Latest news with #SethTupper
Yahoo
26-05-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Memorial Day serves to highlight the Trump administration's shabby treatment of veterans
The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (Seth Tupper/South Dakota Searchlight) Today is Memorial Day – the day on which we honor the memory of the servicemen and women who made the ultimate sacrifice for our nation. All caring and thinking people should take at least a moment today to lift up these heroes. And today would also be a good one to help assure that the government supports the heroes who are still with us. And sadly, the need here is great. As recent news reports have recounted in painful detail, Trump administration budget cuts are decimating the already understaffed and underfunded Veterans Administration and VA hospitals. More than 80,000 employees are being fired and that's sure to wreak havoc with the services upon which millions of military veterans depend. At a Voices for Veterans event in Fayetteville last week, several vets blasted the cuts as cruel, shortsighted, and sure to cause enormous pain and suffering. The bottom line: Memorial Day is about remembering those we've lost – that's for sure – but we also honor their sacrifice by doing everything in our power to spare living veterans from an early grave. For NC Newsline, I'm Rob Schofield.
Yahoo
22-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Controversial pipeline provision removed as expected, group says
A sign opposing carbon dioxide pipelines stands alongside an eastern South Dakota farm field in July 2024. (Seth Tupper/South Dakota Searchlight) A coalition of groups opposing a multi-state carbon dioxide pipeline celebrated the removal of controversial language from the budget reconciliation bill passed Thursday by the U.S. House. Last week, the groups raised alarms about a provision they said would have allowed federal regulators to approve natural gas and carbon dioxide pipelines over prohibitions in state law. South Dakota passed a law earlier this year that bans the use of eminent domain for carbon pipelines. Eminent domain is a legal process for gaining land access from unwilling owners, in exchange for compensation determined by a judge. U.S. House Republicans push through massive tax and spending bill slashing Medicaid Chase Jensen, a senior organizer for Dakota Rural Action in South Dakota, was among the activists who called for the provision's removal. 'Within days of being introduced, Congress heard loud and clear that seizing federal siting authority for oil and CO2 pipelines was a nonstarter all across the nation,' Jensen said in a news release. The groups are also calling for the repeal of a federal tax credit for carbon sequestration, but have not succeeded in getting that repeal inserted in the legislation. And they remain opposed to a 'fast-track' provision in the bill that they say would allow potential gas pipeline operators to pay a fee of $10 million for expedited federal environmental reviews within a year's time. The proposed $9 billion, five-state Summit Carbon Solutions pipeline does not require that type of federal review, but it does need eminent domain for its proposed route. The project, which would transport ethanol-plant carbon emissions to an underground sequestration site in North Dakota, remains in limbo in South Dakota after the passage of the state's eminent domain ban and two permit rejections by the state's Public Utilities Commission. 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
18-05-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Efforts to curb SD's syphilis outbreak yield results, but public health advocate says work remains
A cooler is filled with doses of penicillin on April 24, 2024, at the Oyate Health Center in Rapid City. (Seth Tupper/South Dakota Searchlight) South Dakota has about half the number of syphilis cases this year as it did at the same time last year, and about a third as many as the same time in 2022, when the outbreak peaked and the state reported the highest rate in the country. About 160 cases were reported by the end of last month, according to the state Department of Health. Although that's an improvement compared to the past few years, the number remains high compared to cases before 2020. Syphilis is a bacterial infection most often spread through sex that can be cured, but can cause serious health problems without treatment and can be spread from mothers to unborn babies. How the state, tribes and federal government are working to curb SD's syphilis epidemic Syphilis was close to being eradicated in the United States in the 1990s, but cases in South Dakota were increasing in the years prior to the COVID-19 pandemic. Syphilis infections nationwide climbed rapidly in recent years, reaching a 70-year high in 2022, according to the most recent data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. A majority of cases in South Dakota are among Native Americans. While the highest number of cases so far this year is in Pennington County, where Rapid City is located, the highest rates are in counties that include tribal lands, such as Buffalo, Dewey and Oglala Lakota counties. There was a time not too many years ago when there were hardly any reported cases, said Meghan Curry O'Connell, chief public health officer at the Great Plains Tribal Leaders' Health Board in Rapid City. 'We still have lots of work to do,' she said. Tribal and state entities have partnered in the last few years to address the situation. Some tribal health care systems send nurses to find and treat patients in the Rapid City area and on reservations. The state Department of Health launched its Wellness on Wheels program last year as well. The program provides a mobile health care unit for rural communities, including STI testing, treatment, education, counseling and referrals to community resources. Curry O'Connell said the work has had an impact on syphilis cases. 'They're coming down, but we're not where they need to be yet,' she said. 