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• PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) -- A Brown University physicist is one of the leaders of

a hunt for mysterious dark matter in a former gold mine deep below South Dakota.
• Professor Rick Gaitskell is one of the investigators behind the Large Underground Xenon experiment, which features a device designed to find dark matter, an enigmatic material scientists believe makes up most of the universe's mass.
• The detector is housed in a double-walled titanium tank filled with ultrapure water and buried nearly a mile underground. The elaborate design is intended to prevent interference from the cosmic rays and radiation that regularly pass through the earth.
• Gaitskell says the detector is nearly operational and could begin its search early next year. He says the device offers the best chance yet of spotting the elusive par

ticles.
•

• SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (AP) -- Gas prices have been coming down over the past two months, but that hasn't eased holiday travel costs from last Thanksgiving.
• Jackie Spencer is driving from her home in Fairmont, Minn., to spend Thanksgiving with her sister in Lexington, Neb. She stopped Wednesday morning at an Interstate 90 rest stop on the South Dakota-Minnesota border.
• Spencer filled up her V-8 Dodge Durango for around $3.25 a gallon and says it's sad when that price is considered good.
• But she says it's better than paying $4 a gallon, and her credit card rewards program is chipping in enough money to help pay for most of the trip.
• AAA says the average price for a gallon of regular gas is $3.42 in North Dakota and $3.38 in South Dakota.
•

• RAPID CITY, S.D. (AP) -- The last of five men charged in a Rapid City crime spree in March has been sentenced.
• Nineteen-year-old Adam Poor Bear was sentenced Tuesday to spend 12 years in prison. He had pleaded guilty to robbery last month, and will be eligible for parole after six years.

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