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Erica Schipper is an OB-GYN physician practicing in Sioux Falls. (Joshua Haiar/South Dakota Searchlight)

Physicians feel ‘trapped’ by SD’s abortion trigger law. They’re hoping to change it.

BY: - May 13, 2023

EDITOR’S NOTE: This is the second story in a three-part series about the impacts of South Dakota’s abortion ban. The first story examined the number of South Dakotans leaving the state for abortions. The third story looks at the effects of the abortion ban on the recruitment and retention of OB-GYNs. A wave of dread […]

(Getty Images)

Before and after ban, South Dakotans seek abortions elsewhere: ‘They’re going to find a way’

BY: - May 12, 2023

EDITOR’S NOTE: This is the first story in a three-part series about the impacts of South Dakota’s abortion ban. The second story examines the effects of South Dakota’s “life of the mother” exception, which some critics believe is ill-defined. The third story analyzes effects on the availability of women’s health care. Nobody knows exactly how […]

Service technicians work to install the foundation for a transmission tower at the CenterPoint Energy power plant on June 10, 2022, in Houston, Texas. (Brandon Bell/Getty Images)

Speedier permitting of energy projects gains bipartisan backing on U.S. Senate panel

BY: - May 11, 2023

Members of both parties on the U.S. Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee voiced their support Thursday for reforming the federal process for approving energy projects, saying it should be prioritized to secure domestic energy supply and boost renewable energy. There is bipartisan interest in revising the permitting process and members of both parties have […]

Eric Gage, the executive director of the Veterans Community Project in Sioux Falls, hangs a flag on one of the five tiny homes that will soon house homeless veterans. The project held a ribbon cutting on May 9, 2023. (John Hult/South Dakota Searchlight)

First tiny homes for vets ready in Sioux Falls

BY: - May 9, 2023

SIOUX FALLS – Project managers and advocates threw open the doors of the first five tiny homes for veterans in Sioux Falls on Tuesday morning. The homes are the first in a planned village of transitional housing for homeless veterans in southeast South Dakota. The village is about a mile from downtown Sioux Falls, tucked […]

Craig Schaunaman, who farms thousands of acres near Aberdeen, looks out over his family farm. (Joshua Haiar/South Dakota Searchlight)

‘It’s about property rights’: Some farmers resent ethanol industry’s push for carbon pipelines

BY: - May 5, 2023

ABERDEEN — Craig Schaunaman, who farms thousands of acres, has been invested in the ethanol industry since its early days and even served on the board of an ethanol plant.  But a carbon-capture pipeline supported by dozens of ethanol plants would cross his land, and he’s against it, even though ethanol officials say the pipeline […]

A stock dam reflects the clear blue sky of spring and rolling grasslands of the Great Plains near White River, South Dakota. (Makenzie Huber/South Dakota Searchlight)

U.S. House fails to override Biden veto of WOTUS legislation

BY: - April 18, 2023

The U.S. House on Tuesday failed to override a President Joe Biden veto, which means the administration’s regulation stays in place expanding which waters and wetlands can be regulated under the federal Clean Water Act. The House did not clear the two-thirds mark needed to overturn Biden’s veto of a resolution that would have blocked […]

First responders gathered Monday morning in downtown Louisville near the scene of a mass shooting at Old National Bank near Slugger Field. (Kentucky Lantern photo by Liam Niemeyer)

Police release names of five dead in Louisville shooting, nine injured

BY: - April 10, 2023

LOUISVILLE — Louisville Metro Police Department Interim Chief Jacquelyn Gwinn-Villaroel was joined Monday afternoon by Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear and Louisville Mayor Craig Greenberg to name the victims of a mass shooting earlier that day in the city, one of them a close friend of the governor. According to LMPD, the victims: – 40-year-old Joshua Barrick […]

U.S. Sen. John Thune, R-South Dakota, speaks after a Republican policy luncheon at the U.S. Capitol on March 28, 2023, in Washington, D.C. (Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)

Congressional Roundup: Thune proposes permanent estate tax repeal

BY: - April 2, 2023

EDITOR’S NOTE: This is the latest installment in a series of periodic updates on the activities of South Dakota’s congressional delegation. — Sen. John Thune, R-South Dakota, introduced legislation last week to repeal the federal estate tax, which he calls the “death tax.”  The bill is supported by 40 Republican cosponsors, but no Democrats. The estate tax […]

Members of the state House of Representatives stand and applaud after a $104 million tax cut bill passed with unanimous support on March 9, 2023, at the Capitol in Pierre. (Makenzie Huber/South Dakota Searchlight)

Lawmakers approve temporary sales tax cut worth an estimated $104 million in first year

BY: - March 9, 2023

PIERRE — With just hours left in the last regular day of business in the 2023 legislative session, lawmakers compromised to approve what some described as the largest tax cut in South Dakota history. The plan would reduce the state sales tax from 4.5% to 4.2% for four years, saving taxpayers and costing the state […]

A whale surfaces on July 8, 2018, just east of Montauk, New York in the Block Island Sound. (Bruce Bennett/Getty Images)

Wind and whales: ‘No evidence’ links projects to deaths

BY: - February 28, 2023

The U.S. offshore wind power industry is in its infancy, with just a handful of turbines installed along the Atlantic coast. But they’re already being blamed for the deaths of whales that have washed up on beaches in New Jersey, New York, Virginia and elsewhere.  A Fox News story on Feb. 13 made strenuous attempts […]

Immigrants wait overnight next to the U.S.-Mexico border fence to seek asylum in the United States on Jan. 7, 2023, as viewed from Ciudad Juarez, Mexico. (Photo by John Moore/Getty Images)

White House targets economic development in Central America to reduce migration

BY: - February 6, 2023

WASHINGTON — The White House Monday announced nearly $1 billion in investments to address economic causes of migration in several Central American countries, an effort being spurred by Vice President Kamala Harris.   Spread over several years, 10 private companies from Target to Nestlé are pledging $950 million to create economic development in Honduras, El Salvador […]

Officials: Cause of Huron dam fish die-off unclear

BY: - January 24, 2023

A recently completed James River dam project was the site of a massive fish die-off in Huron last week, but state officials say the cause of the deaths is unclear. A state official says they are monitoring the situation on the ground and may restock the affected area of the river. The fish kill was […]