There's just something about that gravy.

 For Merle Serfoss, the gravy is the best part of The Salvation Army's annual Thanksgiving lunch. The Aberdeen man has attended a handful of the meals, traditionally held the day before the holiday, and he gives the gravy rave reviews while also noting the excellent dressing.

 In the kitchen Wednesday, where volunteer workers spent the morning preparing the meal for more than 100 guests, the cooks are tight-lipped about what makes the gravy so good. The secret is safe for at least one more year.

 Serfoss doesn't eat at The Salvation Army when weekday lunches are served. But he swings by and picks up leftover bread that he feeds to his geese and ducks at his home near Wylie Park. A couple of years ago, though, he was invited to join the group for the Thanksgiving meal.

 "It's a good one," he said, waiting in line for his food. "It's a very good Thanksgiving."

 Wednesday's lunch will serve as the main holiday meal for Serfoss and his wife, though he said he will likely snack on a turkey drumstick today while watching some football.

 At the worship service that preceded the meal, Allan Wellman, stood to give thanks for his mother, who will soon turn 95 years old. When the short service ended, he and his mom, Violet Wellman, both of Aberdeen, dined on the tradition meal of turkey, potatoes, dressing and pie.

 "You usually don't have mothers for that many years," said Allan Wellman, 69.

 As for Violet Wellman, she has plenty of family to be thankful for. The matriarch of the Wellman clan said she has five sons, five daughters, 30 grandchildren, 47 great-grandchildren and three great-great-grandchildren.

 Wednesday's meal will serve as the big Thanksgiving feast for the Wellmans, though last weekend they celebrated both the holiday and Violet Wellman's upcoming birthday with a host of family members who came to Aberdeen for the festivities.

 At the other end of the dining room, near a group of Northern State University football coaches who were dishing food onto plates, Salvation Army Maj. David Womack assessed the rows of full tables before him and noted that the crowd looked larger than last year's. By 12:25 p.m., with the long line of folks waiting for food having dissipated, 107 people had signed in for lunch. That compares to between 50 and 75 who stop by The Salvation Army for lunch on a typical weekday when the meal is, admittedly, less fancy.

 The Salvation Army still looking for volunteer bell-ringers for its Red Kettle Campaign. Womack said that normal ringing hours are 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. Mondays through Saturdays through Christmas. But should a group of volunteers want to try ringing beyond those regular hours, he'd be open to that.

 "I would love a group to do an overnight, say at Wal-Mart sometime," he said.

 To volunteer to ring bells, call The Salvation Army office at 225-7410.

This year, Aiman Youssef is thankful to be alive.

The 42-year-old Staten Island man said he used to have a $300,000 house he could be thankful for, and a car, and two vans full of things he was going to sell on EBay. Then Superstorm Sandy ruined all that and the rest of his neighborhood too, so just being alive is the best he can ask for right now.

"It's survival - that's what it is now," said Youssef, who sleeps in a tent, where it gets cold early in the morning, around 3 or 4 a.m. especially.

But that tent is no ordinary tent; it's a full-blown Sandy relief hub, bustling with supplies and volunteers "like 24-hours-seven here," as Youssef put it in a phone interview. And on Thursday, Youssef's temporary home was just one of the many locations around the Northeast that stayed busy over Thanksgiving nourishing the thousands of Sandy survivors and volunteers whose lingering struggles know no holiday.

"If you come on Staten Island, you come to South Beach, you'll see some things that will twist your stomach a bit," said Farid Kader, 29, a volunteer with Sandy Yellow Team, a relief group that works with Youssef's distribution site and, like many others, spent its Thanksgiving holiday distributing meals around storm-affected areas. "It's starting to take a toll on people. Honestly, until the authorities rebuild things, I don't see myself hanging out with other people."

Kader mentioned the post-storm mold in ruined homes: "A lot of us are getting sick."

On the phone, Matthew Hillyer, a volunteer delivering meals, sounded breathless. "I'm pushing a shopping cart door-to-door," he explained. "After I get done pushing the cart, I'm going to try to hit every house in a 10-block radius."

Hillyer is associated with Occupy Wall Street, which has won plaudits for its storm relief effort, Occupy Sandy. Organizers estimated it served more than 10,000 meals on Thanksgiving.

Another Occupier, Robert Pluma, was also almost too busy to talk. "I'm literally taking my first break in two weeks," Pluma said, politely begging off. "I'm carving a turkey as we speak."

Sandy's billions in storm damage left thousands newly homeless amid a recovery effort that, many residents complain, has stretched the capacity of major aid agencies and federal and local governments. As of Wednesday, the Federal Emergency Management Agency reported that 453,000 disaster survivors had applied for assistance in New York, New Jersey, Connecticut and Rhode Island, with $844.4 million in relief aid approved.

