Victims ID'd in double-fatal crash in southeast SD
• YANKTON, S.D. (AP) -- The Highway Patrol has identified the victims in a double-fatal crash in southeastern South Dakota.
• Authorities say 57-year-old Becky Leapley and 64-year-old Lloyd Mork died at the scene of a head-on collision late Friday afternoon on U.S. Highway 81 north of Yankton.
• Mork was the mayor of the town of Irene.
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Dakotas projects getting aid from federal Ag Dept
• BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) -- Three rural cooperatives and one city in the Dakotas are getting money through a federal Agriculture Department effort to invest in rural businesses and spur economic development.
• Nearly $17.6 million in loans and grants is going to projects in 15 states and the Northern Mariana Islands.
• In North Dakota, Dakota Valley Electric Co-op is getting a $1 million loan for a manufacturing building, and Minn-Dak Farmers Co-op is getting a $1 million loan to buy equipment to process molasses byproducts.
• In South Dakota, Lake Region Electric Association is getting a $300,000 grant for an economic development loan fund, and the city of McLaughlin is getting a $42,455 grant for equipment for a local youth organization.
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SD legislative panel considers texting ban
• PIERRE, S.D. (AP) -- A South Dakota House committee is considering a proposed statewide ban on texting while driving.
• House Speaker Brian Gosch of Rapid City initially introduced a bill that sought to prevent local governments from passing and enforcing their own distracting driving ordinances. But at a committee hearing last week, he changed the bill to ban texting while driving statewide.
• The bill provides that local officials would still be banned from passing their own distracted driving ordinances -- something Gosch says existing law already prevents them from doing.
• Critics have said Gosch's bill is flawed because it would replace stronger bans (Continued on page 19)
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