June 2015

PIERRE, S.D. (AP) — The secretary of state’s office says activists working to defeat a package of legislatively passed election-law changes at the ballot box have turned in enough valid signatures to put the measure before voters in the 2016 election. The office announced late Monday that sampling showed nearly 14,200 valid signatures, a few […]

HILL CITY, S.D. (AP) — The U.S. Forest Service estimates about 750 people so far have arrived for a counterculture gathering in the Black Hills. Members of the Rainbow Family of Living Light have been trickling into western South Dakota for the summer gathering they hold in a national forest every year. The gathering begins […]

GLENHAM, S.D. (AP) — Authorities have identified an 8-year-old girl who drowned while swimming in the Missouri River in northern South Dakota. The Walworth County sheriff’s office says Mikayla Gruenstein of Columbia, South Dakota, was with family members Sunday morning near New Evarts Resort south of Glenham. The sheriff’s office says the girl was at […]

NEW YORK (AP) — James Patterson is announcing the first round of school libraries to receive grants from an initiative he and Scholastic Reading Club launched in March, and he continues to raise the amount of money he will donate. The best-selling and prolific author said Tuesday that $500,000 has been given to 127 schools, […]

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (AP) — The bishop of the Catholic Diocese of Sioux Falls says followers should not “disown God’s law” following the Supreme Court’s decision giving same-sex couples the right to marry. Bishop Paul Swain directly addressed the Supreme Court’s Friday decision at a Monday prayer service at the Cathedral of Saint Joseph in […]

RAPID CITY, S.D. (AP) — South Dakota U.S. Sen. Mike Rounds has presented the Congressional Gold Medal to the family of a man who served as a Civil Air Patrol pilot during World War II. Rounds announced Monday that he presented the medal to the family of the late Vernon Roy Jeffries. Rounds says it’s […]

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (AP) — South Dakota is receiving more than $260,000 from the federal government to provide re-employment and eligibility assessments for those who receive unemployment benefits. The funding from the U.S. Department of Labor aims to help the newly unemployed reduce the time between jobs and help prevent improper payments from the federal […]

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (AP) — A center that offers hot meals and other services to homeless and formerly homeless veterans in Sioux Falls will close in August. The Argus Leader ( ) reports the Veteran’s Outreach Center will cease operations because of funding problems. The center allows veterans to do laundry, has showers and provides […]

ROCKERVILLE, S.D. (AP) — A man seriously injured a leg and foot after jumping off a cliff at a popular swimming area in western South Dakota and failing to clear the rocks below. Authorities say the man in his early 20s jumped off the cliff at Hippie Hole near Rockerville Sunday afternoon, but hit the […]

PIERRE, S.D. (AP) — Harney Peak should keep the name of an army general whose soldiers in the 1850s killed Native Americans, a state board voted Monday in a reversal, even though some Indians may find the peak’s name offensive. The South Dakota Board on Geographic Names issued a preliminary recommendation in May that Harney […]