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Yahoo
5 days ago
- General
- Yahoo
Two local court advocacy programs for children are revived with legislative funding
An equal justice statue stands outside the doors of the Minnehaha County Courthouse in Sioux Falls. (Makenzie Huber/South Dakota Searchlight) Three years after lawmakers put $1 million toward advocacy efforts for children in the court system statewide, two revived nonprofits are starting to support children again. Volunteers with local Court Appointed Special Advocates (CASA) programs advocate for children who've been removed from their families and placed in state care due to suspected abuse and neglect. The volunteers meet with the children and other contacts, such as teachers, therapists and caseworkers. They also write reports to judges about the children's needs, strengths and interests. 'This process is crucial as it gives the child a voice in the legal proceedings concerning their welfare,' said CASA state director Sara Kelly in an emailed statement. Over 330 CASA volunteers worked with 658 children in 37 counties last year, according to the state Unified Judicial System. Most of the state's 1,049 active cases involving CASA last year — with or without a volunteer — were in the Sioux Falls and Rapid City areas. This is the first time in 16 years that the state has operated CASA organizations in all of its circuit courts. The Sixth Circuit, in central South Dakota, and the Fifth Circuit, representing northeastern South Dakota, closed in 2009. Federal cut to children's advocacy funding 'abandons American children,' says SD nonprofit leader Gloria Hutson, in Aberdeen, was hired to lead the reestablished Fifth Circuit CASA in November last year. She told the state CASA Commission at its Wednesday meeting that three counties within her 10-county jurisdiction have a high case volume: Brown, Walworth and Spink counties. 'The focus these last six months has been on building a solid, sustainable structure while building deep community roots,' Hutson said. Walworth County has a 'disproportionate' number of cases for its population, and many involve the Indian Child Welfare Act, Hutson said. The federal Indian Child Welfare Act sets minimum standards for efforts to reunite tribal children in the state's custody with their families. Walworth county is adjacent to the Standing Rock and Cheyenne River reservations. As of the end of April, Walworth County had 25 pending cases involving 52 children. Brown County had 32 cases involving 58 children and Spink County had three cases involving three children. Fifty-seven cases were active in the Fifth Circuit last year, and none of the children had CASA representation, according to UJS. Through April this year, the circuit had 61 pending cases involving 117 children, Hutson said. Most of those children still do not have CASA volunteers advocating for them. Fifth Circuit CASA has eight volunteers so far, two of whom are advocating for three children. All the children are younger than 2 years old. Laurie Gill, a former state Department of Social Services secretary who now works with Maxwell Strategy Group, leads CASA for the Sixth Circuit. Gill's firm was hired to lead the nonprofit, and Gill said the contract was renewed recently by the nonprofit's board of directors. Sixth Circuit CASA, which represents 14 counties in central South Dakota, including Hughes County and the state capital city of Pierre, intends to train 10 volunteers this year. The first will be sworn in and assigned cases by June, Gill said. Thirty-nine cases were active in the Sixth Circuit last year. There were 45 pending cases involving 94 children at the end of April, Gill said. Most are in the Pierre/Fort Pierre area. The 2022 funding from the Legislature was a result of lawmakers learning about the holes in South Dakota's CASA coverage, after loosening a requirement to appoint advocates for abused and neglected children in the court system. Lawmakers on the state budget committee approved funding to help restart the two shuttered programs and help existing CASA programs expand. The Fifth and Sixth Circuit organizations have each received $120,000 so far. Another $143,715was awarded to most other CASA programs. The need for volunteers remains one of the biggest challenges for CASA nonprofits across the state, leaders told the commission. Since last year's report, the number of volunteers has dropped from 330 statewide to 318. National CASA guidelines require one staff member to supervise a maximum of 30 volunteers. Each volunteer is assigned one case at a time, typically staying with a case until it's resolved. The Sioux Falls CASA reports 333 children currently on the waiting list to be represented by a volunteer. The Seventh Circuit CASA in Rapid City reports 455 children on its waiting list. The 2022 Legislature appropriated $1 million to the Unified Judicial System to award South Dakota CASA nonprofits with grants to rebuild or expand. About $384,000 – less than 40% of the funds – have been spent so far: $120,000 to the Fifth Circuit CASA in Aberdeen $120,000 to the Sixth Circuit CASA in Pierre $58,400 to the Southeast CASA in Yankton $40,835 to the First Circuit CASA in Mitchell $25,000 to the East Central CASA in Brookings $15,000 to the Sioux Falls Area CASA $2,000 to the Seventh Circuit CASA in Rapid City $2,480.47 in miscellaneous expenses
