South Dakota News Watch, the state’s first and only non-profit news organization, will double its full-time staff as it begins its second year delivering in-depth reporting on important statewide topics. “With the encouragement and financial support of everyday South Dakotans, News Watch is expanding its reporting team in 2019

A debate is raging in Pierre this legislative session over how – and some say even if – taxpayers will see a reduction in the sales tax rate now that South Dakota has begun to collect new money from online retailers. When it comes to legislative intrigue, the contentious wrangling over the

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