SOUTH DAKOTA DEPARTMENT OF CORRECTIONS INMATES LENDING SUPPORT IN HUDSON
HUDSON, S.D. – Secretary of Corrections Kellie Wasko has authorized offenders and staff from the Department of Corrections to assist with storm damage clean-up efforts in Hudson. Governor Rhoden offered this support in his visit to Hudson yesterday.
“We’re assisting this community in dealing with the aftermath of the recent storm,” said Secretary of Corrections Kellie Wasko. “The offenders and staff have been the recipients of tremendous gratitude from the residents here, which is very rewarding.”
Minimum-security offenders from the Yankton Minimum Center arrived in Hudson this morning to assist in clearing storm debris, including downed trees and tree limbs.
The DOC crews worked in areas identified by the local emergency management officials. The clean-up effort is a collaboration with Lincoln County Sheriff Steve Swenson, Lincoln County Emergency Management, and the community of Hudson.
Requests for DOC offender assistance come from local Emergency Management officials. DOC also offered disaster assistance last year for flooding in the Southeast, spring flooding in the Northeast in 2023, and the derecho in 2022.
BODIES RECOVERED FROM BLAST SITE IN FREMONT NEBRASKA
FREMONT, NE (KTIV) – A day after a horrific explosion at Horizon Biofuels, the Dodge County Sheriff’s Office confirmed the bodies of the three people missing after Tuesday’s horrific explosion at a biofuels plant had been recovered at the scene.
The Dodge County Sheriff’s Office confirmed in a Wednesday night news release that 32-year-old Dylan D. Danielson of Columbus, Neb., was killed in the explosion. His body was recovered at the site around noon Wednesday — about 24 hours after the explosion.
The Dodge County Attorney has ordered an autopsy be conducted.
According to the latest update, authorities will not be providing the names of the girls, whose bodies were located as recovery efforts continued into the evening.
“Our office would like to offer our sincerest condolences to the family of the victims. The family has requested privacy during this time,” the Sheriff’s Office said in its latest release.
Crews were still working to fully extinguish the fire late Wednesday. A spokesman with the Sheriff’s Office confirmed that there were still hot spots at the scene with fire.
The Dodge County Board of Supervisors declared a disaster Wednesday afternoon, making a formal request to the state for aid, according to the Sheriff’s update.
Investigation into the cause of the blast is already underway.
“The State Fire Marshal’s Office continues to investigate at Horizon Biofuels, working closely with local law enforcement to determine the circumstances that caused the explosion,” Wednesday night’s release states.
Earlier on Wednesday it was confirmed that the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration is also investigating the explosion. An OSHA spokesman said Wednesday the agency won’t be able to comment on the investigation, which must — by law — be completed within six months.
There are also four people with the Nebraska Fire Marshal‘s are at the site, working to confirm the cause of the explosion. Interim State Fire Marshal Doug Hohein said his office won’t be commenting on the investigation until they find the origin of the incident.
EFFORTS SHIFT TO RECOVERY
Mayor Joey Spellerberg said at a news conference Wednesday morning that firefighters worked through the night and are still working to extinguish the fire burning in the aftermath of the explosion. Tuesday night’s precipitation didn’t have an impact on those efforts, he said.
The mayor also confirmed that three people — one man and two girls younger than age 12 — were in the explosion. Extended family who spoke with First Alert 6 on Tuesday said those missing are a father and his two daughters. Spellerberg said the children were at the facility waiting for the man, an employee at the plant, to get done working so they could go to a doctor’s appointment.
“Right now, this has moved to a recovery effort,” he said, indicating that the missing people were now believed to be dead.
Mayor Spellerberg said a grain bin and connecting building with an office are where rescue and recovery workers had focused their efforts. That’s where they believe the man was when the explosion occurred.
He said that Nebraska Task Force 1, which has been assisting with search and rescue efforts, and cooperating fire agencies had assessed the structure; and given what was in and around the building, they determined that efforts should move from rescue to recovery at a meeting Wednesday morning.
The mayor said officials were not yet releasing the names of the victims “out respect for the family.”
“My heart hurts. It hurts for this situation that’s a tragedy. We pray for all the families involved. … To see Nebraska and Fremont be able to come together and rally together right now — we have every resource that we can coming to this site. … We’ll continue to pray, lift up the families involved, and we’ll continue to rally around them.”
