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• "These will be companies that will pay better than average wages and provide better than average benefits and are very actively involved in their communities in the charitable sense and have every intention of being very outstanding employers in our communities," said Pat Costello, commissioner of the Governor's Office of Economic Development.
• The contractors' excise tax collected on those projects would be placed in the Building South Dakota Fund so the state can reinvest in future projects. The new fund would also get a portion of unclaimed property that the state receives from abandoned bank accounts.
• The amendment adopted Thursday added a safety valve, withholding spending if projected ongoing revenues would be insufficient to fund education, Medicaid and state employee costs.
• House Republican Leader David Lust of Rapid City said there has been some criticism that the process related to the economic development bill was not as open and transparent as some would have hoped. But he said the approach last week of getting the original proposal out and taking amendments has strengthened the final product.
• "It's where we need to be and it represents a good step forward for our state in economic development," Lust said.
• Hunhoff said the state has been dealing with economic development issue for five years and it was time to do something.
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Law gives tribes new authority over non-Indians
FELICIA FONSECA,Associated Press
• FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. (AP) -- American Indian tribes have tried everything from banishment to charging criminal acts as civil offenses to deal with non-Indians who commit crimes on reservations.
• Ever since the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 1978 that tribal courts lack criminal jurisdiction over non-Indians, tribes have had to get creative in trying to hold that population accountable. They acknowledge, though, that those approaches aren't much of a deterrent, and say most crimes committed by non-Indians on tribal land go unpunished.
• Tribal leaders are hoping that will change, at least in part, with a federal bill signed into law Thursday. The measure gives tribes the authority to prosecute non-Indians for a set of crimes limited to domestic violence and violations of protecting orders.
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