Yahoo
19-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Anti-pipeline activists cheer expected removal of federal permit preemption from reconciliation bill
Representatives with Summit Carbon Solutions hand out information and answer questions ahead of a Public Utilities Commission hearing in Sioux Falls on Jan. 15, 2025. (Makenzie Huber/South Dakota Searchlight) A provision to let pipeline companies bypass state permitters is expected to be stripped from the 'big, beautiful' federal budget reconciliation bill, but anti-pipeline activists want Congress to kill a carbon tax credit program before they pass the bill along to President Donald Trump. That was the message from a group of South Dakota carbon dioxide pipeline opponents during a virtual press conference Monday. Representatives from Dakota Rural Action, the South Dakota Property Rights and Local Control Alliance, and the South Dakota Stockgrowers Association joined the call. Last week, groups in the anti-carbon pipeline camp raised alarms about the reconciliation bill over a provision tucked within its 1,100 pages. It would have given the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission exclusive authority to issue licenses for pipelines carrying natural gas, carbon dioxide, hydrogen, oil or other energy products and byproducts. Is Congress trampling on state laws protecting property rights against pipelines? The state permitting process has been a political minefield for a proposed carbon pipeline from Summit Carbon Solutions that would traverse parts of Iowa, Nebraska, Minnesota and South Dakota, collecting carbon from ethanol plants on its way to a North Dakota sequestration site. The South Dakota Public Utilities Commission has rejected the project twice. South Dakota Republican Gov. Larry Rhoden signed a bill into law in March banning the use of eminent domain by carbon pipeline companies, stripping Summit of the potential use of state court condemnation actions to build beneath land owned by project opponents. Critics said the federal permitting provision in the reconciliation bill would've allowed Summit to preempt state-level regulations. The bill passed through a House committee Sunday night. President Trump has called it a 'big, beautiful bill' chock full of tax breaks and cuts to wasteful spending; opponents have decried it as a plan to carve large swaths of the citizenry out of entitlement programs such as Medicaid. The complex budget reconciliation process allows the majority party to pass legislation with simple majorities in both chambers, avoiding the U.S. Senate's usual 60-vote requirement. The federal pipeline preemption provision will be removed in the House Rules Committee on Wednesday morning, according to Kristen Blakely, who works for U.S. Rep. Dusty Johnson, R-South Dakota. Opponents of the Summit project celebrated that news on the Monday press call. 'It was good to see that they removed the federal siting authority,' said Republican state Sen. Joy Hohn of Hartford. Pipeline opponents remain concerned about one other provision that remains in the bill. It would let pipeline companies pay the federal government $10 million for an 'expedited environmental review' lasting one year, with a possible extension of up to six months. The current federal review process can take years. Under the provision, an expedited review's results would not be appealable. Summit doesn't need that level of environmental review, though other pipelines – like the controversial Dakota Access crude oil pipeline that Hohn fought to prevent nearly a decade ago – do need them. Blakely told Searchlight that the expedited environmental review no longer applies to any carbon pipelines, as it was tied to the now-scuttled preemption provision for permits. Hohn was elected on a landowner rights platform and helped shepherd the eminent domain ban through the statehouse. Summit's business model hinges on the company's intended collection of billions in 45Q tax credits for companies that sequester carbon, keeping it from contributing to climate change. Hohn and the others on hand for Monday's press conference want to see Rep. Johnson push for the elimination of that program, which has existed for decades and was beefed up through former President Joe Biden's Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act. Race for South Dakota governor could be a race for Trump's favor 'We are calling for Rep. Johnson to die on this hill,' said Chase Jensen of Dakota Rural Action, who called the notion of 45Q credits surviving in a U.S. Capitol transfixed by talk of wasteful spending 'insane.' Ed Fischbach, a board member of Dakota Rural Action, called the 45Q program 'nothing but corporate welfare.' Dennis Fieckert of the South Dakota Property Rights and