July 2015

PIERRE, S.D. (AP) — South Dakota Attorney General Marty Jackley has joined 14 of his fellow chief legal officers in petitioning Congress to continue tax exemptions for religious organizations that oppose same-sex marriage. Jackley and his fellow attorneys general sent the letter Thursday to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and House Speaker John Boehner. Jackley […]

RAPID CITY, S.D. (AP) — A community garden in Rapid City is working with an international nonprofit organization to help preserve the monarch butterfly. General Beadle Community Garden has partnered with the Xerces Society, which works to conserve invertebrates and their habitats. Community garden coordinator Devaney Crafton tells KOTA-TV ( ) they’ve planted milkweed and […]

MOBRIDGE, S.D. (AP) — A Mobridge woman whose 2-year-old child allegedly fell from a three-story window has been charged with felony child abuse. Twenty-seven-year-old Irene Thompson also faces a misdemeanor charge of contributing to the abuse, neglect or delinquency of a minor. Mobridge police investigator Al Bohle says that someone walking by found the child […]

CUSTER, S.D. (AP) — Authorities in Custer are searching for two teenagers who ran away from a youth rehabilitation facility Thursday night. Department of Corrections staff members and law enforcement agencies are looking for the 16-year-old and 17-year-old boys who ran away from the State Treatment and Rehabilitation Academy (STAR) near Custer. Three boys in […]

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (AP) — A sculpture is returning to its rightful place in downtown Sioux Falls after officials say it was stolen and later found. The sculpture “Raven” had gone missing in late May from its perch outside a restaurant as part of an annual exhibition. The Argus Leader ( ) reports it was […]

HOT SPRINGS, S.D. (AP) — Veterans in South Dakota are vehemently pushing back against a plan from federal officials to close a historic hospital campus in a remote corner of the Black Hills and relocate its services to a bigger city. Officials with the Department of Veterans Affairs have proposed shuttering their Hot Springs campus […]

PIERRE, S.D. (AP) — A judge has issued a warrant for the arrest of a former South Dakota U.S. Senate candidate charged with election law violations because the Black Hawk man failed to appear in court this week. Circuit Court Judge John Brown issued the warrant after former independent candidate Clayton Walker didn’t appear at […]

PIERRE, S.D. (AP) — South Dakota authorities are revisiting a cold case that was determined to be a homicide in 2000 thanks to new 3-D technology. Attorney General Marty Jackley says the FBI’s 3-D technology is allowing authorities in the state to release updated photographs of the homicide victim. In February 2000, skeletal remains of […]

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (AP) — South Dakota could end up owing hundreds of thousands of dollars in legal fees to the private attorneys who fought its ban on same-sex marriages unless a federal appeals court sides with the attorney general. Minneapolis attorney Josh Newville has represented six same-sex couples for more than a year as […]

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (AP) — Attorney General Marty Jackley says if a county employee in South Dakota has religious objections to gay marriage they can have another employee issue a marriage license to a same-sex couple. Jackley said Thursday that the constitutional right to marry that’s now guaranteed to same-sex couples must coexist with the […]