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• The lift station serving the southern part of town sits 25 feet below lake level, next to a road that has been raised 7 feet. The station has been reinforced with concrete so it won't become buoyant and pop out of the ground. Huge boulders surround the facility to ward off wind and waves.
• The high water has brought some prosperity, with many seasonal residents from Minnesota, Iowa and Nebraska spending money to flood-proof their cabin property and much of the construction work going to local firms.
• Tourists also have not stayed away. Gary Peterson, owner of the town's only remaining hotel, said business is good. Outdoor enthusiasts make up half of his occupancy.
• The fishing has never been better.
• "Bitter Lake, for example, was just a big slough for many, many years," Peterson said. "Now it is a huge lake with walleyes in it now and the fishing is wonderful."
• The lakes including Bitter Lake, which has dropped a foot, have been stabilized because of the dry weather. But that's little solace for many residents. Breske, for one, said he won't be fooled again.
• "They all feel really good because it's a dry cycle and the water is going down," he said. "We've still got plenty of water. And it will rise again."
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• RAPID CITY, S.D. (AP) -- A South Dakota man accused of attacking a sleeping man with a baseball bat and beating him to death has pleaded guilty to second-degree murder.
• Kyle Yankton, 21, entered the plea Wednesday in federal court in Rapid City. In exchange for pleading guilty, prosecutors downgraded the charge from first-degree murder and agreed to recommend that Yankton serve from 23 to 30 years in prison. The judge could still reject the deal.
• Prosecutors say Yankton entered his ex-girlfriend's house in Pine Ridge on June 30 and killed her boyfriend, Pablo Galindo Jr., 23, by beating him over the head with the bat while he was sleeping.
• Lorna Galindo, of Scottsbluff, Neb., told the Rapid City Journal after the hearing that her oldest son was an enrolled member of the Oglala Sioux Tribe who moved from Nebraska to Pine Ridge just two months before the incident to help out his grandparents.
• Her son had two young daughters and was planning to attend college in the fall, with the ultimate goal of becoming a pastor, she said.

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