Socks' collar out with Valhalla's. The older dog would run without the collar.

Within 20 minutes the two dogs struck their first trail of the weekend. Upon the first bawling howl the Tisdall party stopped in their tracks listening hard to make sure the dogs would follow the track.

"This is when the work begins," Brad said.

Both dogs were sounding off, Valhalla's high-pitched barking bawl was easily separated from Two Socks' deeper howling. The Tisdalls took off again a little faster this time but still methodical. There was no need to run to catch up. If the dogs were on a lion, they'd either keep tree it and keep it there or they'd lose the scent and come back.

The dogs worked their way deeper into the canyon before crossing a small spring fed creek and launching themselves up and over the steep northern wall. Within minutes, they were close to a mile away.

There wasn't much else for it and the Tisdalls gave chase, working their way up the several hundred foot high canyon wall. Halfway to the top snow started falling. It was light but picking up steam and would likely complicate matters.

"The snow will cover up the scent," Brad said.

By the time the Tisdalls hit the top of the canyon wall, Valhalla and Two Socks were 1.7 miles and another canyon or two away. After working the family around a small mountain, Brad called a halt so he could try to work out what the dogs were doing.

A light dusting of snow had started to form when Brad made the decision to start working down the mountain and into the next canyon over. It was called Barnes Canyon. The two dogs were still hot on the trail of something but whatever it was wasn't climbing any trees as far as Brad could tell.

That wasn't a good sign. Usually, Brad said, once the hounds jump a lion it's in a tree within a few hundred yards.

"About 50 percent of the time they work the trail backwards," Brad said.

The dogs were still sounding off, a sign they still thought they were onto something. Their voices could be heard faintly in the distance.

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By 10 a.m. the dogs didn't appear any closer to treeing whatever it was they were chasing. Brad started trying to call them back, yelling their names at the top of his lungs from the top if a high ridge. It didn't work. Both dogs were intent on the scent they were trailing. On the plus side whatever it was had circled back around and was getting closer to the family.

The Tisdalls worked their way into Barnes Canyon, closing to within a mile of their hounds. Brad was confident that the dogs weren't going to tree what they'd been chasing but he still needed to get closer before the dogs would leave the trail and come back to him.

The sun broke through the clouds as the Tisdalls hit Barnes Canyon road and started hiking back out. The ground's light coating of snow burned off quickly taking any scent trails with it and effectively ending the hunting day.

Valhalla and Two Socks were still out there though. Brad sent Carah and Wanda up the road to get around a mountain and to the truck. He was going to get the dogs.

At 11:15 Two Socks appeared slowly working his way through the trees. The dog was tired and alone. Valhalla hadn't come with him. She'd gotten separated somewhere along 15 miles that Two Socks had run. Brad spent the rest of the day worried sick. Valhalla showed up at a campground at 9:45 a.m. not far from where the Tisdalls were spending the night.

In all, the Tisdall's had walked eight miles, climbed up and over a small mountain, been snowed on and come up empty. Even with hounds only about half of lion hunters will succeed.

"It's tough," Carahh said of lion hunting. "It's fun but it's a lot of work."

Her family would be up again at 5 a.m. the next morning to do it all over again.

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Information from: Pierre Capital Journal, http://www.capjournal.com

This is an AP Member Exchange shared by the Pierre Capital Journal

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) — The search for Barrel Bob — the Missouri Department of Transportation's mascot — is over.

Nearly two weeks since being stolen on a federal highway in Jefferson City, the 10-foot-tall sculpture made from recycled orange and white construction barrels turned up in a Boone County ditch Thursday evening.

Barrel Bob is a statewide pitchman for work-zone safety, a job that includes a social media presence.

A statement by the department jokes that Barrel Bob was "shaken up but appeared unharmed" and unsurprisingly refused medical attention, asking to be taken to the department's Columbia maintenance site.

The mascot has found itself in tough straits before. It was set ablaze last October.

