JIMMY ROGERS LEAVES SDSU TO BECOME HEAD COACH AT WASHINGTON STATE
BROOKINGS, S.D. – Jimmy Rogers has stepped down as head coach for South Dakota State University football and will be formally introduced at a press conference in Pullman, Washington, sometime next week.
According to reports Rogers 5-year deal will be worth about $1.57 million dollars per year, or about $8-9 million dollars total.
It’s believed he will be taking most, if not all, of his current SDSU assistant coaching staff with him to Pullman.
That could also mean a number of current Jackrabbit players and recruits may follow or go elsewhere. Sioux Falls Jefferson alum Griffin Wilde, a sophomore with two years of eligibility remaining, entered the transfer portal prior to news of Rogers departure breaking and rumors are that quarterback Mark Gronowski also intends to enter the portal or possibly forego his remaining eligibility and enter the NFL Draft.
It will be up to Rogers successor to try and retain players and keep the winning train going as the search for the 22nd coach in SDSU history gets underway.
Rogers, a former linebacker for the Jackrabbits, began coaching in 2010 and returned to Brookings to be the linebacker coach in 2013.
He was the team’s Defensive Coordinator in 2022 and took over as head coach in 2023 following the retirement of Coach John Stiegelmeier.
The Jackrabbits under Rogers ran up a 27-3 record, won two conference titles and also won the FCS Championship in January 2024.
GOVERNOR KRISTI NOEM’S PROPOSED BUDGET CUTS WOULD RAISE DUAL CREDIT COSTS FOR STUDENTS
PIERRE, S.D. (Makenzie Huber / South Dakota Searchlight) – South Dakota high school students will pay 50% more to take dual credit courses if legislators adopt a budget proposal by Republican Gov. Kristi Noem.
Currently, students pay one-third of the cost per credit hour, $50.84, while the state pays the rest. Noem’s proposal would split the cost in half, with the student and state each paying about $76 per credit hour. The state would spend around $1 million less on the program annually.
Noem is proposing the policy change in her budget for the next fiscal year. It’s one of numerous budget cuts she’s requesting as sales tax revenues decline.
Yet, in the education portion of her budget, she’s also proposing $4 million in new spending to create education savings accounts that would provide public funds for families to pay for private school tuition or for the costs of alternative instruction such as homeschooling.
The state Department of Education responded with a statement to South Dakota Searchlight questions about the proposed dual credit rate increase.
“The governor’s proposed budget will continue to allow motivated students the privilege to earn college credits at a reduced rate,” the statement said.
Education professionals worry that the increase would burden families and hamper their ability to enroll students. The program benefits not only them but the state as well, introducing students to higher education options at public universities and technical colleges.
There were 4,213 students enrolled in the public university portion of the program during fiscal year 2024, according to the governor’s budget proposal. There were 1,849 students enrolled in the technical college program. Classes are offered through all six public universities and four technical colleges throughout the state. Students can attend on-campus or online.
The program not only allows students to get a head start on their degree, but increases their confidence to succeed in higher education, said Ashley Seeklander, government relations chair for the South Dakota School Counseling Association and a counselor in the Aberdeen school district, in an emailed statement. Dual credit students have higher GPAs and retention rates once they enter college, according to an annual report on the program.
“As school counselors, we see firsthand the positive impact that the dual credit program has on student success,” Seeklander said.
If students forgo the dual credit program because of cost but still go on to attend a South Dakota university, they’ll pay even more. The average credit hour cost is $300 for a typical college student.
The South Dakota Board of Regents oversees the state’s public universities. Executive Director Nathan Lukkes said connecting with high school students before they apply to out-of-state colleges is an advantage for those institutions. About 60% of dual credit students enroll at South Dakota public universities upon graduation.
He hopes Noem’s proposed fee increase for students doesn’t hinder their ability to take the classes.
“The last thing we want is finances standing in the way of education,” Lukkes said.
He added that he expects enrollment in the program to level off in the coming years as high school enrollment decreases.
System director talks other proposed cuts
Noem also proposed another $2 million “operational” cut to the regents’ budget and a $9 million cut to the system’s building maintenance and repair fund.
The system has not decided how a $2 million cut would be implemented.
“Our goal is to minimize the impact to students — we want to continue to provide quality education at an affordable price,” Lukkes said. “We don’t want any cuts to hinder or alter that going forward.”
Regent Pam Roberts, a former South Dakota Republican Party chairwoman and former secretary of the South Dakota Department of Labor and Regulation, called the maintenance cut “shortsighted” at the board’s December meeting.
Lukkes added that it’s common to budget 2-4% of a building’s replacement value for maintenance and repair.
“We’re well positioned at the moment,” Lukkes said. “The challenge is if you take $9 million a year out of the funding stream and it’s not replaced very quickly, we’re good for a year or two. Five, 10, 15, 20 years down the road, you risk your infrastructure failing, falling into a state of disrepair and ultimately costing you more money than if you maintained it.”
