Veterans

Hundreds of people attend the Aug. 17, 2023, grand opening of a Veterans Affairs outpatient clinic in Rapid City. (Seth Tupper/South Dakota Searchlight)

With reorganization plans squashed for now, VA celebrates new Rapid City clinic

BY: - August 17, 2023

RAPID CITY — The long-debated, evolving plans for veterans’ health care in the Black Hills took a step forward Thursday with the grand opening of a new outpatient clinic. The 49,000-square-foot Rapid City facility is triple the size of the Department of Veterans Affairs’ previous clinic in the city. That’s a welcome development for Ricky […]

Sen. Mike Rounds, R-South Dakota, speaks during a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing on Capitol Hill on Sept. 28, 2021, in Washington, D.C. (Patrick Semansky-Pool/Getty Images)

Congressional Roundup: Rounds seeks solutions for classified document mess

BY: - May 21, 2023

Sen. Mike Rounds, R-South Dakota, is a cosponsor of a new bill proposing solutions to high-profile problems with the handling of classified information. The sponsor of the bill is Sen. Mark Warner, D-Virginia. Four Democrats, three Republicans, including Rounds, and an independent are cosponsors. Rounds said in a news release the bill would “increase accountability […]

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 […]

A sign on the Department of Veterans Affairs outpatient clinic in Rapid City. (Seth Tupper/South Dakota Searchlight)

Abortion services to remain available at the VA after close U.S. Senate vote

BY: - April 19, 2023

WASHINGTON — The Department of Veterans Affairs can continue providing service members with access to abortion in cases of life-threatening complications, rape or incest, after the U.S. Senate narrowly blocked a measure Wednesday that would have scrapped a new Biden administration rule. The VA policy, which also includes abortion counseling, was established after the U.S. […]

Veterans and supporters of the PACT act demonstrate outside the U.S. Capitol Building on August 02, 2022 in Washington, DC. Demonstrators from veterans-rights groups including the Wounded Warrior Project, Burn Pit 360 and the American Legion, have stood outside the Capitol Building in protest to call on the U.S. Senate to pass the PACT Act, a bill to expand health care benefits for veterans exposed to toxic burn pits. (Photo by Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)

Thousands of veterans deluge VA with claims for toxic exposure benefits, health care

BY: - November 23, 2022

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs is processing claims at the fastest rate in its history, hoping to avoid a significant backlog as hundreds of thousands of veterans apply for health care and benefits under the landmark toxic exposure law Congress passed earlier this year. The day after President Joe Biden signed the […]

A portion of the Pactola Reservoir in the Black Hills. (Seth Tupper/SD Searchlight)

New lifetime pass for veterans provides free entrance to national parks and other public lands

BY: - November 11, 2022

Starting today, on Veterans Day, military veterans and Gold Star families can get a free lifetime pass to the nation’s 400 million acres of public lands, national parks, wildlife refuges, and forests. Lifetime access for veterans was part of the  Alexander Lofgren Veterans in Parks Act, which passed in December 2021. The bill authorized free […]

The Veterans Helping Hands Project in Hot Springs will include a factory where veterans will learn building trades after completing substance abuse treatment. (Courtesy of Veterans Helping Hands Project)

Millions in housing help on the way for abuse victims, veterans and others

BY: - October 25, 2022

Victims of domestic violence, veterans, and those who’ve struggled with housing insecurity in South Dakota will soon have more options for temporary shelter thanks to federal COVID relief money. More than $7.5 million in federal funding will be split between six nonprofits with plans to refurbish or expand living spaces in Sioux Falls, Watertown, Pierre, […]