Habitual offenders will face a mandatory, seven-year sentence, and bail and warrant practices will be tightened under legislation signed into law Tuesday by Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds.
Reynolds signed into law three bills that were a part of Statehouse Republicans’ “tough on crime” series of legislation this year.
Continue reading “Iowa Republicans’ tough-on-crime bills signed into law”
South Dakota’s Republican voters will head to the polls on Tuesday, June 2, to choose their governor candidate for the November general election.
Four men are running for the spot, including Gov. Larry Rhoden, Congressman Dusty Johnson, House Speaker Jon Hansen and businessman Toby Doeden. Only registered Republicans can vote in the primary election for this specific race.
The winner needs to earn at least 35 percent of the vote, otherwise there will be a special runoff election later this year.
Continue reading “Meet the candidates in South Dakota’s Republican governor primary”
Minnesota has enacted a new law making the grooming of minors for sexual purposes a felony offense, marking a significant expansion of the state’s child protection framework following a bipartisan legislative effort driven largely by survivor testimony and investigative reporting.
Gov. Tim Walz signed the legislation Wednesday after it passed unanimously through both chambers of the Minnesota Legislature, including a 133-0 vote in the Minnesota House.
Torturing a companion animal will be charged as a felony in Iowa under a measure signed into law Monday by Gov. Kim Reynolds.
Reynolds, joined by lawmakers and advocates, signed House File 2348 into law at the Animal Rescue League of Iowa shelter in Des Moines. The law establishes a Class D felony charge for animal torture, defined as when a person “intentionally, willfully, and maliciously mutilates, burns, poisons, drowns, starves or causes intensive or prolonged pain or death to a companion animal, or provides anything of value to another person to do the same.”
Continue reading “Gov. Kim Reynolds signs law making animal torture a felony on first offense”
Top Trump administration officials traveled to Minnesota on Thursday to announce federal criminal charges against 15 people for alleged fraud schemes targeting more than $90 million in Medicaid funds intended to help the state’s children, homeless and disabled.
The charges include the two largest Medicaid fraud cases ever brought in Minnesota, federal officials said, and represent a “shot across the bow” in Trump’s “war on fraud” largely targeting blue states.
Continue reading “Feds announce charges ‘unprecedented’ Medicaid fraud scheme in Minnesota”
The U.S. Attorney’s Office in the Northern District of Texas has issued the first known criminal subpoena directed at a health care institution for offering gender-affirming care to transgender youth—at NYU Langone, a hospital situated almost 2,000 miles away in the greater New York City area.
The notification was sent to patients (and/or parents) via their online portal just after 7pm on May 11, as per screenshots obtained by Erin in the Morning. In a public statement, Langone indicated there were other health care institutions that received this kind of subpoena, too.
South Dakota will hire more parole officers, expand monitoring to nights and weekends, and make it easier to send people on parole back to prison, Gov. Larry Rhoden announced this week.
Five parole officers will be assigned to an enhanced compliance unit, Rhoden announced in a Thursday news release, and five new officers will be hired to backfill those positions.
South Dakota honored fallen officers during the state’s annual Law Enforcement Memorial Ceremony in Pierre.
Attorney General Marty Jackley is encouraging South Dakotans to remember the officers who have died in the line of duty since 1884.
Continue reading “Annual event in Pierre recognizes more than 70 officers killed in line of duty”
Republican legislative leaders and Gov. Kim Reynolds celebrated the approval of many of their priorities for the 2026 legislative session on issues including property taxes, crime and healthcare as lawmakers wrapped up their work for the year.
Over the weekend, lawmakers sent a $9.6 billion state budget to the governor’s desk, as well as legislation restricting access to abortion-inducing medication by requiring the drugs to be prescribed in person.
South Dakota Attorney General Marty Jackley announces that the South Dakota Supreme Court has affirmed the conviction and sentence of Lucian Celestine for attempted threat of felony terrorism. He had been convicted in Pennington County after making threats to President Donald Trump and taking steps toward carrying out those threats.
“Threats against the President of the United States and public officials are taken seriously,” said Attorney General Jackley. “We will continue to prosecute individuals who seek to harm or intimidate public officials and their families.”