PINE RIDGE, S.D. – Middle schooler Rarity Cournoyer stood at the heart of the Red Cloud Indian School campus and chanted a prayer song firmly and solemnly in the Lakota language — in a place where past generations of students were punished for speaking their mother tongue. Her classmates stood around her at a prayer circle designed with archetypes of…
KENTUCKY (KVRR) – Seventeen Red Cross volunteers from Minnesota and The Dakotas, including three from Fargo-Moorhead, are heading to Kentucky to help with tornado relief. They will run eight shelters in Kentucky. Many of the volunteers are in the Mayfield area which has been hit hard by storms. The Executive Director of the local Red Cross chapter says he was…
April 2021 MugshotCLAY CO., Minn. (KVRR) — A man authorities believe was traveling back into our area with a shipment of drugs is arrested during a stop on I-94 in Clay County. Officers stopped 48-year-old Charles Fraction, who has no permanent address, on Wednesday. They found around 70 grams believed to be a cocaine and fentanyl mixture, nearly 5 grams…
PIERRE, S.D. – The South Dakota Supreme Court has upheld a lower court’s ruling that nullified a voter-passed amendment to the state constitution that would have legalized recreational marijuana use. Gov. Kristi Noem instigated the legal fight to strike down the amendment passed by voters in November. The Republican governor opposed marijuana legalization, but her administration argued in court that…
ABERDEEN, S.D. – Contempt charges have been dismissed for three supervisors in the U.S. Marshals Service for a series of events that began with a deputy marshal refusing to disclose her vaccination status while serving in federal court in Aberdeen. Federal Judge Charles Kornmann filed the charges after directing anybody in his courtroom to be vaccinated for COVID-19. When a deputy…
SIOUX FALLS, S.D. – Federal regulators reached an agreement with Smithfield Foods to settle a contested citation of the company’s coronavirus safety measures during a massive outbreak last year at its South Dakota pork plant. The company will develop a plan to prevent infectious diseases at meatpacking plants nationwide and pay a $13,500 fine. The pork processing plant was one…
PIERRE, S.D. (KVRR) – South Dakota Republican Gov. Kristi Noem is running for reelection. “I’m excited to announce that I will be running for re-election as Governor of South Dakota” Noem announced on social media Friday afternoon. “Together, we’ve accomplished so much…but there is much more we can do. South Dakota’s best days are still ahead. Noem says South Dakota…
Jason RavnsborgPIERRE, S.D. – South Dakota’s House is investigating whether the state’s attorney general should be impeached for his conduct surrounding a car crash last year that killed a pedestrian. A sizable majority of the Republican-dominated House voted Tuesday to have a committee recommend whether Attorney General Jason Ravnsborg should be impeached. It could take weeks for the committee of…
RAPID CITY, S.D. – A South Dakota feedlot operator who pleaded guilty to operating a Ponzi cattle scheme has been sentenced to nearly eight years in prison. Prosecutors say Robert Blom, of Corsica, resold the same cattle to multiple investors and made a profit of about $24 million from 2014 to 2019. He resold cattle he didn’t have, falsified invoices…
SIOUX FALLS, S.D. – Protesters against COVID-19 vaccine mandates in South Dakota are suing Gov. Kristi Noem after the state denied their application to demonstrate on Capitol grounds during a special legislative session this month. The group of protesters say they planned to hold a demonstration next week to push the Legislature to take up a bill that would keep…
