Tim Smith of Iowa City and Lori Rudy of Burlington, back right, along with other intrepid Iowans, charge into icy water during the Southeast Iowa Polar Plunge at Lake Geode State Park in Danville. They braved the chill Saturday. Proceeds from the event support the Special Olympics.

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CHARLESTON — Officials say two Eastern Illinois University students were hurt when a large copper panel in the school's new arts center fell to the stage during an orchestra rehearsal.

The Mattoon Journal-Gazette reports that both students went to Sarah Bush Lincoln Health Center on Wednesday night after the incident in the newly renovated Dvorak Concert Hall.

A statement from the school says one student has been released, and the other is being treated by a hand specialist.

W. Parker Melvin, chair of the department of music, says the panel knocked out one of the student's teeth. He says the other student will undergo hand surgery at Springfield Memorial Hospital.

MUNCIE — Officials have approved a merger between Indianapolis-based Clarian Health and the medical group that owns Ball Memorial Hospital in Muncie and Blackford Community Hospital in Hartford City.

Cardinal Health System Chief Executive Kelly Stanley says boards for Clarian and Cardinal finalized the deal last week. The approval was announced Thursday, and the merger will take effect Jan. 1.

Officials have said both hospitals will keep their names and their current services, with Ball Memorial remaining a full-service, acute-care hospital.

Clarian is expected to fund $100 million in projects at Ball Memorial over four years, including completion of a cardiac-care center and conversion of some patient rooms to private rooms.

Clarian's roster includes Methodist Hospital, Riley Hospital for Children and Indiana University Hospital in Indianapolis.

CEDAR RAPIDS — The U.S. Supreme Court has rejected an appeal from a Forest City woman who wanted a review of her convictions and sentences in the drug-related murders of five people, including two small children.

Angela Johnson was convicted by a federal jury in May 2005 of 10 counts of murder in furtherance of a drug conspiracy. She was sentenced to the death penalty on eight of the 10 counts, which involved the premeditated murder of 6- and 10-year-old sisters, their mother and Johnson's former boyfriend. She received a life sentence for her role in the murder of a fifth victim, a federal witness.

The murders occurred in the summer and fall of 1993. The victims were found buried in shallow graves in rural Cerro Gordo County.

HUTCHINSON — Someday, in the near future, he'll be hamburger.

But that was unbeknownst to old No. 12, a 1,000-pound buffalo who made his way around the inner edge of a sale ring last week. He seemed to stare out into the crowd of onlookers in wonderment — maybe pondering who the lucky guy would be who'd get to haul him home.

"Just look at him," said Dan Ropp, a Reno County man who raises buffaloes as a hobby. "He's tall, he's long and has a good butt — everything you look for in a buffalo."

No. 12 was among 53 buffaloes sold Wednesday morning at the annual buffalo auction at Maxwell Wildlife Refuge in McPherson County.

Everything from 6-month-old calves to 2-year-old bulls was sold at the 30th annual auction, put on by the Kansas Department of Wildlife and Parks. The department maintains several small herds of buffaloes across the state.

As these herds grow, the agency sells its surplus animals.

JACKSON — A mid-Michigan man who'd been looking for work found trouble after an arrest warrant popped up during a background check at a police station.

Police also found cocaine in his pocket.

The company the man was applying to required the police background check.

The Jackson Citizen Patriot reports that after running the 29-year-old Jackson man's name through their computer system Wednesday, police learned he was wanted on a domestic violence charge.

Deputy Police Chief John Holda says that while searching him at the station, an officer found several rocks of cocaine.

The man is being held in the Jackson County jail. He is to be arraigned on the domestic violence charge and possession with intent to deliver cocaine.

MINNEAPOLIS — To the thousands of Minnesotans who have lost their jobs or will in the coming months, Dan McElroy has a message: Help is available.

Minnesota's unemployment rate rose to 6 percent in October, compared with 5.9 percent in September, for a net loss of 7,500 jobs, a figure that's expected to get worse as the national economic crisis deepens.

McElroy, commissioner of the state Department of Employment and Economic Development, announced the updated jobless rate Thursday at the South Minneapolis WorkForce Center, which helps people get unemployment benefits and find work through job listings, classes, and other career services and programs.

"We have 47 centers like this one around the state that exist to help people find employment, to get back in the job market, to access resources," McElroy said.

ST. LOUIS — A spike in the number of whooping-cough cases in St. Louis County and other parts of eastern Missouri has health officials calling for more frequent vaccinations.

St. Louis County on Thursday reported 146 cases of pertussis, or whooping cough, so far this year compared with eight last year at this time.

