• South Dakota FFA Association hosted 446 FFA members from across South Dakota at the 2012 State FFA Leadership Career Development Events on Dec. 2-3 in Pierre, S.D. Three Groton FFA members competed at the State FFA CDE. They advanced to the state level competition by placing first or second at their district competitions.
• Joellen Gonsoir placed in the top 10 in job interview, finishing in sixth place. Katie Miller placed 13^th in creed speaking and Tyra Leonhardt placed 16^th in extemporaneous public speaking. Groton FFA members are advised by Adam Franken.
• While in Pierre, South Dakota State Senate Democratic Leader Jason Frerichs addressed FFA members at the awards luncheon. Frerichs shared the importance of agriculture and encouraged FFA members to be advocates for the industry.

• According to police reports, a Groton resident was involved in a car-pedestrian collision late Thursday evening in Aberdeen. Michael Vining, Groton, was driving his van northbound on South State Street, when he collided with Amanda Kleinsasser and David Kotzea, both of Aberdeen.
• The two pedestrians were crossing South State Street when they were struck. They were taken to Avera St. Luke's Hospital, treated and later released.
• The accident is still under investigation; no citations have been issued, the report stated.

• Just because you haven't used the fireplace or your food smoker in the last couple of days, don't assume the ash is cold. One Groton resident learned this the hard way on Thursday as the Groton Fire Department needed to be called in.
• Ron Anderson was cleaning his food smoker, that hadn't been used in a week, and putting the ash into a cooler, when the cooler started to smoke and melt. The fire department doused the cooler and deck in water to prevent the fire from flaring up and spreading.
• "It's always a good idea to put water on your ashes," Groton Fire Chief Dion Bahr said. "The ash could still retain enough heat to reignite a fire."
• The fire started around 1 pm and the Groton Police Department responded along with the Groton Fire Department. There was no damage done, other than to the cooler, and there were no injuries reported.