'We'll just have to continue working to contain the outbreak, treat people, and get the rates back to where they were.' The disease can potentially persist for decades if untreated, which can lead to death. During pregnancy, it poses a dangerous risk to the baby; congenital syphilis can cause bone deformities, severe anemia, jaundice, meningitis and even death. The state had the highest rate of congenital syphilis in the country in 2023 with 54 cases, which was 482.1 cases per 100,000 births. Congenital syphilis cases are below that pace this year but remain higher than 2020, with eight cases reported so far. While efforts to address syphilis among adults as a whole have yielded results, efforts to screen pregnant women have been less successful. That's because some women are not receiving prenatal care, Curry O'Connell said, which means they aren't getting screened and monitored leading up to birth. Curry O'Connell said she worries potential cuts to Medicaid by Congress and the Trump administration will worsen access to maternal care in the state, which could affect work to screen and catch syphilis. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX
Yahoo
16-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Gold production increases at mine in South Dakota's Black Hills
A partial aerial view of the Wharf Mine near Lead in May 2023. (Seth Tupper/South Dakota Searchlight, via EcoFlight) Production at South Dakota's only active, large-scale gold mine climbed to its highest level in eight years, according to a new 2024 annual report. The Wharf Mine, owned by Chicago-based Coeur Mining, is near the city of Lead and the Terry Peak Ski Area in the northern Black Hills. The mine produced 98,042 ounces of gold last year — nearly 5,000 ounces more than the prior year. The mine also produced 232,013 ounces of silver, which is a lesser-value 'co-product' of the gold mining process. Silver production was down about 36,000 ounces from an usually high level in 2023. To extract all of those minerals last year, miners stripped away 12.9 million tons of earth to access 5 million tons of ore. State regulators issued a warning letter to the mine in 2021 about selenium pollution in False Bottom Creek, which flows within the mine's boundaries. Selenium is a naturally occurring mineral in soil, but when it's turned loose in the environment in large amounts, it can pollute water and be harmful to people and fish. A staff member for the state Department of Agriculture and Natural Resources said Thursday during a meeting of the state Board of Minerals and Environment that the company is building a new water treatment plant to address the problem. The plant is expected to be operational by October. The annual report says the mine employs 255 people and paid $12.5 million in state precious-metal severance taxes last year, plus nearly $800,000 in state and local sales taxes. Coeur Mining's annual report for investors says it sold $227.6 million worth of gold from the Wharf Mine last year, and $6.4 million worth of silver, for a total of $234 million. That was a 25% increase from 2023. From those proceeds, the company said it made donations to 55 Black Hills-area entities, such as nonprofits and school groups, totaling $220,000. The company operates additional mines in Nevada, Alaska and Mexico, and reported total 2024 precious-metal sales of more than $1 billion.
Yahoo
16-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
News outlets seek to pause Indiana law barring journalists from witnessing executions
Indiana is one of only two states with the death penalty that prohibits media witnesses. (Seth Tupper/South Dakota Searchlight) A coalition of news organizations, including the Indiana Capital Chronicle, is asking a federal judge to block a state law barring press from witnessing state executions, arguing it violates the First Amendment. The Indiana Attorney General's Office, in response to the preliminary injunction request, urged the court on Thursday to deny what state attorneys called a 'last-minute' and legally baseless request. The dispute centers on an Indiana law that limits attendance at executions to: the warden, a warden's designated assistant, the prison physician, another physician, a spiritual advisor, a prison chaplain, five friends or relatives of the inmate and eight members of the victim's family. A Department of Correction (DOC) policy also says press 'shall not be permitted to witness the execution.' News reporters are granted access to a designated area outside of the Indiana State Prison but are not permitted to directly witness the state's actions — unless invited by the condemned to fill one of the five spots. Five media outlets filed the underlying lawsuit last week. Attorneys with the Reporters Committee for the Freedom of the Press are representing the news entities. A lack of press access leaves the public with an incomplete understanding of the proceedings. – complaint filed by five news entities, including the Indiana Capital Chronicle A hearing before Judge Matthew Brookman is scheduled for Friday morning in Evansville, in Indiana's southern district. It's not clear if Brookman will make a decision at that hearing. The state attempted to move the legal matter to the federal court in Indiana's northern district, but that request was denied by the judge. Court proceedings come just days before the scheduled execution of death row inmate Benjamin Ritchie at the Indiana State Prison in Michigan City. The prison warden said in a declaration filed Thursday that Ritchie has not requested media be permitted as one of his five witnesses. The execution is set to take place before sunrise on Tuesday, May 20, and will be the second death sentence carried out in Indiana since the state resumed capital punishment last year. Before that, executions were on a hiatus for more than a decade. Media organizations asked the federal court to intervene before Ritchie's execution. They're also seeking access to future executions until the broader legal challenge is resolved. In a motion for a preliminary injunction filed Monday, the five media outlets — including the Capital Chronicle, The Associated Press, Gannett, Circle City Broadcasting and TEGNA — argued that Indiana Code and DOC policy violate their First Amendment rights by denying press access to executions. The groups contends that journalists, as representatives of the public, are entitled to witness executions — a critical part of the criminal justice process. Reporters from all five entities have covered portions of the case and The Associated Press regularly covers executions nationwide. Indiana is one of 27 states with the death penalty, but one of only two states — along with Wyoming — that doesn't include media witnesses at executions. Senior Reporter Casey Smith witnessed December's state execution of Joseph Corcoran — via the inmate's guest list. Story continues below. 