• SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (AP) -- In South Dakota, 2012 may be remembered for lives lost -- some of the state's greatest politicians passed, along with one of the nation's most famous American Indian activists.
• The state also saw two executions, tripling the number since the federal government lifted its ban on executions in 1976. With one execution in 2007, the total now stands at 18 in the state or Dakota Territory since 1877.
• Here's a look at the state's biggest stories of the year, as chosen by the newspaper and broadcast members of The Associated Press:
• 1. The execution of Donald Moeller.
• Becky O'Connell was just 9 years old when she left her Sioux Falls home to go to the corner store on an errand. She never returned. The discovery of her body the next morning in a secluded area near the Big Sioux River forever altered the small-town feel of South Dakota's largest city. Convicted at two trials in 1992 and 1997, Moeller maintained his innocence for more than 20 years. Then this year, he told a judge that he indeed kidnapped, raped and stabbed the girl to death. "I killed. I deserve to be killed," Moeller told a judge in July. Four months later, he was put to death by lethal injection in the South Dakota Correctional Facility.
• 2. South Dakota deals with drought.
• After record-setting flooding in 2011, South Dakota found itself struggling this year with drought. An unusually mild winter and dry spring and summer led to a severe drought that eventually spread over two-thirds of the nation. Crops wilted, and farmers scrambled to find feed for their livestock as rangelands and pastures dried up. Despite recent storms, the state remains in a drought that experts say will likely linger at least until next spring.
• 3. The execution of Eric Robert.
• Two weeks before Moeller died, Eric Robert was executed for the death of prison guard Ronald "R.J." Johnson during a failed escape in April 2011. Robert and another inmate, Rodney Berget, attacked Johnson and beat him to death. Then Robert

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