News

Small Business Administration professionals are in South Dakota this week and next helping connect people suffering from storm damage with government resources. The SBA has loans available to people directly harmed by June’s tornadoes and flooding, and some low-interest loans are open to organizations the storms impact indirectly.

The Historic Meeker Ranch nestled in the Black Hills near Custer has been vandalized. Michael Engelhart is a District Archeologist with the Black Hills National Forest. He says the damage came earlier this summer.

Throughout its 157 year history, life in Yankton has centered around the Missouri River. Steamboat traffic on the river helped the town grow after its founding in 1857. But both Yankton and the river have changed over the years, most dramatically with the construction of dams on the Missouri, including the Gavin’s Point Dam west of town. The dams brought an end to navigation, but controlled flooding, generated electricity and created new recreational opportunities, with visitors camping, boating, swimming and fishing at Lewis and Clark Lake.

Yankton became the capital of Dakota Territory in 1861, when the town was only two years old. The designation brought new settlers and businesses and the river town quickly expanded. The original capitol building was two stories, with territory offices on the bottom floor and territorial legislators on the second. In 1883, Yankton lost the territorial capital to Bismarck. And six years later when South Dakota became a state, Yankton tried to become the state’s capital, but lost to Pierre.

Since 1922, Yankton's WNAX radio has broadcast throughout the upper Great Plains with a signal that can reach as far south as Kansas City and as far north as Fargo. During the station’s early days, WNAX was an important connection to the outside world for isolated farm and ranch families throughout the region.

An organizer of an Entrepreneurship Camp at Northern State University says high school is the best time to start a business. That’s why the university is hosting workshops this week to teach high schoolers the ins and outs of entrepreneurship.
 

A candidate for South Dakota’s open US Senate seat says he wants everyone in the race to help prevent outside money from influencing the campaign. Democratic candidate Rick Weiland says the public move would benefit voters, but not everyone in the race agrees with Weiland’s perspective.

Two small wild fires kept Rapid City crews busy Monday afternoon. Much of the Black Hills are sweltering in near triple digit temperatures. Officials say the hot weather could increase the fire danger. Jeni Lawver is with South Dakota’s division of Wildland Fire. 

“If things continue the way that they have been with this really extremely hot weather I’d say in the next two weeks or so, I’d be more concerned of more fires popping up. I believe over the weekend we had 5 or 6 starts from lightning, but all of them were contained at either a half an acre or under,” says Lawver.

Authorities say the search for Kristen Lakin is resuming in Butte County in the Black Hills. 24-year old Lakin has been missing since mid June when the SUV she was traveling in was swept away in flash flood waters after a strong thunderstorm blew through the area. The search for Lakin was temporarily suspended after officials and volunteers repeatedly came up empty-handed.
 

Butte County Deputy Sheriff Tristan Clements says it is primarily limited to a ground search at this time.

The southeast South Dakota town of Freeman has received a $150,000 grant for the design of an arts/earth center. The award is one of 66 Our Town grants from the National Endowment for the Arts. The Center will use the grant to determine the feasibility of a facility incorporating a producing greenhouse configuration with an arts center supporting the area’s arts, heritage and agricultural traditions. John Koch is project director of the Freeman Arts/Earth Center. He joined Dakota Midday and discussed what the NEA grant means for the project's future.

Surviving passengers and crew members of United Airlines Flight 232 gathered in Sioux City this past weekend to mark the 25th anniversary of the plane’s crash. On July 19th, 1989 the flight from Denver to Chicago slammed into a runway at the Sioux City airport and exploded into flames. Of the 296 people aboard, 184 miraculously survived.

Visitor numbers are down in the Black Hills this summer. Industry officials are blaming the colder spring weather for the decline. At Mount Rushmore June 2014 visitor numbers are down more than 4% in comparison to the same month last year. Cheryl Schreier is Mount Rushmore’s park superintendent. She says it’s hard to speculate on the exact cause of reduced numbers, but it’s likely the weather has the greatest impact.

Several fatal accidents that involve vehicles colliding with pedestrians and bikers in South Dakota are prompting law enforcement to remind drivers to be extra careful.
 

South Dakota Highway Patrol Lieutenant Paul Gerken says drivers should stay aware of their surroundings and double-check before making turns or lane changes.
 

South Dakota is the largest producer of buffalo in the United States.   

The bison industry in South Dakota is diverse. Buffalo ranchers employ a wide range of methods to manage, slaughter, and process the bison they raise.

On today’s feature story SDPB’s Charles Michael Ray takes a look at an approach by one company to commercially harvest buffalo right in the field and run them through a mobile processing plant inside a semi-trailer.

Statues of three former governors are set for unveiling Nov. 1 in Pierre. The event is a part of the state's 125th Anniversary celebration.

Bronze statues of George S. Mickelson, Peter Norbeck and Robert Vessey are set for the November unveiling. Under supervision of the Trail of Governors Foundation, likenesses of three governors from different time periods are cast in bronze each year.