THE NEXT TRUMP ADMINISTRATION OFFERS POSSIBLE REPRIEVE FOR FIVE SOUTH DAKOTANS INVOLVED IN JANUARY 6TH RIOT
SOUTH DAKOTA (John Hult / South Dakota Searchlight) – Amy Willis says she’s not a criminal.
When she entered the U.S. Capitol with a crowd of protesters who’d been urged by Donald Trump to “stop the steal” of the 2020 election on Jan. 6, 2021, she claimed it felt more like a tour than a group of insurrectionists.
“I didn’t know it was an insurrection until I saw it on the news the next day,” Willis said in a recent interview with South Dakota Searchlight.
In July, Willis was indicted on misdemeanor charges, including knowingly entering or remaining in a restricted building. The Sioux Falls herbalist became one of at least five South Dakotans and around 1,600 total people charged in federal court for their behavior that day — a group of people President-elect Trump has vowed to pardon upon returning to office next month.
A court document paints a starkly different picture than Willis’ description. A photo of her in the crowd before she entered the Capitol shows her amid a throng of people, some of whom held Trump flags and Gadsen flags — emblazoned with a coiled snake and the phrase “don’t tread on me” — or American flags. A puff of what appears to be smoke billows over the crowd. Another image from inside the Capitol shows Willis “appearing to film with her cell phone as rioters continued to pour in through the door and windows,” the document says.
Willis was allegedly part of a group that pushed past a police line, “forcing the officers to retreat.” The document also says Capitol police were actively attempting to push back the rioters.
Willis twice pulled away from an officer who’d attempted to remove her, the document says. She told Searchlight her resistance was a trauma response tied to a physically abusive relationship, and said she was planning to leave the building as instructed.
South Dakotans charged for alleged insurrectionist behavior
At least four South Dakotans have pending charges for their alleged actions on Jan. 6, and another South Dakotan has been sentenced.
Trump has referred repeatedly to Jan. 6 rioters as political prisoners and otherwise downplayed the riot, where four people in the crowd died and more than 100 police officers were injured. One officer died the day after the riot, and four others committed suicide within seven months. Once in office, Trump will have the authority to pardon each alleged rioter, including those like Willis whose cases are still working their way through the federal court system.
Judges have granted delays for at least two Jan. 6 defendants based on their argument that Trump might issue blanket pardons, Politico reported in November. Trump own’s potential criminal liability — he was indicted for his alleged efforts to subvert the 2020 election — have mostly dissolved in the wake of his election victory.
On Thursday, a judge signed an order allowing a Kansas City man who pleaded guilty to Jan. 6-related charges to attend Trump’s inauguration next month.
In a televised Dec. 8 interview with NBC News, Trump promised to “be acting very quickly” to pardon Jan. 6 defendants.
Newell man faces nine counts
Darrell Goins of Newell is charged with nine counts, including engaging in physical violence in a restricted building or grounds with a deadly and dangerous weapon — listed as a “20-ounce plastic soft drink bottle” in his indictment — as well as disorderly and disruptive conduct, entering and remaining in a restricted building and assaulting or impeding certain officers.
The Goins case opened in May. He was arrested and released on his own recognizance that month. He’s pleaded not guilty to all charges, and a judge granted a continuance for his case in a virtual hearing held Dec. 17. His next hearing is set to take place eight days after Trump’s Jan. 20 inauguration.
The FBI found Goins after getting a tip in mid-2022 identifying him in images and videos from Jan. 6, according to court documents. An agent interviewed a former coworker of Goins, who identified him in photos showing him raising a fist on the Capitol’s West Plaza “at the very front of the crowd, standing directly in front of the line of the U.S. Capitol Police.”
The court documents include a photo of a man, alleged to be Goins, tossing a plastic bottle at an officer, and say that “the bottle thrown by Goins appears to have narrowly missed” the officer’s head. The documents allege that Goins “physically engaged” with several officers on the way into the Capitol building alongside other rioters, and that a special agent with the Capitol police “recalled Goins actively rushing at the police line.”
They also allege that he used an officer’s riot shield to push into law enforcement while standing in front of a police line. He spent about 16 minutes inside the Capitol building before leaving, the documents say.
Calls placed by South Dakota Searchlight to numbers listed for Goins were not returned.
Bench warrant issued for Rapid City defendant
Calls to numbers listed for William George Knight of Rapid City also went unreturned.
Knight is charged with eight counts, including civil disorder, assaulting, impeding or resisting officers with a deadly and dangerous weapon — “a large metal sign,” according to his indictment — as well as disorderly conduct and entering and remaining in a restricted building.
A judge issued a bench warrant for Knight’s arrest in early October for failure to appear at a status hearing. U.S. Marshals Service spokesman Brady McCarron told South Dakota Searchlight via email that the “only status” they have for Knight is that he is out on bond.
The oldest open case involving a South Dakotan is that of Rapid City’s James Haffner.
