MILLER, S.D. – After multiple days of searching, 17-year-old Wyatt Rowland has been found deceased. Hand County Sheriff Shane Croeni confirmed that Wyatt and his pickup were found separately in a small body of water north of Miller.

The discovery came after Department of Criminal Investigations phone analysts tracked Wyatt’s cell phone to the area.

Despite locating Wyatt’s pickup earlier, divers found his body on Tuesday afternoon.

Sheriff Croeni expressed gratitude to the law enforcement agencies and volunteers involved in the search.

Wyatt was last seen with friends in Miller and was driving a red 1995 Dodge Dakota pickup. Search efforts began after he failed to return home, with over 100 individuals and the Civil Air Patrol joining the search.

 

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. – No. 1 South Dakota State used a game-sealing 14-0 run late in the fourth quarter to secure its second straight Summit League Women’s Basketball Tournament and post a 67-54 victory over No. 2 North Dakota State at the Denny Sanford PREMIER Center.

Championship MVP Paige Meyer led all scorers with 18 points and started that title-clinching spurt with a steal and driving layup as the Jackrabbits pulled off the regular season-tournament title double for the second straight season, winning 40 straight over League foes during that stretch.

Brooklyn Meyer added 15, Madison Mathiowetz chipped in with 12 and Mesa Byom rounded out a quartet of Jacks that finished in double figures with 11 points to go with a game-high nine rebounds.

NDSU, who was led by Heaven Hamling by 16 points, led through a majority of the first quarter before Meyer broke a 10-10 tie with a free throw in the closing minute.

That provided SDSU with its first lead of the game but the Bison regained the lead by scoring the first five points of the second quarter. NDSU actually made its first two field goal attempts, then missed its next 11 but SDSU could not take advantage as the Jacks had their own struggles.

SDSU would miss their first six attempts before Paige Meyer broke that drought at the 5:35 mark with a three-pointer.

Mathiowetz hit her own triple at the 2:33 mark to put SDSU back in the lead as the Bison were going mired in their own elongated cold stretch.

A second-chance basket by Abbie Schulte ended NDSU’s drought and a Hamling banked in a triple from the top of the key at the buzzer to make it a 22-20 SDSU lead at the break.

As cold as both teams were in the second quarter, it was a different tale during the third quarter.

The Bison went 8-for-17 from the field, while the Jacks went 6-for-11 with Byom and Mathiowetz both going 2-for-2 from the three-point line. With all that factored in, SDSU outscored NDSU 20-19 and to take a 42-39 lead into the final quarter.

It remained a tight game with Hamling burying a 3-pointer to pull the Bison within a point at 47-46 with just over six minutes to play but that would be as close as NDSU would get down the stretch of the program’s first title game appearance as a League member.

From there, SDSU reeled off the next 14 points to put its 11th all-time Summit League Tournament title in the books.

The 2024 NCAA Women’s Tournament Selection Show will air on ESPN at 7 p.m. CT on March 17.

Paige Meyer sparked a 14-0 run midway through the fourth quarter that led the Jackrabbits to their first back-to-back titles since doing the same in 2018 and 2019.

 

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. – A Sioux Falls man, Michael James-Phillip Pettigrew, 33, was sentenced to 70 years in prison at the Minnehaha County Courthouse for charges related to three aggravated assaults from October 2022.

Pettigrew was arrested for stabbing two people and causing minor injuries to another individual. The incidents occurred at different locations in Sioux Falls.

Pettigrew faced charges including two counts of first-degree attempted murder and one count of aggravated assault.

He was initially arrested for stabbing a 28-year-old woman multiple times before fleeing in a stolen vehicle. Another victim, a 58-year-old man, was cut near the neck, and a 26-year-old man who intervened was also injured.

Pettigrew was booked into the Minnehaha County jail on several charges, including possession of a stolen vehicle and intentional damage to property.

 

Joshua Haiar/South Dakota Searchlight – South Dakota politicians and representatives of the cattle industry are applauding a new U.S. Department of Agriculture rule aimed at ensuring the voluntary “Product of USA” label means what it says.

The rule mandates that only meat, poultry and egg products derived from animals born, raised, slaughtered and processed in the United States can bear the “Product of USA” or “Made in the USA” labels.

USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack said the rule will protect consumers and foster a fair marketplace.

“This final rule will ensure that when consumers see ‘Product of USA’ they can trust the authenticity of that label and know that every step involved, from birth to processing, was done here in America,” he said Monday in a press release.

Warren Symens, president of the South Dakota Cattlemen’s Association, said the prior rule allowed the voluntary label to be used on beef that was repackaged in the U.S., no matter where it originated.

 

Joshua Haiar, South Dakota Searchlight – Utility regulators took actions Tuesday that will allow a solar energy project to start producing electricity ahead of schedule at the largest solar farm in the state.

Wild Springs Solar’s $190 million project sprawls across areas totaling 1,499 acres — about 2 square miles — of ranchland in Pennington County, just south of New Underwood. The project was built by National Grid Renewables, of Bloomington, Minnesota.

The project’s construction phase may conclude ahead of schedule. So, the company requested a change to its permit conditions that will allow it to start operations as soon as this Friday rather than the previously anticipated date of May 1.

The state Public Utilities Commission required the solar farm to post a surety bond to make sure there is enough money to safely remove the solar panels and clean up the site when the solar farm is no longer used. The initial bond amounts were $2.5 million and then $3 million. The new surety bond amount is $4.14 million.

The changes in the bond amount reflect changing estimates of the future decommissioning costs. The changing cost estimates are due to the fluctuating value of scrap steel. If the solar farm is shut down, some of the steel could be sold for scrap to offset the cost of decommissioning the project.

