Author
House tanks last remaining bill to address Native American disparity in foster care placements
PIERRE – The House of Representatives shot down a bill that would have created a task force to study the causes and possible solutions for the disparate representation of Native American children in the foster care system. Senate Bill 191 sailed to the House with unanimous support from a House panel earlier this week. It […]
House backs ‘truth in sentencing’
PIERRE — A bill to upend the state’s parole system for violent offenders is one step from the governor’s desk. A majority of the House of Representatives went against the pleas of a former Department of Corrections secretary and the House Majority leader on Tuesday and passed Senate Bill 146, dubbed a “truth in sentencing” […]
Panel backs task force to study foster care for Native American children
PIERRE – A House panel on Monday endorsed a two-year task force to study Native American overrepresentation in South Dakota’s foster care system. Senate Bill 191 cleared the full Senate last week. It’s the only bill related to Native children in foster care to have survived past a committee hearing so far this session. The […]
Volunteer fire departments could get millions in state aid
PIERRE — Most of South Dakota’s land area is protected by firefighters who don’t get paid for their work. Most of the fire departments they work for aren’t government entities. That means the fundraising reality of the state’s largely volunteer fire force is one of charity drives, fill-the-boot dances, chili feeds and direct mail solicitation. […]
Recreational marijuana is illegal, but its high-inducing cousins are widespread
Recreational marijuana is illegal in South Dakota – voters confirmed as much in November – but the next best thing is available from border to border. The 2018 Farm Bill legalized the cultivation of hemp. By extension, it legalized two cannabinoids called delta-8 and delta-10 tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), which occur naturally in tiny amounts in the […]
Legislative roundup: Noem bills bite the dust
About five months – that’s how long a proposed grocery sales-tax repeal inhabited political news, until a legislative committee brought all the chatter to an abrupt end this week. Gov. Kristi Noem flipped the traditional political script when she announced her support for the idea in September. Democrats had been proposing the repeal for years, […]
Move to loosen penalties for drug ingestion, marijuana edibles fails in Senate
The South Dakota Senate rejected two bills Wednesday that aimed to soften controversial drug laws. One sought to help drug users avoid prison for failed drug tests; the other would have placed marijuana edibles and vape products in the same misdemeanor category as marijuana flower. Senate Bill 201, which failed by a single vote, would […]
Budget committee endorses $400 million for new prisons
Lawmakers on the Joint Appropriations Committee unanimously approved funding Wednesday for two new prisons in South Dakota. The first is a new women’s prison for Rapid City, a 300-bed facility that would become the second female prison in the state. The Department of Corrections spent $20 million on land for the prison on the eastern […]
House advances mandatory minimums for drunken driving
The state House of Representatives passed a bill to impose mandatory minimum sentences on anyone who gets four or more driving under the influence convictions. The passage of House Bill 1170 comes shortly after Senate passage of a proposal to limit parole for the most violent offenders. HB 1170 comes from Rep. Chris Karr, R-Sioux […]
Disaster declarations for tribes land as two-part storm looms
President Joe Biden declared major disasters for two tribal communities in South Dakota on Tuesday for a pair of deadly December storms. News of the declarations for the Rosebud and Oglala Sioux tribes arrived as snowflakes began to fall in the first of two more winter storms expected to blanket the state. This week’s storms […]
Parole officers create specialty unit to target parolees in hiding
Until recently, most parole officers in South Dakota managed a caseload that included a mix of low- and high-risk offenders and “absconders,” the term given to parolees who lose touch with their parole officers. A few months ago, however, the Department of Corrections reshuffled those caseloads to create an Absconder Apprehension Unit, whose officers track […]
Legislative roundup: Flush with cash
This week in Pierre was a reminder that despite tense debates over cattle branding, elections, and vaccines, the business of state government – and the work of lawmakers – is tied tightly to the state budget. Competing revenue estimates landed at the Capitol on Tuesday during the day and into the evening, with our own […]