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• The county joins several other South Dakota communities that have passed bans. The South Dakota Legislature has so far refused to ban texting while driving.
• The Rapid City Journal reports (http://bit.ly/1flBJsy ) that anyone caught texting while driving could be fined $200. The ban will be enforceable only on county roads.
• Commissioner Ron Buskerud says the local ban will send a message encouraging the state Legislature to pass a statewide ban.
• But local law enforcement officials say they wonder how and where the law will be enforced because it will not apply on some roads in the county.
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SD man appeals synthetic marijuana conviction
• SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (AP) -- A lawyer for the first South Dakotan charged with selling synthetic marijuana has told the state Supreme Court that the man did not know the products were illegal.
• Jason Toben managed a bar in the eastern South Dakota town of Goodwin. Synthetic marijuana was sold at the bar before and after the passage of an emergency ban on many of the chemicals used to make the product.
• Toben was convicted on drug charges and sentenced to nine years in prison.
• The Argus Leader reports (http://argusne.ws/16XilxP ) that Toben appealed, arguing the jury was improperly told he did not have to know that the product was illegal in order to be convicted.
• But a state prosecutor told the Supreme Court on Tuesday that the jury instructions were proper.
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SD secretary of state updating voter registration
• PIERRE, S.D. (AP) -- South Dakota Secretary of State Jason Gant says he is updating the state's voter registration list.
• Gant says people who have not voted or visited a county auditor to update their registration information in the past four years will get postcards seeking to verify their voter registration.
• He says voters who do not respond after two attempts will have their status changed from active to inactive. Their registration will be canceled if they then do not vote or update their registration in the next four years.
• Gant says the process, which is done every two years, helps clean up the voter registration list. He says it's a way to help fight voter fraud.
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