Tribes looking at biodiesel plants

MAKOTI (AP) - Three Affiliated Tribes officials are watching plans for biodiesel plants in Minot and Velva, as they consider including biodiesel fuel in their own plans for a new oil refinery on the Fort Berthold Reservation.

"Our business plan will have to be looked at … to see if the market can take another one, or do we work within their capacity?" Tribal Chairman Tex Hall said.

The tribal refinery project is still awaiting a federal review. The tribe plans to build a 15,000-barrel-a-day plant on land west of Makoti.

Tribal Treasurer Frank Whitecalfe said the refinery now will cost about $150 million to build. When the plan was announced two years ago, the cost was estimated at about $90 million.

Details announced of 188th's return

GRAND FORKS (AP) - Members of the 188th Air Defense Artillery's F Battery will be back in North Dakota as early as the second week of November.

About 100 soldiers with the Grand Forks-based unit were deployed to Iraq last December as part of the Idaho-based 116th Cavalry Brigade Combat Team. They helped train Iraqi soldiers to fight insurgents.

"We welcome them home with great pride," Gov. John Hoeven said Thursday.

Hoeven and North Dakota National Guard Deputy Adjutant General Jerald Engelman said the majority of the soldiers will arrive at Fort Lewis in Washington state next week, with the remaining members to follow over the next couple of weeks.

The soldiers will go through a demobilization process before returning to North Dakota.

Police look for man missing 12 years

FARGO (AP) - Police here are still seeking clues in the disappearance of a man 12 years ago.

Kevin Mahoney, 25, left the home of a friend in October 1993 to walk to his brother's home in neighboring Moorhead, Minn., and never arrived. It is one of Fargo's oldest missing-persons cases, and authorities this week once again appealed for information.

Police Detective Jim LeDoux said authorities still have no idea what happened.

"According to the family and all, he wasn't the type who'd just fall off the face of the earth without saying something," LeDoux said.

Some people questioned at the time of Mahoney's disappearance have passed lie-detector tests, while others have moved away.

"We need a real serious break here, somehow," LeDoux said.

No change expected in lake's level

DEVILS LAKE (AP) - No change is expected in the level of Devils Lake before freeze-up.

The latest long-range outlook from the National Weather Service said the lake is not expected to change from its current level of 1,448.2 feet above sea level.

The lake hit a record high on Aug. 3, at 1,449.2 feet.

Request dismissed in Microsoft case

BALTIMORE (AP) - A federal judge said Thursday he didn't have "anything close to jurisdiction" to decide whether a group of lawyers should receive more than $24 million in legal fees for their work against Microsoft in antitrust cases.

"I've got better things to do," U.S. District Judge J. Frederick Motz said in dismissing a case brought by a group of 27 law firms that represented clients in federal court. Those firms were trying to get a share of $79 million in fees that a group of 11 law firms received for state court cases in Florida, Minnesota, North Carolina, North Dakota, Tennessee and West Virginia, as well as the District of Columbia.

"This is a stretch too far," Motz said at a hearing in which he told the plaintiffs they would likely have to take the matter to state courts.

Goodrich shares take a tumble

CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) - Shares of aircraft parts maker Goodrich Corp. plummeted Thursday, despite a 22 percent rise in third-quarter earnings fueled by higher sales of commercial airplane equipment and improved results in all the company's businesses.

Shares of Goodrich fell $6.31, or 15 percent, to close at $36.74 Thursday on the New York Stock Exchange, where they have traded in a 52-week range of $29.40 to $45.82.

Goodrich warned that its 2006 profit would be reduced by higher pension, foreign exchange and stock option costs.

Goodrich is a supplier of aerospace, defense and homeland security products. In North Dakota, it has a plant in Jamestown.