Latest South Dakota Headlines
All the headlines from our South Dakota Topic Page, ordered by recency.
South Dakota AG’s Cellphone Use Before Deadly Crash Questioned
Feb 25 2021 // Investigators questioning South Dakota’s attorney general after a fatal car crash pressed him on how he did not realize he had struck a man and whether he had been reading email and checking news sites on his phone...
South Dakota’s Noem Plans to Stall Legalization of Medical Pot
Feb 11 2021 // South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem promised she will honor the will of voters to legalize pot for medical use, just not this year. The Republican governor announced a plan to delay legalization of medical marijuana until July...
South Dakota Judge Rejects Amendment Legalizing Recreational Pot
Feb 9 2021 // A South Dakota judge on Feb. 8 struck down a voter-approved constitutional amendment that legalized recreational marijuana after Gov. Kristi Noem’s administration challenged it. Circuit Judge Christina Klinger ruled...
South Dakota Gov. Orders Legal Challenge to Recreational Pot Measure
Jan 11 2021 // South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem has issued an executive order to officially direct a lawsuit challenging a voter-approved constitutional amendment to legalize recreational marijuana. The order ensures that Highway Patrol...
South Dakota Bar Warns Attorneys About Counseling Pot Sellers
Jan 8 2021 // The South Dakota State Bar Association is advising attorneys against providing legal services to businesses seeking to produce or sell marijuana in the state. South Dakota voters approved legalizing both recreational and...
South Dakota Gun Shop Burglarized for 2nd Time in 2 Months
Dec 9 2020 // After operating without incident for five years, a Sturgis gun store has been burglarized for the second time in two months. Sturgis Guns was broken into at 4:21 a.m. on Dec. 6, according to a police news release....
South Dakota Law Officers Sue to Overturn Pot Legalization Vote
Nov 25 2020 // Two South Dakota law enforcement officials want the courts to overturn a citizen-approved constitutional amendment legalizing marijuana in the state. The Argus Leader reports Pennington County Sheriff Kevin Thom and South...
Report: South Dakota AG Distracted Before Fatal Crash
Nov 4 2020 // South Dakota Attorney General Jason Ravnsborg was distracted before he drove onto a highway shoulder where he struck and killed a pedestrian in September, state Secretary of Public Safety Craig Price said on Nov. 2. Price...
Medtronic to Pay $9.2M in South Dakota Kickback Case Settlement
Nov 2 2020 // Minnesota-based Medtronic has agreed to pay $9.2 million to resolve allegations that it paid kickbacks to a South Dakota neurosurgeon and failed to accurately report them, the Department of Justice has announced. The...
South Dakota School District to Pay $50K to Settle Suit with Former Employee
Oct 30 2020 // The Douglas School District in Box Elder, S.D., will pay a former district employee $50,000 to settle a lawsuit filed in February 2019, representatives from both sides said on Oct. 27. Patrick Ealy said he was wrongly...
Judge OKs $440K Settlement in South Dakota Forced Catheterization Suit
Sep 18 2020 // A federal judge has approved legal settlements totaling $440,000 for people in South Dakota who were subjected to forced catheterizations to check for drug use. U.S. District Judge Roberto Lange ruled in April that police...
South Dakota AG Thought He Hit a Deer; It Was a Man
Sep 16 2020 // South Dakota Attorney General Jason Ravnsborg said in a statement late on Sept. 14 that he realized he had struck and killed a man walking along a rural stretch of highway only after returning to the scene the next day and...
South Dakota to Stop Issuing Temporary Insurance Producer Licenses
Sep 11 2020 // The South Dakota Division of Insurance is terminating its program of allowing temporary insurance producer licenses. The division issued a bulletin in April that outlined grounds for the issuance of temporary insurance...
S.D. Governor Disputes Report Tying COVID-19 Case Surge to Motorcycle Rally
Sep 8 2020 // South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem has dismissed as “fiction” a recent study published by San Diego State University that ties the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally in August to a massive surge in COVID-19 cases and...
Revved by South Dakota’s Sturgis Rally, Virus Infections Move Fast, Far
Aug 25 2020 // The hundreds of thousands of bikers who attended the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally may have departed western South Dakota, but public health departments in multiple states are trying to measure how much and how quickly the...
FBI Investigating South Dakota COVID-19 Data Breach Linked to Netsential
Aug 24 2020 // The FBI is investigating a data breach that may have compromised the identity of people with the COVID-19 virus in South Dakota. Paul Niedringhaus, who directs the South Dakota Fusion Center that handles emergency calls,...
Phone Use While Driving a 1st Offence in South Dakota on July 1
Jun 30 2020 // Drivers in South Dakota who use their cellphones can be pulled over and ticketed purely for that offense starting July 1. A new state law taking effect July 1 makes it a Class 2 misdemeanor to use a cellphone while driving...
No Aid for South Dakota Residents After Sinkhole Collapse, FEMA Says
Jun 22 2020 // Several South Dakota residents who evacuated from their homes after a sinkhole collapsed, exposing an abandoned mine, in April are not eligible to receive federal aid, according to the Federal Emergency Management...
COVID-19 Keeps 100s Off the Job at South Dakota Smithfield Plant
Jun 18 2020 // Hundreds of workers are still absent from the Smithfield meatpacking plant in Sioux Falls because of the coronavirus pandemic, according to union leaders. AFL-CIO secretary treasurer BJ Motley says between 800 and 1,200 of...
South Dakota Motorcycle Rally Still On After Sturgis Council Vote
Jun 17 2020 // The roar of motorcycles will return to South Dakota’s Black Hills this summer with the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally, but with some major modifications. The Sturgis City Council has voted to proceed with preparations for...
