• SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (AP) -- A dozen MBA students from Illinois are continuing a commitment to South Dakota's Pine Ridge Indian Reservation this week with a trip to help on service projects, meet residents and learn the Oglala Lakota culture.
• The group from University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign will spend the week working with a local organization to repair trailer skirts, build step porches and repair roofs to help a community that's constantly fighting poverty and high unemployment.
• It's part of an ongoing effort by the Kola Foundation, a student-run not-for-profit organization that aims to stimulate the local economy, promote education, improve health care and foster hope.
• Second-year MBA student Shelly Wohaldo says Kola is also helping to sponsor an annual business plan competition and providing mentoring to students and new businesses.
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• PIERRE, S.D. (AP) -- State officials report that South Dakota's tourism industry

is having a good year.
• The South Dakota Tourism Department says hotel occupancy statewide is up 7.8 percent so far this year, meaning hotels and motels are filling more rooms compared with the same period last year. Nationally, hotel occupancy is up only 3.4 percent.
• Taxable sales reported by motels, campgrounds and other tourism-related businesses are up 7 percent for the year so far.
• And the department

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