Latest news with #SiouxFalls
Associated Press
11 hours ago
- Business
- Associated Press
Avel eCare Appoints Martainn Lenhardt as Chief Financial Officer to Lead Financial Strategy Amid Rapid Growth and Innovation
SIOUX FALLS, SD / ACCESS Newswire / July 23, 2025 / Avel eCare, a leading provider of telemedicine services in the United States, today announced the appointment of Martainn Lenhardt as Chief Financial Officer (CFO). Lenhardt brings over 20 years of healthcare finance experience to the role, where he will oversee Avel's financial strategy, operations, and performance during a pivotal era of innovation and nationwide expansion. Lenhardt joins Avel eCare following his tenure as VP of Finance at Lyric and senior leadership roles at Change Healthcare, where he managed a $480 million business unit and was instrumental in driving growth and improving margins. He is widely recognized for his expertise in strategic growth, mergers and acquisitions, and optimizing global operations. His ability to turn complexity into opportunity and build agile, purpose-driven teams will be instrumental in advancing Avel's mission. 'Avel eCare is transforming how healthcare is delivered across the country,' said Lenhardt. 'It's an honor to join this team and help scale a model that brings high-quality, virtual care to every corner of the nation.' This appointment comes at a time of unprecedented momentum for Avel eCare. In the past two years alone, Avel has launched new service lines, secured exclusive partnerships with organizations like Amwell and Cibolo Health, and expanded services to more than 46 states. The company continues to innovate with in-ambulance telehealth, ICU solutions, and programs that support EMS, law enforcement, and correctional health, making care more accessible, cost-effective, and consistent, especially in rural and underserved areas. The new CFO joins an accomplished executive team committed to advancing healthcare access and outcomes across the country. Avel's leadership includes: About Avel eCare Avel eCare is a national leader in technology-enabled clinical services delivered through telemedicine, offering provider-to-provider virtual care solutions that expand clinical capacity and improve outcomes across the healthcare industry. With more than 30 years of innovation, Avel's board-certified clinicians partner with hospitals, clinics, long-term care facilities, schools, EMS agencies, and correctional health systems nationwide to bring high-quality care to patients when and where it's needed most. Learn more at: Media Contact: Jessica Gaikowski Avel eCare [email protected] SOURCE: Avel eCare press release
Yahoo
16-07-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
Olympic gold medalist John Landsteiner steps away from elite curling
John Landsteiner, an Olympic gold medalist and the longest-serving teammate of skip John Shuster, is stepping away from elite-level curling. Landsteiner, a 35-year-old who competed at the last three Olympics, called it "a long, difficult, and heartfelt decision" in a social media post. "As life has progressed during this quad, with the addition of my two young children and my ongoing full-time career as an engineer with Lake Superior Consulting, it has become clear to me that time spent with my family means more than the grind that the run to 2026 will require," the post read. Landsteiner served as the lead for Shuster's team at the last three Olympics, meaning he threw the first two stones of each end. In 2018, Shuster, Landsteiner, Tyler George and Matt Hamilton won the U.S.' first Olympic curling title. George left elite curling after those Games and was replaced on the team by Chris Plys, who had previously been the alternate on Shuster's team at the 2010 Vancouver Games. Hamilton, who made his Olympic debut in 2018, is still on Shuster's team. Colin Hufman, a 2022 Olympic alternate who played one game in Beijing, has been on the active team Shuster roster the last two seasons with Hamilton and Landsteiner taking turns as alternates at major competitions. This past winter, Landsteiner was the alternate as Shuster's team lost in the U.S. Championship semifinals, its first time being beaten for a national title since 2016. The 2026 Olympic Trials are in November in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. The winner will advance to an international tournament in Canada in December to determine the last teams to qualify for the Milan Cortina Games. Shuster, a 42-year-old who made his Olympic debut in Italy in 2006, will bid to make a sixth Winter Olympic team, which would tie the U.S. record across all sports held by retired Nordic combined skier Todd Lodwick. But he will do it without his fellow Duluth, Minnesota, resident Landsteiner, who still plans to play recreationally. "Curling was the sole reason I went to college and now reside in Duluth, MN," Landsteiner's post read. "After my junior career ended, I was fortunate to be asked to play with John Shuster—and the rest was history. Curling has taken me around the world to places I never thought possible and has shaped who I am today." Cory Thiesse, Korey Dropkin clinch 2026 Olympic spot in mixed doubles curling Cory Thiesse and Korey Dropkin will finish high enough at the world championship to earn a spot at the Milan Cortina Games. Nick Zaccardi,
Yahoo
15-07-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Tim Walz's South Dakota visit focuses on hope for Dems, ‘petty' jabs for Noem, Rhoden
Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz has a message for South Dakota Democrats: Don't give up hope. He also had a few wisecracks to sling at the state's supermajority party. The South Dakota Democratic Party hosted Walz during their annual McGovern Day dinner July 12 at the Denny Sanford Premier Center in Sioux Falls. The event honors the legacy of the late George McGovern, an American politician who represented the state for 18 years in the U.S. Senate. Walz was welcomed to the dinner party as the keynote speaker, preceded by the party's Vice Chair Jessica Meyer, Chair Shane Merrill, and State Sen. Minority Leader Liz Larson, of Sioux Falls. In red South Dakota, a state with one of the largest Republican supermajorities in the U.S., Walz focused his message on the idea of "hope." But it wasn't solely hope that the Democratic Party should rely on, Walz added, pulling from his personal experience as former Vice President Kamala Harris' running mate during their unsuccessful 2024 presidential bid. More: Potential for gold mine in Black Hills near Lead, South Dakota "You can't hope you're going to win," Walz told the dinner attendees. "You can't hope that [Donald] Trump goes away. You can't hope that you do this. You have to work for it." The Minnesota governor's speech comes as South Dakota's Democratic representation in the state shrinks. There are currently nine Democrats in the state Legislature — six in the House, three in the Senate — compared with the 95 Republicans between both chambers. That's down from 11 Democrats in 2022 and 16 in 2020. The state Democrats' single-digit hold in the Legislature stands in stark contrast, as well, to the party's 35-seat hold in 2008. That's why, Walz said, his blue neighbors to the west have to "win the hard races." That means winning county chair seats, school board elections and mayoral races. Walz's appearance also comes almost a month after State Rep. Melissa Hortman and her husband were shot and killed at their home. "We are reeling in Minnesota," Walz said. "The murder of Melissa Hortman is a wound that is going to take a long time and will never truly heal. But I have shared with all of you: Not only was this an incredible person -- smart, funny, talented -- she was a singular legislator who understood not just where we were going, but how to get there. And for all of you who are out here and know the tragedy of this, the way you honor that is run for office." The Democratic Party, in general, is in "a hell of a pickle," Walz said. Compared with his successful 2006 upset for a Minnesota U.S. House seat, when Walz was a "teacher with no money," today's Democrats have a harder time winning elections without necessary funding. "You can't get elected if you're a teacher or a small business owner or a nurse or retired if you don't have infrastructure to make it happen," Walz said. Walz also spoke to a messaging problem the party is facing, with some Democratic areas in the Midwest having shifted Republican over time. In this, Walz bemoaned the conservative tilt, asking out loud, "How did we lose those people?" before saying the party's policies haven't been delivered "in a way that they were able to employ." More: South Dakota supports ban on China owning US farmland But throughout Walz's call for uplifting conservatives into the Democratic fold and driving progressive policies, the former teacher spent time heckling South Dakota's former and current Republican leadership and lampooning the state's cultural and political identity. Kristi Noem, former South Dakota governor, now-secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, whom Walz worked alongside while both served in the U.S. House of Representatives, was his first target. Walz joked it would be "really tough" to make the trip to South Dakota because he "had to decide what [he] was going to wear." "When you're coming and you're in South Dakota, do you dress as a fireman? Do you dress as a cowboy?" Walz said, referencing Noem's donning of firefighting gear at a U.S. Coast Guard training facility and similar field attire when meeting with various groups. Walz also cracked that he didn't bring his dog, Scout, "for obvious reasons." Noem had written in a 2024 memoir a controversial account in which she shot and killed a 14-month-old hunting dog that disrupted a pheasant hunt more than 20 years ago. She also put down a goat that she stated smelled "wretched." The comments were petty, Walz concluded. But he refused to apologize, saying, "Some people just bring out the petty in me." Noem was particularly vexing, as Walz said he couldn't "rectify in [his] mind" how the former U.S. representative became the head of South Dakota. "If you picked someone who's the antithesis of the South Dakota I know, it would be that," Walz said of Noem. Walz also poked at South Dakota Gov. Larry Rhoden, who succeeded Noem after she took the secretary job in Trump's Cabinet. In a weekly column posted on the state's official news page, Rhoden wrote a passage celebrating South Dakota as "the freest state in America," which he stated provides "stronger 2nd Amendment protections than any other state." Rhoden related the state's gun laws to a mock shootout he observed at 1880 Town near Midland, which Walz mocked. "He said he did that because he wants you to know, as those pioneers have the ability to use their firearms to protect themselves, he wants South Dakota to be able to do that today," Walz said. "Who's gonna tell him that's pretend? It's Hollywood. My God. That's the No. 1 concern of the people of South Dakota is that he went to 1880s Day and watched a shoot out?" As far as South Dakota being the "freest" state, Walz said he "ran into an OBGYN that says that's not true." "The people discriminating against others are never the good guys in this," Walz said. "And that arc of the moral universe bends, but I would argue we need to get a little bit more aggressive and help that damn thing bend. Start pulling it in our direction and start making a difference because there are millions of Americans out there, many of them who voted the other way, who need us to bend that part for them." Walz pointed to his own wins in Minnesota as examples of liberal achievements, such as the state recording its highest graduation of high school seniors in 2025, and the Minnesota Legislature's passing of a 2023 bill