The estimated number of people who can’t vote in the United States because of a felony conviction has declined by 24% since 2016, but the total is still large, according to a report released Tuesday by the Sentencing Project.

At estimated 4.6 million Americans won’t be able to vote in the 2022 midterm elections because of current or past felonies, which amounts to one out of 50 adults, according to the report, Locked Out 2022: Estimates of People Denied Voting Rights Due to a Felony Conviction. An overview is here.

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A sheriff in western Iowa says local, state and federal authorities are “actively investigating” in a rural area where a woman claimed her late father disposed of dozens of bodies of people he killed decades ago.

“We are actively investigating this, and who wouldn’t?” Fremont County Sheriff Kevin Aistrope told CNN Affiliate KETV.

“We have a scene, but we don’t know whether it’s a crime scene,” the sheriff told KETV. “We don’t have victims, bodies. Nothing.”

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Halloween came early for some in the Cedar Valley as Angels Memorial Park in Evansdale welcomed guests for a safety day on Saturday afternoon.

It featured trick or treating, free food, a Kids Zone and face painting stations. They went through over 300 pounds of candy. Event board member Dona Klein estimated between 1500 and 2000 people showed up at Angels Park.

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People who shield their wealth through financial trusts in South Dakota aren’t tax evaders, according to a Sioux Falls lawyer.

Terry Prendergast told the South Dakota Trust Association conference on Friday trusts are “nothing more” than a way to defer paying taxes until some future date. The federal IRS has complex regulations on how trust income must be reported each year.

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South Dakota, one of a dozen states that has strict limits on who can qualify for Medicaid, could vote in November to expand health care coverage to thousands more people. A new state poll finds that supporters currently outweigh the opposition, but a large percentage have not made up their minds.

Roughly half – 54 percent – of registered voters in South Dakota support Medicaid expansion less than a month before the public decides the midterm referendum, according to final results from the SDSU Poll.

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South Dakota Attorney General Mark Vargo earlier this month prepared to hire a law enforcement officer to coordinate investigations into the disappearance and murder of Indigenous people.

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The Justice Department has announced the results of its efforts over the past year to protect older adults from fraud and exploitation. During the past year, the Department and its law enforcement partners tackled matters that ranged from mass-marketing scams that impacted thousands of victims to bad actors scamming their neighbors. Substantial efforts were also made over the last year to return money to fraud victims. This week, the Department also announced it is expanding its Transnational Elder Fraud Strike Force to amplify efforts to combat scams originating overseas.

Continue reading “South Dakota Takes Part in the United States Department of Justice’s Wide-Ranging Efforts to Protect Older Adults” →

Jeff White knows what can happen when 911 dispatchers receive a call about someone who feels despondent or agitated.

He experienced it repeatedly: The 911 operators dispatched police, who often took him to a hospital or jail. “They don’t know how to handle people like me,” said White, who struggles with depression and schizophrenia. “They just don’t. They’re just guessing.”

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South Dakota’s minimum wage is moving north of $10 per hour.

The South Dakota Department of Labor and Regulation said Wednesday, Sept. 28 that the state’s minimum wage will officially increase to $10.80 per hour starting on Jan. 1, 2023. That increase is 85 cents from where it stands today at $9.95 per hour, an increase of 8.5%.

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