That translated into a $19,000 check for Youssef - a help, he said, but not enough for him to rebuild his life.

"He's not the only one I've been hearing this about," Kader said of Youssef. "This whole area has been flooded, and a lot of the people here don't have flood insurance. It's bad."

In New York City, Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg's office said it planned to distribute more than 26,500 meals to 30 locations where residents had seen Sandy's worst.

"As we continue to recover and rebuild from the devastating impact of Hurricane Sandy, our city will do everything we can to bring some of the comforts and traditions of Thanksgiving to families in our hardest-hit communities," Bloomberg said in a statement, adding that the city would also give out 2,400 turkeys.

In the city's outer boroughs, though, the government's post-storm promises haven't been enough for some residents, who had a somewhat tepid approval of Bloomberg's storm response in a Quinnipiac poll released Tuesday. Advocates for the New York City homeless community said the storm's aftermath had also widened a serious housing problem that had long existed for the city's down-and-out. Displaced residents have found themselves bouncing from shelter to shelter as officials struggle to find a place for them.

"The storm itself brought more transparency about the situation, because there's a lot more homeless people now, there's a lot more displaced people now, and it's all over the media," said Raul Rodriguez, who sits on the civil rights committee of Picture the Homeless, a New York advocacy group. "Before, it was more of a hush-hush situation."

Rodriguez added, "Everything is getting a little bit better, slowly but surely, but everybody's just holding on to their heads."

In New Jersey, Gov. Chris Christie - whose no-nonsense reaction to the storm recovery has earned him rock-star adulation in the media and in polls - packaged and delivered 500 Thanksgiving dinners on Wednesday to a Lowe's with his wife and children.

"We are all one New Jersey family," the Republican said in a statement. "When one family member is in need, we are all there to help, no matter how great or how small. It's that commitment, resilience and generosity that make Mary Pat and I so proud of our state and our people."

The giving spirit extended beyond the Northeast. In Perry Township, Ohio, Lauri Weinfeld said she was offering a four-bedroom rental house to Sandy survivors for four months, rent-free. When asked why she decided to do it, Weinfeld said, "If I just say it straight up, it just sounds like I'm being sappy and altruistic.

"But if you have something you can share and somebody needs it, you can share it," she said. "I can only imagine how horrible it is to lose your home and all your things and not be sure how it's all going to come back together. I can simplify somebody's life at least a little bit."

She'd just published an email address for those interested - temphouse4sandyvictims@gmail.com - and by Thanksgiving Day, one person had written, she said.

Perhaps in the spirit of the holiday, they'd written only to say thanks.

matt.pearce@latimes.com

Before South Dakota makes another ill-fated run at reforming our schools, let's answer one key question: What are we trying to fix?

 Voters overwhelmingly rejected Referred Law 16, but the measure was framed before the election as a showdown between Gov. Dennis Daugaard and teachers. The law would have implemented merit pay and teacher evaluations based in part on their students' test scores. It also would have added $15 million to teachers' salaries.

 Voters - the same people who often gripe that teachers are the lowest paid in the nation - also rejected Initiated Measure 15, which would have added a penny to the state sales tax to generate revenue for schools and Medicaid.

 With lots of entry points on each bill, it is difficult to know why voters rejected them. We don't think lawmakers and the governor should misread what their intentions were with those votes, either. Instead, they should seek to get residents - all of us - involved in what education reform should accomplish.

 That's why we hope the state asks people to contribute their ideas before moving forward with new legislation. Everyone has skin in the education game - students, parents, grandparents, neighbors or taxpayers. We all understand the value of a well-educated society.

 If the problem we hope to solve is better student performance, as Daugaard has suggested, then we need to know what we're shooting for and how to support teachers in doing a better job. If the issue is paying teachers what they deserve, then we need to spend some money, and that money has to come from somewhere.

 As we examine the question of what it is we're trying to fix, the administration must include all stakeholders at the table: teachers, superintendents, business leaders, academics, lawmakers and ordinary citizens.

 Before we introduce more bills that will only draw the ire of teachers and superintendents, let's work together to identify what we're trying to do and then develop an appropriate strategy.

 Governor, it's your move.

- Sioux Falls Argus Leader

Taxidermists feel lucky when they are the one chosen to mount a record deer.

 Lance Burns of Burns Taxidermy and Lone Wolf Tannery in Frederick had the privilege of mounting the No. 4 and No. 6 South Dakota record nontypical white-tailed bucks and had them in his shop at the same time this year.

 "It was unbelievable and amazing to work with these record deer," Burns said. "How often would I get that opportunity in the same year? I'm very honored to have had the chance to do this."