“The price of HMS (scrap steel) in August 2022 was $505 whereas it is now $325 in January 2024,” the company wrote. An attorney for the company, Mollie Smith, said that was partly due to high demand as supply chain problems arose during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Things were in high demand and it was difficult to get them,” Smith told the commission.

Basin Electric Power Cooperative, which is headquartered in Bismarck, North Dakota, and serves numerous rural electric cooperatives across the region, will purchase the solar farm’s electricity. The project can produce up to 128 megawatts of electricity. According to the Solar Energy Industries Association, South Dakota had only 102 megawatts of capacity from other solar projects at the end of last year, ranking 47th in the nation. Those 102 megawatts were enough to power about 12,000 homes.

Between projects like Wild Springs and the 80-megawatt Fall River Solar project, solar electricity generation in South Dakota is expected to rise by 328 megawatts in the next five years. Fall River Solar is a 500-acre solar farm in Fall River County near Oelrichs.

 

RAPID CITY, S.D. – Nearly 5,600 pounds of meat have been donated to Feeding South Dakota as a result of this winter’s annual City deer harvest.

Nearly 55,000 pounds of meat (54,442) have been donated to Feeding South Dakota over the past 10 harvest seasons, including more than 25,000 pounds of meat (25,659) over the past four seasons dating back to the winter of 2020-21.

Based on City surveys and the recommendation of the South Dakota Game, Fish and Parks Department, a total of 200 deer were harvested this winter as part of the City’s Deer Management Program.  Last year, 6,401 pounds of meat from 237 deer were processed and donated to Feeding South Dakota.

The City’s deer harvest program is administered by the City’s Parks Division and provides for the management of deer within the city limits.  Initiated in 1995, the program is an effort to foster healthy deer populations, address problems associated with an overabundance of deer within the boundaries of Rapid City and to donate the meat to Feeding South Dakota. Issues with an overabundance of deer in the city include deer/vehicle collisions; landscape, garden and property damage, and public safety issues including aggressive encounters with deer.

This year’s deer harvest was initiated in January and completed last month.

“We had fewer tags provided this year but a lot of meat was processed and donated,” said City Parks Division Manager Scott Anderson.  “This program is always a win-win for the community.  The meat from the deer harvest gets donated to people in need and it’s an effective way to manage deer in the city limits at a safe and healthy level.

“This program is a great partnership between the City, Black Hills Sportsmen and Sportsmen Against Hunger.  This donation program could not be successful without the efforts of the two sportsmen groups contributing resources towards the processing costs, which enables the meat to be donated to Feeding South Dakota.”

In December, the Rapid City Council approved the harvest recommendation of 250 deer with concurrence from the City’s Urban Wildlife Committee and Parks Division.  The state returned 200 tags to the city for the program.

Issues with an overabundance of deer in the city include deer/vehicle collisions; landscape, garden and property damage; and public safety issues including aggressive encounters with deer.

 

LINCOLN, NE – The Nebraska Legislature’s attempt to override Gov. Jim Pillen’s veto on the “safe needles” bill failed on Tuesday.

Thirty votes were needed to overturn the veto — and 30 initially supported the bill — but only 27 voted in favor of overriding the governor on Tuesday.

Senators were attempting to override Nebraska Gov. Jim Pillen’s veto of LB307, commonly known as the “safe needles” bill. It would allow cities and counties to decide for themselves if they wanted to participate in programs to distribute clean needles and syringes to reduce the spread of infectious disease — something done in most other states.

It passed through the Legislature last week before being vetoed March 4; but Pillen said the sources cited by proponents of the bill don’t pertain to today’s opioid crisis.

The legislation — which received wide bipartisan support — was introduced by State Sen. Megan Hunt of Omaha.

LB307 initially passed 30-7. On Tuesday, seven state senators who previously supported the bill changed their votes on the issue and stood in favor of the veto.

Hunt claimed Pillen got several of the senators to flip their votes.

“He told many of you the reason, and I quote from one of you, ‘I don’t know why any of you are working with Hunt this year. We can’t let her have anything.’ So if you think you’ve received some evidence that 44 other states, the Surgeon General under President Trump, this, that and the other — that you know better than those people — then by all means, vote no on this override.”

Over the next two hours of debate, others explained why the issue has bipartisan support in the Republican-dominated unicameral and how science is predominantly on the side of how clean needle programs often open the door to get addicts other types of treatment.

“Quite ironic if you’ve noticed what I have, that these letters of opposition contain the same misinformation, the same misquotes that come from the governor’s office,” said State Sen. Ray Aguilar of Grand Island.

“Everyone is afraid for our children and there will be needles everywhere. This bill does the opposite,” said Sen. Tom Brandt of Plymouth.

Only three senators voiced opposition on the floor.

“I think enabling addiction in any way is a really dangerous path to get started on,” said State Sen. Kathleen Kauth of Omaha.

State Sen. Rita Sanders of Bellevue and State Sen. Julie Slama of Sterling were excused and not voting on Tuesday. Sanders voted “yes” on the bill in February; Slama voted “no.”

A bill that began the day looking as if it had more than enough support failed. The seven aforementioned senators all thought the needle program bill was a good idea and voted for it just two weeks ago. They all voted no Tuesday.

“Have a spine,” said State Sen. John Fredrickson of Omaha. “Not one of those members got on the mic to share with their constituents, to share with Nebraskans why they changed their mind. That’s embarrassing. We’re state senators — you represented yourself for three rounds of debate, you flip after being called by the executive branch, and you didn’t even speak about that?”

Pillen issued a statement Tuesday afternoon on the veto vote:

“I appreciate that state senators took the time to evaluate LB307 and took due notice of concerns that caused me to veto the bill. We need to invest in less harmful ways to combat drug usage and disease transmission that are in line with Nebraska values. I look forward to working with our state senators on those strategies in the next session.”