Jackie Hendry

The South Dakota Department of Health has confirmed two cases of mumps in southeastern South Dakota. The Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services has confirmed 30 cases in bordering parts of the state. Many of those Nebraska cases were traced to people attending a wedding. 

Avera Health Communications Coordinator Nathan Johnson says at least one of the mumps cases is in Yankton County, but Avera has not seen any cases at their hospital.

In The Moment ... August 21, 2019 Show 642 Hour 2

The Frank LaMere Native American Presidential Forum continued Tuesday in Sioux City, Iowa. SDPB's Jackie Hendry provides coverage of the event on In The Moment.

In The Moment ... August 20, 2019 Show 641 Hour 1

The Frank LaMere Native American Presidential Forum is taking place in Sioux City through today. SDPB's Jackie Hendrie spends the hour reporting on the first day of the gathering named for LaMere, an activist, Nebraska lawmaker and seven-time delegate to the Democratic National Convention.

Researchers at the Sanford Underground Research Facility in Lead say they’ve taken a huge step forward in the quest to confirm the existence of dark matter. Late last month, they finished assembling the key piece of the LUX-ZEPLIN experiment’s xenon detector. 

Proving the existence of dark matter requires enough precision to catch two flashes of light that would be undetectable to human eyes. Scientists believe those flashes happen if a dark matter particle collides with a xenon atom.  

Augustana University is partnering with Flandreau Indian School and the Washington Pavilion for a project that brings Native American perspectives into historical archives. Augustana is one of 25 independent colleges in the country to win a grant for the Humanities Research for the Public Good initiative. 

Photographs and other documents in archival collections may include Native Americans, but these items are rarely created by Native Americans.

“—and that’s a huge discrepancy in terms of representation of a population that has been silenced in a way.”

Less than a year after Sioux Falls voters approved a $190-million bond for three new schools, the district breaks ground on its new high school. Thomas Jefferson High School is set to open in time for the 2021 school year. City and district leaders say the occasion marks growth not just for Sioux Falls, but for the entire state. 

In The Moment News is a new podcast recaping news of the week. Find it every Friday afternoon.

During his time as dean of the University of South Dakota's School of Education, Donald Easton-Brooks formed a partnership with the Sioux Falls School District to launch the Teacher Pathway Program, which seeks to recruit a diverse pool of future teachers from its own student body. Easton-Brooks is a scholar of education policy and culturally responsive teaching. His book Ethnic Matching: Success of Students of Color was released earlier this year. 

The second cohort to complete a state-wide, two-year teaching mentorship program celebrated in Sioux Falls Thursday. The state department of education hopes pairing new teachers with mentors will improve teacher retention. 

The Blue Ribbon Task Force is perhaps best remembered for the resulting half-cent sales tax increase to improve teacher salaries in the state. But surveys conducted during the task force showed many teachers wanted a support system to help them adjust from college to running their own classroom.

In The Moment ... June 6,2019 Show 590 Hour 2

The South Dakota Department of Education is hosting hundreds of teachers from around South Dakota for the Statewide Mentor Program Summer Academy. The event marks a "graduation" of sorts for the first cohort in a program aimed at improving the retention of teachers. SDPB's Jackie Hendry visited with some participants at the Denny Sanford Premier Center in Sioux Falls.

    Education and healthcare reporting on SDPB is supported by Regional Health, helping patients and communities live well

In The Moment ... May 16, 2019 Show 577 Hour 2

SDPB's Jackie Hendry reports on a new study in "South Dakota Medicine" that explores the role of community in bullying prevention.

Education and healthcare reporting on SDPB is supported by Regional Health, helping patients and communities live well

U.S. Senator John Thune made a classroom visit to New Tech High School in Sioux Falls. In January, students wrote letters to South Dakota’s congressional delegation, and Thune took them up on the invitation. He also answered a variety of student questions—most centering on climate change, and one on the potential of removing the party whip position in Congress. 

Senator Thune says he believes the climate is changing and that human activities are at least partially responsible. He acknowledges it’s important to reduce carbon emissions.

It’s been a tough spring for the state’s farmers and ranchers.  Wide-spread flooding earlier this year has pushed back planting--and that’s just the most recent challenge for South Dakota’s ag producers. Financial uncertainty can lead to anxiety and depression. But now there’s some help for farmers and ranchers, and those who work closely  with them. 

Walt Bones runs a family farm about 15 miles southwest of Sioux Falls. He grows corn and soybeans and raises cattle. It’s another rainy spring morning when he answers my call from his truck near his fence-line feed bunks.

More than 113,000 people were on the national organ transplant waiting list at the start of 2019. On Wednesday night, Sanford Health in Sioux Falls hosted a flag-raising ceremony to honor organ donors and recipients. 

Laurie Jensen is the director of five Sanford Clinics in the area. In 2017, she learned one of the nurses on her staff needed a kidney and was running out of options. Jensen—who was 60 years old at the time—decided to look into the donation process. She assumed she would be too old. 