Many of the cases are among children 14 or younger. The cases were not clustered in one community or school but dispersed throughout the county.

St. Charles, Jefferson and Franklin counties in eastern Missouri, and some southeast Missouri counties, also are reporting an increase in cases, but the spike is not a statewide phenomenon, experts with the Missouri Department of Health said.

Missouri children are required to be immunized at 2, 4, 6 and 15 months, and again before entering school at age 4 or 6.

But the immunity against pertussis wanes after a while, and increasingly health officials have called for boosters at age 11 or 12.

"The cases we've seen (are children who) have been immunized," said Cindy Butler, a state Department of Health epidemiologist for eastern Missouri.

"The problem is waning immunity, meaning their immunity level fades over time. We may need to evaluate the immunization schedule as a nation."

OMAHA — The sole bidder on a signed portrait of Omaha billionaire Warren Buffett has won it for $100,000 in an online auction.

The 6-by-6-foot canvas was painted in 10 minutes by performance artist Michael Israel in front of a crowd waiting to enter the Berkshire Hathaway Inc. annual meeting in Omaha.

It bears the signatures of Israel and Buffett, the so-called "Oracle of Omaha."

All proceeds from the eBay auction will benefit Girls Inc. of Omaha. The non-profit group provides educational and recreational programs for girls.

The bidding didn't reach the levels of a lunch with Buffett, the chairman and CEO of Berkshire Hathaway, which is based in Omaha.

In June, a Chinese investment fund manager agreed to pay $2,110,100 to dine with Buffett.

BISMARCK — Supporters of an anti-smoking measure say they're expecting Gov. John Hoeven to choose a nine-member board next month that will write a statewide plan to cut tobacco use in North Dakota.

The committee's formation is required by Measure 3, which North Dakotans endorsed at the polls this month. Fifty-four percent of the state's voters approved the measure, which orders that a portion of state lawsuit payments from the nation's largest tobacco companies be used to fight tobacco use.

Although Hoeven will appoint all nine board members, seven will be chosen from nominees picked by four health groups — the North Dakota Public Health Association, the North Dakota Nurses Association, the North Dakota Medical Association and the North Dakota Society for Respiratory Care.

All four groups said they expect to turn in their suggested appointees to Hoeven's office by Dec. 4. Hoeven will then have until Dec. 26 to appoint the nine-member board.

After it has its first meeting, the committee will have six months to develop a statewide tobacco-control program.

SIOUX FALLS — After deliberating over most of three days — and at one point saying they couldn't reach a verdict — jurors acquitted two Hells Angels bikers of attempted murder for a 2006 gunfight that injured rival Outlaws Motorcycle Club members.

Prosecutors said they still plan to try Chad Wilson of San Diego and John Midmore of Valparaiso, Ind., on a more serious conspiracy charge for the Aug. 8, 2006, shootout at Custer State Park, though the judge asked for legal briefs on whether that would be double jeopardy.

Attorneys for the state said Wilson and Midmore went to Legion Lake Resort, near a campground where the Outlaws gathered for the Sturgis motorcycle rally, opened fire and injured five people.

But Wilson testified the Outlaws confronted the two outnumbered Hells Angels and he fired in self-defense after the Outlaws started shooting.

LOYAL — Let the horse apples fall where they may — as long as they're on the right path.

The Loyal City Council has relented and repealed an ordinance that would require horses within city limits to have manure-catching devices.

But that 7-1 vote last week was followed by a 5-3 vote approving a new ordinance requiring that horse-drawn vehicles follow a certain route through town.

Mayor Carol Lampsa said mer-chants raised concerns that the manure-catching ordinance passed Oct. 21 would cause the area's Amish residents who use horse-drawn vehicles to avoid Loyal.

Also, the Amish were concerned the bags for catching manure would make horses skittish.

The mayor said the designated route will be published in a weekly newspaper for two weeks before enforcement of the new ordinance starts.

Federal authorities in the United States have given final approval to a 214-mile power line expected to carry wind-generated electricity between central Montana and Alberta, Canada.

The $150 million Montana-Alberta Tie line would carry up to 300 megawatts of power in each direction between Great Falls and Lethbridge, Alberta.

On Thursday, the U.S. Department of Energy issued a permit authorizing its construction — the last major regulatory hurdle remaining for the project. Montana state environmental officials signed off on the transmission line in October.

Contracts are in place with three companies — Wind Hunter, NaturEner and Invenergy — that want to use the line's 600 megawatts of capacity for several planned wind farms.

The transmission line, known as MATL, is proposed by Tonbridge Power Inc. of Toronto. The company is finalizing a $90 million construction loan and has customer agreements to prepay $35 million in future revenues toward the project's cost.