NOEM RECEIVES HONORARY DEGREE WHILE PROTESTORS GATHERED AT DSU

MADISON, S.D. (Dakota News Now) – Dakota State University hosted its commencement ceremonies on Saturday to celebrate the graduating class of 2025.

The attendance of one of their honored guests, former South Dakota Governor and current Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, sparked protests in Madison.

Leading up to graduation weekend, there was still uncertainty about what the rumored protests in response to Noem’s selection as a commencement speaker might look like.

Protesters lined Washington Avenue along the way to the Dakota State Fieldhouse, each with signs to express their displeasure with honoring their former governor, disagreeing with her actions as DHS Secretary.

“We don’t think that she is somebody that deserves any sort of honor from anybody,” said one protester with the local group Madison Area Stands Together, or “MAST”, Susan Wicks. “She’s currently right now violating the constitution, deporting people to foreign detainment centers without any due process.”

“I think that recently she’s shown herself to be a tool of the Trump administration and implementing policies that go against the Constitution of the United States,” John Nelson, another MAST protester, said.

Protesters said the faculty and staff of DSU were ignored when they raised concerns about honoring Noem on Saturday.

“DSU didn’t listen to the town, the faculty or their students, and we think that’s abhorrent,” Wicks said.

Inside the Fieldhouse, Noem received an honorary degree, a doctorate in public service. DSU cited Noem’s work championing the school and its cybersecurity programs.

“Then Governor Noem was always ready to listen to our proposals, ask insightful questions to learn more about our plans, and was eager to move forward to support those initiatives,” DSU President José-Marie Griffiths recalled during the ceremony.

Students each made their own decision about whether to protest or not. Some decided not to walk in the ceremony at all, while others discussed the possibility of other forms of protest, like staging a walkout or hiding signs in their cap and gown to bring out when Noem began speaking. Ultimately, they chose to stay in and take in the ceremony.

Max Lerchen graduated on Saturday with a master’s degree in business administration. He was a graduate assistant coach on the track team and said he enjoyed his time at Dakota State.

Lerchen believes that Noem’s values are different than the University’s. He said he considered protesting because he disagreed with the University’s choice to honor Noem “from the get-go”, but ultimately he decided against it.

“This is a degree that I’ve worked hard for and many others have worked hard for,” Lerchen explained. “While I support the decision of those to not participate and I respect them for using their voices that way, I did not want to give Secretary Noem the power over me making decisions regarding my accomplishment and my day, and I’m very happy to see many others make that same choice as well.”

Lerchen continued, “I wanted to make sure I spent the day with my friends and my family, the people who supported me and make sure that I still celebrated regardless of the decision made.”

Some of the students who did choose to protest said that they were locked out of campus buildings where they stored their signs for the protest.

In the heat of the moment, some took it as a slight against them for speaking out. Some protesters claimed the University told them, as of Saturday, they are no longer students at the University.

Lerchen doesn’t believe it was intentional.

“A lot of our facilities around here, when they’re not in use, are locked. That’s not an uncommon thing. [DSU] made a decision that I disagree with to select and honor Secretary Noem with a degree, but I do not think any of the actions by the university were meant to be malicious,” Lerchen said.

Despite disagreement with Noem, protesters remained respectful and kept their distance so that graduates could enjoy the special day.

“I think one of the worst things a protest can be is to cause a distraction, taking away from the graduates and giving somebody such as Secretary Noem so much power or distraction over the achievements of the graduates,” said Lerchen.

 

TWO SOUTH DAKOTA LEGISLATORS JOIN THE PUSH TO BAN SODA AND CANDY FROM FOOD ASSISTANCE PROGRAM

SOUTH DAKOTA (Makenzie Huber / South Dakota Searchlight) – Two state lawmakers who work in health care want Republican South Dakota Gov. Larry Rhoden’s help to ban sugary drinks, candy and “other non-nutritious items” from a nutrition program for low-income people.

Sen. Sydney Davis, R-Burbank, and Rep. Taylor Rehfedt, R-Sioux Falls, sent Rhoden a letter this week asking him to seek a waiver from the U.S. Department of Agriculture to prohibit families on the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP, formerly known as food stamps) from purchasing the items.

