Associated Press

RAPID CITY, S.D. (AP) — Authorities in Rapid City are investigating what they say is the suspicious death of a 38-year-old man who died Friday morning at an area hospital. Rapid City police say officers responded to a report of an assault on May 27 on the 700 block of East Anamosa Street. Nearby they […]

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (AP) — A volunteer firefighter who died fighting a house fire in Brandon that also killed the homeowner had a high blood-alcohol level when he responded to the scene, investigators said Friday. An autopsy determined that Steven Ackerman, 38, had a blood alcohol level of nearly 0.19, more than twice the legal […]

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (AP) — A volunteer firefighter who died fighting a house fire in Brandon that also killed the homeowner was legally drunk when he died. Police say 38-year-old Steven Ackerman had a blood alcohol level of nearly 0.19, more than twice the legal limit for driving. The 14-year volunteer with Valley Springs Fire […]

RAPID CITY, S.D. (AP) — Ellsworth Air Force Base in South Dakota has a new commander. Col. Gentry Boswell took the reins from Col. Kevin Kennedy during a change-of-command ceremony Thursday. Boswell comes from the Pentagon, where he was director of irregular warfare operations. He’s a former vice commander of Ellsworth’s 28th Bomb Wing and […]

KEYSTONE, S.D. (AP) — Nearly 200 people become U.S. citizens in a naturalization ceremony at Mount Rushmore National Memorial in the Black Hills. Chief U.S. District Judge Jeffrey Viken presided over the Thursday ceremony in which 184 people from 49 countries took the oath of allegiance. Hundreds of others watched the proceedings.

RAPID CITY, S.D. (AP) — A 68-year-old Black Hawk woman arrested after attempting to collect petition signatures at a Rapid City post office has pleaded not guilty. Sixty-eight-year-old Roberta Helmerick is charged in federal court with soliciting signatures on postal property and disorderly conduct. The Rapid City Journal reports ( ) her trial is July […]

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (AP) — Sioux Falls Mayor Mike Huether is clashing with the City Council over free city bus rides for youth this summer. The City Council last week unanimously approved the pilot program to waive bus ridership fees for people 18 and under through the summer, but Huether has refused to sign off. […]

PIERRE, S.D. (AP) — Biologists with South Dakota’s Game, Fish and Parks Department say the bald eagle has soared above the threshold for removing the bird from the state’s list of threatened species. The bald eagle has been de-listed at the federal level, and Wildlife Diversity Coordinator Eileen Dowd Stuckel says the same should be […]

PIERRE, S.D. (AP) — The Bureau of Indian Affairs superintendent on the Crow Creek Indian Reservation has returned to work, about two months after being stabbed in the back. BIA spokeswoman Nedra Darling this week confirmed to the Capital Journal that Patrick Duffy had returned to his duties. Meanwhile, the attorney for suspect Brian Iron […]

LEAD, S.D. (AP) — A man from Washington state has died in a motorcycle crash in western South Dakota. The Highway Patrol says 69-year-old Donald Restad, of Kennewick, Washington, was traveling on U.S. Highway 85 south of Lead (leed) on Thursday morning when he failed to negotiate a turn. His motorcycle went into the ditch, […]