School counselors in SD playing larger role amid student mental health crisis
DELL RAPIDS, S.D. – Sara Holmberg’s job as a counselor at Dell Rapids Middle School has never been more challenging.
As fallout from the pandemic creates what the U.S. Surgeon General calls a “youth mental health crisis,” school counselors like Holmberg find themselves providing not just academic and
National political winds blew away some opposition to SD transgender athlete legislation
Much of the political momentum behind South Dakota’s transgender sports ban, signed into law by Gov. Kristi Noem in February, can be traced not to the legislative process in Pierre but to national athletic competitions and the controversy involving University of Pennsylvania swimmer Lia Thomas.
Thomas swam collegiately as
Decline in freshwater mussels an indicator of poor river and stream health in South Dakota
Nestled in the silt, sand or fine gravel of South Dakota’s rivers and streams live some of the state’s least appreciated yet most ecologically important creatures — freshwater mussels.
Their names spark the imagination: Fatmucket, White Heelsplitter, Higgins Eye, Round Pigtoe, Giant Floater, Plain Pocketbook, Fawnsfoot.
Usually hidden beneath
South Dakota veteran denied benefits after exposure to toxic burn pits
WEBSTER, S.D. – When President Joe Biden mentioned the term “burn pits” while discussing health benefits for military veterans during his State of the Union address March 1, many Americans heard of the issue for the first time.
Congress is crafting legislation to assist post-9/11 combat veterans exposed to
South Dakota News Watch Board of Directors welcomes three new members
South Dakota News Watch is pleased to announce that three new members have joined its Board of Directors, which governs News Watch, the state’s only non-profit journalism content organization.
The new board members, each appointed to a three-year term, include Stephany (Beshara) Chalberg; Nick Kotzea and Serene Thin Elk.
Garretson, Rapid City incidents expose loophole excluding comment at public meetings
Two seemingly harmless words added to a state open meetings law in 2019 have sparked a debate over the rights of citizens to publicly comment at official government meetings in South Dakota, with several school boards at the center of the conflict.
The state open meetings law, enacted in 1965,
Despite legislative defeat, backers of Native education reform in SD will press forward
The latest setback in a bid to create state-funded Lakota immersion schools in South Dakota will not deter Native American educators from pursuing that vision in the future, according to one of the proposal’s key supporters.
State Sen. Troy Heinert, D-Mission, expressed disappointment after the March 2 failure of