• PIERRE, S.D. (AP) -- The South Dakota Retirement System has no investments in major gun manufacturers.
• In the wake of the Connecticut elementary school shooting, some public retirement funds around the country began considering whether to get rid of investments in gun manufacturers.
• But state Investment Officer Matt Clark says the South Dakota Retirement System owns no stock in major firearms companies.
• Clark says the Retirement System, which now holds about $8.25 billion in assets, is managed to maximize benefits for its 75,000 members.
• He says the Retirement System has no social standards for investments in companies operating in the United States, but instead leaves it up to society to determine what is legal and acceptable.
• The Retirement System covers employees of state government, cities, counties and school districts.
•

• BROOKINGS, S.D. (AP) -- Researchers at South Dakota State University have developed two new oat varieties.
• The cultivars developed at the South Dakota State University Agricultural Experiment Station recently developed the Horsepower cultivar and a new multi-purpose oat variety, Goliath.
• SDSU oat breeder Lon Hall says Horsepower has exceptional yield potential and superior straw strength. Goliath can be used for grain production, forage or straw.
• The varieties took nearly a decade to develop.
• Hall says plant breeding is a process of elimination that's not about picking the best, but throwing out the worst until you're left with the best. He works with about 500 unique hybridizations, 300 populations, 30,000 mass selected plants and 2000 derived lines each year.
• SDSU has one of only a few oat breeding programs in the nation.
•

(Continued on page 16)