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SD Guard soldiers back on US soil from Afghanistan
• PIERRE, S.D. (AP) -- A South Dakota National Guard unit that spent four months in Afghanistan is back on American soil.
• The 68 members of the Pierre-based 152nd Combat Sustainment Support Battalion landed at Fort Hood, Texas, early Tuesday. They are expected to return to South Dakota sometime next week after going through the demobilization process.
• The battalion had its tour of duty shortened twice -- from a year to nine months, then to four months. While overseas the group provided support in areas including supplies, maintenance, transportation and weapons.
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Dakotas officials spar over which state better off
• SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (AP) -- Some officials in the Dakotas are sparring good-naturedly over whether the North or the South is better off.
• North Dakota's energy boom has people flocking to the state in search of jobs, and money flowing into the state coffers and the state economy. But South Dakota also has a strong economy and low unemployment, and some leaders there say that state has a better quality of life.
• "North Dakota's got liquor stores that are bursting at the seams. We'd much rather have schools that are bursting at the seams," said Dusty Johnson, chief of staff for South Dakota Gov. Dennis Daugaard.
• Johnson told the Argus Leader newspaper (http://argusne.ws/J1tKIt ) that some top advisers to South Dakota Gov. Dennis Daugaard have joked about running billboards in North Dakota saying, "Today you've got a job; come to South Dakota and get a life."
• South Dakota must be jealous of North Dakota's best-in-the-nation unemployment rate, near billion-dollar state surplus and booming job growth, Greater North Dakota Chamber of Commerce CEO Andy Peterson said, though he acknowledged that the oil boom has come with drawbacks such as an increase in crime and skyrocketing housing rental rates.
• "We'd much rather have our problems of having a hard time to find a place to live and property values going up than the staid, steady environment he (Daugaard) has down there," Peterson said. "We'll take our problems above his problems any day."
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