South Dakota

Youth Services International Inc. said it has been licensed to expand a residential program for delinquent youth in South Dakota, adding 24 beds to bring the facility's capacity to 108.The Owings Mills company said the extra beds mean about another $700,000 of annual revenue for the fast-growing operator of educational and behavioral-change programs aimed at juveniles.The new beds will be at Springfield Academy in Springfield, S.D., where students range in ages from 14 to 18. The average student stays in the program for about one year.

The most intense battleground in the abortion debate these days revolves around a simple question: What do women need to know before they terminate a pregnancy? South Dakota lawmakers want to compel doctors - under penalty of a month in jail - to tell women that the abortion they seek will kill a "whole, separate, unique, living human being." South Carolina is on the verge of requiring women to review ultrasound images of their fetus with a physician before consenting to end the pregnancy.

CHICAGO -- For 33 years, opponents of abortion have followed the advice of St. Vincent de Paul, who said that if you must hurry, "hasten slowly." Ever since the U.S. Supreme Court made abortion on demand the law of the land, pro-lifers have worked tirelessly to move the court and the country toward allowing greater protection for the unborn. But today, some people in the anti-abortion movement are running low on patience. They are hastening quickly, oblivious to the risks to those they want to protect.

We all know that kids say the darndest things. Turns out they know the darndest things, too. On TV Are You Smarter than a 5th Grader? premieres tonight at 9:30 on Fox. SAMPLE QUESTIONS 1. Can you name all the colors of the rainbow? 2. Can you name all five Great Lakes? 3. In what state is Mount Rushmore located? Answers: 1. Red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, violet; 2. Erie, Huron, Michigan, Ontario, Superior; 3. South Dakota

TEN RESIDENTS of northwest Carroll set out for Watertown, S.D., in mid-October to help repair damage from last spring's floods.Though the destruction was not as extensive as it was in areas of neighboring North Dakota, the need was very real. The effort proved to be rewarding for the people doing the work as it was for the mostly elderly recipients."One of the neatest parts of the trip was how people shared their stories with us," said Michelle Skiles, who coordinated the trip with her husband, Keir.

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. -- A buoyant Sen. Bob Kerrey headed south today to challenge Gov. Bill Clinton in Georgia, after his impressive victory in yesterday's South Dakota primary.Mr. Kerrey of Nebraska, proclaiming he had "struck gold in the Black Hills of South Dakota," broke into the winner's circle for the first time this primary season by establishing his affinity with the dominant farm community here, as a concerted effort to do the same by another South Dakota neighbor, Sen. Tom Harkin of Iowa, fell short.

PINE RIDGE, S.D. -- When Kevin Costner was filming "Dances With Wolves" in South Dakota last year, Loretta Cook, a Lakota Sioux Indian, had never heard of the actor.A friend who worked on the movie as an extra dropped by and showed her a photograph of herself and Costner. "Oh, nice," Cook responded. "Who is he? Your boyfriend?"Today, one would be hard pressed to find anyone in South Dakota who does not know who Costner is. His film about the life of a U.S. cavalryman who joins the Sioux is exploited in state-sponsored ads to promote tourism.

Abortion rights advocates submitted more than 37,000 signatures yesterday supporting a ballot initiative to overturn South Dakota's ban on abortions. If the secretary of state verifies the signatures, which number more than twice the amount needed to place a measure on the ballot, South Dakota residents will decide in November whether to keep the strictest ban in the nation. The measure, which outlaws abortions even in cases of rape or incest, unless the mother's life is at stake, is to take effect July 1. Doctors who perform abortions could be fined $5,000 and imprisoned for five years.

Sioux Falls, S.D. -- AT THE LOCAL Disabled American Veterans hall here the other night, newly declared 1992 presidential candidate Sen. Bob Kerrey of Nebraska was asked about the importance of South Dakota's presidential primary next Feb. 25."South Dakota as I see it is apt to be one of the top two primaries on the Democratic side, a very important primary," he said. "I view it as a wide-open race."Ordinarily that comment, linking the South Dakota primary with the high-profile, traditional kickoff primary in New Hampshire one week earlier, might be dismissed as little more than throwing a bone to this small prairie state.

The tom-toms are stilled and the Sioux ghost dancers gone from Stronghold Rock in the Badlands of southwest South Dakota.Anguished chants floating skyward, invoking the great buffalo spirits and foretelling the rebirth of the once-mighty Sioux Nation, have been silent for more than a century.But another ancient prophecy will be soon be fulfilled, when Chief Crazy Horse returns to lead his people back to the ways of dignity and self-reliance.The spirit of the great chief has been in the Black Hills west of Rapid City all along, of course, on the mountain known as the Crazy Horse Memorial.

