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whose farm serves high-end restaurants that request specific produce or organic vegetables.
• PJM Interconnection, which operates the power grid that serves more than 61 million people in the Mid-Atlantic, Midwest and South, asked users to conserve electricity because of the cold, especially in the morning and late afternoon.
• Across the South, the Tennessee Valley Authority said power demand in the morning reached the second-highest winter peak in the history of the Depression-era utility. Temperatures averaged 4 degrees across the utility's seven-state region.
• In South Carolina, a large utility used 15-minute rolling blackouts to handle demand, but there were no reports of widespread outages in the South.
• Natural gas demand in the U.S. set a record Tuesday, eclipsing the mark set a day earlier, according to Jack Weixel, director of energy analysis at Bentek Energy.
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• PIERRE, S.D. (AP) -- The South Dakota 911 Coordination Board has posted two requests for vendors to submit proposals for providing equipment and services needed to modernize the 911 emergency calling system.
• One proposal is for statewide emergency services to allow call access, transfers and backups among South Dakota's 911 dispatch centers. The second is for statewide Geographic Information System data and managed services to support the Next Generation 911 system.
• Coordination Board Chairman Ted Rufledt Jr. says South Dakota's 911 system is based on decades-old technology, so dispatch centers are unable to take advantage of wireless and voice over internet protocol technology. Rufledt says the Next Generation 911 project will put in place the infrastructure needed to allow 911 centers to accept pictures, videos, text messages and other form of data.
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• PIERRE, S.D. (AP) -- A $227,000 federal grant will help 19 rural hospitals in South Dakota improve patient safety and access, reduce medication errors, reduce hospital readmissions and improve operations.
• The Medicare Rural Hospital Flexibility Program funding is being distributed through the South Dakota Department of Health.
• State Health Secretary Doneen Hollingsworth says the funding helps rural hospitals make direct, positive impacts on patient care and health outcomes.

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