RAPID CITY, S.D. – More than 40,000 South Dakota children, from infants to teenagers, live in families with incomes low enough to qualify for the federal food stamp program, creating challenges for a fruitful childhood and a prosperous adult life. The number of children in South Dakota families receiving

Every year, about 30 percent of South Dakota high school graduates who enroll in a state university must take remedial courses in math or English because they don’t test high enough in those topics. Those courses cost the students about $1,000 per class and provide them with no

Jobs are plentiful in South Dakota, but most positions pay far below the national average and lower than neighboring states. In fact, South Dakota has the third-lowest average wage for employed people in the country behind only Arkansas and Mississippi. A News Watch analysis shows that the lowest-paying jobs — in

The struggling ShopKo retail chain has added Chamberlain and Custer to the growing list of small towns in South Dakota that will lose their only department store in the coming months. A spokeswoman for the Wisconsin-based retail chain said Thursday that it will begin liquidating merchandise at its stores in

WAGNER, S.D. – The pending closure of ShopKo department stores may have devastating effects on six South Dakota small towns that will suffer job losses, decreased access to basic necessities and reductions in sales-tax collections that could limit municipal services. The announcement that the retail chain will close several stores

As Deadwood saunters into its 30th year with legalized gaming, the Wild West town made famous by Wild Bill Hickok, Calamity Jane and a posse of other western legends, doesn’t resemble its former self. The historic place perched in the highest reaches of the northern Black Hills once glittered