Government and Politics
Total 219 Posts
Investigation part 3: Lawmakers call for inquiry into Cammack COVID grants
Two South Dakota legislators are calling for further investigation into more than $700,000 in state COVID relief grants given to Chris Cammack, son of Senate Majority Leader Gary Cammack.
The calls for deeper inquiry into the grants follow an Oct. 11 South Dakota News Watch investigation that raised questions
Investigation part 4: Federal government relied largely on local lenders to vet more than $800 billion in COVID loans
Significant direct oversight of the federal Paycheck Protection Program, which provided more than $800 billion in forgivable loans to U.S. business during the pandemic, was placed in the hands of the community banks and lending institutions that issued the loans.
Jaime Wood, South Dakota director for the U.S.
Investigation Part 2: South Dakota outsourced management and auditing of COVID relief grants
The state Bureau of Finance and Management is not conducting its own auditing of individual grant applications or grants awarded under the Coronavirus Relief Fund, according to Colin Keeler, director of financial systems in the department.
The state hired an independent firm to manage both the application and award process
Despite sales tax hike, average teacher pay in South Dakota returns to near bottom in nation
In 2016, South Dakota set a goal to put more money into the K-12 public school system after years of ranking last in the nation for teacher pay.
The plan included a sales tax hike with new revenues directed to school districts to raise teacher salaries and be competitive with
Political partisanship and GOP messaging driving vaccine hesitancy in South Dakota
Even as COVID-19 infections and deaths are rising once again in South Dakota, resistance to getting vaccinated remains entrenched among some state residents, and the political divide over whether to get vaccinated shows no signs of narrowing.
Two new sets of polling data on vaccine-hesitancy rates and reasons have raised
Native American leaders in S.D. keeping close eye on legislative redistricting
Native American voting-rights advocates are concerned that the voices of South Dakota’s largest minority group may be excluded from the redistricting process.
Juvenile justice reforms working, but not as well for minority offenders in South Dakota
A series of juvenile justice reforms enacted in South Dakota over the past decade has kept more low-level youth offenders out of detention centers and away from criminal activity that could land them in the adult system, according to state officials.
But state data show that youth of color — who