South Dakota Searchlight

We shine a light on important matters affecting South Dakota, analyze the choices made by state officials, and clarify how their policies impact the lives of South Dakotans and the political landscape. Our focus is on delivering news and opinions that value truth, fairness, understanding, and respect. Accessing our articles and signing up for our email newsletter is completely free. Additionally, other media organizations that adhere to our standards are welcome to share our content.

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National measles outbreak reaches South Dakota with infected Meade County adult

4 days ago | southdakotasearchlight.com | Joshua Haiar

by Joshua Haiar, South Dakota Searchlight June 2, 2025 A national measles outbreak has reached South Dakota. The state Department of Health on Monday reported the first measles case of the year. The infected person is a Meade County adult who “visited several public locations,” according to the department’s news release.
Hunger relief group says it’s facing a $2.5 million budget shortfall due to federal cuts

6 days ago | southdakotasearchlight.com | Joshua Haiar

by Joshua Haiar, South Dakota Searchlight May 31, 2025 South Dakota’s largest hunger-relief organization says it faces a $2.5 million budget shortfall next year because of President Donald Trump’s federal funding cuts. Feeding South Dakota CEO Lori Dykstra addressed lawmakers on a budget committee Friday in Pierre. She said the group has already cut the amount of food it provides and has merged distribution sites.
Health care advocates form coalition urging Republicans to take their ‘Hands Off Medicaid’

1 week ago | southdakotasearchlight.com | Joshua Haiar

by Joshua Haiar, South Dakota Searchlight May 29, 2025 A group of South Dakota health care advocates launched a “Hands Off Medicaid” coalition Thursday, pleading with the state’s all-Republican congressional delegation to avoid proposed cuts. Medicaid is a federal-state health care program for low-income people. A U.S. House-approved budget reconciliation bill would reduce the program by $625 billion over 10 years under an estimate by the Congressional Budget Office.
Multiple inmates sent to hospital days after protests over prison security and inmate treatment

1 week ago | southdakotasearchlight.com | John Hult

A flurry of fighting broke out again Tuesday in the maximum security building on the campus of the South Dakota State Penitentiary, according to the Department of Corrections. The violence comes less than a week after a protest over prison security and the treatment of inmates, and less than a month after the last publicly acknowledged sparring between inmates on the prison grounds in Sioux Falls.
Greenpeace seeks reversal of verdict, arguing jury wanted to ‘punish’ someone for pipeline protests

1 week ago | southdakotasearchlight.com | Mary Steurer

Attorneys for Greenpeace argued this week that a jury’s decision ordering it to pay $667 million to the developer of the Dakota Access Pipeline cannot stand. A Morton County jury delivered the verdict on March 19 after more than three weeks of trial. Jurors found the environmental group responsible for damages related to anti-pipeline protests in North Dakota in 2016 and 2017, as well as for publishing defamatory statements about Energy Transfer.
South Dakota governor’s economic advisers bemoan Trump’s tariff policy

1 week ago | southdakotasearchlight.com | Joshua Haiar

Members of the Governor’s Council of Economic Advisors raised alarms during a virtual roundtable Tuesday about volatile Trump administration tariff policies, saying they’re driving up costs, stalling housing developments, and threatening key sectors of South Dakota’s economy. “It’s a really regressive tax,” council member John Hemmingstad, of Avalon Capital Group, said of tariffs.
SD seeks Medicaid work rules in spite of similar moves by Congress

1 week ago | southdakotasearchlight.com | Makenzie Huber

Despite Republican U.S. Congress members’ intentions to set Medicaid work requirements at a federal level, South Dakota officials plan to ask President Donald Trump to approve their own set of Medicaid work requirements. Medicaid is government-funded health insurance for people with low incomes, and for adults and children with disabilities.
Noem fails to follow her own advice with taxpayer money

1 week ago | southdakotasearchlight.com | Dana Hess

During her tenure as the governor of South Dakota, Kristi Noem liked to remind legislators at budget time that the money they were dealing with was not their own. From a 2019 address to the Legislature: “I’m committed to maintaining the fiscal integrity for which our state is known. We won’t spend money we don’t have. We will not raise taxes.”From 2022: “I recognize that taxpayer dollars are not our own — they belong to the people of South Dakota.
‘I question it myself’: South Dakota vaccination rates fall amid mistrust and misinformation

2 weeks ago | southdakotasearchlight.com | Joshua Haiar

by Joshua Haiar, South Dakota Searchlight May 23, 2025 Grant Vander Vorst is at the epicenter of vaccine hesitancy in South Dakota: Just 56% of incoming kindergartners in Faulk County, where he lives, were up to date on their measles, mumps and rubella vaccination during the 2023-24 school year, which was the lowest rate of any county in the state with available data. Vander Vorst is the superintendent of Faulkton Area Schools.
SD state worker promoted to lead Bureau of Information and Technology and its $88 million budget

2 weeks ago | southdakotasearchlight.com | Makenzie Huber

by Makenzie Huber, South Dakota Searchlight May 22, 2025 An employee in the state Bureau of Information and Technology has been promoted to commissioner of the bureau, South Dakota Gov. Larry Rhoden announced Thursday. Mark Wixon serves as the director of agency application support with the bureau. He previously worked at Black Hills Energy for 28 years before working with the state. Mark Wixon was appointed commissioner of the Bureau of Information and Technology by South Dakota Gov.