A Wibaux, Mont., woman got an unorthodox amount of time to think about her crime.

Julie Rogers, 48, pleaded guilty to negligent homicide, after driving over and killing her friend, Tamela Curtis, 47, also of Wibaux.

The judge in the case, Richard Simonton, said Rogers' case was the third vehicular homicide in the county in nine years and that it appeared the sentences in those cases weren't having the desired effect.

Instead of simply deferring Rogers' six-year sentence - the same as imposed in the previous cases - Simonton also ordered her to appear in jail and serve six days a year for each of the next six years.

"So each year, she'll be remembering why she is there," the judge said.

Rogers also will pay $5,200 in funeral costs to the state and the Curtis family, as well as $14,000 for her legal defense costs.

Rogers had no prior criminal history, has a job and is apparently remorseful, he said.

Rogers' attorney, Ali Moulton, said Rogers is honest about her alcohol problems and that public safety wouldn't be served by her imprisonment.

Rogers said that Curtis slipped in front of her car and that she didn't remember much more beyond that. The incident occurred in June of 2006.

Sue Drivdahl, a probation and parole officer, said Rogers admits to drinking to excess and experiencing blackouts.

Rogers said she loved her friend and misses her.

"I hope her family can forgive me. I'll live with this for the rest of my life; so that's all," she said.

- Golden Valley News

Hopefully helping

A Bowbells man whose attorney stole $600,000 from his aging aunts is trying to protect others from experiencing the same thing.

Peter Willyard knows he won''t ever see the money taken by former Burke County State's Attorney Richard Wilkes.

Wilkes, who's been disbarred and apparently has no assets, is in prison serving both federal and state sentences.

It's possible the ex-lawyer could be released later this year on credit for good behavior and because his health is failing.

At trial, Wilkes said he took the money to pay for gifts to exotic dancers and he claimed at one time he was being blackmailed for some activities with the women.

Willyard is trying to get a new state law to protect elderly people.

The money lost to Willyard's family represents more than the earnings of his aunts, Hulda and Magdalena Jordy.

"It was everything that was passed down from one to another," over generations, Willyard said.

When the two women died in 2001, only Willyard and two nephews remained as heirs to money that had been stolen.

By the time the women died they were virtually helpless. Magdalena could not speak for five years prior to her death and Hulda had suffered a number of strokes.

Willyard said he should have followed things more closely, but he trusted the Wilkes family.

"Nobody asked any questions," he said, even as $104,000 in checks went through the bank within weeks of the sisters' deaths.

Wilkes even made himself the sole personal representative and the only one watching the money.

Willyard is getting some support from local legislators.

Sen. John Andrist, R-Crosby, said people deserve protection when they're entrusting their assets.

"You (authorities) can take their license away, but you can't get your money back," Andrist said.

- The Journal

Back to monument

Gary Benton went on a class trip with other members of the Surrey High School senior class years ago and a trip down memory lane earlier this month.

Back in the day, he and a few other guys decided it would be great fun to vault the fence and climb up the forbidden front of Mount Rushmore.

It was more than fun; amazing in fact to see the famous carvings up close.

But spread out and waiting when they scrambled their way back down were several unhappy National Park Service rangers and the school superintendent.

The rangers cut them some slack that day in 1966, mainly because they were from out of state and of course, needed to get back home with their class.

Benton, now older and pastor of the Lighthouse Assembly of God at Stanton recently made a similar trip to Mount Rushmore, going where few normally go on the presidents' monument.

Only this time, he went with an authorized group spearheaded by Knife River Indian Villages National Historic Site Superintendent Brian McCutchen.

He learned more on this tour, both about the monument and about himself.

"When I was 18 years old and 130 pounds, I could go pretty good," he said. This tour, with other park officials, was to the top of the monument looking down from above the carved faces

He plans to send photos of the recent climb to the top of the monument to his three classmates.

"It was pretty moving to stand up there and look down to see where we had been 41 years ago," Benton said. "Nothing had changed."

- The Hazen Star

Where there's smoke

A smoke detector by way of someone's nose alerted Wishek school officials that something funny was going on in the girls' locker room last week.

The school alerted both the McIntosh County Sheriff's Department and the Wishek Police Department that it smelled like some students were smoking pot in the school.

Sheriff Laurie Spitzer wouldn't say how many girls were involved, whether anyone had been cited, or if the alleged offenders were even all girls.

She said both departments will continue to investigate the incident.

- The Wishek Star