South Dakota Searchlight • 1st April 2025

Ballot group sues state over shorter petition circulation window • South Dakota Searchlight

A ballot question committee is suing South Dakota’s top election official over a new law that shortens the window for petition circulation by three months.
Dakotans for Health filed the lawsuit Tuesday in federal court against Secretary of State Monae Johnson.
“This new law is just another effort to silence the voices of South Dakotans and deny them the right to make decisions that impact their lives,” said Dakotans for Health Chairman Rick Weiland in a news release.
South Dakota’s Republican-d...

South Dakota Searchlight • 31st March 2025

Legislature sustains veto of geographic signature requirement for constitutional amendment petitions • South Dakota Searchlight

Petitioners hoping to put state constitutional amendments on the ballot won’t need signatures from each of South Dakota’s legislative Senate districts.
After the governor vetoed a bill containing the requirement last week, the state Senate sustained the veto Monday at the Capitol in Pierre. The House voted earlier Monday to override the veto, but agreement from both chambers is required to overturn the governor’s action.
Michael Rohl, R-Aberdeen, was among the senators who opposed the bill and s...

South Dakota Searchlight • 28th March 2025

State loan brings help to school preparing for Air Force base growth, but unknowns remain  • South Dakota Searchlight

BOX ELDER — A new state law brought a degree of certainty Friday to a situation filled with unknowns for the Douglas School District.
The law, signed by South Dakota Republican Gov. Larry Rhoden, authorizes a $15 million, zero-interest loan to the district from the state’s housing infrastructure fund. The money will help pay for the construction of a third elementary school.
The extra school is needed because the federal government is developing B-21 stealth bombers, and some of them will be sta...

South Dakota Searchlight • 26th March 2025

Noem’s successor hits ‘reset’ after she insisted there was ‘No Going Back’ • South Dakota Searchlight

For a condemnation of Kristi Noem’s performance as governor, just look at what her former lieutenant governor is doing.
You won’t get him to admit that, of course. Larry Rhoden insists Noem did “great things” for South Dakota.
Yet Rhoden has also positioned himself as Governor Reset after taking inspiration from a Native American tribal leader, Chairman J. Garrett Renville of the Sisseton Wahpeton Oyate.
Noem’s departure to serve in President Donald Trump’s Cabinet was imminent when Renville del...

South Dakota Searchlight • 18th March 2025

South Dakota governor asks Trump to build promised statue garden and put it near Mount Rushmore • South Dakota Searchlight

South Dakota Gov. Larry Rhoden sent President Donald Trump an invitation Tuesday to fulfill a promise from five years ago: the creation of a “National Garden of American Heroes.”
And Rhoden wants Trump to put the statue garden in South Dakota’s Black Hills.
“In fact, we have a plot of land available in sight of Mount Rushmore that would be ideal for this fantastic effort,” Rhoden wrote in a letter to Trump.
That plot of land, according to Rhoden, is privately owned by the Lien family, which is w...

South Dakota Searchlight • 10th March 2025

Former Yellowstone, Rushmore, Badlands superintendents say DOGE wiped out a generation of leaders • South Dakota Searchlight

If Dan Wenk had been fired during his first year in a permanent job with the National Park Service, the agency would’ve lost his many later accomplishments.
He would not have gone on to help lead a public-private partnership that raised $75 million to redevelop visitor facilities at Mount Rushmore National Memorial, or a $300 million negotiation to improve amenities at Yellowstone National Park with private funds, or the acquisition of the United Flight 93 crash site in Pennsylvania for a nation...

South Dakota Searchlight • 6th March 2025

New version of bill to aid Ellsworth Air Force Base specifies $15 million loan for school • South Dakota Searchlight

The effort to win state financial support for a new elementary school necessitated by growth at Ellsworth Air Force Base won a legislative endorsement Thursday at the South Dakota Capitol in Pierre.
The state House of Representatives’ 41-28 vote was the latest twist in a multi-year struggle. Legislation to provide $15 million of state funding for the project failed last year.
Earlier this week, Sen. Helene Duhamel, R-Rapid City, tried a new approach. She convinced the Senate to pass a bill that...

South Dakota Searchlight • 5th March 2025

South Dakota should protect students from a dual-credit price hike, state Senate committee decides • South Dakota Searchlight

The state should maintain its subsidy for dual credit students, a group of South Dakota legislators decided Tuesday at the Capitol in Pierre.
The Senate Education Committee voted 4-3 to defeat a proposed reduction of the subsidy. That means the reduction is likely dead, barring the use of any procedural maneuver to revive it during the last two weeks of the annual legislative session.
Sen. Jamie Smith, D-Sioux Falls, was among the committee members who voted to retain the existing level of suppo...

South Dakota Searchlight • 4th March 2025

Bill would transfer $15 million from SD housing fund to support Air Force base growth • South Dakota Searchlight

The South Dakota Senate advanced legislation Monday at the Capitol in Pierre that would take $15 million from a statewide housing infrastructure program and put it in a fund supporting the growth of Ellsworth Air Force Base.
The base near Rapid City is undergoing an estimated $2 billion worth of construction to accommodate the future arrival of B-21 bomber planes, which are under development. That activity is expected to grow the base and its surrounding civilian population significantly, puttin...

South Dakota Searchlight • 4th March 2025

Lawmakers will ask SD voters for permission to end Medicaid expansion if federal support declines • South Dakota Searchlight

South Dakota voters will decide next year whether to continue requiring Medicaid expansion if federal support for the program declines.
The state House of Representatives voted 31-3 on Monday at the Capitol in Pierre to support a resolution that will send the question to voters. The Senate had already approved the measure, which does not require a signature from the governor.
The question will appear on the ballot in the November 2026 general election.

Medicaid is government-funded health insur...