(Continued from page 27)

season closer to the end.
• The U.S. Agriculture Department says in its weekly crop and weather report that 95 percent of winter wheat has been planted, which is behind last year and the five-year averages of 98 percent. Twenty-three-percent of winter wheat has emerged, behind last year's estimate of 90 percent and the five-year average of 88 percent.
• Sunflower was 92 percent harvested, above last year's 78 percent and average of 42 percent.
• Cattle conditions were rated at 67 percent good to excellent, 29 percent fair and 4 percent poor.
•

• PIERRE, S.D. (AP) -- Here are five things to know about each of the candidates for South Dakota's lone seat in the U.S. House.
• KRISTI NOEM
• -- KRISTI NOEM: A FARMER'S DAUGHTER
• Born Nov. 30, 1971, in Watertown, Noem cut short her college education and returned to her family's farm to help after her father died in 1994. The 40-year-old Republican congresswoman still lives on part of the farm near Castlewood with her husband and three children and ran several small businesses before being elected to the South Dakota Legislature in 2006 and the U.S. House in 2010. She finally got her bachelor's degree in political science this year from South Dakota State University.
• -- NOEM'S VIEW OF OPPONENT
• Noem implies that Democrat Matt Varilek is out of touch with the average South Dakotan because he got two master's degrees from British universities and worked for an energy commodities brokerage. She regularly aligns Varilek with President Barack Obama.
• -- NOEM ON TAXES
• Noem opposes raising income tax rates and supports a permanent repeal of the federal inheritance tax so family farms can more easily be passed from generation to generation.
• -- ON THE CAMPAIGN TRAIL
• Noem tells voters she's one of them, touting her time on the family farm and raising children as experience that will benefit the average South Dakotan in Washington, D.C. In response to Varilek blasting her for missing many meetings of the House Agriculture Committee, she called the criticisms "hogwash" and said she

(Continued on page 29)