BRIEFLY Butler County REC offers $1,000 scholarships

BRIEFLY

Butler County REC offers $1,000 scholarships

Butler County Rural Electric Cooperative is offering $1,000 college scholarships to help students served by the cooperative.

Dependents of member-owners of Butler County REC are eligible to apply for the scholarships for tuition at two-year or four-year colleges (including vocational and technical schools).

Two scholarships will be awarded. One will be chosen from Butler County REC and another from within the entire Corn Belt Power Cooperative service territory. The scholarships must be used for educational costs, and the student must enter college in the fall of the school year for which the scholarship is given.

Recipients are selected on the basis of academic record, potential to succeed, leadership and participation in school and community activities, honors, work experience, and a statement of education and career goals.

Applications are available from Butler County REC by calling 319-267-2726 or online at www.butlerrec.coop. Deadline to apply is Feb. 5. Contact Robin Wagner atrobin@butlerrec. coop for more information.

Iowa farmer gets 3 months for hiring people in US illegally

CEDAR RAPIDS (AP) — An Iowa dairy farmer has been given three months in prison for employing people who authorities say were in the United States illegally.

Michael Millenkamp was sentenced last week in U.S. District Court in Cedar Rapids. The Dubuque Telegraph Herald reports that Millenkamp also was ordered to forfeit $245,000. He’d pleaded guilty to harboring, encouraging and inducing someone living in the U.S. illegally.

Prosecutors say the 48-year-old Millenkamp, of rural Earlville, employed several people residing in the U.S. unlawfully between 2007 and 2011. Some of the employees were allowed to live at one or more of the farms owned by Millenkamp.

US sues VW over emissions cheating

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Justice Department sued Volkswagen on Monday over emissions-cheating software found in nearly 600,000 vehicles sold in the United States, potentially exposing the company to billions in fines for clean air violations.

The civil complaint against the German automaker, filed on behalf of the Environmental Protection Agency in U.S. District Court in Detroit, alleges the company illegally installed software designed to make its “clean diesel” engines pass federal emissions standards while undergoing laboratory testing. The vehicles then switched off those measures to boost performance in real-world driving conditions, spewing greenhouse gases at up to 40 times what is allowed under federal environmental standards.

The company is in the midst of negotiating a massive mandatory recall with U.S. regulators and potentially faces more than $18 billion in fines for violations of the federal Clean Air Act.

General Motors invests $500M in Lyft

DETROIT (AP) — The automotive industry is placing its biggest bet yet that using a device to hail a ride — with or without a driver — is the future of transportation.

General Motors Co. said Monday it is investing $500 million in ride-hailing company Lyft Inc. and forming an unprecedented partnership that could eventually lead to on-demand, self-driving cars. It’s the largest investment yet by a traditional automaker in a new mobility company, and is an acknowledgement by GM that the transportation landscape is changing fast.

GM made the investment as part of a $1 billion round of fundraising by Lyft.