South Dakota is one of only five states in the country with no state-supported preschool program. The Sioux Falls Hope Coalition is a non-profit dedicated to giving all children access to preschool. Wednesday it announced the Boys and Girls Club of the Sioux Empire is joining a partnership to offer free preschool for 20 local students.

The flooding in southeast South Dakota is also threatening a rare space for the state’s artists. The Retreat at Pointer’s Ridge in Baltic is a non-profit camp meant to give visitors a quiet space to reflect and create. But as the river rises, the camp’s future is uncertain. 

In The Moment ... March 21, 2019 Show 540 Hour 2

This is an anxious time of year for medical students across the country. Every March, nearly 40-thousand U.S. medical students all discover where they'll serve their residencies. The event is known as Match Day. SDPB's Jackie Hendry listened in last week at one of South Dakota's Match Day events.

Education and healthcare reporting on SDPB is supported by Regional Health, helping patients and communities live well.

In The Moment ... March 14, 2019 Show 535 Hour 2

SDPB's Lee Strubinger & Jackie Hendry are with us today. Together they have a recap of the 2019 South Dakota Legislative session.

  Reporting on politics and public policy is supported by The Center for Western Studies at Augustana University

Legislators approve a ten percent ongoing increase in Medicaid reimbursement in response to the statewide nursing home crisis. That equals nearly 18 million additional dollars. 

Loren Diekman is the president and CEO of Jenkins Living Center in Watertown. He’s followed the Medicaid reimbursement issue closely and made several phone calls to the governor’s office and legislators. He says he’s very happy about the approved increase.

In The Moment ... March 7, 2019 Show 530 Hour 2

A bill ensuring free speech on college campuses is moving ahead in the legislature.  SDPB’s Jackie Hendry has been following the story and visits with Cara Hetland.

    Education and healthcare reporting on SDPB is supported by Regional Health, helping patients and communities live well.

The Senate Education Committee ends the legislative session with a debate on the merit of certain resolutions and the federal Department of Education. A resolution calling for South Dakota’s congressional delegation to support dissolving the department moves to the senate floor without a recommendation. 

Senator Stace Nelson is the resolution’s prime sponsor. He tells the committee this is an issue Republicans have pursued on a national scale since the Department of Education was established in 1979.

In The Moment ... February 28, 2019 Show 525 Hour 2

The legislative session marches on, but no clear solutions yet for the state’s nursing home crisis. Low Medicaid reimbursement rates are putting a strain on South Dakota’s longterm care facilities, but the legislature has killed the only bills brought forth to increase funding. Jackie Hendry joins us now with more.

Education and healthcare reporting on SDPB is supported by Regional Health, helping patients and communities live well.

A bill banning instruction on gender dysphoria in South Dakota schools fails in the Senate State Affairs Committee. The bill’s proponents were unable to convince a majority of the committee that the issue is present in state schools. 

Medical schools in the region are facing a shortage of teachers...but not faculty or staff.  Some of the most critical lessons for medical students, happen in the lab learning from body donors. The University of South Dakota’s Body Donor Program serves schools throughout the state and the region. But a shortage of donors is putting that resource at risk.

Love is in the air, and not just for sweethearts. February 14th is also Library Lovers’ Day. The modern library is more than a quiet building full of books. It’s a hub of information and a resource center for its community.  At the Vermillion Public Library, they’re hoping a blind date of sorts can spark an ongoing love for the library.

A bill banning instruction on gender dysphoria in kindergarten through seventh grade passes through the house of representatives. Supporters say the bill protects students from confusion about their gender identities. Critics say it discriminates against students who are transgender. 

Gender dysphoria is clinically significant distress that occurs when a person’s gender identity does not match the identity they’ve been assigned by others. Treatments for this diagnosis range from talk therapy to identity-affirming surgery.

Biomedical engineering applies creative problem solving to a wide variety of medical issues. It's expected to be one of the fastest growing career fields in South Dakota.

SDPB's Jackie Hendry reports that the University of South Dakota and South Dakota School of Mines and Technology are partnering to offer a new four-year bachelor's degree in biomedical engineering.

In The Moment ... February 7, 2019 Show 511 Hour 2

After testimony Wednesday morning, South Dakota's House Education Committee reconvened Wednesday evening for further discussion and their vote on House Bill 1108. Originally, the bill prohibited instruction on gender identity and gender expression in K-7th grade public education.

SDPB's Jackie Hendry reports on In The Moment.

House Bill 1205 protects parents from legal problems if they refuse to allow their child to undergo healthcare treatment related to the child’s gender identity. The House Health and Human Services Committee defeats the bill after testimony from a human rights group and the argument that the bill is not pro-life. 

The House Education Committee passes a bill banning instruction on gender dysphoria to the house floor, despite confusion on what the phrase means. House bill 1108 prohibits instruction on the issue to public school students from kindergarten to seventh grade. 

House Bill 1108 originally prohibited instruction on gender identity and expression. Later, the bill was amended to remove those phrases and instead prohibit instruction on gender dysphoria.