The Philip Area Scottie wrestling team was one of 11 teams competing at the 2011 State B Duals put on at Wagner, Saturday, January 29.

Three rounds of regular competition were followed by three rounds of championship matches. First, the teams were divided into three pools, with teams in each pool vying for placement within that pool. Philip Area, in a pool with just Wagner and Elk Point/Jefferson, earned one win and one loss. Philip Area then went up against the second place teams in the other pools.

The duals ended with Tri Valley holding a 5-0 record for first place.

The Lady Scotties traveled to Lemmon to challenge the Cowgirls, Friday, January 28.

Philip 7 5 9 15 = 36

Lemmon 9 23 21 13 = 66

The Scotties kept pace with the Cowgirls during the first quarter, following by only one field goal. The second and third quarters saw a distancing by Lemmon. The final quarter went to the Scotties, but not enough to offset the lead.

The Scottie boys' basketball team came home from Lemmon with a 55-51 victory over the Cowboys.

Despite their opponent's home court advantage, the Philip players held their own. Philip ended the first quarter with a one basket advantage. The two teams were so evenly matched that when the halftime buzzer sounded the score was tied 24-24.

The third quarter ended with a one basket deficit for the Scotties. The final quarter is where Philip took advantage of several turnovers to pull ahead.

The District 14B Philip Scotties girls' basketball team hosted the District 16B Newell Lady Irrigators, Saturday, January 29.

Philip sank the first field goal. Newell answered back with two points of their own. Philip did not score during its possession, though after the turnover, Newell did. The scoreboard stayed heavy on the Irrigator side for the rest of the game.

Dear Editor,

State should not give, get nothing in return.

Do you know that 10 barrels of oil a day at $100 a barrel is worth $365,000 every year? We (in the United States) buy over 2,000,000 barrels of oil from Canada every day. How much is Canada's oil worth?

How much do the Canada Oil Sands producers expect to receive for their 900,000 barrels a day?

The TransCanada pipeline company plans to transport Canada's oil across western South Dakota and the United States via the TransCanada Keystone XL pipeline.

Dear Editor,

February is National Wise Health Consumer Month. Are you a wise consumer of health care?

This certainly may be a good time to consider the importance of being an informed, and involved, health care consumer by learning more about a personal health record. The myPHR® website (http://www.myphr.com) brought to you by the American Health Information Management Association has lots of helpful information.

A personal health record, or PHR, is a tool that you personally use to document and maintain information about your own health care.

This is a violent country.

Why are we surprised at the violence in Arizona? We are a violent country. When the first white man landed on this continent, gun in one hand, Bible in the other, they slaughtered the people who had lived on the land for centuries and moved westward, killing Indians and stealing their lands.

Even South Dakota has been touched by violence. In 1890, in the Wounded Knee massacre, an estimated 300 Sioux Indians were killed by U.S. troops.

The South Dakota Humanities Council, an affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities, has awarded a grant to the Haakon County Public Library.

The program, Reading Group Toolkits, assists small rural libraries with their reading groups. According to standards used by humanities programs, the Philip area is considered an underserved community.

The library was able to acquire a grant from the Humanities Council that provides up to 30 copies of the book being discussed in a community book club program.

As of January 3, April (Clements) Schofield has been the student teacher in Jayne Gottleben's first grade class in Philip Elementary.

Schofield's own elementary was done at Haakon School District's Elbon and Enterprise country schools, which are now closed. In 1998 she graduated from Philip High School. "Growing up, teaching is what I always wanted to do, then after graduating from high school I didn't know what I wanted to do," admitted Schofield.

Within 13 months, she completed an office technology program at Western Dakota Vo-Tech.

Members of Philip's Scotty Philip Memorial Celebration committee met with the organizers of the wagon train part of the event on the Fort Pierre end, Thursday, January 27.

A broad range of topics were discussed and some decisions were finalized. In attendance from Philip were Doug West, Chip Kemnitz, Ron Larson, Mary Burnett and Glenn Parsons.

"It was a very productive meeting," said Parsons. "Everyone is pulling for the same goals and will have a great working relationship.