Minnesota State University Reporter

Issue date: 3/27/08 Section: News Bits

Minnesota

• Minnesota State's annual Africa Night will be 6:30 p.m. Saturday as part of the International Center's semester-long series "Focus on Ghana."

The event, sponsored by the African Student Association, will feature an array of food, traditional dance, a play and other entertainment from Africa in the Centennial Student Union Ballroom.

The "Focus on Ghana" cycle of events and speakers highlights the expertise of faculty, staff and students while offering the opportunity to learn more about life in Ghana.

In another "Focus on Ghana" activity, Impact will screen the South African film "Tsotsi" Wednesday through Saturday, in Ostrander Auditorium. Scott Fee, chair of Construction Management, will give a special introduction on Friday, March 28, at 6:30 p.m.

• Sen. Norm Coleman, R-Minn., will be at the Wagon Wheel restaurant in downtown Mankato at 11 a.m. Friday to talk with students and community members as part of the senator's re-election campaign.

• House-Senate negotiators met Wednesday to start sorting out their differences over how to compensate victims of the Minneapolis freeway bridge collapse.

Nothing was resolved.

The House and Senate bills are separated by about $15 million and a significant philosophical issue - whether payments to individual victims should be subject to a $400,000 liability limit in Minnesota law.

National

A student pilot whose plane crashed into a mountainside survived a freezing night huddled in the tail of the wrecked aircraft and wrapped in emergency blankets, then hiked a mile through waist-deep snow wearing only shorts to meet rescuers Wednesday.

The Rocky Mountain College freshman was on a solo training flight to Powell, Wyo., when his small plane crashed into a forested slope on Big Pryor Mountain after taking off from Billings late Tuesday.

Andrew Scheffer, 18, apparently veered off course and hit near the top of the mountain about 40 miles south of Billings, authorities said.

When he met up with rescuers around 11:30 a.m., Scheffer was suffering from hypothermia.

"He ended up hiking quite a ways in his shorts and tennis shoes, in waist-high snow," said Jon Trapp, assistant coordinator of Carbon County Search and Rescue.

He was taken to St. Vincent Healthcare in Billings, where he was in fair condition. He declined requests to talk to reporters.


News Bits from Minnesota State press releases and The Associated Press

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