Bart Pfankuch

Bart Pfankuch

Title: content director; expertise: agriculture, state government, education, rural issues, Indigenous people, poverty; language spoken: English; contact: 605-937-9398 / bart.pfankuch@sdnewswatch.org

Governor to enact reform of youth treatment facilities

Gov. Kristi Noem has ordered the state Department of Social Services to enact a series of wide-ranging reforms intended to improve the safety of youths sent to privately run treatment facilities across South Dakota. The governor’s announcement came in response to an investigative report published June 5 by South

Residents suffer physical, mental and sexual abuse at South Dakota youth home

Residents suffer physical, mental and sexual abuse at South Dakota youth home

PLANKINTON, S.D. – Youths and young adults housed at the Aurora Plains Academy in Plankinton have endured physical, mental and sexual abuse by employees amid an internal culture of secrecy and limited state government oversight, according to public documents and testimony from former residents and employees of the facility. A

Aurora Plains Academy: Unsafe place to live, difficult place to work

PLANKINTON, S.D. – The stories of abuse and anguish told by former employees, former residents and parents of residents paint a frightening picture of what has taken place over the past decade at the Aurora Plains Academy intensive youth treatment facility in Plankinton. Parents remain outraged at how their vulnerable

South Dakota medical community battling dangerous antibiotic-resistant illnesses

South Dakota medical community battling dangerous antibiotic-resistant illnesses

South Dakota health and medical officials are fighting an uphill battle to prevent the spread of potentially deadly infections that are increasingly resistant to antibiotics. The state in recent years saw a pair of outbreaks of CRE, an intestinal bacteria that is almost completely resistant to antibiotics and that has

Sen. Rounds: Guest workers not part of illegal immigration problem

U.S. Sen. Mike Rounds of South Dakota says guest worker programs that bring foreigners to America to fill seasonable employment positions are a critical part of the state economy. Yet Rounds says the intense debate over illegal immigration in America has wrongly influenced, and in some cases stymied, efforts

Immigration debate hampers guest worker programs critical to SD businesses and farms

Immigration debate hampers guest worker programs critical to SD businesses and farms

KEYSTONE, S.D. – The intensely partisan and politicized national debate over immigration policies has cast a cloud of uncertainty over guest worker programs that for years have helped provide employees to seasonal South Dakota businesses that cannot find enough American workers. The viability of some businesses in the tourism, agricultural

ATVs more common on South Dakota roadways where risk of death is greater

SUMMERSET, S.D. – The number of all-terrain vehicles registered for road use in South Dakota has risen dramatically in recent years, even as a growing body of research shows that ATVs are more dangerous and deadly on roadways than in off-road areas. ATVs certified as legal to drive on South