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• The coin is one of five to be released in 2013 as part of the America the Beautiful quarter program. Other landmarks featured this year include the White Mountain National Forest in New Hampshire and Mount Rushmore in South Dakota.
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• PIERRE, S.D. (AP) -- A South Dakota program has awarded more than $150,000 in technology grants to improve Internet service in 18 libraries, schools and other facilities across the state.
• The South Dakota Broadband Initiative uses federal money to make the grants.
• Jim Edman, who manages the project as deputy commissioner of the state Bureau of Information and Telecommunications, says the grants help communities increase Internet services.
• The grants help pay for computer security, network switches, wireless equipment and new computers.
• The grants are going to facilities in Aberdeen, Alcester, Elk Point, Plankinton, Eureka, Faulkton, Hot Springs, Leola, Mitchell, Doland, Ipswich, Sisseton, Kadoka, Isabel, Madison and Sturgis.
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• MOUNT RUSHMORE NATIONAL MEMORIAL, S.D. (AP) -- The heads of Mount Rushmore will provide a scenic backdrop Thursday as 150 people become American citizens.
• KOTA television reports (http://bit.ly/17gT3O5 ) that Chief District Judge Jeffrey Viken will preside over the ceremony in the amphitheater at 2 p.m. MDT.
• United States District Judge Karen Schreier, the keynote speaker, will talk about her own family's journey to citizenship 115 years ago from Germany to South Dakota.
• The Dakota Choral Union will perform, and Mount Rushmore National Memorial Superintendent Cheryl Schreier, the Mount Rushmore Society and students from West Middle School will make special presentations to the new citizens.
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• DIRK LAMMERS,Associated Press
• SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (AP) -- The head of the American Civil Liberties Union of South Dakota said Wednesday she's ecstatic with the U.S. Supreme Court's rulings on same-sex marriage, but the decisions do little to affect state laws banning the

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