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Camp Lejeune contamination leaves South Dakota Marines with cancer — and resentment

Camp Lejeune contamination leaves South Dakota Marines with cancer — and resentment

STURGIS, S.D. – When he left the U.S. Marine Corps in 1983, after spending six years at Camp Lejeune in North Carolina, Ronald Lawson was a strong, healthy man with a barrel chest, strong arms and a solid frame that carried his 220 pounds with ease. He was a

Long-held rural values at odds in South Dakota gun range debate

Long-held rural values at odds in South Dakota gun range debate

RAPID CITY, S.D. – An effort to build a huge gun range and shooting complex north of Rapid City has created divisiveness and hard feelings between two of South Dakota’s most iconic populations. The values run deep and histories stretch long among people in the two groups – those devoted

News Watch reporter wins national award for best agricultural writer

News Watch reporter wins national award for best agricultural writer

South Dakota News Watch Content Director Bart Pfankuch has won a top national agricultural reporting award for a record third time. The North American Agricultural Journalists association selected Pfankuch for the 2023 Glenn Cunningham Award, which is given to the writer of the best agricultural story of the year. Pfankuch

Delta David Gier lifts South Dakota Symphony Orchestra to national stage

Delta David Gier lifts South Dakota Symphony Orchestra to national stage

Maestro with New York City cred redefines the role: ‘When I first picked up the stick, it was like the heavens opened and said, ‘You will now do this.’

Updated: Tension between governor and GOP-led Legislature stalls $200 million workforce housing program

Steve Westra, head of the Governor’s Office of Economic Development, announced in April that he is resigning from his position effective May 22, 2023. No formal reason for the resignation was given, though Gov. Kristi Noem said in a statement: “South Dakotans are building the strongest economy in America

Nonprofit aims to help South Dakota businesses sell products internationally

Nonprofit aims to help South Dakota businesses sell products internationally

TEA, S.D. – Alisa Turner can readily remember the trepidation she felt a decade ago when her company made its first international sale to a Cabela’s retail store in Canada. Turner is a co-owner and CEO of Ruff Land Kennels in Tea, which makes industry-leading, one-piece molded plastic kennels.

Fatal train crash highlights lack of railroad crossing protections in South Dakota

Fatal train crash highlights lack of railroad crossing protections in South Dakota

HARRISBURG, S.D. – Jodi Kuipers learned the hard way how much time, work and determination it takes to get safety improvements made at a railroad crossing in South Dakota, even at the site of a tragedy that took the lives of two of her closest family members. Driven first by