Haffner moved to Rapid City from the Seattle area after Jan. 6. He was arrested three years ago in Rapid City on charges of assaulting, resisting or impeding law enforcement, violent and unlawful entry of restricted buildings, obstructing law enforcement during a civil disorder and entry and disorderly conduct on Capitol grounds.
Haffner’s case is still pending in D.C. district court. His next case status hearing is scheduled for Jan. 23.
When reached by South Dakota Searchlight, Haffner wrote that talking to the outlet would not be “in my best interests.”
“From my perspective, most journalists and news sources are scumbags,” Haffner wrote.
Sentenced from South Dakota
Like Haffner, rapper and Jan. 6 defendant Billy Knutson is an out-of-state transplant.
Knutson, who goes by the name “Playboythebeast,” moved to Mitchell from North Carolina in 2021. His lyrical themes are heavily political — he has songs called “Let’s Go Brandon (fjb)” and “Kyle Rittenhouse” — and they often reference his affiliation with the Proud Boys, a far-right group whose founder once sued the Southern Poverty Law Center for labeling it a hate group.
The former song is a coded insult of President Joe Biden. The latter song is a reference to the real Kyle Rittenhouse, who shot and killed a Black Lives Matter protester in Wisconsin in 2020. Rittenhouse was later acquitted of homicide charges on self-defense grounds.
“Free all my homies from the 6th that whole s— was a scam,” Knutson raps in that song, which also includes the line “AR-15 at my side like I’m Kyle Rittenhouse.”
Once the rapping ends, Knutson uses his speaking voice to end the song with a shoutout to the Proud Boys founder, and another spoken shoutout to Jan. 6 defendants.
Knutson served six months in federal prison on Jan. 6-related charges.
In a sentencing memorandum filed in Knutson’s case, U.S. Attorney Matthew Graves of the D.C. district pointed to Knutson’s lyrics as a reason to give him a more significant sentence than some of his fellow Jan. 6 defendants. The document includes screenshots of Knutson’s music videos, including one in which the rapper holds up finger guns under a shower of bullet-shaped graphics.
Knutson pleaded guilty to one count of entering and remaining in a restricted building or grounds. He released songs about the riot before and after that.
“Knutson’s participation in a riot that actually succeeded in halting the Congressional election-certification, combined with his violent criminal history, his celebration and endorsement of the violence on January 6, and his public condoning of future violence — including gun violence — renders a significant jail sentence both necessary and appropriate in this case,” the memo reads.
The sentencing memorandum notes that Knutson moved to Mitchell because the Proud Boys’ state headquarters was located there.
Knutson was released from federal custody on March 31, 2023. Messages sent to Knutson’s artist contact page were not returned.
Willis hopeful for pardon
Willis, the Sioux Falls herbalist, didn’t stay up to hear the results of the presidential election on Nov. 5. But when she awoke the next morning to learn that Trump had won a second term, she was relieved on two levels.
First, she was pleased that her preferred candidate had emerged victorious. Second, she was hopeful that she might avoid being forced to stand trial.
Her interview with Searchlight marked the first time Willis had spoken to the media. It’s also “one of the first times” she’s admitted being in the Capitol that day, she said, though she’s been contacted by law enforcement and appeared virtually in court a few times since being indicted earlier this year.
“They have a lot of pictures of me anyway,” Willis said. “Now Trump’s in office, so that’s why I’m OK with this.”
Her next hearing is scheduled to take place virtually on Jan. 3.
SOUTH DAKOTA’S ACLU CHAPTER CALLS FOR MORE TRANSPARENCY FROM THE SOUTH DAKOTA SUPREME COURT
SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (Dakota News Now) – South Dakota’s ACLU Chapter called out the state’s Supreme Court for what they said is an issue of transparency.
State courts hear the vast majority of cases in the country and often pave the way for groundbreaking precedents that affect the country as a whole.
However, the National ACLU chapter and their report on the access of case information on the state’s supreme court website, insist that the state has some work to do.
The ACLU created a scorecard which outlines four pieces of criteria they expect from the websites of supreme courts around the country.
These include issues such as the timely publication of new pending case names and free and timely public access to docket information.
“Just with the first one, regularly posting and listing new cases so that the public can see what the Supreme Court is hearing, what is going on with the Supreme Court, just some simple transparency practices, South Dakota ACLU Chapter Communications Director Janna Farley said.
South Dakota’s Supreme Court website was one of six states to meet none of the criteria, Farley said that’s not acceptable.
“State supreme courts have the final word on interpreting a state’s constitution without the threat of a U.S. Supreme Court intervention, so it’s very important on a local level what is happening in our state Supreme Court,” Farley said.
Farley added that with recent decisions from the United States Supreme Court in cases like Roe v. Wade and the Chevron Decision, transparency at the state level is becoming increasingly important.
Dakota News Now reached out to the South Dakota Unified Judicial System and did not a get a response back.