Fremont Mayor Joey Spellerberg
Emergency crews are using heavy equipment to initiate a “delayering” process in order to find the victims. Fremont Fire Chief Todd Bernt said Tuesday that crews weren’t able to access the building due to collapsed steel.
“It’s gonna be very slow,” Carl Nielsen, chief of the Fremont Rural Volunteer Fire Department, said during Wednesday’s news conference. “So as we peel pieces off, we’re gonna be doing fire suppresion at the same time as the search.”
‘DELAYERING’ PROCESS
MJ Lierman with NE-TF1 explained the “delayering” process as using heavy equipment to remove debris. She said it was a process used earlier this month in the aftermath of the devastating floods in Texas.
As of around noon Wednesday, workers were still clearing outer areas of the debris field. They will be working their way inward, from top to bottom. They’re also working with some unknowns in terms of the building’s stability, Lierman said.
“Due to the structural instability caused by the explosion and the fire’s deep-seated hot spots, operations remain complex and hazardous,” the Sheriff’s Office said in Wednesday afternoon’s news release.
Emergency crews are using heavy equipment to initiate a “delayering” process in order to find the victims in the Fremont explosion.
Nebraska State Patrol and the Dodge County Sheriff’s Office has traffic contained in a tighter area Wednesday as crews continue their work at the explosion site. Traffic is restricted on Cloverly Road between Main Street and Platte Avenue, and people were urged to avoid the area altogether as crews with fire hoses are active in the area. Schneider Street is also blocked. Those road closures are expected to continue “until further notice,” according to the Wednesday night update.
Some nearby businesses in the industrial area have also called off work for the day.
With drone teams still working in the area, the temporary flight restriction around the Horizon Biofuels plant is expected to remain for the next 48 hours.
Ashley Engler, NE-TF1 program manager who is also leading the search and rescue efforts at the site, said Wednesday that the task force was coordinating collaborative efforts between local and state agencies and contractors to systematically remove layers of debris in order to recover the bodies of the victims, who remain missing. Structural engineers are also assisting with getting access in a safe manner, she said.
“The light steel — lightweight steel — warehouse structure with concrete elevator structure is making the structure basically very difficult to access, to gain access due to the instability. That’s including the active fire that continues in the main concrete building. This continues to weaken as we continue to work and as the fire continues to burn,” she said.
‘UNTIL WE’RE DONE’
In a statement Wednesday afternoon, Pillen expressed his appreciation for the those from “numerous agencies” working at the scene in Fremont.
“This is obviously a difficult situation for the community and those first responders who are working diligently at the scene,” Pillen said in the statement. “Suzanne and I continue to extend our thoughts and prayers to the family and friends of those who were in the plant at the time of this tragic incident.”
The mayor said he wasn’t aware of any environmental concerns as a result of the fire.
Nielsen acknowledged several area fire departments that have been working nonstop, assisting Fremont firefighters in fighting the fire, which was still actively burning at the time of the news conference: Nickerson, North Bend, Hooper, Arlington, Waterloo, Valley, Cedar Bluffs, and Scribner.
“We’ll be on scene until we’re done. As far as a timeline goes, none of us have any idea on that so far,” Nielsen said.
Several law enforcement agencies have also been assisting at the scene. The governor’s office confirmed Wednesday that NEMA Director Adjutant General Craig Strong activated 14 NE-TF1 personnel to assist, providing “expertise in structural issues” as well as a K-9 team.
Fremont officials have also been combating misinformation, noting in a social media post Tuesday that the city was not asking residents to reduce or discontinue water use.
Mayor Spellerberg said the Nebraska Fire Marshall has been in contact with Horizon Biofuels. He said he has also been in contact with the governor’s office as well as the Nebraska Emergency Management Agency.
The company has 10 employees, according to the Nebraska Manufacturing Extension Partnership website.
Horizon, according to the Nebraska Department of Energy’s website, is one of three commercial pellet plants in the state, with the capacity to produce 20,000 short tons of wood pellets, made from waste wood.
Under the name Elkhorn Valley Animal Bedding, Horizon Biofuels manufactures wood pellets and animal bedding made from pallet.
Fremont Rural Volunteer Fire Department told First Alert 6 that Hy-Vee, Jimmy John’s, and McDonald’s had donated food on Tuesday. They had been asking the community for additional food donations on Wednesday as crews continue battling the fire and working on recovery efforts, but said in Wednesday evening’s update that they “now have all the supplies and assistance they need.”
A local church has also been collecting water and other drink donations.
