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• SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (AP) -- Officials with the Sioux Falls Regional Airport are weighing plans to build a hotel to accommodate more travelers.
• The hotel likely would be on the north end of the airport.
• The move is supported by Mayor Mike Huether, who spoke Thursday to the Airport Authority during its monthly meeting. Huether applauded the airport's record bookings, new restaurants and ongoing efforts to reduce fares.
• But he also encouraged officials to "reach even higher."
• Traveler Mindy Butman tells KELO-TV that she thinks a hotel near the airport would be a good idea, especially for people who drive long distances to get to the airport in South Dakota's largest city.
• Rick Barge of Sioux Falls tells KDLT-TV that the airport has to keep growing to keep up with customers' changing needs.
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• PIERRE, S.D. (AP) -- A judge has rejected a death row inmate's challenge to South Dakota's single-drug execution method, Attorney General Marty Jackley said Thursday.
• Charles Rhines was sentenced to death for the 1992 fatal stabbing of 22-year-old Donnivan Schaeffer during the burglary of a doughnut shop in Rapid City. Rhines argued that the state's one-drug protocol violates constitutional prohibitions against cruel and unusual punishment.
• "The Court's decision affirms that the state has taken precaution in drafting and implementing its lethal injection protocol to assure that it meets constitutional requirements," Jackley said in a statement. "Today's decision is an important step forward in carrying out the jury and court's decision and holding Charles Rhines accountable for his horrific actions from over 20 years ago."
• Jackley said South Dakota's protocol is modeled after one approved by the U.S. Supreme Court. He says 7th Circuit Court Judge Thomas Trimble ruled Thursday that South Dakota's method does not pose a risk of unconstitutional pain and suffering. Rhines can appeal Trimble's decision to the South Dakota Supreme Court and then to federal courts.
• The method is a single dose of pentobarbital. It was used last fall in the executions of South Dakota death row inmates Donald Moeller and Eric Robert.

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