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necting.
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Fatalities in highway wrecks up compared to 2013
• PIERRE, S.D. (AP) -- Fatalities in car wrecks on South Dakota highways so far this year have almost doubled compared to the same period in 2013.
• The state's Department of Public Safety says 24 people have died in crashes in 2014. The state recorded 13 highway fatalities during the first two months of 2013.
• Lee Axdahl with the South Dakota Office of Highway Safety says frequent snowfalls have created road conditions that may have contributed to the crashes. Axdahl notes that half of this year's victims were not wearing seatbelts.
• Axdahl says it is still "difficult" to understand that some people still drive without buckling up first.
• Axdahl said alcohol, speeding, and overdriving road conditions in bad weather also contributed to several of the wrecks.
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SD lawmakers endorse waterfowl license bill
CHET BROKAW, Associated Press
• PIERRE, S.D. (AP) -- A South Dakota Senate panel Tuesday endorsed a plan aimed at ending years of legislative wrangling on nonresident waterfowl hunting by returning more control to the state commission that regulates hunting and fishing.
• The Agriculture and Natural Resources Committee voted 8-1 to approve a measure that would keep the current authorization for 4,000 10-day licenses and 2,000 three-day licenses for out-of-state hunters, but eliminate provisions that allocate some licenses to specific counties. The state Game, Fish and Parks Commission would be allowed to increase the number of those nonresident licenses by up to 5 percent a year and decide where those licenses could be used to hunt ducks and geese.
• Sen. Corey Brown, R-Gettysburg, said lawmakers have argued for years over how many nonresident licenses can be issued for different areas of the state. Nonresident waterfowl hunting is the only kind of hunting so strictly controlled in state law, but it would be better to let the commission and its staff use their expertise in responding to changes in waterfowl populations, he said.
• "Essentially we've got a situation where we've got less residents taking out waterfowl licenses, but we've got more waterfowl in the state," Brown said.
• The committee scrapped an earlier version that sought to provide special hunting (Continued on page 27)
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