South Dakota

In response to "As South Dakota Says 'No,' Business Answers With 'Yes,' " June 21: South Dakota has very few lessons to offer California. It's easy to get by without a corporate or personal income tax when you only have 700,000 people, few minorities and no real urban areas to have problems with. Let's hear about South Dakota again when it has 10 million people, a diversified populace and after the state has faced the ills of overgrowth. Also, you forgot to mention zero-degree winters, no beaches, no major league sports and little night life.

Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau Renowned baritone championed German lieder Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, 86, a renowned baritone who led a worldwide revival in popularity for German lieder, died in his sleep Friday at his home in the southern German city of Starnberg, his family said. The respected interpreter of classical art songs and opera performed for more than five decades primarily on European stages while also touring worldwide and recording extensively. He became best known for his renditions of songs by Franz Schubert and Gustav Mahler.

Republican attorney general candidate John Eastman has chosen the job description he will show voters on the June ballot: assistant attorney general. What he isn't saying, though, is that he is an assistant attorney general in South Dakota. Eastman resigned as dean of the Chapman University School of Law in Orange in January. But he opted to use a title given to him for a case he's working on in South Dakota. His opponents in the GOP primary contest are crying foul. "Eastman's cynical move makes a mockery of the ballot designation system.

Sen. John Thune (R-S.D.) announced Tuesday that he will not be a candidate for president in 2012, ending speculation surrounding the young South Dakotan. The announcement leaves the field to challenge President Obama wide open, as other Republicans seen as potential candidates have been reluctant to launch formal campaigns as early as in past cycles. Several have promised decisions in the next three months, however. In a statement, Thune and his wife thank supporters for their encouragement as they considered a potential candidacy.

Didn't anyone tell UC Irvine it's supposed to schedule patsies in these meaningless exhibition openers? Instead, the Anteaters got walloped Friday night in the Bren Center, 73-60, by South Dakota. The Coyotes, a perennial NCAA Division II power, return four starters from last year's 22-9 team and also start freshman point guard Richard Ross, the 2000 Nebraska high school player of the year. South Dakota made 11 of its first 16 shots, including five three-pointers.

Need your vacation destination to be chiseled in stone? Then the obvious choice is Mt. Rushmore in the Black Hills of South Dakota. An eight-day tour departing May 13 features the national parks of South Dakota:sites include Mt. Rushmore, the Badlands and the Crazy Horse Memorial. Guests also visit Rapid City, Deadwood, Mitchell, Aberdeen, Sturgis, Wall Drug (the famous drugstore), the Corn Palace and the film location of "Dances With Wolves."

An earthquake with a magnitude of 3.9 hit southwestern South Dakota, the National Earthquake Information Center here said. There were no reports of damage or injuries in the Saturday night incident. The temblor's epicenter was 65 miles southeast of Rapid City on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, officials said.

A Democratic Party panel threw out South Dakota's attempt to move near the top of the presidential primary schedule and warned on Friday that convention seats and hotel rooms could be denied to states breaking party rules. The decision by the party's Compliance Assistance Commission, which rules on local parties' methods of picking national convention delegates, marked the second time it has turned back a state's attempt to push ahead of the pack.

Legislation meant to prompt a national legal battle targeting Roe vs. Wade, the 1973 Supreme Court decision legalizing abortion nationwide, was approved Wednesday by the South Dakota Senate, moving the bill a step closer to final passage. The measure, which would ban nearly all abortions in the state, now returns to the House, which passed a different version earlier. The House must decide whether to accept changes made by the Senate, which passed its version 23-12.

Democrats celebrated Stephanie Herseth's capture of a Republican-held House seat in South Dakota on Wednesday and claimed it portends greater gains in the battle for control of Congress. Republicans argued that local factors settled the race, but some conceded privately that a sour national mood and President Bush's slumping support contributed to the defeat of GOP contender Larry Diedrich.

