• PIERRE, S.D. (AP) -- The South Dakota Senate has endorsed a plan to create a new scholarship program that would award money based on students' financial needs.
• The Senate voted unanimously to keep the idea alive by sending a bill to the House of Representatives.
• The bill originally provided that $5 million would be placed in a trust fund so interest earnings could support scholarships. The bill has been changed to spend only $1, with the idea that money will be added once the Legislature decides how much money is available.
• The bill's main sponsor, Senate Republican Leader Russell Olson of Wentworth, says South Dakota is the only state without a scholarship program based on financial need.
• He says state money would be added to private donations and university funding to pay for scholarships.
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• SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (AP) -- The four presidents on Mount Rushmore are going on tour.
• The South Dakota Department of Tourism is taking the four mascots on tour in the central United States in June as part of a promotion to drive more visitors to the state.
• Tourism Secretary James Hagen tells The Associated Press that the tour will start in Sioux Falls and then head to Omaha, Neb., Kansas City, Mo., Milwaukee, Minneapolis, Chicago and Fargo, N.D., among other cities.
• Along the way, representatives from the Tourism Department will stop at major sites and conduct media interviews.
• The four mascots have already been to New York City. They traveled to the Big Apple in November to promote the state's float in the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade.
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