Latest News

Joshua Haiar/South Dakota Searchlight A comment this week by a rural Huron farmer who’s also a lawmaker told the story of two bills affecting the cattle business. “If you have two ranchers, you’ve got four [Read More…]

Makenzie Huber/South Dakota Searchlight State lawmakers on a budget committee endorsed a bill Friday at the Capitol in Pierre that would keep South Dakota’s sales tax at its reduced rate. Shortly after, another committee rejected a rival bill that [Read More…]

Kevin Hardy/Stateline As Americans grow increasingly frustrated over their electricity bills, states are trying to keep the nation’s growing number of data centers from causing higher energy costs for consumers. For years, many states competed [Read More…]

Seth Tupper/South Dakota Searchlight PIERRE — The divide in South Dakota’s Republican Party over the government’s role in economic development spilled into public view Thursday at the state Capitol as two of the party’s top [Read More…]

Meghan O’Brien/South Dakota Searchlight PIERRE — A proposal to require local elections when a school board decides to exceed property tax limitations failed Wednesday in the South Dakota House on a 29-39 vote, and an [Read More…]

John Hult/South Dakota Searchlight The South Dakota House of Representatives defeated a bill meant to serve as a liability shield for doctors and pharmacists who prescribe or dispense two drugs used off-label for COVID-19 treatment. [Read More…]

Makenzie Huber/South Dakota Searchlight Lawmakers in the South Dakota House of Representatives endorsed a bill Wednesday barring the purchase of soft drinks with benefits from a food assistance program. The House voted 58-11 in favor [Read More…]

Molly Wetsch/South Dakota News Watch SIOUX FALLS, S.D. – Some of South Dakotans’ greatest needs for resources in 2025 surrounded housing, food and utilities, according to the Helpline Center’s 211 data from around the state. [Read More…]

John Hult/South Dakota Searchight Visits to five total places in Brookings and Milbank by a Grant County man infected with measles prompted a notice from the South Dakota Department of Health on Wednesday. All six [Read More…]

Meghan O’Brien/South Dakota Searchlight PIERRE — The South Dakota House Education Committee advanced a proposal Wednesday to create a statewide educator retention initiative. The bill, brought by Sioux Falls Democratic Rep. Erik Muckey, asks for [Read More…]

John Hult/South Dakota Searchlight A state Public Integrity Unit fielded 47 complaints of state employee misconduct in its first six months of operations, according to the South Dakota Attorney General’s Office. Of those complaints, 14 [Read More…]

John Hult/South Dakota Searchlight The newest member of the South Dakota Board of Pardons and Paroles is a prosecutor, former defense attorney and co-founder of a halfway house in Huron. Aaron Pilcher, whose law practice [Read More…]

Robbie Sequeira/Stateline The momentum behind cellphone bans in schools has reached more than half the states, as teachers, superintendents and education experts praise these policies as a way to boost student achievement and mental health, [Read More…]

Joshua Haiar/South Dakota Searchlight PIERRE — Property rights advocates in South Dakota advanced their “Bossly bill” on Tuesday, aimed at limiting the ways developers can use eminent domain to enter private land when a landowner [Read More…]

John Hult/South Dakota Searchlight The South Dakota House of Representatives will soon vote on a bill meant to bar the purchase of sweetened beverages with food stamps. House Bill 1056 would require the state Department of [Read More…]

Tim Henderson/Stateline States that were leaders in childhood vaccination before the pandemic are among those losing ground as exemptions and unfounded skepticism take hold, encouraged by the Trump administration’s stance under U.S. Health and Human [Read More…]