 The No. 4 buck on record in the state was shot in Potter County in 1963 by the late Larry Nylander of Lebanon. The official Boone-and-Crockett score was 238 2/8 inches. The buck was estimated to be 10 1/2 years of age.

 Henry Artz of Westport bagged the No. 6 South Dakota nontypical whitetail in 2011. He shot it south of Craven Corner, which is east of Ipswich, with his Ruger 7 mm rifle. A Boone-and-Crockett certified measurer in Sioux Falls measured the buck at 232 7/8 inches. The deer was estimated to be 6 or 7 years old.

 "My buck will be No. 6 when it is certified soon by Boone and Crockett," Artz said. "They are now looking through pictures of the buck."

 Artz was hunting on opening morning from a free-standing tower stand at the end of a tree grove. He was getting to ready to leave and thought he'd take one more look when he spied antlers in a conservation reserve program field.

 "I took the shot and got him," Artz said. "The night before, I was shown a photo of this deer and knew he was out there somewhere. When I saw the horns, I knew it was him. He dropped 20 feet from where he stood when I shot. It's the biggest deer I'll ever see."

 The No. 1 South Dakota nontypical whitetail was taken in Marshall County in 1948. Its Boone-and-Crockett score was 256 1/8 inches.

 If you shoot a deer you'd like to have mounted, Burns has some advice on how to cape, or cut, the hide.

 "When cleaning, stop cutting before you get to the front legs," he said. "Finish cleaning it, get it hanging and cooled and to the taxidermist as soon as possible."

 For hunters who do not want to cut the hide, Burns advises them to bring in the entire carcass and have the taxidermist cut it.

 Burns is a registered Buckmasters measurer and likes to mount any type of animal.

 "I love wildlife and get more enjoyment of seeing animals come in and doing all the work on them rather than hunting myself," he said. "However, when my 3-year-old son gets old enough, I'll take him hunting."

After a day of eating copious amount of food, some Aberdonians and their visitors took in some Aberdeen Wings.

 "We have a lot of people who brought their families and in-laws to the game," said Jennifer Hieb, director of marketing and promotions.

 It's the second year that the Wings have played on Thanksgiving Day. Last year's game brought in almost 1,300 fans. 

 "It's something to do for the whole family," Hieb said.

 This year, tickets for the Thanksgiving Day game and tonight's game were sold as a package for $15, a $5 discount from normal ticket prices.

 Hieb said the goal was to have more than 1,000 game attendees.

 Cindy Habedank of Bemidji, Minn., was in town to visit her son and his children for Thanksgiving.

 She said he's the big hockey fan in the family. She said she was thankful the family could do something together, though.

 "It's nice to be together as a family instead of falling asleep after the turkey dinner or just sitting there," she said.

 Aberdeen City Attorney Adam Altman and his family found time to take in the game during their holiday weekend. They're celebrating Thanksgiving with both sides of the family.

 Both of his children play hockey, so it's a good way to spend time with the family, he said.

 As for the players' Turkey Day plans, Hieb said they each got to celebrate.

 "A lot of them have families that came," she said.

 She said she knew the host families for players who are away from home provided them with their meals early so they could get into their game-day routines.

 The Aberdeen Wings take on the Austin Bruins tonight. Puck drop is at 7:15 p.m.

 Skate With the Wings will follow the game.

The Legislature's Planning Committee is off to a confusing start. The law creating the new panel was passed earlier this year. The law's language has lawmakers baffled.

The committee members are the speaker of the House, the Senate president pro tem, the Executive Board chairman and seven legislators chosen by the Executive Board. That's clear enough.

But here's the strange part. The law states they "shall be appointed biennially for terms expiring January first of each succeeding even-numbered year and shall serve until their respective successors are appointed and qualified."

The law creating the Planning Committee terms conflicts with the South Dakota Constitution, which sets the framework for the Legislature.

Legislators serve two-year terms in the House and the Senate. They run for election to those two-year terms in even-numbered years, and the terms start in odd-numbered years.

Taken at its word, the Planning Committee law would seem to allow legislators to continue serving for another year on the committee even after they leave the Legislature.

That would seem to be regardless of the reason - election defeat, voluntary retirement or term limits - that they aren't legislators any longer.

A week ago, the Executive Board tried to deal with this incongruity and reached only a partial solution.

Part of the problem seems to take care of itself: If a person is finished as House speaker or Senate president pro tem or Executive Board chairman, the person has lost the official perch necessary to be on the panel.

The new holder of that office automatically qualifies for the Planning Committee.

But there's a catch even there.

The Executive Board members are selected by their caucuses during the first legislative session of each two-year new term. Those members in turn elect the board's chairman. That usually occurs near the end of the session, in February or March.

