Recap of the Top News in South Dakota in 2013

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (AP) — Much of the year in state news hovered around a shuttered beef plant, which returned to the headlines with a bankruptcy filing before exploding into a saga involving the death of a former economic development official, investigations into corruption and a court auction sale.

But there were plenty of other stories garnering Web site hits in 2013, including an autumn blizzard that killed tens of thousands of cattle, the death of a Eureka native who founded USA Today and the pending retirement of Sen. Tim Johnson.

Other top stories included a discovery of 1971 skeletal remains, Pine Ridge voting to legalize alcohol, Gov. Dennis Daugaard declining to expand Medicaid, a decline in pheasants and the Legislature's ban on cellphone use by young drivers and passage of an economic development bill.

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