“First responders would like to thank the public for their continued support and generosity. While donations have been greatly appreciated, officials confirm that they now have all the supplies and assistance they need,” the Wednesday night release from the Sheriff’s Office says.
IOWA DISCIPLINARY BOARD REPRIMANDS ATTORNEY REPRESENTING LANDOWNERS IN PIPELINE SUITS
DES MOINES, IA (Iowa Capital Dispatch) – The Iowa Supreme Court Attorney Disciplinary Board reprimanded Brian Jorde, an attorney who has represented hundreds of landowners in lawsuits against pipelines, including Iowa and South Dakota landowners opposed to the Summit Carbon Solutions pipeline.
The disciplinary board wrote in the reprimand that Jorde presented information that was “misleading or deceptive” during Iowa and South Dakota utilities commission proceedings regarding permit applications for the carbon sequestration project.
Jorde, part of Domina Law Group out of Omaha, represented 155 landowners in the Iowa Utilities Commission’s evaluation of Summit Carbon Solutions’ permit application to construct more than 600 miles of a pipeline carrying liquid carbon dioxide sequestered from biorefineries across the state. The pipeline would travel through Iowa, Minnesota, Nebraska, South Dakota and eventually be stored in underground rock formations in North Dakota.
In the Iowa permit proceedings, Jorde filed pretrial testimony on behalf of landowners, including Nancy Dugan.
Dugan had filed her own information in the IUC proceedings as well and, according to the reprimand, had been in contact via email with Jorde.
Jorde also represented landowners in the South Dakota Public Utilities Commission’s hearings on Summit’s permit application. According to the records provided in the reprimand, he asked for and received Dugan’s permission to submit some of her research that had already been submitted in the IUC dockets, to the South Dakota hearings.
Jorde’s filings on behalf of Dugan, however, included introductory written testimony, which Dugan later said, in an email to Jorde obtained by the advisory board, were “not statements I would choose to submit.”
The reprimand said Dugan did not approve these written statements. The statement submitted in South Dakota had an electronic signature at the bottom, but the IUC document had not been signed by Dugan.
Dugan clarified in her email to Jorde that she was not a landowner and was worried about being called to testify. Jorde, in response, said the filing with the IUC must have happened inadvertently by staff who filed a number of pretrial testimony. He assured Dugan he did not intend to call her to testify, according to the included emails.
In subsequent emails, Dugan asked Jorde to retract the statement, or allow her to submit a revised version that included her actual responses. According to the reprimand, Dugan later learned the same statements had been submitted in South Dakota and again emailed Jorde asking him to refrain from filing any affidavits on her behalf unless it was something she had written or reviewed or approved.
In April 2024, months after the IUC hearing occurred Dugan brought up the issue again to Jorde asking him to rescind the statements from the IUC record, according to the reprimand. Jorde said the pretrial testimony was not used in the hearing and therefore not part of the record, so he was unsure what action the IUC would take. He later said to the board the filing was not “material” information to the proceedings, the reprimand states.
“If I file a request to have it deleted for instance that will bring more attention to something Summit and others are not even thinking about now,” Jorde said in an email excerpt included in the letter from the advisory board.
According to the advisory board, Jorde contacted the IUC about removing the testimony, but did not contact the South Dakota commission about the issue.
The written testimony attributed to Dugan was not used in the commission hearings in either state.
Dugan brought the issue to the attention of the IUC council and Nebraska attorney disciplinary authorities, where the matter was brought to the Iowa Supreme Court Attorney Disciplinary Board.
The board concluded the actions in South Dakota were “deceptive” and wrote it was “deeply concerning” that Jorde and his staff did not mention to Dugan the extra pages filed in addition to the research she had consented to filing.
The board was less clear on its ruling on the Iowa document because Jorde claimed it was inadvertently submitted, which was enforced by the blank notarization. The board “found it troubling” Jorde did not withdraw the filing upon learning it had been inadvertently filed.
The board concluded that the “severity of the misrepresentation issues” did not “rise to level” of many previously prosecuted matters, but “the duty of candor is one of the most basic and fundamental obligations we require of lawyers.”
Jorde did not file any exceptions to the reprimand within the allowed 30-day window, meaning the reprimand was made “final and public” according to the document.
In a message to Iowa Capital Dispatch, Jorde said his focus remains on his clients.
“I decided not to contest this matter and have moved on,” Jorde wrote.
