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SDPB Radio Coverage of the South Dakota Legislature. See all coverage and find links to audio and video streams live from the Capitol at www.sdpb.org/statehouse

Fake License Penalization Bill Advances

Individuals who use a fake license to get a job face stiffer fines under a bill pending in the state legislature. On Tuesday the state Senate passed Senate Bill 97. Republican State Senator Al Novstrup says this bill rides piggyback on past legislation.

"Five years ago, this legislature passed a bill, to make it illegal to buy a false degree. In other words, the mill degree industry was being regulated by us. And the attempt was to make a real degree have value and to punish those people that would buy a degree for any particular profession," State Senator Novstrup says.

Novstrup says this current legislation helps modernize current law. Senate Bill 97 penalizes a person with a first class misdemeanor for obtaining a fake license for a profession. It passed the Senate unanimously and it goes next to the House.

Nate Wek is currently the sports content producer and sports and rec beat reporter for South Dakota Public Broadcasting. He is a graduate of South Dakota State University with a Bachelor of Science degree in Journalism Broadcasting and a minor in Leadership. From 2010-2013 Nate was the Director of Gameday Media for the Sioux Falls Storm (Indoor Football League) football team. He also spent 2012 and 2013 as the News and Sports Director of KSDJ Radio in Brookings, SD. Nate, his wife Sarah, and two kids Braxan and Jordy, live in Canton, SD.