Republican U.S. Rep. Jeff Fortenberry is facing growing pressure to resign from congressional leaders and Nebraska’s GOP governor Pete Ricketts. That’s after a California jury found him guilty of lying to federal authorities about an illegal $30,000 campaign donation from a Nigerian billionaire.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy both called on the nine-term congressman to leave office, as did Nebraska Gov. Pete Ricketts. Ricketts has endorsed Fortenberry’s top Republican primary challenger. A federal jury in Los Angeles deliberated for about two hours yesterday before finding Fortenberry guilty of concealing information and two counts of making false statements to authorities.
The Iowa Department of Agriculture has confirmed another outbreak of bird flu to bring the total in the state to six. The Ag Department says more than six million birds had been impacted by the outbreaks.
The latest case is in a commercial turkey flock in Buena Vista County with around 54,000 turkeys. Two other cases discovered earlier this month in Buena Vista County were in a commercial turkey flock and a flock of commercial laying hens .
Less than six months after dropping the mascot “Mohawks,” the Mason City School Board has approved a student-led suggestion to adopt the name “River Hawks.” The previous mascot was retired in November, following examples across the country of schools and sports teams dropping offensive names and mascots that either pull from or pervert Native American culture.
The Globe Gazette reports that the board unanimously approved the name change Monday night.
The South Dakota Department of Health has hired a New York-based software company to help monitor the flow of marijuana in the state’s legal medical marijuana market. The Argus Leader reports the contract with Metrc was finalized this month. Metrc will use “radio-frequency identification” to track cannabis from seed to sale.
