Business

Stacey Twiggs is one of the “uncounted” unemployed people in South Dakota. Twiggs, 35, is a massage therapist from Black Hawk who has seen COVID-19 turn her life upside down. She hasn’t gotten sick, but the pandemic has destroyed her once-thriving business, forced her to live off credit cards

The COVID-19 pandemic has overwhelmed the U.S. meatpacking industry, but public health experts say the risks posed to workers and the U.S. food supply chain by airborne viral infections were readily apparent and could have been addressed years ago. Ongoing virus outbreaks could have been avoided, and future

The closure of major pork processing plants across the U.S., including the massive Smithfield Foods plant in Sioux Falls, has state officials and pork producers in South Dakota planning for the worst — the potential euthanization of thousands of hogs that cannot be sold. Since the COVID-19 pandemic began, American

Demand for food assistance among needy South Dakota residents has skyrocketed during the COVID-19 pandemic, and donations of food and the volunteers needed to help distribute it are becoming harder to find. So far, the food collection and delivery systems in South Dakota have kept up and most families are

As the COVID-19 pandemic upends the South Dakota economy, leading to temporary business closures and skyrocketing unemployment, one of the state’s most venerable, trusted and beloved institutions is falling victim to the financial free fall: the small-town weekly newspaper. The recent reductions in circulation and advertising caused by the

The ethanol industry in South Dakota and across the Midwest is in an economic free-fall due to decreased global demand for ethanol-infused gasoline during the COVID-19 pandemic. Fear of spreading the deadly virus has led governments around the world to cancel gatherings and urge or require people to stay home,

As the tourism industry across South Dakota faces potential economic disaster in 2020 owing to the COVID-19 pandemic, the small town of Keystone is in a particularly precarious position. The town of 327 people nestled in the central Black Hills at the base of Mount Rushmore National Memorial survives almost