Victoria Wicks

The South Dakota Supreme Court ruled in January 2018 that an oversized house built in a Sioux Falls historic district must be torn down.

Now the high court has been asked to determine if the state-law definition of "damages," for insurance purposes, includes the cost of construction and demolition of that new house.

The question comes out of a lawsuit in U.S. Federal Court, where the homeowners are suing Liberty Mutual.

SDPB's Victoria Wicks has this ongoing story.

South Dakota's Water Management Board is holding hearings on the Keystone XL pipeline during the week when a Keystone oil spill in North Dakota is making national news.

Reports say 383,000 gallons of oil spilled before containment, contaminating wetlands but not drinking water.

State Senator Troy Heinert told the board on Thursday, Oct. 31, that he's concerned about potential damage to South Dakota's agriculture and tourism industries if water is polluted.

The Water Management Board has set certain guidelines to consider water use for the Keystone XL pipeline. The board is hearing one legal consideration at a time for each of three rivers individually.

On this fourth day of hearings, testimony still centers on the first consideration, water quantity and availability.

However, when a witness is not available to come back for each of the considerations, he or she can be heard out of turn and address such topics as public good and beneficial use.

Wednesday morning started with one such witness.

South Dakota Water Management Board is hearing three more days of arguments for and against water use for the Keystone XL pipeline project. Those hearings start Tuesday, Oct. 29, in Pierre.

Permit requests come from TC Energy, formerly TransCanada, and from landowners who will host pipe yards and worker camps.

Two days of hearings have already been held earlier this month. This second round is scheduled to last through Thursday.

SDPB's Victoria Wicks reports.

Death-row inmate Charles Rhines has exhausted his direct appeals in court and is scheduled to die sometime in the first week of November.

But his attorneys are still working on a couple of potential legal roadblocks.

Rhines goes to court on Tuesday, Oct. 29, in Sioux Falls to challenge drug protocols.

And an Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals panel says he can still plead for leniency from the governor.

SDPB's Victoria Wicks has this report.

The state has settled a lawsuit against its riot-boosting laws passed at the end of the 2019 legislative session. Those statutes are designed to hold activists and organizations civilly and criminally liable if protests turn violent.

The proposed Keystone XL pipeline was the catalyst for the legislative action.

Last month a federal judge placed a temporary injunction against unconstitutional portions of the laws. If the judge accepts the settlement, the injunction becomes permanent.

SDPB's Victoria Wicks has this report.

Climate activist Greta Thunberg attracted a large crowd to Rapid City's Memorial Park on Monday, Oct. 7. Part of the focus was stopping the Keystone XL pipeline.

At that same time, environmental and federal lawyers were preparing for a hearing in Montana that happens on Wednesday, Oct. 9. There a federal judge will consider placing an injunction on construction of the pipeline.

One of the rally organizers talks about the importance of the Montana hearing with SDPB's Victoria Wicks.

An engineer with the South Dakota Department of Environment and Natural Resources testified for hours on Thursday, Oct. 3, in Pierre. The Water Management Board is hearing testimony to determine if the state's water can be used for the Keystone XL pipeline.

During the hearing, two children named as intervenors came forth to cross-examine the witness but were not allowed. Their mother, also an intervenor, took up their case and then did the cross herself.

SDPB's Victoria Wicks is in Pierre covering this hearing.

Two people spoke this morning during the public testimony segment on water use for the Keystone XL pipeline.

The state Water Management Board is hearing five days of testimony in October, two of them Thursday and Friday, Oct. 3-4, and the other three at the end of the month.

One of the people testifying says it's time to put an end to the use of fossil fuels before time runs out.

SDPB's Victoria Wicks reports from Pierre.

The South Dakota Supreme Court heard arguments for a shorter sentence on Tuesday, Oct. 1, from a murderer who was 17 years old when he committed the crime.

As his sentence now stands, Carlos Quevedo comes up for parole when he's 62 years old. He wants the court to expand the leniency for juvenile offenders established in a 2012 U.S. Supreme Court opinion, Miller v. Alabama.

SDPB's Victoria Wicks reports.

One year ago Chance Harruff was convicted of strangling his former girlfriend in her home at Dallas, S.D.

Prior to her murder, she had told friends and relatives details about the abusive relationship. Several of them were called to testify at trial.

The defendant appealed to the South Dakota Supreme Court, saying the jury was prejudiced against him after hearing too many witnesses testify to the same details.

The high court heard the case on Monday, Sept. 30.

SDPB's Victoria Wicks reports.

A property owner in Hamlin County says the sheriff there destroyed his trailer house in an unreasonable search.

The sheriff says he has immunity for damages caused when he's just doing his job.

A lower court refused to issue a summary judgment, saying it's a question for a jury, and the sheriff appeals that decision to the South Dakota Supreme Court.

The Supreme Court will issue a decision at a later date.

SDPB's Victoria Wicks reports on this case.

Stanley Patrick Weber was convicted Friday, Sept. 27, of 11 counts of sexual abuse against four Pine Ridge boys who were his patients. The former Indian Health Services pediatrician was prosecuted by the U.S. Attorney, and trial took place in the federal courthouse in Rapid City.

Weber was previously convicted in Montana of similar charges and sentenced to 18 years in prison.

Weber's crimes garnered national attention, in particular in a joint investigation by PBS's Frontline and the Wall Street Journal.

Stanley Patrick Weber was convicted on Friday, Sept. 27, of 11 counts of sexual abuse against four Pine Ridge boys who were his patients.

