Latest News

If you or someone you know may be experiencing a mental health crisis, contact the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline by dialing or texting “988.” To reach the Native and Strong Lifeline, call “988” and [Read More…]

Bart Pfankuch, South Dakota News Watch – Four public South Dakota universities would start offering research and training in an emerging field of technology that promises to solve complex problems in minutes instead of years, [Read More…]

Makenzie Huber, South Dakota Searchlight – The families of roughly 27,000 infants and toddlers qualify for income-based child care assistance in South Dakota, but only 7% actually receive the subsidy, according to a study from [Read More…]

PIERRE (Joshua Haiar, South Dakota Searchlight) — A legislator lacked evidence Wednesday for his claim that private school scholarships funded by tax credits save millions of dollars for state government. The scholarship program is South Dakota [Read More…]

The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) is allocating millions of dollars for renewable energy and domestic fertilizer projects, with the majority of the funding coming from the Federal Inflation Reduction Act. South Dakota is [Read More…]

The Sisseton-Wahpeton Oyate tribe has confirmed the arrest of a daycare manager from Little Steps Daycare in connection with illicit drug-related activities. While the manager’s name has not been disclosed, concerns have been raised about [Read More…]

PIERRE, S.D. – South Dakota Attorney General Marty Jackley has announced that a Yankton man has pleaded guilty to First Degree Manslaughter in connection to a stabbing death that occurred May 22, 2023 in Yankton. [Read More…]

John Hult, South Dakota Searchlight – A bill that would adjust South Dakota law on child pornography includes provisions barring the possession of sexually explicit deep fakes of real children or artificial intelligence-generated children. Senate [Read More…]

John Hult, South Dakota Searchlight – In 1984, an intruder broke through the back door of a Winner home and fatally shot Karol Kniffen’s brother in his bed. Kniffen’s Korean War-veteran father disarmed the intruder. [Read More…]

John Hult, South Dakota Searchlight – The South Dakota Senate voted Tuesday to repeal a 30-day residency requirement for voter registration that became law last year. Sen. David Wheeler, R-Huron, carried the secretary of state-supported Senate [Read More…]

SALT LAKE CITY — U.S. Department of Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack was in Utah on Monday where he announced millions in funding for renewable energy and domestic fertilizer projects, with about $3.2 million headed to South [Read More…]

CANTON (John Hult/South Dakota Searchlight) — The notion that the state of South Dakota needs county permission to build a state penitentiary is absurd, a lawyer representing the state Department of Corrections said Monday. That [Read More…]

Editor’s note: This is the fifth in a series of stories on children that Jackie Hendry, producer and host of South Dakota Public Broadcasting’s “South Dakota Focus” will write for South Dakota News Watch. Each month, she [Read More…]

Authorities in Sioux Falls are investigating the death of a man who had been missing for a day. Relatives found his body in a parking garage stairwell on Sunday, and police are awaiting the coroner’s [Read More…]

PIERRE, S.D. – South Dakota Attorney General Marty Jackley, Minnehaha County State’s Attorney Daniel Haggar, and Minnehaha County Sheriff Mike Milstead have partnered on a federal grant to combat domestic violence. In October 2023 the State [Read More…]

PIERRE (Joshua Haiar/South Dakota Searchlight) — A bill to incentivize the sale of more ethanol passed through the state Senate on Tuesday with 33 yes votes and no opposition. The legislation outlines a new tax refund [Read More…]

PIERRE (Joshua Haiar/South Dakota Searchlight) — Lawmakers narrowly rejected a bill Monday that would have given more low-income students free school meals. The state House Education Committee voted 8-7 to defeat the legislation. “These are South Dakota’s [Read More…]

RAPID CITY, S.D. (AP) — In what’s become an annual winter tradition, hundreds of people carrying torches set fire to a giant wooden beetle effigy in Custer, South Dakota, to raise awareness of the destructive [Read More…]

Three water companies in northern South Dakota, including WEB Water, BDM Rural Water System, and the City of Aberdeen, have entered a memorandum of agreement for the “Water in Northern South Dakota” (WINS) project. The [Read More…]

Makenzie Huber/South Dakota Searchlight – Children no longer have to sit in the Sioux Falls Police Department lobby for hours — with nowhere to go and no one to comfort them — after a parent [Read More…]