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SDPB •

Noem slams federal proposal to realign veteran health care in South Dakota

The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs is rolling out realignment plans.

The plans could reduce or eliminate veteran health-care services in some South Dakota cities, while adding services in others.

Governor Kristi Noem broke the news Friday with the release of an audio recording. The recording is from a conference call conducted by VA officials with employees.

One of the speakers on the call is Robert McDivitt. He’s a VA official overseeing a region including South Dakota.

McDivitt said a
SDPB •

Condo owner recalls '72 flood: 'And pretty soon they wouldn't scream anymore'

The attached audio above is from SDPB's daily public-affairs show, In the Moment.

The 50th anniversary of the Black Hills Flood of 1972 on June 9 is a time to honor the 238 lives lost, and it also brings a flood of memories for survivors. Some of those survivors are telling their stories to SDPB. Every week between now and the anniversary, we’ll bring you one of those stories.

This week, we hear from Dick Knecht. The modern location of Cliffside Park along Rapid Creek in western Rapid City is
SDPB •

Explaining the decades-old law that caps nursing-home beds in South Dakota

The attached interview above is from SDPB's daily public-affairs show, In the Moment, hosted by Lori Walsh.

The Lower Brule Sioux Tribe wants to build a new nursing home. The tribe doesn’t need any help from the state, except for one thing.

“Now why do I bring this in front of this body? And it's not that they need permission to build a nursing home with their own money on their own lands. It’s about the moratorium that we have on beds.”

He was talking about a 34-year-old law that puts a cap
SDPB •

'We all should've been in therapy': Recalling the Black Hills Flood, 50 years later

The attached audio above is from SDPB's daily public-affairs show, In the Moment.

The 50th anniversary of the Black Hills Flood of 1972 on June 9th is a time to honor the 238 lives lost. It also brings a flood of memories for survivors. Some of those survivors are telling their stories to SDPB. Every week between now and the anniversary, we’ll bring you one of those stories.

This week, we hear from Kay Schriever of Rapid City. She was in a car with five other teenagers near Rapid Creek when th
SDPB •

'Not a single board left of the house': Remembering the 1972 Black Hills Flood

The attached interview above is from SDPB's daily public-affairs show, In the Moment.

The 50th anniversary of the Black Hills Flood of 1972 on June 9th is a time to honor the 238 lives lost. It also brings a flood of memories for survivors. Some of those survivors are telling their stories to SDPB. Every week between now and the anniversary, we’ll bring you one of those stories.

This week, we hear from Robbie Corner. He was a teenager who was out with friends when the flood began. When he trie
SDPB •

No, this isn't South Dakota's first impeachment process

This video is from SDPB's news program, South Dakota Focus.

The news is full of references this winter to the potential impeachment of South Dakota Attorney General Jason Ravnsborg.

Many reports call it an unprecedented situation – the first time the Legislature has formally considered impeaching a public official.

As it turns out, this is at least the second time the South Dakota media has proclaimed a first-ever impeachment process.

The historical record indicates the first impeachment pro
SDPB •

Warren Nelson remembers the Black Hills Flood of 1972

The attached interview above is from SDPB's daily public-affairs show, In the Moment.

The 50th anniversary of the Black Hills Flood of 1972 on June 9th is a time to honor the 238 lives lost. It also brings a flood of memories for survivors. Some of those survivors are telling their stories to SDPB. Every week between now and the anniversary, we’ll bring you one of those stories.

This week, we hear from Warren Nelson. He had just finished a day of training at Camp Rapid with the National Guard
SDPB •

'Ridiculous' bingo tax was once a serious topic for lawmakers

This segment is from SDPB's monthly news program, South Dakota Focus.

Gov. Kristi Noem took aim at several targets during her recent State of the State address, and she reserved some of her sharpest criticism for a surprising topic.

“Although we don’t have many taxes in South Dakota – we’ve been looking for them – I am going to propose that we eliminate one that is incredibly ridiculous," she said. "Did you know that we have a bingo tax? So this is largely a tax on elderly populations and our
SDPB •

Sioux Falls' dispensary deadline, and one of Rapid City's most impactful leaders

In the Moment airs live at 12CT/11MT. The audio will be attached to this story soon after the show airs.

The deadline is drawing near to apply for a license to operate a medical cannabis dispensary or testing facility within Sioux Falls city limits. Stacy Kooistra is the city attorney and he joins us with more details.

Sixty buffalo from Wind Cave National Park are now grazing on the Rosebud Reservation. It's part of the park's efforts to thin its bison herd, while contributing to tribal food
SDPB •

Noem proposes big projects after saying her 'first thought' was refusing federal money

Governor Kristi Noem acknowledges a big portion of the revenue in her proposed budget is from outside the state.

“It’s a giant handout from Washington, D.C.," she said Tuesday during her annual budget address at the Capitol in Pierre.

The last COVID-19 relief bill from Congress included nearly $1 billion for South Dakota. That money and other federal stimulus funds make it especially easy to balance the state budget this year.

But the state always balances its budget. Noem said this will be t
SDPB •

Company plans exploratory drilling for gold in Black Hills

Another company wants to drill holes in search of Black Hills gold.

Dakota Territory Resource Corp., which has an office in Lead, filed a drilling plan earlier this month. The plan is publicly available on the website of the state Department of Agriculture and Natural Resources.

The drilling sites are a few miles northwest of the Lead-Deadwood area in the northern Black Hills. The company wants to drill as many as 10 holes at seven drill pads on privately owned land, for a total of 70 holes. T
SDPB •

Logging levels headed lower in Black Hills National Forest

This interview is from SDPB's daily public-affairs show, In the Moment, hosted by Lori Walsh.

