From the Aberdeen News:

The Republican-dominated board decided the state treasury should pay for the $100, two-year memberships for all 105 South Dakota lawmakers and for unlimited out-of-state trips to ALEC meetings by legislators who are members of ALEC committees.

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"After lengthy consideration, my views have evolved sufficiently to support marriage equality legislation," he said in a statement. "This position doesn't require any religious denomination to alter any of its tenets; it simply forbids government from discrimination regarding who can marry whom."

Johnson also recently announced that he will not run for reelection in 2014.

Joe Donnelly, Ind., and Heidi Heitkamp, N.D., announced their support last week, leaving just Joe Manchin W. Va., Mark Pryor, Ark., and Mary Landrieu, La., as the only Senate Dems who have not.

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Johnson, the chairman of the Senate Banking Committee, is expected to say Tuesday afternoon that he will not seek a fourth term in the Senate next year.

The fifth Senate Democrat to call it quits, Johnson was facing a potentially difficult challenge from popular Republican Gov. Mike Rounds and still coping with the constraints of a 2006 brain hemorrhage that left his speech impaired and limited his mobility. The absence of the well-funded former congressman who has never lost an election in this GOP-trending state pushed the race to the top of the priority list, Republican strategists said.

"I believe South Dakota moves into the top slot as the most likely Republican pickup," said Greg Strimple, a Republican pollster and past consultant to the National Republican Senatorial Committee.

Johnson was scheduled to speak Tuesday at the University of South Dakota in Vermillion.

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The state's law is considered to be the first of its kind; so far, about two dozen states have proposed similar bills to arm teachers in the aftermath of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shootings, but none of them have been pushed through.

According to the Times, the law explains that "school districts may choose to allow a school employee, hired security officer or volunteer to serve as a 'sentinel' who can carry a firearm in the school." However, "the law does not require school districts to do this."

Although he believes that most school districts will not utilize it, the governor said in an interview: “I think it does provide the same safety precautions that a citizen expects when a law enforcement officer enters onto a premises."

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The former Republican governor's announcement was widely expected, as he said in September that he was forming a committee to explore a run for the seat held by Democratic Sen. Tim Johnson.

Johnson, 65, hasn't officially announced whether he will seek a fourth term. But he released a statement Thursday saying he intends to "put together a winning campaign in the weeks and months ahead," and that his formal announcement will come next year.

Rounds, 58, said at a news conference Thursday that he wants to end the gridlock in Washington, reduce the federal deficit and straighten out health care reform.

"We need to become a country of cooperation instead of confrontation," he said.

Rounds was a state senator from 1991 to 2001 before serving two terms as governor from 2003 to 2011. After leaving office in early 2011, Rounds served as president and CEO of an insurance and real estate company based in Pierre.

Johnson was elected to the U.S. House in 1986 and to the Senate in 1996. He was re-elected in 2002 and 2008. He also previously served in the state Legislature.

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The story of the Corn Palace is truly amaizing.

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