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and Pine Ridge reservations were designated as areas requiring federal approval for law changes in 1972 because more than 5 percent of the population spoke a language other than English, not because of violations of voting rights, he said.
• But the ACLU said federal approval of election laws has helped protect voters' rights in the two reservations. Charles Mix County, home of the Yankton Sioux Tribe, and part of Bennett County, which sits between the Rosebud and Pine Ridge reservations, have been added to the list of areas where changes in election laws need federal approval, the organization said.
• Shannon and Todd counties for many years were in the same legislative district. But a federal judge in 2004 ruled that district violated the federal Voting Rights Act because it packed too many Indian voters into just one district. The judge then redrew the boundaries of three legislative districts, putting the Rosebud and Pine Ridge reservations in separate districts, to give American Indian voters in the area a chance to elect more Native American legislators.
• In another case, federal officials blocked Charles Mix County from changing county commission districts in a way the department alleged would have harmed Native American voters' rights.
• Secretary of State Jason Gant said federal officials had not yet weighed in on some laws passed during this year's legislative session, including one that changed the deadline for requesting absentee ballots.
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Obama links Keystone approval to carbon emissions
MATTHEW DALY,Associated Press
• WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Barack Obama said Tuesday that the proposed Keystone XL pipeline project from Canada to Texas should only be approved if it doesn't worsen carbon pollution.
• The $7 billion pipeline has become a contentious issue, with Republicans touting the jobs it would create and demanding its approval and environmentalists urging the Obama administration to reject it, because it would carry carbon-intensive oil from Canadian tar sands to the Texas Gulf Coast.
• "Allowing the Keystone pipeline to be built requires a finding that doing so would be in our nation's interests," Obama said in a speech on climate change at Georgetown University. "Our national interest would be served only if this project does not significantly exacerbate the problem of carbon pollution."
• While his remarks appeared designed to reassure environmentalist fearful that the pipeline will be approved, they could also indicate an easing of the way for the pipeline, if the carbon standard is met.
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