ABERDEEN, SD – The city of Aberdeen will take over part of the Presentation College campus after the school closed this summer.

The city will take over the Strode Center, Dome, soccer field and a parcel of undeveloped land.

The mayor of Aberdeen says this will help the city provide year-round recreational opportunities to the community.

Work will begin this week on the facilities.

Back in January, Presentation College announced it would close at the end of the summer 2023 session.

Presentation worked with surrounding colleges to make sure students could still complete their degrees.

 

RAPID CITY, SD – On Monday, the Department of Corrections held a groundbreaking ceremony for a new women’s correctional facility.  This facility will be the second of its kind in South Dakota.

The new South Dakota women’s correctional facility will be able to hold up to 288 individuals once completed.

“Today is a day that the Department of Corrections and the state, as well as the legislature have been working on since 2021, when this land was first appointed out for an institution,” Department of Corrections Secretary Kellie Wasko said.

The goal is to help solve the serious overcrowding problem at the women’s prison in Pierre.

“They’ve been running at or over capacity for some time. We run the statewide prisoner transportation system out of Pennington County and that’s been problematic for several of the county facilities across the state in making sure we’ve got adequate housing for people once they’re sentenced to prison,” Pennington County Sheriff Brian Mueller said.

“Considering the overcrowding in the Department of Corrections right now, this being our second female facility in the state is going to be very helpful and make a much safer environment for our females,” Wasko said.

Sheriff Mueller says he is hopeful the additional resources that will come with the new facility will help improve outcomes.

“They’re going to have a treatment rehabilitative portion built into this center here in Rapid City. So hopefully we can help people change the trajectory of their lives for the short period of time that we have them in custody, so when they get out, they’re not returning into the criminal justice system,” Mueller said.

The groundwork begins immediately with construction planned to start in January. The facility expected to be ready to go by the start of 2025.

 

 

SIOUX FALLS, SD – U.S. District Judge Charles B. Kornmann has issued a court memorandum opinion stating that the Sioux Falls School District is prohibited from eliminating its gymnastics program, selling gymnastics equipment, or cutting the gymnastics budget until further court rulings are made.

The district is also barred from restricting or denying the program access to facilities, coaching, training, or competitive opportunities.

This ruling comes in response to a lawsuit filed by a group of gymnastics supporters who contested the district’s decision to reduce gymnastics funding in its 2023-24 budget.

The judge found that the plaintiffs would suffer irreparable harm and potential Title IX violations if the preliminary injunction were not granted.

Kornmann also pointed out that the district failed to meet Title IX accommodation standards and dismissed certain claims in the lawsuit.

The decision allows the gymnastics program to continue while the case proceeds in court.

 

PIERRE, SD – A new Emerson College Polling survey in South Dakota finds Governor Kristi Noem with a 43% job approval among residents, while 37% disapprove of the job she is doing in office. President Biden holds a 22% approval rating in South Dakota, and 62% disapproval rating.

“Within Noem’s party, she holds a 73% approval rating; however, among independent voters, a 48% plurality disapprove of the job Noem is doing,” Spencer Kimball, Executive Director of Emerson College Polling said. “Noem’s approval is lowest among voters under 30, at 30%, and highest among those between 50-69, at 53%.”

Kimball added, “There is a significant gender divide on Noem’s approval: her approval among male residents is 17 points higher than among women, with a 52% approval rating among male voters compared to 35% among women. Noem’s disapproval is consequently ten points higher among women than men, 41% to 31%.”

In a hypothetical 2024 Presidential matchup between President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump, Trump leads 50% to 28%. Fourteen percent support someone else and 8% are undecided.

Residents were asked if Donald Trump is the nominee, if he should choose Kristi Noem as his running mate, or if he should choose someone else. A quarter of residents (25%) think he should choose Noem, while 38% think he should choose someone else and 20% say it depends on who is considered. Among just Republican voters, 34% think Noem should be the 2024 running mate of a hypothetical Trump nomination, while 32% think it should be someone else, and 18% say it depends on who is considered.

Thinking of the 2020 election, residents were asked which comes closest to their view of the way Joe Biden won the election, if he won fair and square or if he stole the election. Respondents are split: 42% think he stole the election while 40% think he won fair and square. When asked the same question about Donald Trump’s win in 2016, 61% think Trump won fair and square, while 18% think he stole the election.

Midwest Study: The South Dakota general election survey is part of a 22-state study on the Midwest region and surrounding states. Additional states will be released over the week, along with the study results by the Middle West Review that is researching perceptions of the Midwest region.

The Emerson College Polling South Dakota poll was conducted October 1-4, 2023. The sample consisted of n=432 South Dakota voters with a credibility interval, similar to a poll’s margin of error of +/- 4.7 percentage points; the sample of South Dakota residents is n=477 with a credibility interval of 4.4 percentage points. The data sets were weighted by gender, age, race, party, and education based on the general population using a sample of n=477 participants and allowing the natural fallout to create the sample of n=432 voters. Turnout modeling is based on US Census parameters, and South Dakota voter turnout data by regions (SD SOS). Data was collected by contacting a list of landlines via Interactive Voice Response (IVR) and emails provided by Aristotle, along with an online panel of voters provided by Alchemer.

It is important to remember that subsets based on demographics, such as gender, age, education, and race/ethnicity, carry with them higher credibility intervals, as the sample size is reduced. Survey results should be understood within the poll’s range of scores, and know with a confidence interval of 95% a poll will fall outside the range of scores 1 in 20 times.

This survey was conducted by Emerson College Polling, and questions included in this release are all sponsored by Emerson College. All questions asked in this survey with exact wording, along with full results and cross tabulations can be found here.