Wednesday,  January 16, 2013 • Vol. 13--No. 181 • 18 of 37 •  Other Editions

News from the

Site of triple-fatal Sioux Falls fire to be probed

• SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (AP) -- Fire officials are preparing to go inside a burned-out home in Sioux Falls where three children died to try to figure out the cause of the blaze.
• The fire early on Dec. 22 killed 16-year-old Michael Hensley, 12-year-old Savannah Coon and 6-year-old Alivia Coon. The children's mother and her husband escaped the flames through a second-floor window.
• The house had been too badly damaged for fire investigators to safely enter, but it has now been reinforced. Fire department, police department and private investigators plan to start digging through the rubble beginning Tuesday.

Rapid City killing called a botched drug deal

• RAPID CITY, S.D. (AP) -- Authorities say a fatal shooting in the parking lot of a Rapid City motel was a drug deal gone bad.
• Thirty-year-old Charles Birdshead is charged with manslaughter in the Jan. 7 death of 33-year-old Eustacio Marrufo at the South Dakota Rose Inn. Birdshead was arrested Monday and made his first court appearance Tuesday. He also is charged with commission of a felony with a firearm.
• Prosecutor Mark Vargo says the shooting happened during a botched drug deal, and that the charges might change when Birdshead is indicted by a grand jury. Magistrate Judge Heidi Linngren ordered Birdshead held without bond.
• Birdshead said in court that he is tired of running, realizes the matter is serious and wants to take care of it. He could face life in prison if convicted.

Wheat and barley stocks up in the Dakotas

• BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) -- The Agriculture Department says in its latest report that wheat and barley stocks are up in the Dakotas.
• The Dec. 1 stocks were released last week. Wheat stocks totaled 204 million bushels in North Dakota and 60.3 million bushels in South Dakota, up 33 percent and less than 1 percent, respectively. Barley stocks were up 86 percent in North Dakota and 9 percent in South Dakota.
• Corn and soybean stocks also are up in North Dakota, but they're down in South

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