LANSING, Mich. (AP) — An initiative to improve Michigan third-graders' reading is caught up in a dispute among lawmakers about making students repeat a grade if they lag too far behind.

The clash is big enough that the early literacy bill — which Gov. Rick Snyder called for more than a year ago — was sent to a conference committee to resolve differences.

Under the proposed law, students could not enroll in fourth grade starting in the 2019-20 school year unless their state reading score is less than one grade level behind, they show proficiency through an alternative assessment or demonstrate mastery through work samples. Sixteen states require the retention of third-graders who do not meet grade-level expectations in reading, according to the Education Commission of the States.

Third grade is considered a key benchmark because it is the last year students learn to read before transitioning to reading to learn.

Key sticking points in Michigan include the level of parental involvement and the number of exemptions under which kids could still advance to fourth grade for "good cause."

Legislators agree on exceptions for those with disabilities, a limited grasp because English is their second language or they have been previously held back despite receiving intensive reading help for at least two years. The Senate, however, added three more — for newer students who did not receive an appropriate individualized reading intervention in their old district, those whose principal and reading teacher agree that other evaluations show they are ready for fourth grade or the superintendent determines that an exemption is in a student's "best interests."

The House version — approved on a mostly party-line 57-48 vote by the Republican-led chamber in October — lets a parent ask the third-grade teacher to recommend an exemption to the school principal, who, after discussing it with the teacher, could urge that the district superintendent grant the exception. The superintendent would then inform the parent of the decision.

The Senate version cleared the GOP-dominated chamber in March on a 31-6 vote with more bipartisan support. It requires that a state agency notify parents if their child is at risk of being kept back because of their score on the state reading assessment and that they have a "right" to request a good cause exemption and a meeting with school officials.

Advocates of holding back some third-graders as a last resort — such as the Great Lakes Education Project, a school-choice advocacy group — fear the Senate plan is more of the same in a state where only half are proficient on the state's new reading assessment. House Speaker Kevin Cotter, R-Mount Pleasant, said senators "relaxed" the retention requirement.

"There's a line in the sand. We need kids reading at third-grade levels really well before they can go on. That might have been blurred a little bit in the Senate," said bill sponsor Rep. Amanda Price, a Holland Republican who chairs the House Education Committee.

But supporters of the Senate proposal, which is backed by many key stakeholders in the education community, say it empowers parents to take ownership of what is a major decision for their child and is a realistic policy proposal that schools could actually implement successfully.

"We took some mandates out of it and replaced it with parental involvement. There wasn't support for the way it came over from House. We worked for a number of months to get to a compromise," said Sen. Phil Pavlov, a St. Clair Township Republican and chair of the Senate Education Committee.

Lawmakers are more united on parts of the legislation unrelated to retention — such as requiring schools to assess and screen all K-3 students on reading beginning next school year and to intervene with those with deficiencies. "Literacy coaches" would model appropriate instruction and training for teachers.

Michigan fourth-graders ranked 41st-lowest among the states on a national reading test in 2015, and the state was one of just five to lose ground from 2003 to 2013. Snyder, who helped set aside about $30 million for early literacy initiatives in the current budget, wants Michigan in the top 10 nationally by 2025. But the conflict over keeping some pupils from advancing threatens to complicate the effort.

GLEP Executive Director Gary Naeyaert said the Senate version "pretty much just keeps in place what everyone's doing now," and most superintendents would not "stand up to the angry mother" who thinks her child should still be promoted to fourth grade. Less than 1 percent of students currently repeat third grade. It is unclear how many would be retained under the competing versions of the bill and how much more it would cost the state over time.

"We can't have a bill so shallow that it doesn't move the needle," Naeyaert said.

But Kenneth Gutman, superintendent of Walled Lake Consolidated Schools in Oakland County, said retention is detrimental to students and he has seen no evidence that it works. The legislation is a "very good reading bill absent the retention piece," he said, contending that schools' time is better spent on early intervention because holding back more third-graders based on a state test would do more harm than good.

