South Dakota Searchlight

12/19/2025

A company benefiting from $69 million in state grant and loan approvals has South Dakota's former economic development chief as an employee and the chairman of the state's economic development board as a corporate board member. That's caused lawmakers to raise ethical questions.

The state funding is helping CJ Schwan’s build a $550 million food production plant in Sioux Falls that will have 600 employees.

12/19/2025

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers issued a long-awaited Dakota Access Pipeline environmental impact statement, recommending that the pipeline keep operating but with some new conditions for its Missouri River crossing in North Dakota.

Via North Dakota Monitor

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers on Friday issued a long-awaited Dakota Access Pipeline environmental impact statement, recommending that the pipeline keep operating but with some new conditions for its Missouri River crossing in North Dakota.

12/19/2025

The November overdose death of a state prison inmate in Sioux Falls has drawn charges for a former Department of Corrections medical staffer and a man who’s already serving a 65-year sentence in the South Dakota State Penitentiary.

The November overdose death of a state prison inmate in Sioux Falls has drawn charges for a former employee and prisoner.

12/19/2025

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said she was suspending applications for a diversity visa program because the man suspected of killing two Brown University students and a Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor obtained a green card through the program in 2017.

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said she was suspending applications for a diversity visa program because the man suspected of killing two Brown University students and a Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor this week obtained a green card through the program in 2017.

12/19/2025

The six-day manhunt for the person believed to be responsible for a mass shooting at Brown University ended when the suspect and former Brown graduate student, Claudio Manuel Neves Valente, was found dead in a storage unit in Salem, New Hampshire.

Via Rhode Island Current

Claudio Manuel Neves Valente, the former Brown University student responsible for a fatal shooting in Providence Saturday, was found dead in a storage unit in Salem, New Hampshire, shortly before 9 p.m. Thursday, officials confirmed.

12/19/2025

Calls from businesses for federal guidance on how to handle the elimination of the penny have so far gone unanswered, pushing some states to take up the issue, reports Stateline.

Calls from businesses for federal guidance on how to handle the elimination of the penny have so far gone unanswered, pushing some states to take up the issue.

12/19/2025

South Dakota's Dusty Johnson voted yes as the U.S. House passed a bill to remove Endangered Species Act protections for the gray wolf outside Alaska.

The U.S. House passed, 211-204, a bill to remove Endangered Species Act protections for the gray wolf outside Alaska.

12/19/2025

The South Dakota Department of Public Safety says the Highway Patrol has logged $43,000 of overtime for troopers during a saturation patrol initiative known as Operation Prairie Thunder.

The South Dakota Department of Public Safety says a saturation patrol initiative has had a minimal impact on the Highway Patrol’s budget.

12/19/2025

President Donald Trump’s administration took major steps in a campaign to block minors’ access to gender-affirming care nationwide: Hospitals would be barred from providing gender transition treatment for children as a condition of participating in Medicare and Medicaid programs, and Medicaid funding would be prohibited from being used to fund such care for minors.

Hospitals would be barred from providing gender transition treatment for children as a condition of participating in Medicare and Medicaid.

12/18/2025

President Donald Trump signed an executive order to loosen federal restrictions on ma*****na, which Trump said reflected the drug’s potential medical benefits while discouraging recreational use.

12/18/2025

The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, a prestigious cultural hub in the nation’s capital, will be renamed the Trump-Kennedy Center, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt announced.

The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts will be renamed the Trump-Kennedy Center, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt announced.

12/18/2025

A panel of appellate judges seemed skeptical during Thursday oral arguments that the Trump administration erred in relying on a decades-old statute to require millions of noncitizens to register with the federal government and carry documentation.

A panel of appellate judges seemed skeptical during oral arguments that the Trump administration erred in relying on a decades-old statute to require millions of noncitizens to register with the federal government and carry documentation.