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Aging SD dams creating potential for destruction

The last 12 months have been the wettest in South Dakota in more than a century and as a result, dams across the state have suffered significant damage, creating the potential for flooding, loss of life, destruction of property and the need for expensive repairs. Across South Dakota and the

SD has high rate of death due to liver diseases

South Dakota ranks second in the nation for the rate at which its residents die of liver diseases, and the fatality rate is rising overall with many experts now blaming poor lifestyle and eating habits in addition to heavy alcohol use as causes of the illnesses. While heavy alcohol consumption

Local prosecutor has legal connection to Aurora Plains Academy

When Lauren Schroeder sought justice for her son who she said was physically abused by employees of Aurora Plains Academy, she grew frustrated that no one would listen. Schroeder said after an independent investigator with Child’s Voice at Sanford Children’s Hospital in Sioux Falls and an officer with

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