to provide breakfasts and lunches to students at no cost to them. "I think making the case to folks in a more … proud, Democratic way is our policies that we're advocating for are very, very popular," Walz said. South Dakota Democrats had their own recent successes, Larson noted. Between blocking "bad bills on school vouchers, on criminalizing librarians and on bills that fan the flames of distracting culture wars" and pushing for public education, environmental policies and accessible healthcare, Larson said the current cohort of Democrats in Pierre are "small, but mighty." "We're speaking for the soul of our state," Larson said. "Now, I'm not going to tell you that we're going to flip South Dakota blue tomorrow, but we are growing … we are organizing and we are running stronger candidates every year. Because the point is progress. And what is the alternative? The alternative is giving up and letting the voices of South Dakota go silent and letting (the) other party turn South Dakota into something that we are not." In that vein, Walz said the party as a whole needs to take on a "50-state strategy" and not "leave these candidates for Senate in South Dakota or the House or the governor" behind. But Walz also criticized the limited broadcast of modern Democrats' "positive message of progressive change." Reflecting on the Harris-Walz campaign, the ex-vice presidential candidate said the ticket's strategy of maintaining the Blue Wall — states that have consistently voted Democrat — meant that said message went unheard in rural communities. "It was mostly heard in seven states, and it wasn't heard in Gregory, South Dakota," Walz said. "If you're afraid to go into any legion hall or any small restaurant and proudly talk about what our platform is, maybe we're not as proud as we should be about our policies." This article originally appeared on Sioux Falls Argus Leader: Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz brings message to South Dakota Democrats
Yahoo
09-07-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Council sets Sioux Falls' 2026 city election for June 2
Sioux Falls' next municipal election is set for June 2, 2026, following a Sioux Falls City Council vote in which multiple councilors said they were voting against their personal preference in favor of what they'd heard from their constituents. The recently-signed House Bill 1130 states that municipal and school district elections, which had previously taken place in April, must now be held either on the first Tuesday after the first Monday in June, or the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November. As councilors discussed the topic in June, many of them noted that they were still undecided on the best date. But at the July 8 meeting , the discussion was notably one-sided. It became clear that the June date was likely to succeed when, during the item that would have codified the November date, its own co-sponsor declared he would be voting against it due to the majority of the feedback he received expressing support for a June election. "When I ran for this office, I decided that I would always put the collective wisdom of the community ahead of my personal preference," Councilor David Barranco said. "So while I'd love to have a cup of coffee and talk with somebody why I think November would be wise, in this case, I think it's even wiser to put the needs of the group ahead of the needs, or the wants or the opinions of the individual." Councilor Miranda Basye made similar comments, saying she had been "quite vocal" in recent weeks that November was the most reasonable time for the election, but said she wanted to listen to her constituency and their interest in the June election. The motion to set the November date failed 7-1, with the only vote in favor being Councilor Richard Thomason, who said the date aligned with the intent of the legislature in passing the bill: increasing voter turnout. "The highest turnout's in November," Thomason said. "More people will go and vote that are of different political parties because some districts may not have a primary for their specific legislative races." There was less discussion on the item setting the June 2, 2026 election date, which passed 7-1 with Thomason against. The city's Charter Revision Commission will be meeting in the summer to bring a charter amendment to the voters, who will decide a permanent election date after 2026. This article originally appeared on Sioux Falls Argus Leader: Council sets Sioux Falls' 2026 city election for June 2
Yahoo
08-07-2025
- Yahoo
Officers shoot, injure 1 person Monday in Sioux Falls
Officials with the Sioux Falls Police Department say several officers shot and injured a person as they attempted to arrest him on July 7 near the area of West 10th Street and South Garfield Avenue. Assistant Chief Nick Cook, speaking at an 8:30 p.m. media briefing at the Law Enforcement Center, said that multiple officers had been attempting to arrest the unnamed suspect who was wanted on warrants for burglary, possession of a controlled substance and unauthorized ingestion of a controlled substance. Cook said the suspect was also wanted in connection with a July 6 shooting in which someone was shot in the head, and that they were believed to be in possession of a handgun. Cook said that as they attempted to contact the suspect at about 5:40 p.m. that "a firearm was produced," and that several officers fired at him. The suspect was injured, and taken to an area hospital for treatment. Cook said he was not aware of his condition. Cook declined to answer multiple questions about the incident, including the identity of the suspect, stating that the investigation had been turned over to the South Dakota Department of Criminal Investigation and that he was limited in what he could share. This article originally appeared on Sioux Falls Argus Leader: Officers shoot, injure 1 person Monday in Sioux Falls
