Saturday,  Jan. 04, 2014 • Vol. 16--No. 172 • 19 of 29

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behind the wheel with an 8-year-old and a 10-year-old in the back seat. She is jailed on $10,000 bond.
• Kroger's husband, Kevin Kroger, said his wife suffers from alcohol addiction and needs help, not incarceration. He said her relapse was due to her addiction and depression, not a partying lifestyle.
• "It had nothing to do with New Year's Eve or New Year's Day," he told the Argus Leader newspaper.
• Kevin Kroger said his wife had been sober for four years before the incident.
• Nichole Kroger's last DUI conviction was in 2009. She was sentenced to five years in prison and served two years before being paroled.
• Police officers on Tuesday were alerted by an off-duty colleague who said he observed Kroger driving on the sidewalk. Police say her driving speeds as they followed her ranged from 5 mph to 50 mph.
• "That's the type of stuff that's out there all the time," police Lt. Jerome Miller told KELO-TV. "Unfortunately that's the reason we are out there and appreciate those types of tips, whether they come from one of our own officers or another citizen -- anything we can do to get those people off the road."

2014 SD mountain lion season off to a slow start

• RAPID CITY, S.D. (AP) -- The 2014 mountain lion hunting season in South Dakota is off to a slow start, likely because of fewer lions and hunters.
• As of Thursday, only four lions had been killed since the day after Christmas. In the 2013 season, four lions were killed on the first day, and eight in the first week.
• "I think the slower harvest that we're seeing this year is reflective of a lowered population of lions overall in the Black Hills -- which is what we set out to do," state Game, Fish and Parks regional supervisor Mike Kintigh told KEVN-TV.
• Hunting seasons began in 2005 to control South Dakota's western lion population, reduce the impact on deer and elk, and address public safety concerns.
• Five lions were killed during the first week of the 2005 and 2006 seasons, seven in 2007 including four on opening day. There was no season in 2008 but in 2009, six cats were killed in the first week. The number jumped to 10 in 2010, 15 in 2011 and 12 in 2012.
• Game, Fish and Parks conservation officer Mike Apland told the Black Hills Pioneer that there are also fewer hunters. In 2013, 3,786 hunters bought mountain lion tags. This year, about 3,000 are expected to do so.
• Poor hunting conditions also might be a factor.

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