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• Soybeans were at 11 percent blooming, ahead of the five year average of 1 percent.
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• SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (AP) -- U.S. Attorney Brendan Johnson says 12 people have been charged in federal court in separate cases for drug trafficking in Bennett County.
• The individuals range in age from 22 to 54 and all are from Martin. They are accused of distributing controlled substances illegally, many within 1,000 feet of schools, between January and June of this year.
• The charges are a result of Operation Prairie Pharm. The investigation was con

ducted by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Bureau of Indian Affairs, the South Dakota Division of Criminal Investigation, the South Dakota Highway Patrol, the Pierre Police Department and the Oglala Sioux Tribe's Department of Public Safety.
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• WALL, S.D. (AP) -- A North Carolina man has been arrested in connection with the death of a woman he was traveling with in South Dakota.
• The Pennington County Sheriff's Office says 28-year-old Jerry Whitfield from, Thomasville, N.C., has been arrested on charges of vehicular homicide and driving under the influence for an accident that took place Saturday evening.
• Captain Marty Graves says Whitfield and 27-year-old Brandy Vermeulen, from Walker Town, N.C., had been traveling together when she was killed in an accident involving a tractor-trailer in a parking lot in Wall, S.D.
• Graves says witnesses told officers that Whitfield was attempting to drive away from the scene when Vermeulen attempted to grab onto the back of the truck, but fell off and was crushed.
• Whitfield is being held in the Pennington County Jail.
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