Local Control Alliance suggested that Johnson's potential entry into the 2026 South Dakota gubernatorial contest would start off on the wrong foot without a push to end 45Q. Hohn was one of several state lawmakers who earned their office last year through opposition to eminent domain for carbon pipelines. In that same election, South Dakota voters shot down a law passed by state lawmakers in 2024 that would have granted landowners additional rights but also cleared a path for permitting by Summit. Rep. Johnson 'knows what's going on here in South Dakota,' Feickert said, adding, 'He needs to step up.' Blakely, Johnson's spokeswoman, pointed out that the reconciliation bill would alter the tax credit program by limiting access to companies that begin construction within two years of the bill's enactment. The bill also restricts access to credits by taxpaying companies that are 'specified foreign entities' like Chinese defense companies, or taxpaying companies influenced by those entities. As far as the notion of eliminating 45Q, a statement from Johnson said he's still working with his colleagues to make the 'big, beautiful bill' a 'more conservative' piece of legislation. 'I've been on the frontlines to help eliminate ridiculous portions of the Inflation Reduction Act, like EV chargers and other Green New Deal policies,' Johnson said. Jensen, of Dakota Rural Action, said the credits in 45Q didn't originate with the Green New Deal, the name attached to a set of policies promoted by some of Congress' more liberal members. The tax credits originated under a bill signed by President George W. Bush in 2008, and were expanded by President Trump during his first term in office before President Biden's infrastructure bill expanded them further. 'Our congressman continues to make it sound like this is about getting rid of the Green New Deal, and that this is Biden's fault, but in reality, this is a bipartisan agenda that we are trying to get rid of,' Jensen said. South Dakota Searchlight is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. South Dakota Searchlight maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Seth Tupper for questions: info@
Yahoo
15-05-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
SD tests for ‘forever chemicals' in rivers to identify, address potential contamination
The Big Sioux River flows under a Highway 34 bridge near Egan in southeastern South Dakota. (Makenzie Huber/South Dakota Searchlight) South Dakota's state government is testing for 'forever chemicals' in rivers across the state. Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) have been used in industry and consumer products since the 1940s, including in modern products such as nonstick cookware and water-resistant clothing, and don't break down easily in the environment or in the human body. Research indicates PFAS exposure may be linked to negative developmental and reproductive effects, and an increased risk of some cancers. Concerns about their prevalence in the environment and their impacts on human health have grown steadily in recent years, as they've been discovered in drinking water, fish and food packaging. State offering free PFAS cleanup to local fire departments, schools The Biden administration set first-ever limits on the chemicals in last year. EPA-mandated testing has found them in nearly half of Americans' drinking water. Publicly available test results found a type of PFAS called perfluorooctane sulfonic acid at Mount Rushmore National Memorial as well as smaller amounts of other PFAS contaminants in Aberdeen, Harrisburg, Rapid Valley Sanitary District, Lincoln County Rural Water System and the Mni Wiconi water system. The Trump administration is planning to weaken drinking water limits on PFAS, according to Politico. The state Department of Agriculture and Natural Resources began testing rivers this spring to 'establish a baseline' for the presence of PFAS in surface waters across the state, according to Ben Koisti, spokesman for the department. The department will use results to determine risks and help 'identify and address potential contaminant sources,' Koisti said in an emailed statement. 'The results can also be beneficial for water systems that use surface water as their water source,' Koisti said. 'If PFAS contamination is identified in an area and at concentrations that pose a potential risk to a drinking water system, DANR will take action to further identify the source and mitigate the contamination to protect the impacted water supply.' Testing is underway with additional sampling planned at the 30 testing sites this fall. Results will be posted on the department's website. The East Dakota Water Development District tested 11 sites along the Big Sioux River in eastern South Dakota last year, finding the contaminants were most concentrated downstream of cities like Watertown and Sioux Falls in its preliminary data. The department's sampling sites were selected based on geographic distribution, population density, and whether the surface water contributes to a drinking water supply. There are 26 water systems in the state that rely on surface water for drinking water. The project costs about $15,000 using federal EPA funds through the Public Water System Supervision grant. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX
