SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (AP) — South Dakota officials could better understand the scope of elder abuse in the state by creating a new task force, lawmakers said Wednesday. The Senate Retirement Laws committee unanimously passed a bill that would create an interim committee dedicated to studying the prevalence of financial, physical and emotional abuse. The […]

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (AP) — A bill that would create a state task force dedicated to studying elder abuse has passed its first committee. The proposal brought by Sen. David Novstrup would establish an interim committee to study the issue and prevalence of financial, emotional and abuse of elders in the state. The bill was […]

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (AP) — The Sioux Falls police department has investigated and solved all but one homicide over the last decade. The department released its crime statistics for 2014 on Wednesday. Sioux Falls Police solved all six of the homicides committed last year. Nationally, only 64 percent of murder cases are solved. There have […]

PIERRE, S.D. (AP) — Supporters of allowing three new voter-approved games in Deadwood were successful in convincing a Senate panel that authorizing keno, craps and roulette in the historic mountain town is the will of South Dakota voters. The Senate State Affairs Committee on Wednesday approved 7-1 a proposal to allow the games in Deadwood. […]

PIERRE, S.D. (AP) — The Republican-dominated state House of Representatives has rejected Democrats’ calls to restore the South Dakota Ethics Commission in response to South Dakota’s investment-for-visa scandal. The House voted down 53-16 on Wednesday a measure requesting that the commission repealed in 1979 be re-established. Democratic Rep. Shawn Bordeaux said the state has a […]

PIERRE, S.D. (AP) — South Dakota lawmakers could be in line for their first pay raise in more than 15 years under measures that would also make legislators eligible for the same raises applied to other state workers’ salaries. The House State Affairs Committee on Wednesday unanimously approved several proposals related to legislator pay, which […]

PIERRE, S.D. (AP) — A legislative panel has passed a measure that would authorize three new voter-approved games in Deadwood. The Senate State Affairs Committee on Wednesday approved the proposal to allow keno, craps and roulette in the historic mining town. Boosters have pushed the measure as a way to keep Deadwood competitive with other […]

PIERRE, S.D. (AP) — An Eagle Butte woman accused of killing a toddler by kicking him in the head has pleaded guilty to a second-degree murder charge. Twenty-one-year-old Jordyn Blue Coat was accused of angrily kicking a 20-month-old child she was caring for last October, when the boy got ahold of a dirty diaper and […]

RAPID CITY, S.D. (AP) — The second of two western South Dakota brothers accused of raping a girl younger than 10 more than a decade ago has been sentenced. Twenty-seven-year-old Blake Klynsma, of Rapid City, pleaded guilty to third-degree rape last November and on Tuesday was given a 15-year suspended prison sentence, 10 years of […]

BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) — A judge has ordered a mental health examination for a woman accused of leaving her 2- and 4-year-old daughters to die in a remote area of northwestern North Dakota. U.S. District Judge Daniel Hovland said in his order dated Tuesday that there is reasonable cause to believe Michelle Wounded Face is […]