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Bart Pfankuch/South Dakota News Watch Nearly half of South Dakota children under the age of 5 are not on the right track to start school and find early success in the classroom, a rate that [Read More…]

Joshua Haiar/South Dakota Searchlight South Dakota lawmakers advanced a bill on Friday at the Capitol in Pierre aimed at stopping abortion pills and other abortion-related items from being advertised and distributed in the state. The House State [Read More…]

Meghan O’Brien/South Dakota Searchlight PIERRE — The latest push to repeal the death penalty in South Dakota came from a Republican lawmaker who formerly led the state prison system and served as a county sheriff. [Read More…]

MITCHELL, S.D. — Authorities are investigating a sophisticated ATM theft that targeted two BankWest locations in Mitchell, resulting in an estimated $80,000 in cash being stolen. According to the Mitchell Police Department, officers were dispatched [Read More…]

Meghan O’Brien/South Dakota Searchlight PIERRE — Legislation to address aggressive and violent student behavior passed with full support from the South Dakota House Education Committee on Wednesday, and legislation providing money to build a non-residential treatment center [Read More…]

John Hult/South Dakota Searchlight PIERRE — A South Dakota House of Representatives panel endorsed a bill that would require mobile app stores to use age verification to control access by minors. House Bill 1275 passed the [Read More…]

Joshua Haiar and Seth Tupper/South Dakota Searchlight A proposal to let counties reduce homeowner property taxes by charging a sales tax advanced Wednesday at the South Dakota Capitol in Pierre, while an effort to maintain [Read More…]

Makenzie Huber/South Dakota Searchlight South Dakota legislative committees vetted nine data center bills on Wednesday at the Capitol, leaving three of the bills standing at the end of the day. The legislation that passed muster [Read More…]

John Hult/South Dakota Searchlight The lieutenant governor in South Dakota has the authority to break a tie vote in the state Senate, the South Dakota Supreme Court said Wednesday. The ruling comes one day after [Read More…]

Makenzie Huber/South Dakota Searchlight Two contradictory bills met different fates on Tuesday at the Capitol in Pierre as South Dakota lawmakers continued to wrestle with the best way to provide tax relief. A bill that would keep [Read More…]

John Hult/South Dakota Searchlight PIERRE — South Dakota medical marijuana cards will soon be primarily digital. The cannabis card news came Tuesday at the Capitol during a meeting of the House of Representatives’ Health and [Read More…]

South Dakota Searchlight South Dakota Gov. Larry Rhoden signed a bill into law Tuesday that will make it easier for South Dakotans to buy meat directly from cattle producers, if Congress changes a related federal [Read More…]

Bart Pfankuch/South Dakota News Watch REDFIELD, S.D. – Gianna Schieffer doesn’t need data or stories from other parents to prove the point that this central South Dakota city has a worrisome shortage of day care [Read More…]

John Hult/South Dakota Searchlight South Dakota lawmakers in Pierre have property tax proposals aplenty to discuss, built upon 19 ideas from a tax relief task force and others from the governor and individual legislators. On Thursday, they [Read More…]

Joshua Haiar/South Dakota Searchlight South Dakota regulators approved a permit Thursday for a $750 million, 333-megawatt wind farm spread across approximately 110 square miles of private land. The site selected by Philip Wind Partners, a [Read More…]

John Hult/South Dakota Searchlight Barring the use of food stamp benefits for soda purchases would cost South Dakota taxpayers $310,000 in the first two years, according to a fiscal impact statement released Thursday evening by the South [Read More…]