• PIERRE, S.D. (AP) -- A mobile dental program operated by Delta Dental has reached a milestone by providing $10 million worth of dental care to children around South Dakota in the past nine years.
• Delta Dental of South Dakota says its Dakota Smiles mobile dental program has given care to more than 22,000 young patients in 74 communities in the state.
• Dakota Smiles program manager Carrie Mikkonen says the program uses two trucks with fully equipped facilities to provide dental services to patients up to 21 years old. She says patients are not billed, but some are covered by private insurance or Medicaid.
• Mikkonen says the program helps people who have no access to dental care. She says tooth decay is the most common childhood disease, affecting 60 percent of children.
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• SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (AP) -- A 29-year-old woman is hitch-hiking all 50 states -- by airplane.
• Amber Nolan is a self-described "JetHiking Gypsy" who bagged states 40 and 41 this week with stops in Fargo, N.D., and Sioux Falls.
• A travel writer by trade, she started the quest in July 2012 in her home state of New York.
• Nolan gave up her apartment, sold her car, put her belongings in storage and reduced her main gear to the basics: a tent, sleeping bag and backpack.
• Now she's traveling the U.S. by thumbing rides on corporate jets, with private pilots, crop-dusters and even in home-built planes.
• Nolan's blogging her adventures and plans to write a book when she's done.
• She's on Facebook and Twitter as "JetHiking Gypsy" and her website is JetHiking.com.
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• BOX ELDER, S.D. (AP) -- The Douglas School District is receiving a $4 million grant to help build a new Box Elder elementary school.

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