“This policy reform is about promoting healthier outcomes, encouraging smarter choices, and protecting the integrity of a program by ensuring responsible use of taxpayer dollars,” the letter read. “South Dakota should align its policies with common sense and nutritional science.”

At least four other states had asked the USDA to let them ban some foods from the assistance program as of late April: Iowa, Nebraska, Arkansas and Indiana, according to Reuters. President Donald Trump’s administration has called on states to request such waivers, and said it’ll work to approve them in a push to “Make America Healthy Again.”

Forty-one million people nationwide use the program in a typical month. Over 37,600 South Dakota households participated in the program in March, according to the state Department of Social Services, which includes 33,675 children. The average household received $395.38 through the program, costing about $14.9 million in federal funds. States pay for about half of administrative costs.

Critics of the waivers and bans on “unhealthy” food say the restrictions stigmatize low-income people and could create inefficiencies in implementing and tracking the program because states spend more administrative time establishing, monitoring and updating the list of restricted food items. Research from the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities found that increases in monthly SNAP benefits increase nutritious food consumption, such as vegetables and healthy proteins, among participants while reducing food insecurity and fast-food consumption.

Some rural South Dakotans live in areas with limited access to supermarkets, where gas stations fill the void with more expensive but less nutritious food options, according to a 2008 South Dakota State University report on food deserts in the state. At that time, nearly half of South Dakota counties were considered food deserts.

In an emailed statement to South Dakota Searchlight, Rhoden’s spokesperson Josie Harms said the governor is “grateful” for the federal administration’s initiative, but did not say whether he will seek a waiver.

“Our state will continue to review our SNAP eligible items to ensure that nutritious options are available to our families,” Harms said.

Davis said Rhoden’s administration responded to the letter with a request to further discuss how a waiver might be implemented in the state. She hopes to work with the state government and other retailers and stakeholders to walk through the implementation process, identify what items to ban and to hear what the department projects as “additional implementation costs.”

“We shouldn’t let the fears of a difficult implementation stop us from trying to implement good policy,” Davis told South Dakota Searchlight. “At the heart of this request is looking out for the health and betterment of South Dakotans, kids and families that are financially vulnerable.”

As a certified registered nurse anesthetist at the Sanford Vermillion Medical Center, Davis said she’s seen the impact a sugary diet can have on children’s health, which leads to costly health care bills for families — or the government if the children are on Medicaid. For example, she’s anesthetized children for dental work, she said, because of “Mountain Dew put in their baby bottles.”

“Whether or not that Mountain Dew or whatever was purchased with SNAP benefits, it’s hard to say,” Davis said, adding that if the SNAP ban on such items is implemented, “then I guess we’ll know.”

Davis said it’s “not uncommon for government programs to have guardrails in place.” She said she doesn’t know what the timeline would be to request a waiver and implement a ban.

 

SMALL TOWN NEWSPAPERS SAY MAIL DELAYS ARE CRIPPLING THEIR BUSINESS

SOUTH DAKOTA (Joshua Haiar / South Dakota Searchlight) – Delayed Postal Service deliveries of small-town newspapers are frustrating readers, undermining subscriptions and hurting advertising revenue, according to publishers across South Dakota.

“It’s taking nine days to get a paper from Armour to Sioux Falls,” said Julie Hinckley of Rocket Printing, which prints several small-town publications. “That’s unacceptable for timely news.”

Armour and Sioux Falls are about 95 miles apart. Many smaller publishers, like those that work with Rocket Printing, depend on the post office for deliveries to subscribers who’ve moved away to Sioux Falls or other locations but still want to receive their hometown paper. Some larger newspapers that formerly hired people to deliver the paper now count on the post office even for local deliveries, due to tighter budgets, a migration to online readership and a lack of people interested in having a paper route.

The Postal Service had announced last year it would pause — at least until this year — a controversial plan to downgrade several mail processing centers, including one in Huron. The pause followed pushback from the state’s congressional delegation.

In a Feb. 21 press release, the Postal Service announced a $3 billion cost-cutting initiative, but also mentioned $3 million in planned upgrades to the Huron facility. The release did not mention the removal of any sorting operations.

