South Dakota is one of the top states in the country for personal and economic freedom, according to a report.

The state ranked third in the annual Freedom in the 50 States Index, which is put out by libertarian think tank the Cato Institute. The report weighs personal and economic freedoms based on over 230 state and local public policies.

South Dakota has never dipped below the top six since the 2000s and held the top spot for four years from 2006 to 2010. Its consistently strong economic performance, “excellent” fiscal policy, low state taxation, and below-average state and local debt are among the factors keeping South Dakota’s score so high.

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Five of the eight Iowa counties with the largest Black populations “had trial juries that were fully representative of their jury-eligible Black population” during 2022 and the first half of 2023, according to data analyzed by the Iowa-Nebraska NAACP.

However, trial juries in Polk County and Scott County failed to hit that benchmark, and Dubuque County was “particularly problematic,” with zero Black members of any trial jury during the18-month period reviewed.

The same review indicated that trial juries in Linn and Woodbury counties were close to being representative of the area’s jury-eligible Latino population, while Latinos were underrepresented on juries in Johnson, Marshall, Scott, and Polk counties, and particularly in Muscatine County.

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The leader of a South Dakota tribe is expected to declare an emergency on the state’s largest Native American reservation because of rampant crime that he said hasn’t been curbed due to the U.S. government’s inadequate funding for law enforcement.

The state of emergency declaration planned for Saturday on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation comes nearly six months after a federal judge ruled the U.S. government has a treaty obligation to support law enforcement on the reservation, but declined to determine whether the Oglala Sioux Tribe is entitled to the full funding amount requested.

Oglala Sioux President Frank Star Comes Out said in an interview Friday that conditions on the reservation have worsened since the ruling, prompting him to sign the emergency proclamation.

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A coalition of 26 state attorneys general is calling on the new U.S. Speaker of the House to pass a Florida-sponsored bill that would grant states the authority to enforce federal immigration law when the federal government refuses to do so.

The AGs, led by Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody, sent a letter to Speaker Mike Johnson, R-Louisiana, on Monday. In it, they called on Congress to pass U.S. Rep. Bill Posey’s bill, the Immigration Enforcement Partnership Act. Posey, R-Florida, first filed the measure in 2022 and again in March 2023.

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People stealing trees from public and private land in Iowa is an infrequent but growing occurrence, according to state conservation officers.

The crimes range considerably in their scope and sophistication, and the value of the heists can be lucrative. Some of the culprits might haul their looted timber with ramshackle trailers. Others might have full-on logging rigs.

Continue reading “Tree theft is a rising crime in Iowa, with thieves stealing them off people’s property” →

U.S. Supreme Court justices during Tuesday’s oral arguments seemed to lean toward upholding a federal law that prevents the possession of firearms by a person who is subject to a domestic violence protective order.

Liberal and conservative justices appeared to side with the Biden administration’s position that the 1994 federal law is in line with the longstanding practice of disarming dangerous people and does not violate an individual’s Second Amendment rights.

U.S. Solicitor General Elizabeth Prelogar, representing the Biden administration, argued that there is historical precedent in the ability of Congress to “disarm those who are not law-abiding, responsible citizens.”

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In a joint press conference across the state of South Dakota Friday, the Minnehaha County Sheriff’s Office, Pennington County Sheriff’s Office, Rapid City Police Department, and Sioux Falls Police Department announced they have updated radios and equipment to comply with federal guidelines specific to Project 25 (P25). Recognizing the communication obstacles amongst mutual aid agencies during the 9/11 terrorist attacks, the FCC created P25 to bolster communication efforts and prevent technological differences from interfering with public safety. This project mandates first responder agencies nationwide to transition to a new, unified radio communications system by 2025.

With this upgrade to radios and equipment for P25, agencies can reassess their approach to encrypted radio communications channels. Starting November 13, Minnehaha County Sheriff’s Office, Pennington County Sheriff’s Office, Rapid City Police Department, and Sioux Falls Police Department will choose to encrypt their radios for the safety of officers and deputies, the integrity of investigations, and to protect victims’ and witnesses’ privacy.

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When law professor Sean Kammer’s friends told him they were skeptical about the seriousness of his upcoming course focused on Taylor Swift at the University of South Dakota, it was his chance to do what any Swiftie would do: Shake it off.

“I understand this sounds ridiculous, at least at first glance,” said Kammer, a self-avowed Swiftie. “But it’s not.”

Kammer’s course, The Taylor Swift Effect, planned for the spring semester looks to be the first law school class based on the sequined musical icon.

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Over 1,000 people are killed by law enforcement each year in the United States. While the majority of those killings are deemed to be justified by oversight officials, many are not. Footage of the murder of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer in 2020 sparked nationwide protests, calls for fundamental police reform, and increased scrutiny over the use of deadly force and other abuses of power.

From 2013 to through May 2023, a reported 11,706 people were killed by police officers – both on and off duty – in the United States, according to Mapping Police Violence, a research collaborative that collects data on police killings across the nation. Adjusting for population, this comes out to around 3.5 police killings for every 100,000 people. However, the number of police killings in the last 10 years varies considerably from state to state.

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As advocates representing poor people convicted of federal crimes, the overwhelming majority of whom are Black and Brown men, we have seen the ease with which harsh mandatory minimum sentences have become part of our criminal system.

For example, in 2008 at a federal courthouse in Fort Wayne, Indiana, our client Dion Walker received a mandatory life sentence for selling cocaine to a government informant. Because Walker had two prior convictions for nonviolent drug offenses, the judge had no choice but to sentence him to life in prison.

Highly controversial, this “three strikes” law represents the darkest excesses of our “tough on crime” approach to federal drug offenses.

Continue reading “First Step Act advanced prison reform, but hundreds are still serving unjust sentences” →