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Price tag for post-election audits could be larger than lawmaker expectations
The cost to conduct post-election audits in South Dakota could vastly exceed an estimate calculated for lawmakers earlier this year, according to a survey of county auditors. Or it won’t; neither the Secretary of State’s Office nor county auditors are sure. South Dakota’s Board of Elections signed off this week on most of the rules […]
Post-election audit rules spark debate on voter intent
The perceived daylight between the terms “manual count” and “hand count” proved contentious during discussions of post-election audit rules that inched closer to implementation on Wednesday in Pierre. The rules represent South Dakota’s first foray into post-election audits, which are routinely done in most states. Creating such an audit process was a key campaign issue […]
State to pay inmate in federal excessive force lawsuit
The state of South Dakota will pay $6,000 to an inmate who represented himself in a lawsuit over his assault by a correctional officer in 2022. The settlement, filed this week in federal court, comes on the heels of a state-level trial at which a jury convicted the officer of simple assault. Shawn Albrecht was […]
Booze tax should help pay county legal bills, state senator says
Liquor, beer and wine might offer relief to counties stuck paying for alcohol’s impact on public safety, if a recommendation from a public defense task force becomes law. Sen. Jim Mehlhaff, R-Pierre, would like to see the state dedicate its half of the $18 million collected in alcohol taxes to finance the creation and operation […]
Q&A: Why Brendan Johnson chose courtrooms over politics
Sioux Falls lawyer Brendan Johnson has a last name that carries a lot of weight in South Dakota political circles. His father, Tim Johnson, was the last Democrat to serve in any statewide elected office from the now-solidly red state. The elder Johnson, who served in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1987 to 1997 […]
South Dakota-led poll finds alignment of rural, urban opinions on electric vehicles
SIOUX FALLS — Around half of the rural Americans served by electric cooperatives expect less reliable service and higher bills because of electric vehicles. Even so, about half would consider buying an EV the next time they need a new vehicle. Those opinions came from Paulsen Marketing in Sioux Falls, which conducted a nationwide poll […]
Child care shortage drives construction contractor to create his own solution
Platte has been good to Tyler Samuelson and his family. Over the past 15 years, the owner of Summit Contracting has seen his family’s business grow into the largest employer in the south-central South Dakota town. Lately, Platte’s meager 1,300 population has become a problem for the growing business, which manufactures “anything on the farm […]
Bridge generation: Children of southeast Asian refugees carve out niche in Huron
HURON — Until age 6, Kler Hae roamed the highlands of southern Thailand after school with his friends, hunting birds with slingshots and stones. If they got lucky, they’d bring home dinner. Now he’s a real estate agent in Huron, an eastern South Dakota town of about 14,000. At age 12, Pywe Der moved to […]
Desperation and renewal: How Huron embraced new Americans and thrived
That Huron came to be a major hub of Karen culture in the Midwest was at least partially a side effect of desperation. What began as desperation for workers morphed into desperation for a school system struggling to manage its migrant population and the community’s response to it. Today, about a decade after the dust settled […]
Seven housing projects get boost from long-delayed infrastructure program
A state board signed off Monday on the first grant dollars from a $200 million housing infrastructure program that had been mired in controversy through two state legislative sessions. Box Elder was the big winner at the September meeting of the South Dakota Housing Development Authority, at which seven applications for infrastructure grants were reviewed […]
State officials: Specialty parole unit helps trim fugitive parolee numbers in half
An effort by state and local agencies to capture fugitives from parole has nearly halved the number of such “absconders” tracked by the South Dakota Department of Corrections. The Absconder Apprehension Unit was formed last December and began its work in January, around six months after the launch of a collaborative group called Safe South […]
Rapid City prosecutors inch toward decision in year-old homicide of transgender woman
Prosecutors in Rapid City have connected with the family of Acey Morrison, a transgender Native American woman shot to death more than a year ago by a man who says he shot her in self-defense. Pennington County State’s Attorney Lara Roetzel met with Morrison’s family to discuss the case this week, spokeswoman Katy Urban told […]