Obviously that needs to be ironed out. So does the process for the seven members appointed by the Executive Board

If the board doesn't meet until late in the session, the appointment of new Planning Committee members must wait, too - opening the door, again, for the old members to stay on the committee after they have left the Legislature.

No one seems too clear on the solution, other than to change the law during the 2013 session.

The consensus among the Executive Board members who were present at the Nov. 16 meeting was that the Planning Committee's current chairman, Rep. Scott Munsterman, should meet with the author of the Planning Committee legislation, House Republican leader David Lust.
 In football this is known as punting on fourth down rather than seeking a first down or trying for a touchdown.

At least in Munsterman the Planning Committee has a leader who likes planning. When Munsterman, the former mayor of Brookings, sought the Republican nomination for governor in 2010, he published a book about  his vision for South Dakota.

He briefed the Executive Board on the Planning Committee's progress. Workforce development is the main topic now. He said there will be a draft "white paper" by spring, with analysis of it next summer, and a final policy brief ready for delivery to the Legislature for the 2014 session.

"That's my story, and I'm sticking to it," Munsterman said.

At its October meeting the Planning Committee spent the day hearing from tribal government leaders specifically about reservation workforces. The committee meets again Nov. 29 at the Capitol.

For many of the members, it might be their last meeting.

The House speaker, Val Rausch, R-Big Stone City, is leaving the Legislature, as is the Senate president pro tem, Bob Gray, R-Pierre.

The vice chairman, Rep. Steve Street, D-Milbank, lost his candidacy for the Senate. Term-limited and retiring is Rep. Chuck Turbiville, R-Deadwood, the Executive Board chairman.

The legislators who won election to new terms and therefore are eligible to stay on the committee are Munsterman; Rep. Jacqueline Sly, R-Rapid City; Rep. Kristin Conzet, R-Rapid City; Sen. Ryan Maher, R-Isabel; Sen. Mike Vehle, R-Mitchell; Rep. Susan Wismer, D-Britton; and Sen. Billie Sutton, D-Burke.

For the 2013 session the new House speaker will be Brian Gosch, R-Rapid City; and the new Senate president pro tem will be Corey Brown, R-Gettysburg.

The purpose of the Planning Committee, as stated in the law, is "to make a continuing study of emerging trends, assets, and challenges in South Dakota and to address the long-term implications of the decisions made by the Legislature."

The Planning Committee law might be one of those decisions whose long-term implications now needs to be addressed.

The deputy in Jefferson County in southeast Texas heard an emergency call on his radio about a multivehicle pileup near his rural home, on Interstate 10 near Beaumont, a Gulf Coast city about 80 miles east of Houston.

Carroll, a 25-year law enforcement veteran, is also a paramedic. He knew his expertise might be valuable, so he headed out toward the stretch of highway, which was a sea of fog in the early morning hours Thursday.

PHOTOS: Massive Thanksgiving Day pileup in Texas

"It was overwhelming," Carroll, 46, told the Los Angeles Times on Friday. "It was extremely foggy. You couldn't see 10 feet around you in any direction. It was like some strange dream."

Officials later determined that two people had died and more than 80 people were injured when at least 140 vehicles collided in a gruesome twist of metal that left trucks twisted on top of one another and rescuers like Carroll rushing to pull survivors from the wreckage.

With traffic stopped on the freeway, Carroll stopped his cruiser and walked down the middle of the lanes, responding to wrecked cars and trucks and injured passengers as he found them. The wreckage scene was more than a mile long, so outstretched that officials arriving early had no idea how bad was the pileup or how severe the human toll.

"I saw people lying on the ground covered by a blanket, being attended to by strangers. I saw an infant being loaded into an ambulance. I saw children bleeding," he told The Times. "It was like a Third World scene, honestly. I just kept walking down that highway, trying to help in any way I could, not knowing what I would encounter next, what would come out of the fog."

The collisions occurred in extremely foggy conditions at about 8:45 a.m. Authorities said a man and a woman were killed in a Chevy Suburban SUV crushed by a tractor trailer.

"I saw cars on top of cars," Carroll said. "In some spots there was so much heavy damage and in other areas you could see where people had veered over onto the grass shoulder at the last minute to escape the impact. Those were the lucky ones."

He said the couple in the Chevy Suburban were not so lucky.

"The semi tractor-trailer was sitting right on top of that SUV," Carroll said. "At first I didn't realize that was a vehicle. I thought it was part of the 18-wheeler. I don't know how anyone could have survived that."

Carroll said 80 to 90 people were transported to hospitals with 10 to 12 of those in serious to critical condition. He said 140 to 150 vehicles were involved in the pileup. Authorities said a crash on the eastbound side of the highway led to other accidents in a dangerous chain reaction. There were multiple crashes on the other side of the highway as well.

Interstate 10's eastbound lanes were reopened Thursday evening after being closed for more than eight hours.

