Abortion ban vote rated SD's top 2008 story
Posted: Friday, December 26, 2008
SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (AP) -- Voters, both statewide and even in a local election, were the key players in several of South Dakota's top 10 news stories for 2008.
The top story as selected by South Dakota Associated Press member newspaper editors and broadcast news directors was the general election rejection of another sweeping abortion ban.
Here are the top 10 news stories of 2008:
1. Abortion ban turned away at the polls.
2. Union County voters approve rezoning for oil refinery.
3. South Dakota's June Democratic presidential primary attracts national attention.
4. Ted Klaudt gets 54 years in prison.
5. Tom Daschle is nominated for a Cabinet post.
6. Tim Johnson is elected to a third Senate term.
7. Education funding takes center stage in a South Dakota courtroom.
8. Ethanol maker VeraSun seeks bankruptcy court protection.
9. State retirement system and trust funds suffer in economic slump.
10. The state begins enforcing a 2005 abortion law.
-- For the second time in two years, South Dakotans rejected a proposed state law that would have banned most abortions and perhaps set up a U.S. Supreme Court challenge to Roe v. Wade. The abortion ban had 55 percent opposition and 45 percent support in the November general election. It was less restrictive than a proposed ban on the 2006 ballot, which was rejected 56 percent to 44 percent. One of the state's most visible abortion opponents, Gov. Mike Rounds, said he doesn't think the 2009 Legislature will pass an abortion ban like the one voters defeated. Rounds also said he was surprised the 2008 measure lost.
-- In June, Union County voters approved rezoning for what would be the first new U.S. oil refinery in more than 30 years. The county commission had rezoned several thousand acres north of Elk Point for a $10 billion Hyperion Resources crude oil refinery, and the decision was endorsed at the polls, 58 percent to 42 percent. Later in the year, the state Department of Environment and Natural Resources issued a draft air quality permit for the refinery.
-- In most presidential election years, South Dakota's last-in-the-nation June primary means little. But in 2008, a hard-fought Democratic Party race between Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama hadn't been decided by the time of the late primaries. Clinton and her family blanketed South Dakota in the weeks before the June 3 primary, and Obama spent time in the state as well. Clinton carried South Dakota's Democrats, but Obama sealed the nomination with victories elsewhere. Republican Sen. John McCain carried the state in the general election.
-- Former South Dakota lawmaker Ted Klaudt was sentenced early in 2008 to 54 years in prison for witness tampering and for raping two foster daughters by touching their breasts and genitals in phony scheme that he said would help them sell their reproductive eggs. Klaudt's case, which went to trial in November 2007, also was the fourth-ranked story of that year.
-- The general election victory by Democrat Barack Obama yielded a job for one of his closest advisers, former Sen. Tom Daschle of South Dakota. The president-elect picked Daschle to become secretary of the U.S. Health and Human Services Department. Daschle, an early supporter of Obama, recently wrote a book on his proposals to improve health care. He also will oversee a new White House Office of Health Reform.
-- Talk about comebacks. Democratic Sen. Tim Johnson nearly died in December 2006 from a brain hemorrhage but later made it clear he would run for re-election in 2008. Johnson, who refused to debate his Republican opponent during the campaign, easily won election to a third U.S. Senate term.
-- For a month, a judge in a Pierre courtroom heard arguments in a lawsuit over whether South Dakota adequately funds education. The lawsuit was supported by most of the state's school districts but was opposed by the state, which said the funding system is constitutional and provides students with adequate opportunity. And the proof, according to the state? South Dakota students outperform those in most other states. A ruling is pending.
-- VeraSun Energy Corp., the nation's No. 2 ethanol producer, and 24 of its subsidiaries filed petitions for relief under Chapter 11 of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Wilmington, Del., in late October. With margins already slim, the company was short of cash in the third quarter after locking in at higher-than-market corn prices. VeraSun also reported it received an unsolicited buyout offer but would not name the suitor.
-- South Dakota often feels the effects of national economic woes later and lesser than other parts of the country. But South Dakota's investment office was not immune to the 2008 recession. The state retirement system has lost $1.8 billion since July 1 and several state trust funds also have taken heavy losses.
-- In June, the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals overturned a lower court order that had temporarily prevented the state from enforcing a law passed by the 2005 South Dakota Legislature requiring doctors to tell women seeking abortions that the procedure ends a human life. One abortion opponent called it the "biggest victory for the pro-life movement in 35 years."
