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than 7,000 signatures to the South Dakota Secretary of State's office to get on the ballot as a Republican candidate for Senate.
• The Secretary of State must verify 1,950 of the nominating petition signatures for Rounds to qualify for a position on the primary ballot.
• Rounds says he received signatures from every county in South Dakota.
• Also running for the GOP are state Rep. Stace Nelson of Fulton, Sioux Falls physician Annette Bosworth, state Sen. Larry Rhoden of Union Center and Yankton attorney and Army Reserves major Jason Ravnsborg.
• Rick Weiland is the unopposed Democratic candidate. Former Republican U.S. Sen. Larry Pressler is running as an independent candidate.
• The Republican primary will be held on Tuesday, June 3.
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Man sentenced to life for sex trafficking
DIRK LAMMERS, Associated Press
• SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (AP) -- A man convicted of running a house that preyed on vulnerable girls and young women was sentenced Monday to life in prison on sex trafficking charges.
• Mohammed Sharif Alaboudi, who lived in the upstairs apartment of the house two blocks from downtown Sioux Falls, drew in homeless, addicted teens looking for food, shelter and drugs, said U.S. Attorney Brendan Johnson. The victims ranged in age from 14 to the mid-twenties.
• Alaboudi kept his victims high on drugs and alcohol while forcing them to engage in sex acts with strangers who dropped by the house and paid Alaboudi with drugs and money, Johnson said during a news conference Monday.
• "Mr. Alaboudi's house of horrors is closed," he said.
• Johnson said that victims who refused to participate were punished by being beaten and raped.
• Alaboudi in December was convicted of one count of conspiracy to engage in sex trafficking of a child, one count of sex trafficking of a child and two counts of sex trafficking by means of force, fraud or coercion. Judge Karen Schreier on Monday morning gave Alaboudi four concurrent life sentences on the charges.
• Investigators were able to break the case with the help of a 14-year-old girl who was scared but went to police, Johnson said.
• An attorney for Alaboudi did not immediately return a call seeking comment after Monday's hearing.
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