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trying to make the cuts more visible to the public. Thune said spending cuts should target wasteful spending, but that closing the Elk Mountain Campground and reducing visitor center hours will cut into park revenue.
• "Reducing visitor services and denying the public access to facilities that are paid for through visitor fees is very troubling and does not seem to be a very well thought out plan," Thune wrote.
• Wind Cave Superintendent Vidal Davila said in a statement that a 5 percent budget cut forced the park to close the campground to eliminate the need for two summer workers to maintain it. Evening campfire programs presented by rangers also are being cut.
• "The (spending cuts) forced us to make some tough decisions that will impact visitors to Wind Cave National Park," Davila said.
• The cuts also will affect other areas such as weed control, fence and building upkeep, and wildlife management, he said.
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AP News in Brief
Powerful North Korean body dismisses SKorea's female president and the 'swish' of her skirt
• SEOUL, South Korea (AP) -- North Korea's first public, senior-level mention of South Korea's first female president ended up being a sexist crack. The body that controls Pyongyang's military complained Wednesday about the "venomous swish" of her skirt.
• But despite that swipe, and a continuing torrent of rhetoric from Pyongyang threatening nuclear war and other mayhem, President Park Geun-hye is sticking by her campaign vow to reach out to North Korea's young leader, Kim Jong Un, and to send the country much-needed humanitarian aid.
• Public frustration with the last five years of North-South relations, which saw North Korean nuclear tests, long-range rocket launches and attacks that left dozens of South Koreans dead, is a big part of the reason Park is trying to build trust with Pyongyang, even as she and South Korea's military promise to respond forcefully to any attack from the North.
• Park's predecessor, Lee Myung-bak, infuriated North Korea by linking aid and concessions to what turned out to be nonexistent progress on North Korea's past commitments to abandon its atomic weapons ambitions. In doing so, he reversed past liberal governments' policy of providing huge aid shipments with few strings at (Continued on page 34)
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