Carroll said he will long be haunted by what he saw in the fog on that holiday morning, but also by the good Samaritans he witnessed.

"This was the most-traveled day of the year," Carroll recalled. "Part of the problem was that there were so many vehicles on the road. It was all families. Grandparents, grandkids - everyone traveling to see family. But that helped us, it really did."

He said many people who survived the mishap became first responders.

"It was people helping people," Carroll said. "We were overwhelmed, and I saw strangers sitting and holding, putting pressure on people that were injured. It was really amazing."

Carroll said he had never seen anything like the widespread accident in his quarter-century of police work.

"And I just hope to God it was a once-in-a-lifetime event," he said.

john.glionna@latimes.com

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An Aberdeen man was accidentally shot in the hand while unloading his handgun Thursday, according to police.

 Aberdeen Police Department determined the shooting was accidental, according to a news release. The man was emptying his semiautomatic handgun when it went off, according to the release.

 The man was taken to an Aberdeen hospital; the injuries were not life-threatening, according to the release.

 The accident happened in the southeast area of Aberdeen at 11:44 a.m.

BROOKINGS, S.D. (AP) - South Dakota State University is hosting its first ever Football Championship Subdivision playoff game on Saturday.

 Proceeds from pancake and sausage breakfast on Dec. 2 at Sacred Heart Church, 11 N. Second Ave, in Westport will go to help Jason Cox.

 Cox is recovering from viral meningitis and encephalitis. He had to have a shunt put in as a result of the illnesses.

 Donations to help with the cost of his medical bills will be accepted at the pancake breakfast. There will also be a bake sale.

 Thrivent Financial for Lutherans will match donations up to $900.

 For more information, call Julie Wilson at 605-216-4663 or Elaine VanDover at 605-329-2409.

 A man who was injured in a wreck that killed four others has been upgraded to satisfactory condition.

 Thomas Thorngate of St. Clare Shores, Mich., was in critical condition last week. He remains at the Hennepin County (Minn.) Medical Center.

 He was a passenger in a sport utility vehicle that collided with a semi at the intersection of U.S. Highway 281 and state Highway 20 near Mellette on Nov. 7. The other four men in the SUV were killed.

 The long lines and big savings of Black Friday were tweeted live in Aberdeen by the American News Black Friday team, local shoppers who volunteered to keep their eyes on the happenings at local stores.

 The shoppers were Melissa Loebs (@mjloebs), Cheryl Bue (@EmmpressSD), Cassandra Brown (@CassieJo2004), Marian Hooks (@Mariannnnn), Kent Johnson (@kentttiferrr) and Alison Schwan (@alisonraes).

 Here are some of the tweeted highlights from their experiences. See more at the hashtag #blackfridayAN or on the free Brown County Events app for smartphones. These items are listed as they were tweeted. Each tweet can be no longer than 140 characters.

Thursday night

@CassieJo2004, Wal-Mart, 7:22 p.m.: As with every year, carts are again the real deterrant keeping people from navigating the store easily

@mjloebs, Wal-Mart, 7:30 p.m.: Movies are pretty long. If you want a copy of Brave a worker said to grab it off the shelf instead of waiting!

@EmmpressSD, ShopKo, 7:36 p.m.: no line at the door, but 6-7 cars already waiting in the parking lot!

@EmmpressSD, 7:42 p.m.: 3 APD cars waiting outside Wal-Mart, but so far everyone is calm! You can feel the excitement, though. Let's make sure APD has no problem!

@mjloebs, 7:45 p.m.: The crowds are getting pretty thick! Only 15 minutes until Event 1 at Walmart!

@kentttiferrr, 8:05 p.m.: Chaos ensuing as the first round of sales at Walmart starts in full speed.

@CassieJo2004, Wal-Mart, 8:10 p.m.: Got my couple of items and was checked out by 8:06. Hubby is still making his way to the line

@kentttiferrr, Wal-Mart, 8:15 p.m.: Lady next to me in line is clearly frustrated, and a lot of night to go. Complaining its crazier than in Cities. Welcome to SD.

@kentttiferrr, Wal-Mart, 8:32 p.m.: In line for Emerson 32" TV @ Walmart for $149. Lady beside me still has yet to chill. Posting customer interviews as I wait.

@mjloebs, Wal-mart, 8:36 p.m.: Waiting in line 25 at Walmart. Maybe 10 people ahead of us. Not too bad. Fyi . . . Avoid carts!!!!

@EmmpressSD, 8:39 p.m.: Small fender bender in Wal-Mart lot - no need to be aggressive drivers. Be courteous and calm, and stay safe

@Mariannnnn, 9:02 p.m.: Target's only letting 100 people in every 5 minutes!

