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$25 compared to $100 in the Senate version.
• Senate sponsor Mike Vehle said the higher amount would make more drivers think about their actions.
• "No one wants to part with a $100 bill. We used to call them 'crispies.' No one wants to part with a crispy," said Vehle, R-Mitchell.
• Many municipalities have established their own policies against texting while driving. Forty-one states have texting bans, including most of South Dakota's neighbors.
• "The public wants this," Sen. Larry Lucas, D-Mission, said. "They expect us to have laws that are clearly understood from one end of the state to the other."
• Vehle introduced an amendment Wednesday to liken his bill to the House bill, which passed that chamber last week. The Senate Transportation Committee voted 5-1 to support Vehle's measure.
• Only supporters testified on the measure, including law enforcement and medical association representatives. The solitary vote against it came from Sen. David Omdahl, R-Sioux Falls, who said the bill was a token effort to reduce texting and should have an even stricter penalty if legislators want a cultural change.
• Vehle said he hopes this legislation will change the current driving culture just as seatbelt and anti-drunk driving polices have.
• It originally allowed cities and counties to impose stricter bans on top of the state law, but his amendment removed that language. Now the bill treats a texting while driving violation as any other state traffic offense.
• The House bill explicitly does not allow local authorities to tighten texting regulations.
• Yvonne Taylor with the South Dakota Municipal League said she would have preferred for cities to have the right to make the ban stricter but accepts it as amended.
• "It is reasonable," Taylor said. "It is a good faith attempt to compromise with the House."
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• PIERRE, S.D. (AP) -- The South Dakota Senate has passed a measure requiring openness from the group that governs state-wide high school sports and fine arts activities.
• The bill's sponsor, and other senators, say the High School Activities Association does good work for the state. Supporters of the bill say the association should be subject to government transparency laws because it operates with authority from

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