BOULDER CITY, Nev. (AP) — President Barack Obama is directing federal agencies to fast-track a segment of the larger Keystone XL project today that he rejected earlier this year. The 485-mile line from Cushing, Oklahoma to refineries along Texas' Gulf coast would ease a bottleneck for crude from North Dakota and Montana's Bakken oil formation.

(Information in the following story is from: The Daily Republic, http://www.mitchellrepublic.com)

WESSINGTON SPRINGS, S.D. (AP) — Voters in South Dakota's Jerauld County have rejected an opt-out of the state property tax freeze to generate money for bridge and road repairs. The Daily Republic reports that Tuesday's vote was 355 in favor and 391 opposed. The opt-out would have generated about $450,000 in additional tax revenue per year.

(Information in the following story is from: The Daily Republic, http://www.mitchellrepublic.com)

MITCHELL, S.D. (AP) — A South Dakota man accused of hitting his teenage daughter with a piece of wood after she tried to sneak out a bedroom window will not see jail time. Forty-five-year-old Dennis Theunissen of Mitchell has been sentenced to a year of probation and 40 hours of community service and fined $400.

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (AP) — The estate of a 61-year-old Dupree man killed in July when his motorcycle was struck by a car in northwest South Dakota has filed a federal wrongful death lawsuit against the driver. A representative of William Weitzel's estate filed the lawsuit against Kathleen Carlson of Bellevue, Washington on Tuesday in Sioux Falls' U.S. District Court.