The voice of central South Dakota since 1881

Monday, January 14, 2013 www.capjournal.com Volume 132, Issue No. 9 75¢C

THE DEBT LIMITThe government could run out of cash to pay all its bills in full as early as Feb. 15, similar to the 2011 debt crisis A7B1

Pin your manGovernors compete at Mitchell event

Area News A2-A3 Opinion A4 Region A5 Comics A6 Nation A7 Sports B1-B3 Classi� eds B4-B6

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BY LANCE NIXONLANCE.NIXON@CAPJOURNAL.COM

Data available at the Aberdeen office of the National Weather Service shows that 2012 was the eighth-warmest year on record for Pierre, where the average tempera-ture was nearly 3 degrees high-er over the course of the year than they had averaged during the previous three decades.

It was the warmest year on record for both Rapid City and Sioux Falls.

The data show it was the warmest year on record for 19 states including South Dakota, as well as the warmest year on record for the contiguous U.S.

In Pierre, the temperature for the calendar year averaged 50.2 degrees Fahrenheit, or 2.9 degrees higher than the 47.4 degrees the city averaged from 1981 through 2010.

Find the information online at http://www.crh.noaa.gov/abr/.

According to the National Weather Service, it was the

warmest year on record for Rapid City. There, the year-long aver-age temperature for 2012 was 50.4 degrees, or 3.3 degrees higher than the 47.1 degrees the city averaged from 1981 through 2010. Sioux Falls also saw its warmest year on record with an average temperature of 50.6 degrees, 4.8 degrees high-er than the period from 1981 through 2010.

Aberdeen’s 2012 average of

46.8 degrees was 3.8 degrees up from the 1981-2010 average of 43 degrees, mak-ing it the sev-

enth-warmest year on record there.

According to NOAA scien-tists, the average temperature for the contiguous U.S. for 2012 was 55.3 degrees Fahrenheit, or 3.2 degrees above the 20th century average and 1 degree above the previous record from 1998.

The average precipitation total for the contiguous U.S. for 2012 was 26.57 inches, 2.57 inches below average, and the 15th driest year on record for the nation.

Nineteen states from Utah to Massachusetts had annual temperatures that were record warm. Twenty-six other states had one of their 10 warmest years. On the Plains, every state from Texas on north recorded the warmest years on record with the exception of North Dakota.

Weather Service: 2012 was eighth-warmest in PierreWant more?

Find the information online at http://www.crh.noaa.

gov/abr/

BY LANCE NIXONLANCE.NIXON@CAPJOURNAL.COM

For the sixth year now, Patti Mitchell of Grenville in eastern South Dakota has been organizing an event called the Day County Coyote Hunt as a way to raise money to help support South Dakota National Guard units.

This year she’s a little more excited than usual because the funds from the 2013 event will go to the 152nd Combat Sustainment

Support Battalion of Pierre — based right across the river from Stanley County, where she grew up. That’s why Mitchell was at the Fort Pierre Livestock Auction on

Friday, sale day, to sell tickets for a raffle held at the same time that also will go to benefit the 152nd.

Patti Mitchell of Grenville, S.D., a Stanley County native, spearheads an event called the Day County Coyote Hunt as a way to raise money to help support South Dakota National Guard units. She is shown at the Fort Pierre Livestock Auction. (Lance Nixon/Capital Journal)

Statewide coyote hunt will bene� t 152nd CSSB of Pierre

BY LANCE NIXONLANCE.NIXON@CAPJOURNAL.COM

The Smithsonian Institution was founded by Congress in 1846 “for the increase and diffusion of knowledge,” and only four years later, in 1850, some of its scien-tists visited the territory that would one day become South Dakota to start exploring its fos-sils.

Fast forward to 2013: A new agreement formally announced on Friday, Jan. 11, builds on that old relationship with the state of South Dakota by recognizing the Museum of the South Dakota State Historical Society in Pierre as an affiliate organization.

“This exciting new endeavor brings the Smithsonian with all its breadth and scope to our prairie home in South Dakota,” said Jay Vogt, director of the South Dakota

Smithsonian A� liation program strengthens ties to South Dakota

BY BOB MERCERSTATE CAPITOL BUREAU

PIERRE – The top-enlisted member of the South Dakota National Guard should become the first official secretary of the state’s new Department of Veterans Affairs, a legislative panel agreed Friday.

Larry D. Zimmerman of Rapid City has been state command master sergeant and was awarded a Bronze Star for his service in Afghanistan. He was appointed by Gov. Dennis Daugaard to head the new department and began duties Jan. 9 but needs approval from the state Senate to stay on.

The nine members of the Senate State Affairs Committee gave Zimmerman their unanimous rec-ommendation after his confirmation hearing Friday morning. The appointment now goes to the full

Larry Zimmerman was introduced by Lt. Gov. Matt Michels, right, at a con� rmation hearing Friday regarding Zimmerman's appoint-ment as state secretary of veterans a� airs. (Bob Mercer/State Capitol Bureau)

BY DIRK LAMMERSASSOCIATED PRESS

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (AP) — After years of private fundraising and piecing together property parcels that for centuries were home to thousands of Native Americans, South Dakota officials are ready to make the picturesque acreage along the Big Sioux River a state destination.

Gov. Dennis Daugaard in his State of the State speech last week said he’s introducing a bill to desig-nate the 600-acre Blood Run nature area as South Dakota’s 13th state park.

And the governor is asking for $2 million in general funds to make the first phase of improvements and build a visitor’s center within two years, said Doug Hofer, parks and recreation director for the state Game, Fish and Parks Department.

Officials this past summer opened the property 11 miles south-east of Sioux Falls for self-guided hikes and appointment-only tours led by a veteran interpreter-histo-rian.

Hofer said the response has been overwhelming. He counted 20 cars on the site when he visited with his grandchildren during a Sunday afternoon in mid-October.

“The interest is there,” Hofer said. “Once we’re able to move for-

ward with providing more inter-pretation, more information about the history of the area, improve the hiking trails and ultimately build a visitors’ center there, I think it’s

In this April 17, 2012 � le photo, Blood Run, a historic site along the Big Sioux River used by thousands of Oneota Indians into the early 1700s, is shown near Sioux Falls, S.D. Gov. Dennis Daugaard will be introducing a bill to designate the 600-acre nature area as South Dakota’s 13th state park. (Associated Press)

Senators recommend Zimmerman’sappointment

Blood Run on verge of becoming SD state park

See PARKS, A8

See HUNT, A8

See MUSEUM, A8

See ZIMMERMAN, A8

“It was my dream to help my soldiers. They might be your children, but I think of them as my children once they belong to a National Guard unit.”

Patti Mitchell, Grenville, S.D.

There are about 200 museums in the state of South Dakota, museum director Jay Smith said, but the Museum of the South Dakota State Historical Society is the only one recognized as part of the Smithsonian A� liate Program.