Tim Pawlenty and John Thune, two Midwesterners and possible 2012 presidential contenders, cast themselves as fiscal warriors before a receptive political action conference crowd Friday. Pawlenty, the former two-term governor of Minnesota, is likely to jump in the race, perhaps soon. Thune, a senator from South Dakota who is relatively unknown nationally but viewed as a rising star in conservative circles, is less so. Speaking to a record gathering at the Conservative Political Action Conference in Washington, both decried what they termed a runaway expansion of government under President Barack Obama.

In the cornucopia of kitschy roadside attractions, few rival the Corn Palace, a monument to maize that rises from this prairie town's main drag like a Hollywood prop tossed off the back of a big rig barreling down the interstate. Its green-and-yellow onion domes and spires tower over Main Street, an otherwise unremarkable avenue of low-rise buildings. Golden husks and hundreds of thousands of colorful cobs ? held in place by more than a ton of nails, wires and staples ? blanket the exterior.

Kristi Noem announces her arrival with a clatter of boot heel on the tile floor of a fast-food restaurant. She orders lunch herself. A small bowl of soup. The woman that some have dubbed the "next Sarah Palin" travels light. With just one aide in tow, she makes her way around an eatery, greeting residents of this small South Dakota town, which sits an hour north of Sioux Falls. She's tall and angular, with a Westerner's bearing. She's between campaign events, but she's dressed casually, in jeans.

Republican attorney general candidate John Eastman must change the way he identifies himself to voters on the June 8 primary election ballot, a judge ruled Thursday. Eastman wanted his job described as "assistant attorney general," a title given to him for work on a single case in South Dakota. The judge said the title could mislead voters and also ruled against Eastman's second choice: "taxpayer advocate/attorney." Sacramento County Superior Court Judge Timothy Frawley ordered Eastman, who recently resigned as dean of Chapman University School of Law in Orange County, to be identified instead as a "constitutional law attorney."

Republican attorney general candidate John Eastman has chosen the job description he will show voters on the June ballot: assistant attorney general. What he isn't saying, though, is that he is an assistant attorney general in South Dakota. Eastman resigned as dean of the Chapman University School of Law in Orange in January. But he opted to use a title given to him for a case he's working on in South Dakota. His opponents in the GOP primary contest are crying foul. "Eastman's cynical move makes a mockery of the ballot designation system.

Rk. Team Rec. Result Next 1. KANSAS 12-0 d. Belmont, 81-51 at No. 18 Temple, Saturday Cole Aldrich has 11 points, 14 rebounds and six blocks in another laugher. 2. TEXAS 12-0 d. Gardner Webb, 95-63 Texas A&M Crps Christi, Sat. Longhorns force 27 turnovers and get a season-high 19 steals in easy victory. 3. KENTUCKY 14-0 d. Hartford, 104-61 Louisville, Saturday Freshman John Wall breaks Travis Ford's school record with 16 assists.

Crews set backfires with flame throwers on Wednesday to protect the area around Old Faithful geyser from the worst forest fire outbreak at Yellowstone National Park this century, while wildfires forced hundreds of people from their homes in South Dakota and Idaho. In Alaska, about 1,200 firefighters battled blazes that burned about 1.3 million acres, an area larger than the state of Delaware, and strong winds fanned two of the largest fires, officials said.

It was an unusual field trip for the nearly 1,000 high school girls who spilled from yellow school buses in front of a Westwood theater one recent October morning. They came from all over the county: the tony enclaves of San Marino, Pasadena and Beverly Hills and the grittier reaches of Boyle Heights and South L.A. The movie they had come to see, " South Dakota: A Woman's Right to Choose," had already been vetted by a handful of their administrators, who were satisfied with the film's depiction of teen pregnancy and abortion.

A federal judge upheld part of a state law that requires women to be told that abortion ends a human life, but struck down disclosures that the procedure increases the likelihood of suicide and that the women have an existing relationship with the fetus. U.S. District Judge Karen Schreier's decision ends a lawsuit that Planned Parenthood in Minnesota, North Dakota and South Dakota filed in response to a 2005 informed consent law. The organization operates the state's only abortion clinic, which is in Sioux Falls.