Articles by Stephen Groves

South Dakota’s Noem Plans to Stall Legalization of Medical Pot

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 1, 2022, saying …

South Dakota Judge Rejects Amendment Legalizing Recreational Pot

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 the measure approved by voters in November violated the state’s requirement …

Nurses in North Dakota Worry About Working with Sick Colleagues

Like many medical workers around the world, the coronavirus pandemic is a burden that Fargo emergency room nurse Adam Johnston can’t escape. The grim reality follows him everywhere: at work, where people die every shift; at the grocery store, where …

South Dakota AG Thought He Hit a Deer; It Was a Man

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 …

Revved by South Dakota’s Sturgis Rally, Virus Infections Move Fast, Far

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 coronavirus spread in bars, tattoo …

Midwest Meatpackers Cautiously Reopen Plants After Coronavirus Shutdown

A South Dakota pork processing plant took its first steps toward reopening on May 4 after being shuttered for over two weeks because of a coronavirus outbreak that infected more than 800 employees. As two departments opened at the Sioux …