@mjloebs, 9:04 p.m.: In the car at Target. FYI, if you weren't in line and expect to go straight into the store, no dice. You must be in line!

@EmmpressSD, 9:06 p.m.: Stop .. go .. stop .. go . . . trying to get into Target. Slow line into the door.

@EmmpressSD, 9:15 p.m.: Target is also controlling their checkout lines this year, ala Shopko. Great change from last time!!!!

@CassieJo2004, 9:42 p.m.: Checkout lines are going both ways at Shopko. You wont be getting out quickly.

@EmmpressSD, 9:49 p.m.: Shopko checkout line is literally wrapped around the store. People grumbling on the way out about a long wait.

@Mariannnnn, 10:05 p.m.: Targets lines for the checkouts wrapped around the dog food section.

@alisonraes, ShopKo, 10:09 p.m.: After 43 min we can almost see checkouts :(

@alisonraes, ShopKo, 10:18 p.m.: At Least everyone here at Shopko is in a good mood - haven't run into anyone rude here at all :)

@CassieJo2004, 10:35 p.m.: Have seen tons of ppl in shorts and light jackets. One word: brrrrr

@mjloebs,10:49 p.m.: 1 hour and 15 minutes until Herbergers opens. 15 cars in the parking lot . . . no one in line yet!

@CassieJo2004, 10:50 p.m.: Forgot one item at Target. Line is now wound in and out of aisles all the way back to the paper towels.

@CassieJo2004, 11:17 p.m.: IHOP is hoppin'

@mjloebs, 11:32 p.m.: Line is starting to form at Herbergers! A car from Illinois . . . Must be some good sales. Get here fast!

@alisonraes, Target, 11:52 p.m.: Target was a tricky with their signs make sure the time on sale sign matches the time slot u r buying in

Friday morning

@Mariannnnn, 12:59 a.m.: If you want to see crazy on Black Friday, go to Herbergers right when it opens. People were running&pushing.

@EmmpressSD, 1:10 a.m.: Fastest line of the night? McDonald drive-thru. Dude was holding my coffee out the window; didn't even have to fully stop!

@EmmpressSD, 2:03 a.m.: Target and Wal-Mart lots still pretty busy...so is the IHOP lot. Lots of hungry shoppers, no doubt.

@kentttiferrr, Kmart, 3:47 a.m.: Cold, brisk one Black Friday morning. No line @ Kmart, small line (10 peopleish) @ Menards. Many people keeping warm in cars!

@kentttiferrr, Menards, 4:21 a.m.: Menards employees handing out store maps. Walmart also filling in fast for 5am event 3 sale.

@kentttiferrr, Menards, 4:36 a.m.: 25 minutes til Menards & Walmart opening for Friday morn. Its so cold that my Diet Coke has ice in it.

@alisonraes, Target, 5:41 a.m.: Starting to line up outside office max

@Mariannnnn, 7:25 a.m.: I heard someone say that a customer was in line at wal mart for a TV by 8pm & it didn't go on sale until 5am.

@kentttiferrr, 7:31 a.m.: 5 stores. Over $700 spent. 12 hours of craziness. Many bad-outta-hell shoppers. But I got everything! Black Friday = success!

@Mariannnnn, 7:33 a.m.: A nice tradition to start with your friends or family is going to ihop after a long morning of Black Friday shopping.

@CassieJo2004, 10:34 a.m.: Menards is pretty bare. The big items are pretty much snatched up, but lots of little stuff left.

RAPID CITY, S.D. (AP) - A bronze statue of President Bill Clinton could be back in Rapid City soon after it was taken to a Hill City foundry for repairs, officials say.

The Rapid City Journal reported (http://bit.ly/10vG5cs ) that officials are trying to determine what caused the life-size statue to topple onto its side Thursday.

"It's really pretty much a mystery. No clues whatsoever," said Dallerie Davis, City of Presidents committee spokeswoman.

Police Sgt. Cliff Peterson doubts law enforcement will ever learn how the statue fell over, but he has a theory: an intoxicated person.

"There's no way we're ever going to find out who pushed it over," Peterson said. "Those things attract a lot of interaction."

Peterson said late-night bar patrons often sit on or hang off the statues.

Because of the way the statues - which weigh between 300 and 500 pounds each - are attached to the concrete sidewalk, Peterson is not convinced it was vandalism. A large intoxicated person who lost his or her balance while leaning on the statue might have caused it, he suggested.

Kristen Donnan Standard of Black Hills Bronze in Hill City said the Clinton statue arrived Friday morning with a dent in its right back shoulder and broken welds. She said it appeared the statue was vandalized.

"It's not a dent that you would get if you just fell on the sidewalk. He's got an injury that indicates blunt force of some kind," she said. "It was hit by something heavy, that's all we can say."