There is no further disciplinary action beyond the public reprimand.
Federal appeals court denies request for rehearing
A federal appeals court denied a rehearing petition Monday from Iowa counties involved in a case against Summit Carbon Solutions regarding a county’s ability to enact local pipeline ordinances.
Shelby and Story County supervisors petitioned the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eight Circuit for an en banc rehearing earlier this month following the judge’s ruling in favor of Summit in June.
One judge dissented in the majority opinion that all of the ordinances set by the counties would be preempted by the Pipeline Safety Act.
An en banc rehearing, as requested by the counties and supported via amicus briefs from the states of Minnesota, Michigan, Oregon, Vermont and from Pipeline Safety Trust, would require a rehearing of the case with all 11 active judges at the appeals court.
The order denying the petition for rehearing did not include any additional information or opinion from the judge.
SDSU LOSES $86 MILLION DOLLAR GRANT DUE TO FEDERAL BUDGET CUTS
BROOKINGS, S.D. – South Dakota State University lost an $86 million livestock research grant as part of recent federal spending cuts, making South Dakota the state with the highest per student loss of research grants, the Center for American Progress reported.
However, without that grant, the overall impacts of the Trump administration’s cuts to higher education in South Dakota are relatively minimal.
The state’s high average loss can be attributed to relatively low numbers of undergraduate and graduate students in South Dakota as well as the one large grant rescinded earlier this year.
The other South Dakota schools that had research funding cut include the University of South Dakota in Vermillion, South Dakota School of Mines and Technology in Rapid City and Oglala Lakota College in Kyle. Combined, they lost around $1.6 million in unused funds, according to the report.
More than $1,700 per student, which includes the SDSU grant, was “targeted for termination” by the Trump administration in South Dakota, according to the report.
“Targeted for termination” means grants the administration intends to terminate, said Greta Bedekovics, co-author of the article and associate director of democracy policy at the Center for American Progress, a policy institute focused on conservation.
The list of grants was compiled by cross-referencing lists of cancelled or rescinded grants from doge.gov, a spreadsheet of canceled grants from the U.S. Health and Human Services and the U.S. Treasury Department’s usaspending.gov, Bedekovics said.
Daniel Scholl, vice president for research and economic development at SDSU, told News Watch the research funding situation is ever-changing, and exact impacts are unknown as the federal government prepares the 2026 budget.
“There are a lot of different ways it could shake out, so the pathway is not clear,” he said.
“The things that are going on in the federal events are how to handle changes in the current fiscal year’s budget. That affects what’s available to us to support students and to carry out research,” Scholl said. “Secondly, what are they going to do with the FY26 budget? It all reduces to those two things.”
Here are the specific cuts:
South Dakota State University: An $86 million U.S. Department of Agriculture grant that aimed to support beef and bison producers in grazing techniques to have a positive environmental impact. $68.5 million was unused.
University of South Dakota: A $150,000 National Endowment for the Humanities grant to use artificial intelligence to create tags for digitized cultural heritage materials at USD. Around $106,000 was unused.
South Dakota School of Mines and Technology: SDSMT had four grants that were terminated: One nearly $1 million National Science Foundation grant, which had $188,987 unused; a $1.25 million grant from the South Dakota Health and Human Services Center for Disease Control that had $1 million in unused funds; and two Institute of Museum and Library Services grants totaling $267,099, with more than $104,000 unused funds.
Oglala Lakota College: A $205,000 grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities that would have gone to cataloging and digitizing interviews with Lakota elders from four reservations. Over $201,000 was unused.
SDSU project would have supported beef, bison producers
The U.S. Department of Agriculture gave $2.8 billion to fund 70 projects for the climate-smart commodities initiative grant in 2023. The Center of Excellence in Bison Studies at SDSU’s West River Research and Extension facility in Rapid City received $86 million, one of the largest sums of money that was given in the initiative.
The SDSU project was intended to support beef and bison producers in grazing and land management strategies, said Kristi Cammack, director of SDSU West River Research and Extension.
Much of the work from that grant has stopped, Scholl said.
“It has impacted people’s plans for their research education in one way or another. And that’s important, even if someone hasn’t lost their job, but they’ve had to experience a change,” Scholl said. “Even if it was an opportunity for them to shift their direction and shift gears, it’s still disruption. And I think that’s the important point. It’s been disruptive to some people’s career preparation and career growth.”
