Latest News

Makenzie Huber/South Dakota Searchlight South Dakota regularly disenrolled one of the highest percentages of Medicaid patients in the country each month last year, contributing to one of the largest yearly decreases in the state’s Medicaid [Read More…]

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — A federal immigration officer shot and killed a man Saturday in Minneapolis, drawing hundreds of protesters onto the frigidly cold streets in a city already shaken by another fatal shooting weeks earlier. Minneapolis Police [Read More…]

Michelle Griffith, Max Nesterak, Alyssa Chen/Minnesota Reformer Tens of thousands of Minnesotans marched in downtown Minneapolis Friday in a negative 30 degree windchill to protest the federal government’s continuing surge of immigration enforcement — demanding [Read More…]

John Hult/South Dakota Searchlight The South Dakota Department of Corrections aims to cut its turnover rate by 12 percentage points in the next year, in part by offering recruits a better idea of what they’re [Read More…]

Meghan O’Brien/South Dakota Searchlight PIERRE — South Dakota Republican Gov. Larry Rhoden announced legislation Friday that would increase the punishment for threats or violent acts that prevent people from practicing their religion. The crime is [Read More…]

John Hult/South Dakota Searchlight Judges in South Dakota routinely order people charged with alcohol or drug offenses to get chemical dependency evaluations or sign up for drug treatment programs as a condition of pretrial release [Read More…]

Kristi Hine/South Dakota News Watch HURON, S.D. – When Rebecca Blue first began asking South Dakota women in agriculture what they were missing, the answers felt familiar. Connection. Community. A sense that they weren’t navigating [Read More…]

John Hult/South Dakota Searchlight State senators voted against discussions on banning hemp-derived consumables and kratom on Thursday at the South Dakota Capitol in Pierre. Separate bills to ban the use, possession, sale or consumption of [Read More…]

Meghan O’Brien/South Dakota Searchlight PIERRE — A South Dakota Senate committee unanimously voted Thursday to advance legislation that removes silencers from the state’s definition of a controlled weapon. Unregistered possession of a controlled weapon is a felony, [Read More…]

Joshua Haiar/South Dakota Searchlight Republican U.S. Sen. Mike Rounds formally announced Thursday that he will seek reelection this year, launching a bid for a third six-year term representing South Dakota in Washington, D.C. In an [Read More…]

Bart Pfankuch/South Dakota News Watch Whether caused by the pervasiveness of social media, an increase in “soft” parenting without consequences or lingering trauma from the COVID-19 pandemic, South Dakota’s top education official said more public [Read More…]

Makenzie Huber/South Dakota Searchlight South Dakota’s workforce shortage and federal limitations on a $189.5 million infusion of cash are making some lawmakers worry about the feasibility and sustainability of the state’s plan to strengthen rural [Read More…]

Joshua Haiar/South Dakota Searchlight Emails obtained by clean-water advocates show the state of South Dakota declined $290,000 of federal funding for zebra mussel decontamination stations at Pactola Reservoir, which the advocates say is evidence that [Read More…]

Makenzie Huber/South Dakota Searchlight South Dakota must spend $106 million in remaining pandemic relief by the end of the year, or it has to be returned to the federal government. Most of the funds left [Read More…]

John Hult/South Dakota Searchlight South Dakota’s second most populous county has agreed it will no longer jail people who can’t afford to pay the daily fees attached to the state’s signature sobriety program. Pennington County’s [Read More…]