Davis said the statue could be back at the corner of St. Joseph and Seventh streets sometime next week.

"I'm not going to tell them how to mount their statues, but it almost seems like there's got to be a better way of doing it," Peterson said.

Donnan Standard said the statue was mounted according to industry standards.

 "Things could have been a lot worse. We could've been inside there," she said as she looked at her child.

 At about 4:30 p.m. on Saturday afternoon, Knettel said she pulled into her driveway and stepped out of her 2004 Jeep Cherokee to grab her son a drink. When she came back, the Jeep had smoke and a small fire coming out from the front.

 She attempted to douse the fire with a pot of water she grabbed from her house, but when that didn't work, she pulled Dylan out of the car and called 911.

 "I was freaking out, she said. "I realized I better get him out or he's gonna die."

 The fire department arrived at about 4:35 p.m. and managed to extinguish the fire within minutes, but they stayed there for about an hour to put out hotspots and prevent it from reigniting, said Randy Meister, battalion chief for Aberdeen Fire and Rescue.

 Knettel said she is worried about her insurance premiums and the loss of her car, but she is grateful that no one was hurt.

 The cause of the fire is unknown and it is under investigation by Fire Marshal Mike Thompson, Meister said.

 The fire did not start in the engine. It appeared to originate near the front seat, Meister said.

 The Jeep was destroyed by the fire, which spread to a nearby garage and caused minor fire damage before it was extinguished, he said.

To hear Fred Stokes tell it, he got carried away "a mite" in a Kansas City press conference Aug. 10 with his explanation of a lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the Cattlemen's Beef Board over the management of the beef checkoff.

Noting that the Humane Society of the U.S. had done the legal digging to lay the foundation for the suit, Stokes opined that "Every cowboy out there owes a deep debt of gratitude to the Humane Society of the U.S." for its efforts to help the checkoff to benefit all cattlemen.

It was vintage Stokes, a career U.S. Army officer and founder and long-time official of the Organization for Competitive Markets: Anyone or anything that made markets work better was always welcome.

By the time he returned to his native Mississippi, however, he wasn't welcome.

On Aug. 13, Stokes, a district director for the Mississippi Farm Bureau Federation, was enroute to a state directors meeting when MFBF President Randy Knight telephoned to say he wanted to see Stokes privately before the meeting.

"He made it clear that I had crossed some line when I acknowledged the checkoff lawsuit and HSUS's role in it," Stokes relates. "The board inferred that I had conspired with HSUS in the lawsuit and that was a 'conflict of interest' on my part because Farm Bureau supports checkoffs."

The lawsuit, "I told 'em, ask USDA to run the checkoff according to its rules. 'Surely, you can't be against something following its own rules,' I said."

Little did he know how prescient that remark would become.

On Oct. 24, Mississippi Farm Bureau notified Stokes of an Oct. 29 "hearing" in Jackson to discuss two complaints filed by state board members over his "conflict of interest" with Farm Bureau policy. Stokes came, with two attorneys, ready for a fight.

One attorney, James Robertson, explained to the Mississippi Farm Bureau board that its own bylaws did not permit it to remove Stokes from office; in fact, only members who elected him to his state director's post could do that.

Then Robertson, reinforced by J. Dudley Butler, the former administrator of USDA's Grain Inspection, Packers and Stockyards Administration, and a long-time ag attorney from Yazoo City, Miss., explained that the group's bylaws required some "exchange of financial interest" for a conflict of interest charge to have merit.

"There's nothing in this (checkoff) lawsuit that constitutes a transaction that Fred Stokes has with the Mississippi Farm Bureau Federation," Robertson observed. "Without that," he continued, "you're ... letting your own values influence your judgment."

The lawyers' better knowledge of Farm Bureau's own bylaws carried the day. The state board, though, having neither the authority to remove Stokes nor cause - the conflict of interest charges were shown to be an empty device - allowed Stokes' Farm Bureau future to be determined by members of the three-county district board he chaired.

On Nov. 12, state president Randy Knight took charge and chaired that district meeting in Meridian, to, as he explained at its start, "decide if they wanted Mr. Stokes to continue to represent them."

Whoa, not so, said Butler, again present at Stokes' request. MFBF's bylaws require "cause" for removal of a director and the Jackson meeting clearly showed there was none. So, he suggested, if this is just a "personality vote or a popularity vote, I don't think it complies with the By-Laws" either. (Transcripts of the two hearings and other supporting documents are posted at www.farmandfoodfile.com.)

Another attorney, Ricky Ruffin, reinforced Butler's point about "cause." What are we doing here, Ruffin wondered, because " ... if we are not here for some kind of cause ... are we saying that we are going to kick this man off because we don't like the way he parts his hair."