Yahoo
09-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
AmeriCorps cuts are ‘devastating' for nonprofit Native American school in South Dakota, lawsuit says
Pine Ridge is located in southwestern South Dakota on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation. The town has a population just under 3,000 and is the headquarters of the Oglala Sioux Tribe. (Makenzie Huber/South Dakota Searchlight) The Trump administration's decision to abruptly cut AmeriCorps funding has had a 'devastating impact' on a nonprofit school for Native American children in South Dakota, according to a lawsuit. Red Cloud Indian School Inc., which operates schools under the Lakota name Mahpiya Luta, is one of more than a dozen plaintiffs that jointly filed a lawsuit this week challenging the funding cut. 'Red Cloud schools, their programs, and the prospects of their students and of Lakota youth who participate in AmeriCorps are at serious risk,' the lawsuit says. AmeriCorps is a federal agency dedicated to community service and volunteerism, which works in close partnership with states. It's the latest victim of President Donald Trump's campaign to dismantle programs and slash the federal workforce. As Trump slashes AmeriCorps, states lose a federal partner in community service The agency abruptly cut $400 million, or 41% of its budget, and placed 85% of its staff on administrative leave last month, according to court records. AmeriCorps had provided $960 million to fund 3,100 projects across the United States each year, according to general undated figures available on the agency's website. Red Cloud Indian School Inc. operates two elementary schools, one middle school, a high school and a Lakota language immersion program on the Pine Ridge Reservation in southwest South Dakota. For 26 years, according to the lawsuit, the nonprofit has received AmeriCorps awards. The awards have enabled the training of over 400 Lakota AmeriCorps participants as teaching assistants and paraprofessional educators, offering career and job training opportunities in one of the nation's poorest regions. AmeriCorps told Red Cloud via email on April 25 that its grant was terminated, that all grant activities should cease, and that the action was not administratively appealable, the lawsuit says. In the past three years, the nonprofit received approximately $400,000 a year in AmeriCorps funding. The money enabled Red Cloud to recruit local Lakota AmeriCorps participants to serve as teaching assistants for a duration of one to three years. The participants joined in groups of four to five to assist a staff teacher with classes of approximately 20 students. The participants provided students with individualized support in math, literacy and social-emotional development, while also gaining teaching skills. Students benefited from one-on-one attention with participants they viewed as role models. Many AmeriCorps participants pursued college degrees concurrently. Ten of Red Cloud's current teachers began as AmeriCorps participants. 'The program's success is evident in its improved student outcomes and strengthened community empowerment through a career pipeline into education,' the lawsuit says. CONTACT US As of last month, Red Cloud had 11 AmeriCorps participants serving in its teaching assistant program. The organization felt a moral obligation to retain the participants through the end of the school year on May 16, the lawsuit says, which has 'placed an unexpected financial strain' on the nonprofit. The school is not in a position to retain the participants through July 31, when the AmeriCorps grant was set to expire, the lawsuit says. Fourteen organizations, the union representing AmeriCorps staffers and three individual plaintiffs who were AmeriCorps members filed the lawsuit Monday in U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland. Besides Red Cloud in South Dakota, the other nonprofits bringing the lawsuit are based in California, the District of Columbia, Illinois, Iowa, Maine, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Virginia. On April 29, attorneys general from nearly two dozen states and the District of Columbia also sued alleging the cuts were illegal. South Dakota's attorney general is not included in that group. In a statement provided Thursday to States Newsroom, the White House defended the cuts. 'AmeriCorps has failed eight consecutive audits and identified over $45 million in unaccounted for payments in 2024 alone. President Trump is restoring accountability to the entire Executive Branch,' said spokesperson Anna Kelly. States Newsroom's D.C. Bureau contributed to this report. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX
Yahoo
27-04-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Medicine for opioid use saves lives. But SD doctors hesitate to prescribe it, advocates say.
