• RAPID CITY, S.D. (AP) -- An airman at Ellsworth Air Force Base accused of trolling social network sites such as Facebook to solicit minors for sex has been sentenced to half a year in jail and five years on probation.
• Thirty-three-year-old Matthew Zook pleaded guilty to rape earlier this year. He has been ordered to complete a sex offender program and reimburse a victim for the cost of counseling.
•

• RAPID CITY, S.D. (AP) -- Crews have fully contained four small wildfires in the Black Hills region of southwestern South Dakota.
• The largest blaze was 32 acres, across the state border in Wyoming. The cause is unknown.
• The other three fires were an acre or less. Lightning caused two of them and a person started the third.
• Fire officials are reminding the public that fire restrictions remain in effect for the Black Hills Forest Fire Protection District, which encompasses the counties of Meade, Pennington, Custer and Fall River. Restrictions include no campfires.
•

• YANKTON, S.D. (AP) -- Authorities are searching for a man who walked away from a minimum-security prison in Yankton.
• Corrections officials say 26-year-old Eric Harcey went missing late Thursday. He was serving a five-year sentence on a grand theft conviction in Lawrence County.
•

• PIERRE, S.D. (AP) -- Events are being planned in the Pierre area to commemorate the 50th anniversary of President John F. Kennedy's dedication of the powerhouse at the Oahe Dam in central South Dakota.
• KGFX Radio reports (http://bit.ly/LiYDr5 ) that a ceremony will be held Aug. 17 to mark Kennedy's appearance at the dam on the Missouri River in 1962.
• The South Dakota Cultural Heritage Center will display photographs from the construction of the dam and the 1962 dedication ceremony. Visitors to the museum

(Continued on page 13)