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• Members of the House and Senate met in a joint session Thursday to hold a special memorial service for their deceased colleagues. The Legislature holds the service each year.
• Those honored Thursday included former U.S. Sen. Jim Abdnor of Kennebec, who was in the state Senate in 1957-1968, and former state Supreme Court Justice Frank Henderson of Hill City, who was in the state Senate in 1965-1966 and 1969-1970.
• Also honored were Leonard Andera of Chamberlain, Senate 1985-1990; Charles "Eddie" Clay of Hot Springs, House, 1967-1974; Bert Ellingson of Sisseton, House, 1969-1980; Maurice LaRue of Sturgis, House 2003-2004; George Shanard of Mitchell, Senate 1975-1992; and Burdette Solum of Watertown, House 1991-1992 and 1998-2004.
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• RAPID CITY, S.D. (AP) -- The Pennington County Sheriff's Office has started a criminal investigation after nearly 70 horses were impounded for neglect.
• The 69 horses were seized after the Sheriff's Office obtained a court order Jan. 8.
• The Sheriff's Office says the caretakers for the horses do not currently live on the property where the horses were located.
• The court order approves the Sheriff's Office's plan to release several boarded horses to their actual owners and to transfer ownership of the remaining horses to new owners.
• The investigation into the neglect of the horses remains ongoing.
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• OMAHA, Neb. (AP) -- Growth in farmland prices, cash rents and farm equipment sales remain strong despite the continuing threat of drought in some Midwestern and northern Plains states, according to a new survey of rural bankers released Thursday.
• The report on the Rural Mainstreet Index said the index hit 55.6 in January, down from 60.6 in December. It is the index's fourth straight month above growth neutral.
• Creighton University economist Ernie Goss, who oversees the report, said the region's rural economy was still expanding at a moderate pace.
• "Rural, agriculturally dependent communities in the region appear to have shed

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