Buprenorphine tablets, which are used to reduce opioid withdrawal symptoms and cravings. (Makenzie Huber/South Dakota Searchlight) Megan Cantone stumbled out of the hospital in tears from the pain. She sought treatment for an infection from drug use. Medical professionals at the Denver hospital provided the treatment, but as Cantone recalls, it came with a heavy dose of judgment. A doctor refused to numb her wound after recognizing it as being from illicit drug use, she said. The pain was supposed to convince her 'never to shove a needle in your arm again,' Cantone said. Speaking the same language: Opioid programs connect overdose victims with recovered mentors SD uses portion of opioid settlement funds to distribute overdose prevention kits 'I told my husband I feel like a complete failure, like a terrible person,' Cantone said. 'That's almost when a person could kill themselves because you're at the lowest of your low and somebody treats you like that.' Earlier that week, a nurse at a different hospital confronted her while treating another infection. The nurse told Cantone she'd end up killing herself and 'pretty much told me I was disgusting,' Cantone remembers. Cantone began experimenting with drugs in high school, but her opioid use started when she attended cosmetology and esthiology school in the Twin Cities. Her use escalated to meth and heroin over the years. A doctor stepped in to defend Cantone, scolding the nurse. The doctor suggested medication to help her stop opioid use; he said she suffered from a medical disorder that could be treated. As the opioid epidemic continues in South Dakota, physicians can offer medications for opioid use disorder. But the practice — made possible by a change to federal law in 2022 — is held back in South Dakota because of stigmas attached to it, advocates say. Stigmas like Cantone experienced, and what she still experiences in South Dakota today. Cantone didn't accept the medication from the emergency room doctor. She grappled with self-loathing. But the doctor's kindness and offer stuck with her. Months later, after near-death experiences and the realization she was pregnant, Cantone accepted a prescription and delivered a healthy baby girl. The medication straightened a winding path toward recovery. The 35-year-old mother and wife, who lives in Sioux Falls, credits her Christian faith and the medication for her recovery. She will celebrate six years of sobriety in May. Buprenorphine prescriptions in South Dakota tripled in the last five years, increasing from about 2,500 at the start of 2019 to around 7,500 at the end of 2024. The drug reduces opioid withdrawal symptoms and cravings. Naloxone is available in some public spaces throughout South Dakota, especially in Sioux Falls and Rapid City. It prevents opioid overdoses by blocking receptor cells. Cantone took a Suboxone prescription for years, which is a drug that contains both buprenorphine and naloxone to treat opioid use disorder. Now she takes buprenorphine. The increased access to both medications is heartening for Craig Uthe, a family physician at Sanford and local spokesman for the national Opioid Response Network. The Mainstreaming Addiction Treatment Act eliminated a federal waiver requirement for prescribing buprenorphine. But physicians need more education on the prescriptions, he said. 'We didn't have that many people prescribing buprenorphine before, and we still don't,' Uthe said. 'We have a lot of people still prescribing opioids but not prescribing buprenorphine.' Opioids are prescribed for pain management but can be addictive, especially for patients with chronic pain, Uthe said. South Dakota opioid prescription counts in 2024 stood at 437,431. Of the top 10 controlled substances prescribed to South Dakota patients in 2024, opioids claimed three spots, according to the state's prescription drug monitoring program data. Two of the three drugs — methylphenidate and oxycodone — moved up in the rankings to fourth and sixth most prescribed controlled substances. Hydrocodone retained its number one spot. The state and health systems are gathering data to measure how much buprenorphine is prescribed. 'If we see a county with high overdose numbers, we'd like to see a higher amount of buprenorphine prescribed,' Uthe said. 'How can we, as the state Health Department or as health care systems, try to place a resource where there is the greatest need?' South Dakota Health Department Secretary Melissa Magstadt said medical providers should make it a 'prescribing habit' to prescribe naloxone for each opioid prescription they write. Overdose victims do not always suffer from opioid use disorder, she said. 