A religious activist accused of burning four LGBTQ children's books that he checked out of the Orange City Public Library has been convicted of criminal mischief and fined.
Sioux County Attorney Thomas Kunstle says Paul Robert Dorr, of Ocheyedan, was found guilty of the misdemeanor today and ordered to pay $125 in fines and court costs.
Dorr posted a video to Facebook in October in which he denounced the Orange City library for having the books and threw them into a burning barrel.
Dorr had fought to have the charge dismissed, saying he was singled out for prosecution because of his anti-gay message.
A 19-year-old man convicted of stabbing two people to death last year in Sioux City will be sentenced next month.
The Sioux City Journal reports that Tran Walker faces a mandatory sentence of life in prison without parole when he's sentenced Sept. 20 in Woodbury County District Court.
The Standing Rock Sioux has requested a hearing on a plan by the developer of the Dakota Access Pipeline to double the line's capacity.
Tribal Chairman Mike Faith says in a letter to state regulators that doubling the pipeline's capacity increases the "consequences as well as the likelihood" of an oil spill.
State regulators agreed last month to consider a hearing if one was formally requested. The tribe was the first to submit a request. The Sierra Club says it also will file a request by the Friday deadline.
Runoff into the Missouri River continued at rates well above average in July, leading to a forecast for the second-highest annual runoff total on record.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers said that storage in the six Missouri River reservoirs peaked on July 20, but water releases from the dams will remain well above average, possibly as late as November, because of continued high runoff.
