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S. Dakota lawmakers meet Tuesday through Friday
• PIERRE, S.D. (AP) -- South Dakotans wanting to see lawmakers in action should steer clear of the Capitol on Monday.
• Legislators this week meet Tuesday through Friday. The Legislature in recent years has moved to mostly four-day work weeks to give lawmakers a chance to spend an extra day at home taking care of their farms, ranches, businesses and jobs.
• The schedule this year includes just one five-day work week, which is the first week of March. That's the final week of the main run of the session, when the House and Senate traditionally deal with major issues and pass the state budget for the next year.
• The annual session started last week.
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Blood Run on verge of becoming SD state park
DIRK LAMMERS,Associated Press
• SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (AP) -- After years of private fundraising and piecing together property parcels that for centuries were home to thousands of Native Americans, South Dakota officials are ready to make the picturesque acreage along the Big Sioux River a state destination.
• Gov. Dennis Daugaard in his State of the State speech last week said that he's introducing a bill to designate the 600-acre Blood Run nature area as South Dakota's 13th state park.
• And the governor is asking for $2 million in general funds to make the first phase of improvements and build a visitor's center within two years, said Doug Hofer, parks and recreation director for the state Game, Fish and Parks Department.
• Officials this past summer opened the property 11 miles southeast of Sioux Falls for self-guided hikes and appointment-only tours led by a veteran interpreter-historian.
• Hofer said the response has been overwhelming. He counted 20 cars on the site when he visited with his grandchildren during a Sunday afternoon in mid-October.
• "The interest is there," Hofer said. "Once we're able to move forward with providing more interpretation, more information about the history of the area, improve the hiking trails and ultimately build a visitors' center there, I think it's going to become extremely popular."
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