Helene Duhamel

South Dakota is one of a few states with a citizen legislature. After convening in Pierre, lawmakers return to their home districts and their full-time jobs. Many didn't expect to run for a public office, much less achieve a leadership position in the state legislature.We visit Representative Peterson to discuss how things unfolded this year.

South Dakota is one of a few states with a citizen legislature. After convening in Pierre, lawmakers return to their home districts and their full-time jobs. Many didn't expect to run for a public office, much less achieve a leadership position in the state legislature.We visit Senator Heinert to discuss how things unfolded this year.

South Dakota is one of a few states with a citizen legislature. After convening in Pierre, lawmakers return to their home districts and their full-time jobs. Many didn't expect to run for a public office, much less achieve a leadership position in the state legislature.

South Dakota’s Flaming Fountain is missing a key feature: flame. It’s been that way for more than a decade. Now there’s a plan to cap the well that supplies the fountain with natural gas.If that happens, it could close a fascinating chapter in state history with ties to a legendary politician, an unfortunate explosion, and generations of Capitol visitors.

We discuss an ongoing movement to address educational disparities for Native American students. The state Department of Education shows year after year that Native American students' on-time graduation rate is the lowest of any racial group in the state.

Last month, Representative Tamara St. John joined us to discuss her bill to fund the missing and murdered Indigenous person's liaison position in the attorney general's office. Lawmakers created that position last year in response to the disproportionate number of unsolved missing and murdered cases, but the position hasn't yet been filled. Last week, the non-profit Native Hope announced it will fund the position at $85,000 a year for three years.

Last month, Representative Tamara St. John joined us to discuss her bill to fund the missing and murdered Indigenous person's liaison position in the attorney general's office. Lawmakers created that position last year in response to the disproportionate number of unsolved missing and murdered cases, but the position hasn't yet been filled. Last week, the non-profit Native Hope announced it will fund the position at $85,000 a year for three years.

SDPB's politics and public policy reporter Lee Strubinger is following the state budgeting process. It's been made all the more complicated by millions of dollars in surplus funds.

A coalition of more than two dozen organizations has come together to encourage South Dakotans to support Medicaid Expansion. The group is called South Dakotans Decide Healthcare. In this installment of Pierre to Peer, SDPB's Lee Strubinger talks with former lawmaker Mitch Richter about the ballot issue, a failed attempt to expand Medicaid this session, and what that expansion might mean for South Dakotans.

A law passed more than three decades ago still controls the number of nursing-home beds in South Dakota. And this year a Native American tribe is asking the Legislature for an exception. SDPB’s Seth Tupper explains the history and logic behind the policy in this installment of our series, “Why is That?”