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• SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (AP) -- South Dakota farmers have planted their largest corn crop in history.
• The Agriculture Department's June acreage report estimates the state's corn crop at 6 million acres, up 15 percent over the year and eclipsing the 1931 record of 5.5 million acres.
• South Dakota's soybean crop is estimated at 4.5 million acres, up 10 percent

from 2011. Winter wheat acres seeded last fall fell 18 percent over the year, to 1.35 million.
• Sunflower, oats, sorghum, millet and barley acres all are up in South Dakota. Spring wheat and alfalfa are down.
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• PIERRE, S.D. (AP) -- A circular bench will not be returned to South Dakota's state Capitol rotunda despite a campaign to bring it back.
• The round leather couch dates back more than a century. It's stored at the state Cultural Heritage Center. Pierre resident Wanda Dilley led a grassroots campaign to bring it back, saying it was a nice place for people to sit and also added to the rotunda's ambiance.
• Members of the Capitol Complex Restoration and Beautification Committee inspected the bench Thursday but took no action on the request, effectively denying it. The bench has rips and tears, and State Historical Society Executive Director Jay Vogt (voht) says more damage likely would be done if it were brought out for public use.
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• SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (AP) -- South Dakota pole vaulter Derek Miles has qualified for his third Olympics.
• The 39-year-old Tea resident and assistant track coach at the University of South Dakota finished fourth in the finals at the U.S. Olympic Trials in Eugene, Ore., on Thursday -- one spot away from an advancing top-three spot. However, he qualified for the Summer Games in London because he had previously attained the Olympic

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