Wycliffe Gordon is one of today’s finest trombonists . He has an expressive approach to the instrument involving a wide variety of sounds and effects. In the latest issue of DownBeat magazine, critics named him Best Trombone for the third consecutive year. But he also plays trumpet, tuba and other instruments and sings. And he’s also a bandleader, composer and educator.

More than eighty years after the peak of his power, the legend of mobster Al Capone endures. His name still evokes images of pin-stripe suits and white fedoras.

A new PBS program airing Tuesday on SDPB-TV, Al Capone: Icon, follows the gangster's rise from a two-bit hustler to the king of Chicago’s underworld and examines why he continues to fascinate so many Americans.

Bill Margol is senior director of programming and development at PBS and joined Dakota Midday to discuss the program.

The state of South Dakota has released new consumption advisories in regards to high mercury levels that maybe found in certain fish. Walleye, bass, northern pike and black crappie are on the list.

Over 16 lakes throughout 14 counties in South Dakota have consumption advisories due to high mercury levels. Pat Snyder is an environmental scientist for the South Dakota Department of Environment and Natural Resources. He says the mercury levels are high in certain lakes due to specific conditions.

Israel and Hamas held a brief cease-fire on Thursday as fighting went into a tenth day. The two sides agreed to the pause following a request by the United Nations so that supplies could be delivered to Gaza.

Air strikes and rocket fire quickly resumed following the cease-fire. The nearly two weeks of cross-border fighting has so far killed more than 220 Palestinians in Gaza and one Israeli, according to officials.

Australian guitar virtuoso Tommy Emmanuel says he's not in the music business, but the happiness business. He's a master finger picker and essentially a one-man band. He plays bass, rhythm and melodic lines along with percussion all on a single acoustic guitar.

Last night’s Major League Baseball All-Star game in Minneapolis was one of the few occasions that fans at Target Field have had much to cheer about this season. At the mid-season break, the Minnesota Twins are in last place in the American League’s Central Division with a losing 44-50 record. With a half a season yet to go, the Twins are facing their fourth year of trying to avoid an embarrassing 100 losses. Matt Zimmer writes about the Twins for the Sioux Falls Argus-Leader and joined Dakota Midday and discussed the Twins prospects for the rest of the 2014 season.

Jon Hunter, publisher of the Madison Daily Leader; and David Montgomery, political reporter for the Sioux Falls Argus-Leader, joined the Dakota Political Junkies this week. They discussed Democratic U.S. House candidate Corinna Robinson's struggles to raise funds in her attempt to unseat Republican Kristi Noem. Other topics included state Libertarian's upcoming convention and Chad Haber's plans to seek the party's nominee for attorney general. Haber is the husband of former Republican U.S.

South Dakota lawmakers in Washington are considering different proposals to keep money flowing to states for transportation projects. Experts predict a Highway Trust Fund shortfall this summer, which could stop payments to states for roads and bridges.

The US House of Representatives overwhelmingly approves a bill to extend highway funding through May 2015. South Dakota Congresswoman Kristi Noem casts one of the 367 votes supporting the legislation.

In an empty parking lot outside St. Joseph’s Church in Spearfish a man in black throws his leg over a crimson Road King Harley Davidson and hits the start button.

The Prohibition Era is filled with stories of bootleggers who defied the law to produce liquor for thirsty Americans. In his new book, Gentlemen Bootleggers: The True Story of Templeton Rye, Prohibition and a Small Town in Cahoots, Bryce T. Bauer brings to life the tale of Templeton, Iowa with its townspeople peacefully cooperating in the production of a special rye whiskey known for its quality and safety.

Last week the man regarded as the best basketball player in the world announced that he was returning home to Ohio. Four year after leaving Cleveland for Miami, LeBron James said he’s signing a two-year, 42 million dollar contract with his old team.

Sixty years ago in the Brown vs Board of Education ruling, the Supreme Court declared racially segregated unconstitutional. Ten years later President Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act which guaranteed all Americans equal protection under the law. Under Johnson, the federal government began an aggressive push to integrate schools. But the racial divide in schools has grown over the past couple decades.

The Redlin Art Center in Watertown is one of those rare museums where visitors can see not just a few of the painter’s works, but the evolution of the artist as well. The collection of 160 paintings now includes five works new to the center: a handful of Terry Redlin’s first paintings he sold as a wildlife artist. They’re part of a new exhibit called “The Early Years.”

Twelve year-old Sabrina Swee of Beresford won a trip to the White House later this week for her Hawaiian Kale Wraps recipe. Swee’s meal was chosen as a healthy, tasty option for First Lady Michelle Obama’s Healthy Lunchtime Challenge. 54 winners were chosen nationwide. Swee says a family vacation to Maui inspired the wrap.

“It’s kind of Asian like it has a lot of Thai ingredients, and what makes it more Hawaiian like is because it has pineapple grained and chopped in it, and it has a lot of vegetables, and lean ground beef, and it’s wrapped in kale,” says Swee.

Rick Abrahamson, horticulture instructor at Southeast Tech in Sioux Falls, answered listener questions as part of Dakota Midday's semi-regular lawn and garden segment. Topics included clover and mushrooms in lawns, staking and mulching trees, cool weather and bugs.