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. -- South Dakota's economic renaissance has gone largely unnoticed, eclipsed by things like the state's strong opposition to same-sex marriage, its raucous debates over abortion and the stroke suffered by one of its senators, Tim Johnson, that could tip control of the Senate back to the Republicans. But in the 1990s, its long-stagnant population began to grow, especially here and in Rapid City, and its economy began to diversify. Its lack of personal and corporate income taxes made it attractive to companies and their employees, and while other states tightened their usury laws, South Dakota relaxed them, attracting numerous credit card companies.

WASHINGTON -- Sen. Tim Johnson, a South Dakota Democrat, was hospitalized yesterday and underwent surgery, but tests indicated that he did not suffer a stroke, his office said. Johnson, a centrist who has largely avoided the spotlight since being elected 10 years ago, became disoriented during a midday conference call with reporters. He was taken to George Washington University Hospital, where he was evaluated for a "possible stroke," his office said. A spokeswoman said later that doctors had found no evidence that Johnson, who turns 60 in two weeks, had suffered either a stroke or a heart attack, but he remained in the hospital.

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. -- It takes spunk for Katie Andert to sit in the middle of the Commons, day after day, behind a table festooned with signs demanding "Vote No on 6: Repeal the Abortion Ban." South Dakota is a distinctly conservative state, and the majority of its residents will tell you they are "pro-life." They'll also tell you South Dakotans prize politeness and eschew confrontation. Andert's booth on the Augustana College campus is a bit too in-your-face for most folks. But Andert, a 21-year-old psychology major, is part of a campaign to overturn the nation's toughest anti-abortion law in a statewide referendum Nov. 7. The outcome of the campaign, which dominates the pre-election landscape in South Dakota, could help determine the future of abortion rights nationwide.

Abortion rights advocates submitted more than 37,000 signatures yesterday supporting a ballot initiative to overturn South Dakota's ban on abortions. If the secretary of state verifies the signatures, which number more than twice the amount needed to place a measure on the ballot, South Dakota residents will decide in November whether to keep the strictest ban in the nation. The measure, which outlaws abortions even in cases of rape or incest, unless the mother's life is at stake, is to take effect July 1. Doctors who perform abortions could be fined $5,000 and imprisoned for five years.

STURGIS, S.D. -- Volunteers pushing to overturn the nation's most far-reaching abortion ban are surprised and delighted by the response as they circulate petitions to put the law up for a public vote. Even in the most conservative corners of this conservative state, Republicans and Democrats - including some voters who say they oppose abortion - are eagerly signing the petition. In two weeks, volunteers have collected a third of the signatures they need to get a November referendum on the ban. Some voters dismiss the abortion rights activists as out of touch with South Dakotan values.

In South Dakota, where lawmakers passed a near-total ban on abortion last month, the leader of one of the state's Indian tribes is proposing to circumvent the legislation by establishing an abortion clinic on an Indian reservation - within reach of women who need the service but outside the reach of the strict new law. Cecelia Fire Thunder, a former nurse who is the first female president of the Oglala Sioux Tribe, said it was "an eye-opener" when legislators...

In the grandstands of Rapid City's civic center, Alain Beauchamps lets his body sway gently to the hypnotic beat of tribal drums. Below him, male dancers, arrayed in lavish eagle-feather ornaments and bone breastplates, shuffle along the auditorium floor in the symbolic salute to the sun's journey across South Dakota skies. Then, on an invitation from the master of ceremonies, the French doctor, his wife and other spectators join in the dance.It's all standard fare at the Black Hills and Northern Plains Indian Pow Wow and Arts Exposition, an annual South Dakota event that unites Native Americans in a celebration of their enduring culture.

CHICAGO -- For 33 years, opponents of abortion have followed the advice of St. Vincent de Paul, who said that if you must hurry, "hasten slowly." Ever since the U.S. Supreme Court made abortion on demand the law of the land, pro-lifers have worked tirelessly to move the court and the country toward allowing greater protection for the unborn. But today, some people in the anti-abortion movement are running low on patience. They are hastening quickly, oblivious to the risks to those they want to protect.

BOSTON -- Two months ago, when all eyes were on Samuel A. Alito Jr.'s confirmation hearings, I traveled 1,300 miles west to Sioux Falls, S.D. I went to see the state where the right to abortion had already come down to this: one clinic, one day a week, one doctor. The women in the waiting room had come from all over the state. The doctor had flown in from Minneapolis. South Dakota had become a legislative laboratory for abortion restrictions. It had followed the blueprint that Mr. Alito himself had laid out in the 1980s.