'I've seen very well-meaning patients who took one too many doses or maybe forgot they took a dose or didn't realize they had two different medications that had opioids in them,' Magstadt said. She said it'll likely take years for prescriber behaviors to change. In 2023, South Dakota reported the second lowest overdose death rate in the nation at 11.2 deaths per 100,000 residents, according to the latest data available. Ninety-five South Dakotans in 2023 died from drug overdoses, 47 of which were from opioids. In 2024, 90 South Dakotans died from drug overdoses, 36 of which were from opioids, according to the state Health Department. Although most overdose deaths are among white residents, Native Americans are disproportionately affected. Native Americans die from overdoses at a rate of 26.6 per 100,000 — more than four times the rate among white South Dakotans, according to the State Unintentional Drug Overdose Reporting System. Sioux Falls nonprofit Emily's Hope partners with emergency departments. Physicians connect patients with the nonprofit, which works to connect them to medication and other treatment services, said Angela Kennecke, founder and CEO. Kennecke's daughter, Emily, died of a fentanyl overdose, laced in heroin she injected. Her family was planning to enroll her into a treatment program when she died in May 2018. Medication is the 'gold star' for treatment, Kennecke said. Treating opioid use disorder without medication can be more harmful than no treatment, according to a Yale study published in the Drug and Alcohol Dependence journal in 2024. 'That is our first line of defense in getting people to feel better, to reduce cravings and get them the help they need,' Kennecke said. Loretta Bryan, a registered nurse focused on clinical improvement within the South Dakota Association of Healthcare Organizations, educates medical providers on opioid use disorder, medications and how to engage with patients. Her work focuses on 'motivational interviewing techniques' to create authentic conversations with patients and improve screening. 'It takes a lot of bravery to walk through those doors and admit you're struggling,' Bryan said. 'Finding those words to recognize that bravery and having those in your back pocket is helpful.' Access to medications for opioid use disorder is growing in clinics across the state, but not as fast as needed, Uthe said. The focus remains in emergency rooms and on harm reduction. Aside from clinics dedicated to behavioral health, Uthe said, family physicians and urgent care doctors should be comfortable prescribing the medications. 'We don't have the infrastructure in place to address that need at the moment,' he said. Lewis and Clark Behavioral Health Services in Yankton runs a telehealth behavioral health program focused on opioid use, with two outreach sites in Pierre and Huron. Rapid City-based Project Recovery is an addiction recovery clinic for opioids, alcohol and stimulant use with satellite clinics in Sioux Falls, Sisseton and Pine Ridge. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX State funds to combat opioid use in the state support both programs. Kendra Joswiak, clinical practice director at Project Recovery, said the organization treated 1,100 people for opioid use disorder in 2024. Of those treated without medication, about 90% will use again, she said, comparing medication for opioid use disorder to insulin for diabetes patients. 'If we had something as good for cancer as we do for opioid use disorder, we'd say we cured cancer,' Joswiak said. Cantone continues to feel judged when she shares her history with medical professionals, pharmacists, friends and family. She felt 'icky' when she first ordered her prescription at a pharmacy when she moved back to South Dakota in 2020. Medication for opioid use disorder isn't as common or well known in South Dakota as it is in Denver, she said. 'They looked at me like I was a drug addict or from Mars,' she recalled. Friends and family have told her she's switching one addiction for another. But medical professionals say the prescription drugs help restore balance to parts of the brain affected by addiction, allowing patients' brains to heal without cravings or withdrawal symptoms. The doubt and stigma undercut the pride and hard work it took to earn Cantone's sobriety. But she knows people who struggle with substance use disorder are more than what others see. 'As much as we worry about what others think, what matters is you being healthy, getting your life together, staying alive and getting the help you need,' Cantone said. 'Whether it's medication or counseling or cutting cold turkey. You need to get yourself better and cancel out that noise.'