And that's just what happened; the locals, acting in what Stokes and Butler claim was state-controlled request and vote, cashiered him by 12 to 3 count, with two abstentions.

Stokes expected as much. He then quit because "I had proved just how phony their charges were. They had no 'cause.' They just didn't like what I said or thought so they worked three months to get me and they got me."

It's a foolish victory because, using the standard they set in removing Stokes, any one of them - or you - could be next for nothing more than you part your hair.

Or, of course, what you think.

The Farm and Food File is published weekly in more than 70 newspapers in North America. Contact Alan Guebert at http://www.farmandfoodfile.com.

South Dakota State 58 Eastern Illinois 10

BROOKINGS -- Zach Zenner ran for 295 yards and three touchdowns Saturday to lead South Dakota State to a 58-10 win over Eastern Illinois in the first round of the FCS playoffs.

 The Jackrabbits (9-3), who had six rushing TDs, next face Missouri Valley Football Conference rival North Dakota State (10-1) on Saturday in Fargo, N.D.

 Zenner, who carried 33 times, scored on runs of 68, 4 and 7 yards as South Dakota State hosted its first postseason game and won for the first time in three playoff games. Reggie Gandy ran for 151 yards and two touchdowns for SDSU and Cam Jones also scored twice, one on a pass from Austin Sumner.

 Jake Walker ran for 125 yards and the only touchdown for Ohio Valley Conference champion Eastern Illinois (7-5). Erik Lora caught 12 passes for 133 yards for the Panthers.

 North Dakota State won the national championship last season and is the top seed in this tournament. The Bison beat the Jackrabbits in the regular-season meeting 20-17 in Fargo on Nov. 10.

Minnesota State, Mankato 38

Northwest Missouri State 35 (2OT)

MANKATO, Minn. -- Fifth-ranked Minnesota State, Mankato led 13th-ranked Northwest Missouri State 21-0 at the half in its NCAA second round playoff game at Blakeslee Stadium on Saturday. Little did anyone know that it would take until the second overtime session to decide a winner.

 Redshirt freshman defensive back Justin Otto intercepted a pass in the end zone in the second overtime and junior kicker Sam Brockshus booted a 27-yard field goal as Mankato won a thriller 38-35 over the Bearcats moving the Mavericks on to the quarterfinals of the NCAA Division II Football Championship.

 The Mavericks picked off Northwest Missouri State quarterback Trevor Adams three times in the first half which helped catapult Mankato to the big halftime lead. The first interception came on the fourth play of the game when junior defensive back Robert Gunderson hauled in an interception on the 22-yard line of the Bearcats. Sophomore running back Andy Pfeiffer took it in from a yard out to give the Mavericks an early 7-0 lead.

 Pfeiffer led MSU's ground attack by gaining 120 yards on 25 carries and two scores. The team rushed for 236 yards with quarterback Jon Wolf rushing for 68 yards and a touchdown. Wolf was 10-for-19 through the air for 158 yards and two touchdowns.

 The win advances the Mavericks to the quarterfinals of the NCAA Division II Football Championship where they will host Missouri Western State next Saturday at noon at historic Blakeslee Stadium.

Homes Are Possible Inc. will reduce the number of home rehabilitation grants available to area residents next year, but each grant will be worth $1,000 more.

 The maximum grant will be $6,000 rather than $5,000, said Jeff Mitchell, executive director.

 "We raised the amount because $5,000 doesn't go as far as it used to for home improvements," he said.

 The number of grants will drop from 100 to 83, he said.

 The grants can be used for house projects, such as roof repairs and shingling; electrical updates; plumbing upgrades; new furnaces or air conditioners; installation of energy-efficient windows and doors; painting; and accessibility modifications.

 Those receiving grants must meet income guidelines.

 "We are helping those who otherwise could not afford the maintenance," said Colleen Jones, housing assistant. "Our goal is to give people safe, affordable homes."

 All work must be performed by a licensed contractor, she said.

 Jones said there are many benefits of the HAPI rehab grants, including:

• Allowing seniors on a fixed income to stay in their home by keeping houses repaired.
• Helping those with disabilities stay in their home by constructing access ramps; door widening; and bathroom upgrades, such as installing grab bars.
• Helping those with modest means with home projects they might not be able to afford.
• Helping maintain property values in town by having homes that are well-maintained.

  Income qualifications vary depending on the county and the number of members residing in the home. HAPI serves 20 counties in northeast and north central South Dakota.

 Mitchell said the 83 grants are available from now until fall 2013. HAPI has been approved for another grant cycle, which will run through 2014, he said.

 The funding is provided by the Federal Home Loan Bank in Des Moines, Iowa.

 For more information on rehab grants, including income guidelines, contact HAPI at 318 S. Main St. in Aberdeen or call 605-225-4274.