The former Indian Health Services pediatrician was prosecuted by the U.S. Attorney's office, and the trial took place in the federal courthouse in Rapid City.

Weber was previously found guilty in Montana of similar charges and sentenced to 18 years in prison.

SDPB's Victoria Wicks sat through the trial and reported during the week.

The execution date for South Dakota inmate Charles Rhines is set for the week of Nov. 3. The warden will announce an exact day and time 48 hours ahead of time.

Rhines is seeking clemency from the governor and wants mental health experts to examine him to bolster his case. The prison warden has refused to allow it, and a federal circuit court upheld the warden's position.

Rhines took the issue to the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals in St. Louis on Thursday, Sept. 26.

SDPB's Victoria Wicks has this report.

Jurors in the trial against Stanley Weber heard testimony on Wednesday, Sept. 25, from two men from Montana. They say the former IHS pediatrician sexually assaulted them when they were boys.

Weber faces similar charges in South Dakota from his time at Pine Ridge.

One of the Montana men was transported to Rapid City by federal prison officials from Kentucky, but the other did not answer his subpoena. The parties circumvented the problem with a courtroom version of readers' theater.

SDPB's Victoria Wicks has this story.

Tuesday, Sept. 24, was the second day of the trial against Stanley Patrick Weber, and we'll start with a warning: This story contains language necessary to tell of allegations of child sexual abuse.

Three men took the stand and testified that the former Indian Health Services pediatrician raped them when they were children. Their stories are similar: Weber first had contact with them when they were patients at the IHS clinic at Pine Ridge.

SDPB's Victoria Wicks has this report.

Buffalo Chip Campground near Sturgis became Buffalo Chip City in 2015, after local voters approved the move and the Secretary of State filed the papers.

The city of Sturgis and local landowners challenged the process, but the South Dakota Supreme Court ruled that it's up to the state to challenge incorporation.

And so it did, and a Fourth Circuit judge ruled for the state and nullified Buffalo Chip's status as a municipality.

Many of the provisions of South Dakota's new riot boosting laws have now been put on hold. Federal Judge Lawrence Piersol issued a preliminary injunction on Wednesday, Sept. 18. The order prohibits the governor and attorney general from enforcing aspects of the legislation passed in 2019, as well as two old statutes criminalizing the support of activists whose conduct turns violent.

SDPB's Victoria Wicks has this report.

One of the defendants in a lawsuit against South Dakota's newly-enacted "riot boosting" law has been dismissed. That order came out on Wednesday, Sept. 18.

Pennington County Sheriff Kevin Thom was listed as a defendant along with Governor Kristi Noem and Attorney General Jason Ravnsborg.

ACLU filed suit on behalf of indigenous and environmental activists who say the law squelches their right to free speech.

SDPB's Victoria Wicks has this report.

The President of the United States has the ongoing treaty obligation to protect tribes and their land from damage and encroachment. That's the argument made by the Rosebud Sioux Tribe and Fort Belknap Indian Community in a federal courtroom in Great Falls, Mont., on Thursday, Sept. 12.

The tribes have sued President Donald Trump and other federal agencies for giving TC Energy, formerly TransCanada, a permit for the Keystone XL pipeline to cross the U.S./Canada border into Montana.

SDPB's Victoria Wicks has this report.

In January 2007, Brad Reay was convicted of killing his wife by stabbing her more than three dozen times and slashing her throat.

He enlisted his twin brother in a failed attempt to frame his wife's lover for the murder.

At trial, he tried to convince the jury that his young daughter had committed the crime.

On Tuesday, Aug. 27, Reay tried to convince the South Dakota Supreme Court that his trial attorney should have hired experts.

SDPB's Victoria Wicks has this report.

A lawyer for the Rosebud Sioux Tribe says the Keystone XL pipeline presents the same threats to Indian Country as did wagon trains and the transcontinental railroad.

Rosebud and Fort Belknap Indian Community have sued President Donald J. Trump for violating treaties when he issued a permit for the pipeline earlier this year.

A hearing on the issue has been set in Montana Federal Court for Sept. 12.

SDPB's Victoria Wicks has this story.

In other Keystone XL news, the Nebraska Supreme Court has upheld that state's granting of a permit for the pipeline.

A federal judge in Montana will hear arguments on Sept. 12 on the merits of a lawsuit brought by tribes against President Donald J. Trump.

The Rosebud Sioux Tribe and Fort Belknap Indian Community hold that the president unconstitutionally violated treaties when he issued a permit for the Keystone XL pipeline earlier this year.

TC Energy, formerly TransCanada, filed a motion asking Federal Judge Brian Morris to dismiss the case.

SDPB's Victoria Wicks has this report.

The history of bison in North America isn't just the story of an indigenous animal. Its existence is tied politically, economically, and spiritually to the indigenous people.

This story is told in a traveling exhibit at the Journey Museum in Rapid City. The exhibit opened with a reception this weekend. "Bison" is on display through Oct. 14.

The traveling exhibit was created by the Kauffman Museum in Kansas, in conjunction with the National Buffalo Foundation.

SDPB's Victoria Wicks has this story.

This week the Black Hills is hosting an international conference on indigenous water rights and protection. This is the third gathering of the Mni Ki Wakan World Indigenous Peoples Decade of Water.

One of the keynote speakers is Kelsey Leonard, a lawyer from the Shinnacock Indian Nation.

She told participants on Tuesday, Aug. 13, that indigenous people need to find their own political power and fight for equal participation under international law.

SDPB's Victoria Wicks has this story.