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• Soybeans are unchanged from last month at $13.90, up $1.90 from last year.
• The Ag Department says the preliminary all sunflower price, at $22.60, is down $2 from last month but down $4 from last year.
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SD gov says cuts could require special session
• PIERRE, S.D. (AP) -- Gov. Dennis Daugaard says a special session of the South Dakota Legislature might be needed if the automatic federal spending cuts that take place Friday have a long-term effect on state programs.
• Daugaard says the federal spending cuts will have an impact on a number of state programs. But he says he expects President Barack Obama and Congress will take action to reverse or modify the cuts within a few months.
• The Republican governor says state government can manage the cuts through the end of the current state budget year June 30.
• But he says if the federal cuts are prolonged and have significant impacts, the Legislature might need to be called into a special session to adjust next year's state budget.
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As trend wanes, Vegas casinos fold on poker rooms
HANNAH DREIER,Associated Press
• LAS VEGAS (AP) -- The Tropicana hoped to step back into the big leagues when it opened its poker room in the heart of the Las Vegas Strip, touting it as the coolest in town.
• But that same morning, federal agents shut down the three biggest online poker sites on the Internet. Last September, less than a year and a half later, the iconic casino quietly swapped out its green felt tables for slot machines.
• It's a story that's become increasingly common as the crackdown on Internet gambling weakens poker's appeal, and the casinos that once competed to lure fans of Texas Hold 'Em abandon the waning game in favor of more lucrative alternatives.
• Poker has never been a big moneymaker like slot machines or roulette. But when the game's popularity soared during the 2000s, casinos were willing to forgo the extra dollars to get players inside their buildings.
• Now the calculus is shifting. In Sin City, epicenter of the poker craze, at least eight rooms have folded in the past two years. The trend is also playing out in Mississippi riverboats, Indian casinos and gambling halls near big cities from California to Florida.
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