"We want students reading by third grade at grade level," Gutman said. "But certainly there are so many factors involved in trying to determine whether or not to retain a child that to mandate it is simply ludicrous."

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Online:

House Bill 4822: http://1.usa.gov/21UzHs5

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Follow David Eggert at http://twitter.com/DavidEggert00 . His work can be found at http://bigstory.ap.org/author/david-eggert

BOELUS, Neb. (AP) — Gene Whitefoot has been in the grocery business in Boelus since Feb. 8, 1941. Seventy-five years later, he still works six days a week.

"I've never had another job," 86-yearold Whitefoot tells The Grand Island Independent (http://bit.ly/1PHymhs ).

He's also never lived anywhere but Boelus. His entire life has been lived in a two-block area.

Whitefoot was born a block away from the grocery store. He now lives a block south of there.

"That's being in a rut, I would say," he says, smiling.

When he was 11 years old, Whitefoot started working at the store, which is at the corner of Delaware and Sixth streets. He's been coming to work at the store ever since. He's been the sole owner of the business since 1992, when it became known as Whitefoot Market.

His son, Wayne, is in charge of the very successful Whitefoot Catering, which operates out of the same building.

That business caters events over a wide area. Last fall, Whitefoot Catering handled nine weddings in one day. Three other groups picked up their meals at the store.

If not for the catering business, the grocery store wouldn't be around. "Small stores are going by the wayside," Whitefoot said. "Wally World" has taken care of them, he said.

Whitefoot gets to work at 7:30 a.m. and goes home at 6 p.m. He doesn't work Sundays and Wednesday afternoons.

Whitefoot has no problem being on his feet all day.

The 5-foot-5-inch grocer weighs 158 pounds. In 1962, he weighed 162.

Whitefoot has a good sense of humor. Standing at the counter, he says to a visitor, "This is the express lane."

For many years, Whitefoot Market has long given free candy to kids.

Last May, Whitefoot had his right knee replaced. The operation was done by Dr. Scott Franssen, who was born in Boelus. Whitefoot jokes, "I gave him suckers and he gave me a knee."

Whitefoot has been around downtown Boelus long enough that he remembers when area farmers came into town every Thursday night. A free movie would be shown outside for the kids. Farmers brought in their eggs and cream and get groceries in exchange. Neighbors would visit with neighbors. On those nights, the grocery store sometimes stayed open until 1 a.m.

Every town had a bustling evening like that, he remembers. The only thing that varied was which night it was.

When Whitefoot was very young, Boelus had three grocery stores, a hardware store, a meat market, two elevators, two banks and two bars. In a town of 320 people, six places had gas pumps.

Boelus, which is now home to 185 people, is still doing all right. In addition to the grocery store and catering operation, Boelus has a steak house, filing station, bank and fertilizer plant.

Whitefoot graduated from Boelus High in 1948.

"My dad was the barber in town for 39 years," he said. His mother worked as a dietician at the school and at Centura School for 29 years.

His uncle, Andy Jensen, asked Whitefoot to come work at the store when he was a youngster.

The business was started by Andy Jensen's father, Pete, in 1896 — 11 years after Boelus was established.

Pete Jensen, who lived in Dannebrog, drove a buggy to Boelus every day 11 miles each way. When the weather was bad, he stayed at the store overnight.

The store, which was originally across the street, has been in its current location since 1936.

After Pete Jensen died in 1938, Andy ran the store until 1956. Whitefoot then worked for Andy's son, Kenneth.

Whitefoot and Kermit Ericksen bought the business in 1970. Whitefoot bought out Ericksen in 1992.

After Whitefoot got married in 1948, Andy Jensen asked him what he planned to do.

He said he'd probably work a few more months at the store and then move on.

