• SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (AP) -- A man who killed an elderly woman in her South Dakota home and stole her car as part of an alleged plot to assassinate President Barack Obama says he's tired of being portrayed as a monster.
• Forty-three-year-old James McVay spoke out several times during a Wednesday court hearing in Sioux Falls before consulting with his lawyers and issuing an apology. He accused prosecutors of cherry-picking information to make him appear dangerous, and said news reporters "are deciding whether I live or die."
• McVay pleaded guilty but mentally ill to first-degree murder in the July 2011 killing of 75-year-old Maybelle Schein in her home. He could face the death penalty. Several issues have held up his sentencing, including arguments over the appropriateness of the death penalty for a mentally ill defendant.
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• SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (AP) -- Bond has been set for a man and woman accused of leading police on a chase in the Sioux Falls area while driving a van filled with children.
• Bond is set at $2,500 for 28-year-old Joanne Swallow of Mitchell, who police say was driving. Judge John Hinrichs set bond at $25,000 for 34-year-old Robert Salinas of Sioux Falls after prosecutors said he was wanted in North Dakota and Minnesota.
• Authorities say the chase early Wednesday began as a shoplifting incident. Salinas is accused of assaulting a store security guard and of grabbing the wheel of the van and trying to steer the vehicle into a police cruiser.
• Salinas is wanted in North Dakota for failing to register as a sex offender and in Minnesota on drug and weapons charges.
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• PIERRE, S.D. (AP) -- The state Transportation Department says landowners need to remember that they cannot mow the rights of way east of the Missouri River before July 10.

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