19 Plaintiffs argued that this restriction undermines a key purpose of the First Amendment: public accountability. 'Loss of First Amendment freedoms, for even minimal periods of time, unquestionably constitutes irreparable injury,' the plaintiffs said in the motion for preliminary injunction, quoting a 2012 opinion issued by a federal judge in Illinois in a separate media access case. The news entities pointed out in their complaint that the federal government permits journalists to observe executions conducted at the U.S. Penitentiary in Terre Haute. They also held that Indiana's law treats the press more harshly than other members of the public. While victims' families and a condemned person's friends or clergy may attend, the media is explicitly barred unless a journalist is handpicked by the inmate. 'The statute and policy single out the press for disfavorable treatment,' attorneys said in the complaint. 'A lack of press access leaves the public with an incomplete understanding of the proceedings,' they continued, citing examples from recent federal executions in which journalists documented botched attempts and unusual behavior by medical staff or inmates — observations that would not have been publicly known otherwise. But in a 25-page filing submitted Thursday, the state pushed back, arguing that executions are not judicial proceedings covered by the First Amendment's right of public access. The attorney general's office additionally emphasized that Indiana law permits inmates to designate up to five witnesses — potentially including reporters — meaning journalists are not categorically banned. 'This lawsuit seeks to establish privileged access for the press beyond what the law generally provides the public,' state attorneys wrote. 'The Constitution does not mandate privileging the press.' Defendants also argued that executions are not part of the judicial or adjudicative process, and said in their response that a criminal prosecution comes to an end once a sentence is imposed. 'After that, the individual is committed to the executive for execution of the sentence,' the attorney general's office wrote. Story continues below. show_multidocs (2) The office leaned on a 19th-century U.S. Supreme Court decision that gave states broad power to regulate executions — including who can witness them. 'These are regulations which the legislature, in its wisdom, and for the public good, could legally prescribe,' the state quoted from Holden v. Minnesota, decided in 1890. The attorney general's office emphasized that even banning press entirely from executions is constitutionally permissible. The state also criticized the plaintiffs for waiting until days before the execution to file their motion, calling the timing 'inequitable' and a bid to delay a lawfully imposed sentence. 'They waited … until only seven days and three minutes before the scheduled initiation of the execution they now seek to enjoin,' the filing continued. The state warned, too, that any sudden change in procedure, such as allowing unvetted media access, could complicate operations and compromise staff anonymity. 'Adding an unknown number of persons into the facility and into this process to witness a currently undefined portion of this procedure greatly complicates the strong interest the State has in performing a complex operation,' per the attorney general's office. State officials have largely shielded details about how Indiana executions are carried out, but the state's motion — in addition to a declaration provided by Indiana State Prison Warden Ron Neal — sheds light on DOC's extensive planning and training. According to the state, executions are performed by a specially-trained group that's divided into multiple sub-units ,including an injection team, IV team, extraction team, and a death watch unit. Each member of the execution team must pass medical, psychological and background screenings. The teams regularly train every two to three months, but when a death warrant is scheduled, that schedule increases to biweekly. New document shows Indiana paid $900,000 for execution drug, but other details still sparse Since the Indiana Supreme Court issued the death warrant for Ritchie on April 15, the teams have been training weekly, Neal said. Hands-on training involves simulations for IV insertion using EMS-provided equipment and infrared technology to locate veins. Thirty days before an execution, officials begin preparations inside the facility, Neal noted in his declaration. The condemned inmate undergoes a medical evaluation and weekly assessments of their veins for IV access. The execution chamber is cleaned and inspected weekly, then daily in the final five days before the scheduled execution date. Equipment, supplies, and communication systems — linking the prison and the chamber to the governor's office, the Indiana Supreme Court and internal command centers — are tested, as well. Prison officials meet with the inmate to discuss the lethal injection process, witness lists and options for final statements and spiritual advisement. The DOC protocol also includes test runs to ensure the victim's family is kept separate from the condemned's witnesses. Two-way radios on separate frequencies from normal prison traffic ensure real-time coordination throughout the process. Gov. Mike Braun rejected a clemency plea from Ritchie on Wednesday, one day after the Indiana Parole Board recommended that the death row inmate's upcoming execution proceed as scheduled. Ritchie, who fatally shot Beech Grove law enforcement officer William Toney during a police pursuit on Sept. 29, 2000, had petitioned the board to commute his death sentence to life without parole. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX
