Stu Whitney

Stu Whitney

Title: investigative reporter; expertise: politics, justice, education, health care, demographics, immigration, sports; language spoken: English; contact: 605-759-4576 / stu.whitney@sdnewswatch.org

Federal money provides much-needed boost to capacity of Lewis & Clark water system

The Lewis & Clark Regional Water System, which serves Sioux Falls and other population centers in eastern South Dakota, has received a record amount of federal funding at just the right time to accommodate surging populations and drought conditions. The new money will move the original system closer to full

A Dell Rapids High School counselor talks to a student at the school in her office.

School counselors in SD playing larger role amid student mental health crisis

DELL RAPIDS, S.D. – Sara Holmberg’s job as a counselor at Dell Rapids Middle School has never been more challenging. As fallout from the pandemic creates what the U.S. Surgeon General calls a “youth mental health crisis,” school counselors like Holmberg find themselves providing not just academic and

National political winds blew away some opposition to SD transgender athlete legislation

Much of the political momentum behind South Dakota’s transgender sports ban, signed into law by Gov. Kristi Noem in February, can be traced not to the legislative process in Pierre but to national athletic competitions and the controversy involving University of Pennsylvania swimmer Lia Thomas. Thomas swam collegiately as

South Dakota veteran denied benefits after exposure to toxic burn pits

WEBSTER, S.D. – When President Joe Biden mentioned the term “burn pits” while discussing health benefits for military veterans during his State of the Union address March 1, many Americans heard of the issue for the first time. Congress is crafting legislation to assist post-9/11 combat veterans exposed to

Garretson, Rapid City incidents expose loophole excluding comment at public meetings

Two seemingly harmless words added to a state open meetings law in 2019 have sparked a debate over the rights of citizens to publicly comment at official government meetings in South Dakota, with several school boards at the center of the conflict. The state open meetings law, enacted in 1965,

Despite legislative defeat, backers of Native education reform in SD will press forward

The latest setback in a bid to create state-funded Lakota immersion schools in South Dakota will not deter Native American educators from pursuing that vision in the future, according to one of the proposal’s key supporters. State Sen. Troy Heinert, D-Mission, expressed disappointment after the March 2 failure of