April 2015

BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) — American Indian studies programs at four universities in the Dakotas are collaborating to boost the quality of their offerings to students, raise awareness of Native American issues and help ensure their own futures. The American Indian Studies-Great Plains Consortium was launched late last month by the University of North Dakota, the […]

BRANDON, S.D. (AP) — Memorial services have been scheduled for a volunteer fireman and a homeowner who died in a Brandon house fire. The funeral for 47-year-old homeowner David Smith is Thursday night at Heartland Funeral Home in Brandon. The service for 38-year-old Valley Springs firefighter Steven Ackerman is Sunday afternoon at the Brandon Valley […]

YANKTON, S.D. (AP) — A semitrailer fire near the South Dakota-Nebraska border destroyed the rig and more than 20 tons of groceries it was hauling. The Daily Press & Dakotan newspaper reports ( ) that the truck caught fire on U.S. Highway 81 south of Yankton about 4:30 a.m. Tuesday. Yankton Assistant Fire Chief Larry […]

PIERRE, S.D. (AP) — Are they two languages or one, Dakota and Lakota? And what about the more distant cousin tongue, Nakota? And how many people speak these languages? Linguist Armik Mirzayan at the University of South Dakota in Vermillion said a lot depends on who’s doing the count and how. Part of what goes […]

RAPID CITY, S.D. (AP) — They lived long ago in Rapid City, and now their memories are being revived along with their massive gravestones. Thanks to $37,500 in anonymous private donations, 36 crooked headstones — most of which date back to the early 1900s — have been realigned in the city-owned Mountain View and Mount […]

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (AP) — When Alyce Widrig asks people to guess what she does for a living, they usually say a nurse or librarian. She laughs. “They don’t expect me to be a truck driver.” But Widrig, fed up with her college experience, read in the newspaper a few years ago that there was […]

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (AP) — Authorities say a Sioux Falls man has been arrested after hitting an 8-year-old boy with his vehicle and fleeing the scene. Sioux Falls police say a vehicle driven by a 59-year-old man struck the boy about 5 p.m. Tuesday while running across a street. Police say the man drove off […]

PIERRE, S.D. (AP) — Attorney General Marty Jackley says South Dakota residents continue to be targeted by con artists who threaten individuals with fines and arrest. Jackley says residents are being targeted by two telemarketing scams in which scammers purport to be with law enforcement and threaten residents for supposedly failing to report to jury […]

PIERRE, S.D. (AP) — The South Dakota Department of Public Safety says there has been a significant bump in the number of drivers who die because they crash while not wearing a seat belt this year. Public Safety Department Secretary Trevor Jones said Tuesday that 83 percent of deaths from car crashes as of April […]

PIERRE, S.D. (AP) — Three South Dakota students topped more than 1,500 others in the Arbor Day Essay Contest. Matea Gordon, of Whitewood, Madison Hofer, of Dolton, and Kennedy Mayelin, of Mount Vernon, won awards and cash. As the first place winner, Matea received a plaque, $100 and a McDonald’s lined jacket; her school, Sturgis […]