The leaders of the Black Hills National Forest plan to reduce logging levels.

This comes after several years of debate about sustainability in the forest.

The Forest Service uses a unit called "CCF," which is equivalent to 100 cubic feet, to measure timber. For the past 11 years, loggers have taken an average of 191,000 CCF out of the Black Hills National Forest each year, according to Forest Supervi
SDPB •

A medal from Truman, a pardon from Trump: The remarkable life of a South Dakota scientist

It was 1926. He was at a research lab in Cleveland. A colleague sliced through a piece of metal with a new material called “cemented carbide.”

Jeffries was amazed. No other tool cut hard metal alloys so well.

He knew cemented carbide could revolutionize metalworking. So he fired off a letter to General Electric.

The new cutting tool, Jeffries wrote, “is at least twelve times as good as the best tool we have tried before, and probably is more on the order of one hundred times as good.”
SDPB •

In Their Own Words: An old-fashioned meeting, courting, and marriage

This audio is from SDPB's daily public-affairs show, In the Moment, hosted by Lori Walsh.

Don Konechne is an 88-year-old farmer and rancher who told us the story of meeting, courting and marrying his wife, Marjory.

It all started when Don was in the Army, stationed in Germany during the 1950s. He and other male soldiers traded mailing addresses of their sisters and other female acquaintances so they could correspond with young women back home.

We gathered this audio story from Don while he st
SDPB •

Mitchell Superintendent Explains Rationale Behind Mask Mandate

The school superintendent in Mitchell says the number of protesters is declining outside the high school as students adjust to a new mask requirement.

Mitchell is one of the first South Dakota districts to require masks this school year. The school board adopted the policy after starting the year without a mask requirement.

More than a hundred people protested the policy on its first day in effect earlier this week. Superintendent Joe Graves says school officials took lunches outside to the pr
SDPB •

New Laws Change Requirements For Teen Driver's Licenses

New state laws add some requirements for teenagers to get a driver’s license.

Dan Lusk is with the South Dakota Department of Public Safety. He says the new laws are now in effect.

“There is no grandfathering of any of the requirements prior to this. So it’s very important for people to know that if they hadn’t done what they needed to do to upgrade their licenses prior to July 1, that the new requirements are in effect regardless of which tier of a license you held.”

Young drivers will now n
SDPB •

Tribe Becomes South Dakota’s First Medical-Marijuana Seller

Legal marijuana sales are happening in South Dakota for the first time, but it’s only for medical purposes and there’s only one place to shop so far.

The Flandreau Santee Sioux Tribe is the first seller of medical marijuana in the state. Native Nations Cannabis is a tribal business that began sales Thursday. That’s the day a new, voter-approved state law legalizing medical marijuana took effect.

Alex Tschetter is one of the first customers. He drove to Flandreau, 40 miles from his home in Siou
SDPB •

Spate Of Lawsuits Alleges Health Care Problems In South Dakota Jails

Lori Brandner said the trouble started while her sister was visiting.

“I cut our visit short," Brandner said, "because my head hurt so bad.”

Brandner was serving time at the Walworth County Jail. That’s in Selby, a town of less than 600 people in north-central South Dakota.

She was convicted and sentenced for setting her own bar and grill on fire for the insurance money.

Brandner has a history of strokes and takes a blood-thinning medication. She said jailers let her medication run out and f
SDPB •

Trillion Trees Act Wins Johnson’s Support But Divides Climate Activists

It seems like a simple idea: Plant a trillion trees around the world.

It would help with the fight against climate change, because trees pull carbon dioxide – a heat-trapping greenhouse gas – out of the air.

The United Nations already supports a Trillion Trees Initiative, and a bill in the House of Representatives proposes a way for the United States to help.

It’s called the Trillion Trees Act, and it would encourage tree-planting with national wood-growth targets, a reforestation task force,
SDPB •

Modern South Dakota Earthquakes Could Be A Hangover From The Ice Age

There are almost 100 documented earthquakes in South Dakota history, including a recent one that shook the Bowdle area.

That 3.2-magnitude quake may have been caused by massive plates shifting along faults underground. Or, said State Geologist Tim Cowman, there could be another cause.

“The thing that probably more likely caused this earthquake,” he said, “is something that we call ‘glacial rebound’ or ‘isostatic rebound.’”

“During the last Ice Age,” Cowman said, “the ice sheets that covered t
SDPB •

World’s Largest Pheasant Could Get A Bigger Neighbor

When Mike Jones bought the World’s Largest Pheasant about 10 years ago, he had no idea what he was getting into.

“And if I would’ve known,” he said, “I wouldn’t have gotten involved in it.”

Jones thought holding the deed to the big bird meant he owned it. Officially, he was right. But the statue has been there so long, and it’s become such a symbol of the community, that some people in Huron think it belongs to the public.

“Everybody in town kind of thought it was owned by the city, or that n
SDPB •

Two States, Different Paths: Vermont Keeps Virus Low While Rivaling SD's Economy

South Dakota’s approach to the coronavirus pandemic has produced contrasting results: one of the nation’s best economic recoveries, and one of the nation’s worst COVID-19 outbreaks.

Governor Kristi Noem’s rejection of statewide shelter-in-place orders, business shutdowns and mask mandates has made her a celebrity in the Republican Party. She campaigned for President Trump in 17 states and touted her own record last month in Maine and New Hampshire.

“What I did in South Dakota is what we say Re
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