Minot police said someone stole vehicles from two different buildings and damaged them by intentionally crashing them into trees.
Authorities believe the incidents at a Park District maintenance building and the Nodak Speedway office are related. Police said a pickup truck and car were taken from the Park District building, and a rescue vehicle was stolen from the race track office. The office also was vandalized, and money was stolen from cash registers.
Vandals hit golf course
Authorities estimate damage at more than $30,000 to the Hettinger Golf Course after weekend vandalism
Adams County Sheriff Eugene Molbert said five golf carts were drivenon the course and damaged. He said the vandals rammed more than 40 golf cart sheds and the club house, taking money, alcohol and cigarettes.

A North Dakota man died from injuries he suffered in a weekend motorcycle crash in South Dakota.
The Highway Patrol said Timothy Linghor, 51, Williston, was injured late Sunday morning when his motorcycle drifted off Interstate 29 in northeastern South Dakota’s Roberts County. The bike rolled in the ditch. The patrol said Linghor died Sunday night in a Fargo hospital.

A South Dakota man who bought an air seeder in the Stanley area of northwestern North Dakota didn’t make it home with the piece of farm equipment.
Minot police said Joel Koskan, 31, Wood, S.D., was hauling the air seeder on the U.S. Highway 2 and 52 Bypass when the equipment’s raised arms became lodged beneath an overpass. The accident this week blocked the eastbound lanes of the bypass for about five hours.
The $48,000 air seeder is believed to be destroyed. Authorities said the overpass was not damaged, though a few chunks of concrete were knocked from the bottom.

A fire about two miles south of the University of Mary in Bismarck has destroyed three tractors and three balers and burned about 10 acres of land. Firefighters put out the flames quickly this week. No one was hurt.
Assistant Fire Chief Dan Burgard said officials are still investigating the cause, but it appears to have been a spark from farm equipment.

More than 7,000 people in North Dakota have applied for federal disaster aid as they recover from months of flooding, a tornado and other severe weather, officials said.
The deadline to apply for federal assistance was Monday of this week, when 74 people registered, state Emergency Services Department spokeswoman Cecily Fong said.
Thirteen of those were from Stark County, where a tornado July 8 caused $20 million in damage but no serious injuries.
About 400 people affected by the tornado applied for individual assistance, said Shawn Kessel, Dickinson’s city administrator.
Dickinson residents have other offers of help. They have until next Monday to apply for assistance with the private Resources Agencies Flood Team, which includes members of churches and community groups. Residents have until Aug. 26 to complete a housing needs survey with that group, Kessel said.
The Monday of this week deadline covered individual aid to homeowners and to local governments for fixing roads or other infrastructure. State and local officials want more money to buy out homes in flooded areas.
Fong said 1,068 of the 7,333 applications for disaster aid were in Cass County, which includes Fargo, the state’s largest city.

Planned Parenthood has asked a judge to prevent South Dakota from suspending or revoking its license to perform abortions because of state claims that it violated a law requiring doctors to tell women that abortion ends a human life.
Planned Parenthood Minnesota, North Dakota and South Dakota requested a temporary restraining order in response to a letter it received this week from the South Dakota Department of Health. The letter, included in the court file, lists numerous deficiencies reportedly found in May during an inspection of the state’s only abortion clinic in Sioux Falls. The agency gave Planned Parenthood, which operates the clinic, until Aug. 22 to submit a correction plan.
Inspectors said the clinic didn’t make several disclosures to patients required under the state’s informed consent law. Planned Parenthood is challenging that law, and has disagreed with the state over wording required.
The group sued the state after the law was passed in 2005, and U.S. District Judge Karen Schreier temporarily prevented it from taking effect. The 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals overruled that order in June 2008, so the state began enforcement.

Judy Chu was sworn in as the first Chinese-American Congresswoman in U.S. history on Thursday.

Chu, a Democrat from California, was sworn in by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives.

Her husband, Mike Eng, also attended the ceremony.

Chu filled the House seat for 32nd district in California left open by Hilda Solis, who resigned to become U.S. Secretary of Labor earlier this year.

Pelosi said in a statement that as the first Chinese-American woman elected to Congress, Chu’s victory is “a source of pride to many.”

“Over her 24 years in public service, Congresswoman Chu has been committed to the essential issues facing our nation: the strength of our economy, the education of our children, and the health of all Americans,” she said.

Chu became the first Chinese-American woman in U.S. Congress after winning a runoff election for the House seat for 32nd district in California on Tuesday.

The former vice chair of the California State Board of Equalization received 61.67 percent of the vote, beating Republican Betty Chu, who is her cousin by marriage.

Chu was born in Los Angeles, California in 1953, and her father was also born in the United States