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• With propane gas in short supply and increasingly expensive, the tribe this week set up shelters in two communities for people who can't afford to heat their homes. The Red Cross sent three officials there to help provide food, cots and blankets.
• Some people were at the shelters Wednesday, but Red Cross regional disaster program manager Dan Kuecker (KIHK'-ur) says no one stayed overnight and no one was at the shelters Thursday morning, when temperatures were in the single digits above zero.
• The tribe estimates about 5,000 reservation homes rely on propane. Chairman Dave Archambault II has said if propane prices keep rising, it could put the reservation in dire straits.
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• PIERRE, S.D. (AP) -- Reports released Thursday from two accounting firms found flaws in some procedures used by the state economic development agency but no misconduct beyond earlier reports that a former official had double-billed the state for travel and part of a grant had been improperly diverted.
• Gov. Dennis Daugaard ordered the reviews after finding out about alleged misconduct in the Governor's Office of Economic Development before he took office in 2011. He announced the investigations in late October, shortly after the suicide of former economic development director Richard Benda. Subsequent investigations found that Benda had sought reimbursement twice for some flights and was apparently involved in diverting money from a grant to a failed beef plant in Aberdeen.
• The two reviews were compiled by Eide Bailly and another firm, Stulken, Petersen, Lingle, Walti and Jones. One review found problems in financial control procedures, including those used by employees to claim reimbursements for travel expenses. The second found flaws in the handling of documents, noting that some supporting documents had not been placed in files involving development grants to companies.
• However, the two reviews did not deal specifically with the details of alleged misconduct involving the financing of the failed Aberdeen beef packing plant.
• "We were somewhat relieved there were no additional wrongdoings that were uncovered," Economic Development Commissioner Pat Costello said, adding that many of the problems dealing with procedures and document handling identified in the reviews have already been corrected.
• A detailed state audit of the Governor's Office of Economic Development -- which could shed light on issues surrounding the beef plant's financing -- is expected to be released within the next few weeks. South Dakota Attorney General

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