AP-WS-12-23-08 1250EST
The top story as selected by South Dakota Associated Press member newspaper editors and broadcast news directors was the general election rejection of another sweeping abortion ban.
Here are the top 10 news stories of 2008:
1. Abortion ban turned away at the polls.
2. Union County voters approve rezoning for oil refinery.
3. South Dakota's June Democratic presidential primary attracts national attention.
4. Ted Klaudt gets 54 years in prison.
5. Tom Daschle is nominated for a Cabinet post.
6. Tim Johnson is elected to a third Senate term.
7. Education funding takes center stage in a South Dakota courtroom.
8. Ethanol maker VeraSun seeks bankruptcy court protection.
9. State retirement system and trust funds suffer in economic slump.
10. The state begins enforcing a 2005 abortion law.
-- For the second time in two years, South Dakotans rejected a proposed state law that would have banned most abortions and perhaps set up a U.S. Supreme Court challenge to Roe v. Wade. The abortion ban had 55 percent opposition and 45 percent support in the November general election. It was less restrictive than a proposed ban on the 2006 ballot, which was rejected 56 percent to 44 percent. One of the state's most visible abortion opponents, Gov. Mike Rounds, said he doesn't think the 2009 Legislature will pass an abortion ban like the one voters defeated. Rounds also said he was surprised the 2008 measure lost.
-- In June, Union County voters approved rezoning for what would be the first new U.S. oil refinery in more than 30 years. The county commission had rezoned several thousand acres north of Elk Point for a $10 billion Hyperion Resources crude oil refinery, and the decision was endorsed at the polls, 58 percent to 42 percent. Later in the year, the state Department of Environment and Natural Resources issued a draft air quality permit for the refinery.
-- In most presidential election years, South Dakota's last-in-the-nation June primary means little. But in 2008, a hard-fought Democratic Party race between Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama hadn't been decided by the time of the late primaries. Clinton and her family blanketed South Dakota in the weeks before the June 3 primary, and Obama spent time in the state as well. Clinton carried South Dakota's Democrats, but Obama sealed the nomination with victories elsewhere. Republican Sen. John McCain carried the state in the general election.
-- Former South Dakota lawmaker Ted Klaudt was sentenced early in 2008 to 54 years in prison for witness tampering and for raping two foster daughters by touching their breasts and genitals in phony scheme that he said would help them sell their reproductive eggs. Klaudt's case, which went to trial in November 2007, also was the fourth-ranked story of that year.
-- The general election victory by Democrat Barack Obama yielded a job for one of his closest advisers, former Sen. Tom Daschle of South Dakota. The president-elect picked Daschle to become secretary of the U.S. Health and Human Services Department. Daschle, an early supporter of Obama, recently wrote a book on his proposals to improve health care. He also will oversee a new White House Office of Health Reform.
-- Talk about comebacks. Democratic Sen. Tim Johnson nearly died in December 2006 from a brain hemorrhage but later made it clear he would run for re-election in 2008. Johnson, who refused to debate his Republican opponent during the campaign, easily won election to a third U.S. Senate term.
-- For a month, a judge in a Pierre courtroom heard arguments in a lawsuit over whether South Dakota adequately funds education. The lawsuit was supported by most of the state's school districts but was opposed by the state, which said the funding system is constitutional and provides students with adequate opportunity. And the proof, according to the state? South Dakota students outperform those in most other states. A ruling is pending.
-- VeraSun Energy Corp., the nation's No. 2 ethanol producer, and 24 of its subsidiaries filed petitions for relief under Chapter 11 of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Wilmington, Del., in late October. With margins already slim, the company was short of cash in the third quarter after locking in at higher-than-market corn prices. VeraSun also reported it received an unsolicited buyout offer but would not name the suitor.
-- South Dakota often feels the effects of national economic woes later and lesser than other parts of the country. But South Dakota's investment office was not immune to the 2008 recession. The state retirement system has lost $1.8 billion since July 1 and several state trust funds also have taken heavy losses.
-- In June, the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals overturned a lower court order that had temporarily prevented the state from enforcing a law passed by the 2005 South Dakota Legislature requiring doctors to tell women seeking abortions that the procedure ends a human life. One abortion opponent called it the "biggest victory for the pro-life movement in 35 years."
AP-WS-12-23-08 1250EST
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