"Well, that was in 1948 and I'm still here," Whitefoot said.

He never decided to move on. Andy, who'd married his mom's sister, was a great guy, he said.

"He was like a second dad to me," he said. His own dad died at 53.

Whitefoot and his wife, Alma, had three kids.

Wayne lives above the store. Mike lives in Grand Island. Their daughter Velda, and her husband, Tom Butters, live in Kearney.

Before Wayne returned to Boelus, he and his father owned the grocery store in Scotia for 17 years.

Alma passed away in 1999 at the age of 70.

Whitefoot has been village clerk and on the village board since 1952.

Boelus has a strong baseball history.

Whitefoot, who played left field, quit playing when he was 39.

Inside the store is a huge bat, made from a telephone pole, that celebrates the Boelus 1930 team. Among the names on the bat are Whitefoot's father and three uncles.

The grocery business has changed over the years. Customers buy more frozen food than they used to.

Ericksen still works two days a week in the store.

The store is also staffed by Wayne and his wife, Julie, and Mary Ann Anderson.

Whitefoot goes home for lunch every day. In the mornings, he gathers with other local men at the Golden Nugget from 8:15 to 9 a.m. The women assemble after the men.

Morning coffee is where everyone hears all the local news.

Alma used to say that in small towns, "Everybody knows whose check is good and whose husband isn't."

Whitefoot, who used to slaughter cattle and hogs, can't carry a quarter beef like he used to. But he likes coming to work every day in the store, which measures 135 by 45 feet.

Whitefoot doesn't want to retire because he's already doing what he likes to do. He looks forward to coming to work.

He will continue to work as long as he feels like he's helping, and is not in the way.

He's comfortable in the place he's worked since before Pearl Harbor.

"I know what I'm doing — most of the time," he said. "Some of them around here don't think I do. But I do."

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Information from: The Grand Island Independent, http://www.theindependent.com

An AP Member Exchange shared by The Grand Island Independent.

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (AP) — Illinois has spent more than $900 million on late-payment penalties over the last six years because of the state's inability to pay its bills on time, according to Figures from Comptroller Leslie Munger's office.

About $160 million was paid out in the 2014 fiscal year. That's the same amount that Gov. Bruce Rauner wants to remove from dedicated state funds to help the state's universities through the rest of the current fiscal year, The (Springfield) State Journal-Register (http://bit.ly/1TnKwTf ) reported.

The figures from Munger's office don't include any outlays for the current fiscal year in which the state has been operating without a budget since July 1.

Laurence Msall, president of a tax policy and government research organization called the Civic Federation, believes the penalties are wasted money because it doesn't serve the state or help it deliver services more efficiently.

"There is no justification for operation of our government with such fiscal irresponsibility," he said. "It's not beneficial to the vendors who have to wait. It's money that could have otherwise gone into programs that is just adding to the cost of government."

Although the Civic Federation determined that the state's interest penalties started to climb in the 2008 fiscal year as bills started to get backlogged because of the recession, the poor economic environment wasn't the only culprit, according to Msall.

"At its core, it is the result of the state of Illinois not having a sufficient budget for the last decade to address either unforeseen developments or under-appropriating areas of known expenditure," Msall said.

In the most recent example, former Gov. Pat Quinn signed the 2015 fiscal year budget into law, despite the fact that it wasn't sufficient to cover the state's expenses. Lawmakers had to approve a fix last year to prevent some of the state's services from running out of money.

Since the penalties hit a peak of $318 million in 2013, when the state paid down a huge backlog of Medicaid bills, late payment of state employee health insurance claims have accounted for the bulk of the interest penalties paid by the state, according to the Civic Federation.

Officials from the governor's office said in February that they'd be willing to explore the idea of borrowing money to reduce the bill backlog if the Legislature passed a balanced budget.

But no progress has been made on crafting a state budget for this year.

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Information from: The State Journal-Register, http://www.sj-r.com