Articles by Travis Kriens

LINCOLN — A truck driver was sentenced in Nebraska this week to 29 years in prison after he met a teenager through social media and transported the minor across state lines to engage in sexual [Read More…]

Greta Goede, South Dakota News Watch BROOKINGS, S.D. – While the average age for first-time marriages nationally has been steadily increasing since 2000, South Dakotans are among the youngest to tie the knot. The state [Read More…]

WASHINGTON — As part of its ongoing effort to replace diesel-fueled school buses, the Biden administration on Wednesday said it will provide approximately 530 school districts across nearly all states with almost $1 billion to [Read More…]

Joshua Haiar, South Dakota Searchlight The state Board of Elections did not approve petitions Wednesday from activists who want to move the state toward hand-counting ballots. A Republican state Senate candidate, Rick Weible, of Elkton, petitioned [Read More…]

A federal judge has wrongly limited the authority of county and state officials to restrict the placement of carbon dioxide pipelines for public safety, according to several groups that are challenging the judge’s recent decisions. [Read More…]

With some parts of the country already facing heat waves, the organization in charge of setting reliability standards for the American electric grid is warning that a scorching summer could lead to a shortage of power generation in [Read More…]

Tim Henderson, Stateline More than half of the nation’s jobs created in the past five years have come in two states: Texas and Florida. They’re at the forefront of a job creation revolution in which [Read More…]

Two state prison offenders have been placed on escape status. Adam Poor Bear and Ryan Shot With Arrow left the Rapid City Minimum Center without authorization on May 29. Poor Bear, age 30, is a [Read More…]

Joshua Haiar/South Dakota Searchlight Despite a $32 million dip in sales tax revenue, South Dakota has collected about $115 million more in total revenue this year than it did the previous July through April. That [Read More…]

Bart Pfankuch / South Dakota News Watch PACTOLA RESERVOIR, S.D. – Angie Weaver, who co-owns the Pactola Marina in the Black Hills, remains hopeful that the full closure of U.S. 385 won’t sink her summer [Read More…]

Jazmin Orozco Rodriguez, KFF Health News About a year into the process of redetermining Medicaid eligibility after the COVID-19 public health emergency, more than 20 million people have been kicked off the joint federal-state program for low-income [Read More…]

A new South Dakota policy to stop the use of gender pronouns by public university faculty and staff in official correspondence is also keeping Native American employees from listing their tribal affiliations in a state [Read More…]

Joshua Haiar, South Dakota Searchlight About 91% of South Dakota has access to broadband service, putting the statewide ConnectSD high-speed internet initiative in its final stretch. “That’s a lot of work, look at that,” said [Read More…]

South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem’s appearance at a Brevard County Republican Party event in Cape Canaveral faced protests from Democrats. The backlash centered on an incident from Noem’s book, “No Going Back: The Truth on [Read More…]

The South Dakota Supreme Court reversed a circuit court decision regarding an agricultural land zoning dispute involving MRose Development’s request to rezone land near Swan Lake in Turner County for lakefront housing. Turner County had [Read More…]