Beadle County Sees Big One-Day Increase in COVID-19 Cases
South Dakota health officials report 95 new cases of COVID-19 in the state. Beadle County shows the biggest increase, with 32 new cases.
Pennington County reports 16 new cases. And there are 15 new cases in Minnehaha County. Thirteen additional people are hospitalized. Current hospitalizations now total 87. 1,016 South Dakotans are reportedly infected with COVID-19.
State Secretary of Health Kim Malsam-Rhysdon says the state is continuing to test assisted living facilities and expects the testing to wrap up in the next two weeks.
Five Arrests During Third Peaceful Protest In RC
For the second day in a row, young people marched in downtown Rapid City in memory of George Floyd, and in peaceful protest of police brutality. Chynna Lockett has more.
Employees at Social Services Center Test Positive
Two workers at the Care Campus in Rapid City have tested positive for COVID-19. Care Campus is Pennington County’s social services center that includes addiction treatment programs. The employees worked at the addiction treatment center between May 27th and May 30th. One also worked on May 31st. Both individuals were tested after developing symptoms.
Pennington County Chief Deputy Willie Whelchel says employee temperatures are checked daily, but social distancing is not always an option. As of today, Pennington County has 257 cases of the coronavirus.
Governor and Tribes Continue Dispute Over Checkpoints
Tribal governments continue to monitor travel checkpoints at reservation borders to control the spread of COVID-19. Governor Kristi Noem has ordered tribal leaders to remove the checkpoints. The governor says tribes do not have the authority to stop traffic on state highways. When the checkpoints were not removed Governor Noem sent President Trump information about the issue.
Frank Pommersheim serves on a number of tribal appellate courts throughout Indian Country. He’s Chief Justice for the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribal Court of Appeals and Associate Justice for the Rosebud Sioux Supreme Court. He says legal precedent gives tribes jurisdiction when it comes to issues of health on tribal lands.
“they have tribal sovereignty that flows from the Fort Laramie treaties of 1851 and 1868 meaning that they as any sovereign have the ability to govern all people found within their borders. Occasionally the federal government acting through Congress have put some limitations on that tribal sovereignty and there is clearly no federal statute that prohibits the tribe from doing what it’s doing and I don’t believe the governor has cited any federal statute that is allegedly is being violated.”
The checkpoints remain in place. Governor Noem says they are an issue of travel and commerce and not an issue of tribal sovereignty.
Decades Of Pork Efficiencies Falter Under Pandemic
The country’s food supply chain has faced serious tests this year. Pork producers learned that first hand in April, when several midwestern meat packing plants closed due to COVID-19 outbreaks.
A three-week shut down of Smithfield Foods in Sioux Falls displaced about 300,000 hogs. And that has ripple effects across the industry. Lee Strubinger has more.
Board of Regents Releases Fall Schedule
The Board of Regents has new information about the fall semester for the state’s six public universities. Students will start classes a few days earlier and finish in-person classes by Thanksgiving.
Janelle Toman is the communications director for the Regents. She says students will take their final exams remotely after the Thanksgiving holiday. It’s up to individual universities and programs to determine any other adjustments to their fall calendar.
“As long as they maintain their accredited status with various accrediting bodies that review these kind of programs, the board of regents lets the campuses make some of those unique and specific adjustments based on their programs.”
The condensed semester is intended to limit how often students travel to and from campus. Labor Day…Native American Day…and Veterans Day are all now class days to accommodate the new schedule. After Thanksgiving, the campuses will close for a deep cleaning.
Toman says the Board of Regents will not make any system-wide requirements related to masks or other mitigation efforts. She says that is up to individual universities.
Noem Considering Police Reform Proposals
Governor Kristi Noem says she’s considering several ways to reform policing. The comments are in response to protests across South Dakota and the nation after police involvement in a black man’s death in Minneapolis. SDPB’s Seth Tupper reports.