PIERRE, S.D. (WNAX) – The top priority of the South Dakota Board of Regents in this legislative session hit a dead end in the House last Thursday night. The “Dakota Promise” scholarship program would have granted aid based on student need, not just on grades. The bill initially called for one million dollars from the… Read more »

PIERRE, S.D. (AP) — South Dakota’s Legislature on Monday approved a bill that would legalize industrial hemp despite Gov. Kristi Noem’s opposition.The House voted 58-8 to send the bill to the Republican governor. Noem had requested that lawmakers hold off on legalizing hemp this year, saying questions remain about enforcement, taxpayer costs and effects on… Read more »

PIERRE, S.D. (AP) — South Dakota lawmakers this week are set to pass a state budget, debate bills to legalize industrial hemp and address the Legislature’s commitment to scale back a 2016 sales tax hike.The Legislature returns today for the final days of the 2019 legislative session. Here’s some of what’s on the agenda: ___… Read more »

OMAHA, Neb. (WNAX) – While the latest monthly reports indicate the Mid America economy should grow for the next few months, there are a number of outside factors that could have an impact. Ernie Goss, Director of the Institute for Economic Inquiry at Creighton University in Omaha, says while the tariff talks with China have… Read more »

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (AP) — Police say a verbal altercation after hours of drinking led to a fatal stabbing in Sioux Falls.Thirty-eight-year-old Ronnie Baker was stabbed twice in the chest at a residence Sunday. A 40-year-old suspect was arrested several blocks away. He is expected in court later today. Lt. Mike Colwill says witnesses at… Read more »

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (AP) — A South Dakota woman was charged Friday in the death of a newborn who was abandoned in a ditch 38 years ago, and police said they used DNA and genealogy sites to determine she was the baby’s mother.Theresa Rose Bentaas was arrested and charged with murder and manslaughter in the… Read more »

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (AP) — South Dakota is seeing a wide disparity in how high schools prepare students for college, a newspaper investigation found. Nearly a third of South Dakota high school graduates enrolling in the state’s public universities needed remedial classes in reading, math or both between 2010 and 2017, according to the Argus… Read more »

WASHINGTON, D.C. (WNAX) – U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin has asked Congress to raise the debt ceiling as soon as possible. The debt is now at $22 trillion, and the Treasury says the country will run out of credit by September. South Dakota Senator Mike Rounds says the tax cut passed last year has had… Read more »

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (WNAX) – The latest flood outlook from the National Weather Service shows, to no one’s surprise, an increasing chance of major flooding. Mike Gillispie, service hydrologist at the National Weather Service Office in Sioux Falls, says there are some critical rivers they are watching. https://dehayf5mhw1h7.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/sites/238/2019/03/09175603/Mike-Gillispie-308a.mp3 Gillispie says there is significant snow pack… Read more »

PIERRE, S.D. (DRG News) – A film produced by a Pierre native and shot mostly in the Pierre and Fort Pierre area premiered in Pierre last Friday night. “Tater Tot & Patton” writer and director Andrew Kightlinger tells DRG news and farm he wrote the full-length feature film after his mother passed away. https://dehayf5mhw1h7.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/sites/238/2019/03/10161446/030519-kightlinger1.mp3 Kightlinger,… Read more »