Neither Scholl nor Cammack could comment on the direct impacts that losing the grant had on staffing. Around $17.5 million was already spent of the grant.
Regents: ‘Difficult financial times’
More than $100 million of the Board of Regent’s $911 million budget comes from the federal government.
At the July 17 Board of Regents (BOR) meeting at SDSU, Heather Forney, BOR vice president of finance and administration, and the six public university presidents laid out their fiscal year 2027 requests. They asked for a nearly $32 million increase of their base budget that starts in July 2026.
“We are very aware of the fiscal restraints that the state of South Dakota will be facing in fiscal year 27 and trying to be very conscious of that,” Forney said at the meeting.
In anticipation of an unsure year of funding, the regental schools put together a concentrated request. No additional money for capital projects was requested for FY27.
The president of the South Dakota Board of Regents, Tim Rave, acknowledged the precarious state of funding in the July meeting as well.
“We are going to have some difficult financial times in the state this year, and so I really appreciate the solidarity and one voice to try and push these priorities through,” Rave said.
“The revenue forecast for ongoing funding is not looking terribly stellar or positive,” said Nathan Lukkes, executive director of the BOR. “There’s a lot of great things and ideas on all of our campuses that we wish we had the ability to fund. That’s just not realistic, looking at the revenue forecast for the state.”
Low endowments could be troublesome
Data from The Associated Press shows the dollar amount of endowments of South Dakota’s four-year public, private and tribal schools.
Endowments are meant to last in perpetuity and fund scholarships, support programs or whatever cause the donor delegates the money to.
Alissa Matt, assistant vice president for marketing and university relations at USD, said universities cannot take restricted funds and spend them “even when faced with fiscal pressures.”
“As a fiduciary, the foundation is legally obligated to observe donor intent while administering endowments in partnership with USD,” Matt said in an email. “In other words, endowments may not be repurposed, liquidated or ‘tapped’ in any manner inconsistent with donor intent or applicable legal requirements.”
Here are the most recent details available on endowment amounts for South Dakota’s public and private colleges and universities, according to the AP and schools that responded to a News Watch request for updated numbers.
Public
University of South Dakota, Vermillion: fall 2024 enrollment, 10,619; endowment value as of June 30, $338.6 million; endowment per student, $31,886
South Dakota State University, Brookings: fall 2023 enrollment, 11,498; endowment value at start of FY2022-23, $215 million; endowment per student, $18,699
South Dakota School of Mines and Technology, Rapid City: fall 2023 enrollment, 2,158; endowment value at start of FY2022-23, $108 million; endowment per student, $50,046
Northern State University, Aberdeen: fall 2023 enrollment, 3,521; endowment value at start of FY2022-23, $36 million; endowment per student, $10,302
Black Hills State University, Spearfish: fall 2025 enrollment, 3,475; endowment value as of FY25, $33 million; endowment per student, $9,490
Dakota State University, Madison: fall 2023 enrollment, 3,508; endowment value at start of FY2022-23, $17.4 million; endowment per student, $4,972
Private
Augustana University, Sioux Falls: fall 2023 enrollment, 2,158; endowment value at start of FY2022-23, $108 million; endowment per student, $50,046
Dakota Wesleyan University, Mitchell: fall 2023 enrollment, 886; endowment value at start of FY2022-23: $38.6 million; endowment per student, $43,581
University of Sioux Falls, Sioux Falls: fall 2023 enrollment, 1,509; endowment value at start of FY2022-23: $32 million; endowment per student, $21,211
Mount Marty University, Yankton: fall 2023 enrollment, 1,314; endowment value at start of FY2022-23, $30.8 million; endowment per student, $23,471
Tribal
Oglala Lakota College, Kyle: fall 2023 enrollment, 1,229; endowment value at start of FY2022-23, $65.6 million; endowment per student, $53,345
Sinte Gleska University, Mission: fall 2023 enrollment, 683; endowment value at start of FY2022-23, $2.9 million; endowment per student, $4,276
Sisseton Wahpeton College, Agency Village: fall 2023 enrollment, 215; endowment value at start of FY2022-23, $1 million; endowment per student, $5,072
Scholl said SDSU intends to continue to be a leading edge research university by continually improving how SDSU does research and provides students with “superior experiential learning opportunities.”
“That’s really what it’s about. It’s another way of teaching,” Scholl said. “It’s another way of educating and in giving students an opportunity to differentiate themselves in the job market by the kinds of experiences that they have here working with leaders in their fields.”
