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dollars' worth of bogus merchandise and the Venecci Boutique was closed in October 2011.
• Sacipovic was indicted last March and pleaded guilty in September.
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School of Mines acting president not leaving
• RAPID CITY, S.D. (AP) -- The acting president of the South Dakota School of Mines and Technology will not be leaving for Louisiana.
• Duane Hrncir (HURN'-sur) was a candidate for the presidency at Louisiana Tech University, which announced this week that it was giving the job to an executive vice president.
• Hrncir was named acting president at the School of Mines after former President Robert Wharton died in September. South Dakota's Board of Regents hopes to name a permanent successor by May.
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Excerpts from recent South Dakota editorials
The Associated Press
• Argus Leader, Sioux Falls. Dec. 2, 2012
• Prison plan a welcome initiative
• South Dakota's surging prison population presents many challenges for the state. If it continues to rise at its current rate, we would be faced with needing to build a women's prison within the next five years, and a men's in the next 10. Cost for building and running those two facilities alone are estimated at $224 million.
• With 81 percent of the state's prison population being nonviolent offenders, and more than half incarcerated on drug and alcohol offenses, there are more than just financial concerns on the horizon. South Dakota has a fundamental problem with drug sentencing. Our laws are stricter and less nuanced than neighboring states, and our rates of imprisonment outpace every neighbor -- in Minnesota's case, by more than 100 percent each year.
• Which is why the recent proposal by the Criminal Justice Initiative, a work group organized by Gov. Dennis Daugaard made up of representatives from all three branches of South Dakota government, is so welcome.
• The group, which has been meeting since July on ways to increase public safety, increase accountability for offenders and reduce spending in corrections, recently recommended a set of criminal justice system reforms toward those aims.
• The reform package includes legislative changes to introduce a tiered system for (Continued on page 32)
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