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• PIERRE, S.D. (AP) -- South Dakota health officials have reported the state's first

flu death of the season.
• The Pennington County resident age 90-99 had influenza B and was hospitalized.
• South Dakota year to date has reported 156 laboratory-confirmed cases of flu and 28 flu-related hospitalizations.
• State Epidemiologist Dr. Lon Kightlinger says the death is a reminder that flu can be a very serious illness, particularly for elderly individuals. He says annual vaccination is the single best way to protect against the flu, and annual vaccination is recommended particularly for people over 50.
• Also at higher risk are pregnant women, people with chronic medical conditions,

health-care workers and household contacts of high risk populations. Children are another high risk group.
•

• ST. LOUIS (AP) -- A federal lawmaker from Illinois who pressed the Army Corps of Engineers to release more Missouri River water into the drought-starved Mississippi says he understands why the agency has decided against it.
• Sen. Dick Durbin last week joined several other lawmakers from Mississippi River states in asking the corps to scale back the amount of the Missouri water it began withholding last month from the Mississippi.
• But a top corps official, Jo-Ellen Darcy, says that won't happen. She says she believes the low Mississippi will remain open to shipping despite concerns otherwise by lawmakers and the barge industry.
• Durbin says he appreciates the corps' other rationale that it is bound legislatively to be stewards of the Missouri regardless of the potential fallout on the Mississippi.
•

• SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (AP) -- A Sioux Falls man accused of trafficking in counterfeit goods has been put on federal probation for three years and fined $3,000.
• Fifty-two-year-old Senad Sacipovic (shuh-NAWD' sak-uh-POH'-vihtch) was accused of selling fake designer-brand women's apparel at his store in Sioux Falls. U.S. Attorney Brendan Johnson says Homeland Security agents seized thousands of

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