Justice

Daughter-mother duo Marcella Gilbert and Madonna Thunder Hawk (left to right) pose for a photo for the "Warrior Women" documentary film. (Courtesy of Castle King LLC)

Mission of Wounded Knee activists continues 50 years later with children, grandchildren

BY: - February 27, 2023

The world had largely forgotten about Native American people by the early 1970s, said Marcella Gilbert. Native populations had been decimated by disease and colonization; their sprawling homeland where ancestors had roamed was splintered into reservations. The Lakota language was nearly extinct and practicing the Lakota religion was illegal. “People across the world didn’t even […]

A neon sign advertises delta-8 products at a store in Sioux Falls. (John Hult/South Dakota Searchlight)

Recreational marijuana is illegal, but its high-inducing cousins are widespread

BY: - February 25, 2023

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 […]

The South Dakota Capitol building in Pierre. (Seth Tupper/SD Searchlight)

Move to loosen penalties for drug ingestion, marijuana edibles fails in Senate

BY: - February 22, 2023

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 […]

The South Dakota State Penitentiary in Sioux Falls, as seen on Jan. 9, 2023. (John Hult/South Dakota Searchlight)

Budget committee endorses $400 million for new prisons

BY: - February 22, 2023

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 […]

Rep. Chris Karr, R-Sioux Falls, on the House floor during the 2023 legislative session at the Capitol in Pierre. (Makenzie Huber, South Dakota Searchlight)

House advances mandatory minimums for drunken driving

BY: - February 21, 2023

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 […]

GREELEY, CO - JUNE 01: A JBS Processing Plant stands dormant after halting operations on June 1, 2021 in Greeley, Colorado. JBS facilities around the globe were impacted by a ransomware attack, forcing many of their facilities to shut down. (Photo by Chet Strange/Getty Images)

Food sanitation company fined $1.5 million for illegal child labor

BY: - February 20, 2023

A company responsible for cleaning meatpacking plants across the country has paid $1.5 million in civil penalties for making children as young as 13 work in dangerous conditions. The fine, announced Friday by the U.S. Department of Labor, followed an investigation by the agency into Packers Sanitation Services Inc., at 13 plants in eight states, […]

The G. Norton Jameson Annex at the South Dakota State Penitentiary in Sioux Falls, SD. (John Hult/South Dakota Searchlight)

Parole officers create specialty unit to target parolees in hiding

BY: - February 20, 2023

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 […]

University of South Dakota Law School Dean Neil Fulton speaks to students. (photo courtesy USD)

Lawmaker withdraws effort to drop bar-exam requirement for lawyers

BY: - February 17, 2023

A bill that aimed to create an apprenticeship program as an alternative to the bar exam for South Dakota lawyers has been withdrawn by its sponsor.  House Bill 1076 is sponsored by Rep. Mary Fitzgerald, R-Spearfish. It would have allowed University of South Dakota Knutson School of Law graduates to bypass the bar exam and […]

Bags of heroin, some laced with fentanyl, are displayed before a press conference regarding a major drug bust, at the office of the New York Attorney General, Sept. 23, 2016, in New York City. (Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images)

Funding needed to curb fentanyl smuggling at ports of entry, administration officials say

BY: - February 15, 2023

WASHINGTON — Biden administration officials at a U.S. Senate hearing Wednesday on the deadly illicit drug fentanyl said they need more money for better screening technology at ports of entry at the Southern border. They also said the U.S. needs to keep pressure on China due to its role in the sale of chemicals used […]

Teenage student Jose Lara studies his daily schoolwork on his laptop at his home in the slum of Catia during the second month of quarantine on April 27, 2020, in Caracas, Venezuela. (Photo by Leonardo Fernandez Viloria/Getty Images)

Lack of action by Congress to protect kids online criticized at U.S. Senate hearing

BY: - February 14, 2023

WASHINGTON — U.S. senators on Tuesday voiced frustration and outrage that Congress has been unable to pass legislation bolstering protection for children online, including adding guardrails to social media platforms.  During a hearing in the Senate Judiciary Committee, Democrats and Republicans pledged to keep working together to pass several bipartisan bills that didn’t make it […]

U.S. President Joe Biden speaks at the Democratic National Committee summer meeting at the Gaylord National Resort & Convention Center, Sept. 8, 2022. (Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images)

Biden renews a call for action on gun control following Michigan State mass shooting

BY: - February 14, 2023

WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden at an annual meeting with county leaders on Tuesday said there is much more work to be done on gun control legislation —  such as banning assault-style weapons, which are typically used in most mass shootings.  The call again for gun control came after a school shooting at Michigan State […]

An ad on the F Subway Train promotes the birth control pill RU-486 on Jan. 22, 2001, in New York City. The ad campaign was sponsored by Planned Parenthood. (Photo by Spencer Platt/Newsmakers)

Attorneys general from Democratic-led states urge judge to keep abortion pill legal

BY: - February 14, 2023

WASHINGTON — Attorneys general from 21 Democratic-leaning states are calling on a Texas judge to keep the abortion pill on the market, rejecting claims anti-abortion medical groups made in a lawsuit that’s centered on the medication’s approval more than two decades ago.  The latest brief in the case, Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine v. U.S. Food […]