Then, in early April, a postal employee emailed David Bordewyk, executive director of the South Dakota NewsMedia Association, to say that some sorting operations were halted in Huron, and some newspapers and other bulk mail were going to a postal facility in Fargo, North Dakota, before being routed back to South Dakota for final delivery.

The change adds days to delivery, according to newspaper publishers.

“We’re getting calls left and right,” said Barb Pechous with the Wagner Post. “Advertisers are starting to pull back.”

Dan Bechtold with the Winner Advocate said readers are assuming their subscription has lapsed when papers don’t arrive on time.

“If something is coming up people want to know about, they’re going to miss it,” he said.

After reaching out to member newspapers, Bordewyk heard from at least a dozen papers reporting problems. He also reached out to the state’s congressional delegation, whose staffers said the Postal Service claimed the problem stemmed from newspapers not properly sorting their own mail.

Bordewyk said that explanation “doesn’t make any sense,” because papers have been sorting the same way for years.

“Are they changing the rules in the middle of the game?” he said. “If things need to be fixed, tell us. Work with us.”

Bordewyk said the Postal Service has not provided newspapers with any updated guidance on how to prepare mail. He hopes to arrange a meeting between the papers and the Postal Service.

The Postal Service responded to a request for comment by asking for more specific questions from South Dakota Searchlight, but did not immediately respond upon receiving those questions.

Newspaper delays in South Dakota

The South Dakota NewsMedia Association has collected reports of postal delivery delays from member newspapers, including:

The Timber Lake Topic reported more readers switching to email delivery due to delays, but noted that many subscribers are elderly or lack reliable internet.

The Highmore Herald reported a subscriber in South Dakota who hasn’t received the last four issues.

The Aberdeen Insider said papers delivered just 50 miles away are taking seven days to arrive, resulting in a loss of subscribers.

The Sanborn Weekly Journal, based in Woonsocket, said it had received at least six non-delivery calls in one week alone, far above normal.

The True Dakotan in Wessington Springs reported delays of at least two days and said a major delivery to Mitchell never arrived.

The Pioneer Review in Philip reported that its shopper publication didn’t reach Wall one week. A local postmaster confirmed that papers are now trucked from Huron to Fargo.

The Wagner Post reported papers taking up to nine days to reach customers.

The Grant County Review in Milbank received non-delivery complaints from as far as Vermont and Oregon.

The Sioux Valley News in Canton said cross-border deliveries to Iowa and Minnesota now take five days.

The Marshall County Journal in Britton noted delays forcing staff to re-mail individual copies in envelopes.

The Brookings Register said subscribers reported no delivery for a week, with delayed bundles arriving out of order.

 

NEBRASKA STATE PATROL INVESTIGATES TRIPLE MURDER-SUICIDE IN DAWSON COUNTY

DAWSON COUNTY, NE (KSNB) – The Nebraska State Patrol is investigating an apparent murder-suicide in rural Dawson County.

Saturday morning, the Dawson County Sheriff’s Office went to a residence at Johnson Lake, Plum Creek Canyon #1 at 9:45 a.m. Upon arrival, deputies found four dead people inside the residence. All four were residents of the home.

According to NSP, it is believed that Jeremy Koch, 42, killed each of his sons, Hudson, 18, and Asher, 16, and his wife, Bailey, 41, before taking his own life. All four were found with fatal knife wounds. A knife was found at the scene.

The Dawson County Sheriff’s Office was assisted by Eustis Fire & Rescue, the NSP and the Dawson County Attorney.

The NSP is the lead agency in the homicide investigation. The Dawson County Attorney has ordered autopsies of all four residents.

The investigation remains ongoing.

At the 2025 Cozad Graduation Ceremony, Superintendent Dan Endorf commented on the tragedy, and how it affected the graduating class.

“As you know, our community and our senior class experienced a tragedy within the past few hours,” Endorf said. “The bittersweet emotions felt by the senior class on their graduation day, and throughout this entire gymnasium for that matter, cannot be concealed in this moment and are emblematic of the adult lives our graduates are about to begin. While our Haymaker pride is being tested at this moment, let’s all do our very best within the next hour to celebrate the 13 year journey that our graduates are completing today.”