• PIERRE, S.D. (AP) -- A South Dakota legislative committee has rejected a measure that would have let voters choose the state education secretary in statewide nonpartisan elections.
• The measure's sponsor, Rep. Jim Bolin of Canton, says state education secretaries were elected until the 1970s, when a constitutional amendment let the governor choose the education secretary. He says making the job an elected position again would give voters a bigger say in education issues and prevent a governor from having too much control over education.
• But the House State Affairs Committee voted 9-4 to kill the measure. Opponents say an elected education secretary could clash with the governor, which would lead to problems in setting policies and running the state Education Department.
• Opponents also say voters have influence on education policy when they elect governors.
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• KENNEBEC, S.D. (AP) -- A South Dakota farmer who creates time-lapse photos and videos of the sky over Western landscapes has released his latest project.
• Randy Halverson, of Kennebec, says he shot "Huelux" last year in South Dakota, Wyoming and Utah.
• He says the weather made it difficult to get some of the shots he wanted, but that allowed him to get more night storm images.
• The latest piece also includes a lot of slow and fast-moving satellites, a few meteors and airplanes.
• Halverson sells the videos and still photography as part of his business, DakotaLapse.
• The videos are made up of still photographs with long exposures that bring out features from the sky not visible to the naked eye.
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