Title: content director / investigative reporter
Contact: 605-937-9398 / bart.pfankuch@sdnewswatch.org
Language spoken: English
Demographic expertise: South Dakota, including the Rapid City area, the Black Hills, rural towns and reservations
Topic expertise: agriculture, state government, education, rural issues, Indigenous people, poverty
Potential conflict of interest: Pfankuch serves on the board of the Oyate Prevention Coalition in Rapid City, which works to prevent substance abuse among Native American youth. He will recuse himself from reporting on the organization.
Biography: Pfankuch (pronounced FAN-cook) is Wisconsin native and former editor of the Rapid City Journal. He has worked for more than 30 years as a reporter and editor at newspapers in Wisconsin, Florida and South Dakota, including as reporter or editor at the Eau Claire Leader-Telegram and Capital Times in Wisconsin, and at the Florida Times-Union and Sarasota Herald-Tribune in Florida. He also is a syndicated writing coach who has presented at newspaper conferences across the country. Pfankuch has won more than four dozen state, regional and national journalism awards, including, while at News Watch, agricultural writer of the year from the North American Agricultural Journalists association in 2020, 2021 and 2023 as well as first-place reporting awards in the Great Plains Journalism Awards sponsored by the Tulsa Press Club and South Dakota NewsMedia Association. Pfankuch lives in Black Hawk.
Professional memberships: Investigative Reporters and Editors, North American Agricultural Journalists, South Dakota NewsMedia First Amendment Committee
Social platforms: X/Twitter; LinkedIn
Archive of work: South Dakota News Watch
Bart Pfankuch
Total 307 Posts
Fraud and weak USDA oversight chip away at integrity of organic food industry
Trey Wharton of Sioux Falls has made numerous sacrifices in his life in order to maintain a healthful lifestyle centered around a vegan diet and consistent consumption of organic foods.
To afford organic products that are sometimes double or triple the cost of conventionally grown foods, Wharton works two jobs,
Panel discussion on politics and education set for Thursday, June 16, 2022
In the latest segment of its ongoing “South Dakota Matters” series of polls and panels, South Dakota News Watch will host a one-hour panel discussion on the effect of increasing politicization of public education and its impact on the worsening teacher shortage on Thursday, June 16, 2022 at 7:30
Special report part 1: Teachers in SD endure new stress as politics and culture war seep into classrooms
Jason Connelly is exactly the kind of young educator the South Dakota public school system would love to add to its depleted teacher workforce.
Connelly grew up in Sioux Falls and attended Catholic schools before pursuing a history and teaching degree at Augustana University, which he obtained this year.
Connelly
Kylie Carlson named 2022 Nelson reporting intern at South Dakota News Watch
South Dakota News Watch is proud to announce that Kylie Carlson, a senior at South Dakota State University, has been selected as the 2022 recipient of the Jeffrey B. Nelson Investigative Journalism Endowed Internship.
Kylie will work as a paid, full-time reporter for News Watch during the internship, which will
Special report part 2: CO2 pipelines could affect the land, lives and livelihoods of SD property owners
Editor’s note: This article was produced through a partnership between South Dakota News Watch and the Solutions Journalism Network, a national non-profit group that supports rigorous journalism about responses to problems. This is Part 2 of a two-part series; Part 1 published on May 2, 2022.
Peggy Hoogestraat is
Special report: Proposed CO2 pipelines thrust South Dakota into billion-dollar debate over carbon capture technology and climate change
Editor’s note: This article was produced through a partnership between South Dakota News Watch and the Solutions Journalism Network, a national non-profit group that supports rigorous journalism about responses to problems. This is Part 1 of a two-part series; Part 2 publishes May 10, 2022.
So far, most of
Pending closure and poor care at Ipswich nursing home latest outcomes of staffing crisis
IPSWICH, S.D. – A crisis at the nursing home in Ipswich illustrates the two worst potential outcomes of staffing shortages affecting long-term care facilities across the state: possible nursing home closures and troubling incidents of inadequate resident care.
A shortage of staff was given as one reason that officials for